different, that men of keen sensibility are apt to shrink from the attempt to get into Parliament. The issuing of an address to electors is often a signal to the ruffians of the district, educated and uneducated, who are opposed to the candidate, to traduce and slander him, to call in question his honesty and even his religion, so that, after a few weeks, one believing all that is said would as soon vote the man to the gallows as into the House of Commons.

Mr Aitchison of Drummore was represented as being indignant that John Drummond, one of a family which he had befriended, presumed to canvass against him in the Leith district in behalf of John Archibald Murray. This being communicated to Drummond, he defended the course his brother had taken, in the following letter:

"COUNCIL OFFICE, WHITEHALL, Sept. 14, 1832.

"To William Aitchison, Esq.

"MY DEAR SIR,-Having, after twelve months' severe and anxious toil, brought our labours to a close, I have transmitted to Scotland a copy of our Reports on the Boundaries of the Boroughs of England and Wales, which I request you will do me the favour to accept.

'I send these volumes to you, not with any reference to their political nature, but as I have sent my former papers, as marks of respect and regard for my early friend and benefactor.

"It is but right, however, that I should take the same opportunity of adverting to a circumstance of a less agreeable nature, and one which has occasioned me considerable pain.

"I have heard that the part which my brother has taken with respect to Mr Murray's election has occasioned you much surprise, and that you have expressed much dissatisfaction, perhaps I might say indignation, at his conduct. I sincerely hope, indeed I firmly believe, that this is a very incorrect or a very exaggerated statement.

"I am well aware that any assistance which my brother can render Mr Murray must be of very small amount, and that it is to the disposition evinced by the act that your observations have been directed, if indeed any such have been made. In common justice to him, therefore, and in some measure to myself, I would solicit your attention to a very few observations.

"I am well aware that the political opinions either of my brother or of myself must be a matter of perfect indifference to you; nor would I allude to them at all, but that I cannot help feeling that you are disposed to attribute less influence to such opinions than they usually possess-and, as it appears to me, they ought to possess-over the mind and actions of any man who has sufficient judgment to be able to form an opinion at all, and sufficient honesty and firmness to act according to it. You will, I trust, pardon me for saying that the consequence is, you are, perhaps, apt to suppose that disrespect and ingratitude are manifested in that conduct, which is the result of very different and much more worthy motives.

"The opinions which we hold were not taken up yesterday or to-day; they were constantly avowed, so far as is possible to men who hold no public situations-that is, by discussion with their friends and associates; and they were held, too, when they were not the road either to favour or preferment. If they have brought us into connection with men who have ever been the consistent and powerful advocates of such opinions, I think we are bound, in common with every individual who entertains the same opinions, to use our utmost exertions, however feeble these may be, in favour of such men-even if, by so doing, we should have the misfortune to be brought into opposition-I do not say into collision, for I hope and trust that is not necessary-with those with whom we are connected by the dearest ties of relationship or of friendship.

"Mr Murray and myself were engaged last winter in the same political work; we met nearly every day; and, warmly attached as I am to the principles of which he has long been a strenuous supporter, I could not, without forfeiting every feeling of self-respect, hesitate to render, if required, my zealous though feeble assistance to promote his return to Parliament,

in opposition to any man of contrary opinions, even if that man should unfortunately prove to be my nearest relative, or my most intimate friend. The same considerations had necessarily the same influence over my brother.

"I am not ignorant that the firm adherence to opinions may sometimes require many a painful sacrifice, and lead to many a painful separation between relatives and friends; but this, I trust, can only happen when there are any who are resolved not to discriminate between the obligations resulting from the relations of society, and those which, in the discharge of a political right, are imposed by an honourable and consistent maintenance of conscientious opinion. Fortunately, instances of such discrimination, alike honourable to both parties, are not rare; and, indeed, among my own relations, I see a complete division of a family in political subjects, without any interruption of the duties or the pleasures of family intercourse.

"Whatever my brother does, he will do openly and honourably, and I earnestly request you dispassionately to consider the circumstances which I have stated, and then I cannot doubt but you will, with your accustomed liberality and kindness, do justice to the motives which have influenced us on this occasion.

"I feel that I have trespassed on your time and indulgence by this explanation, which I have endeavoured to make, and, I trust, have made with that deference and respect not only due from me, but which I most unfeignedly feel towards you, my old and valued friend. May I beg my best respects to Mrs Aitchison, who, I sincerely hope, is tolerably well.-And I remain, my dear sir, with great respect, very faithfully yours, "T. DRUMMOND."

Mr Aitchison did respect to the motives here so well defended. As to the election contest, finding he had no chance, he retired, and Mr Murray was elected without opposition.

By November 1832 Drummond returned to London, and, for a time, to the duties of the Survey. On the third of this month died Sir John Leslie, formerly Professor

of Mathematics-but at the time of his death Professor of Natural Philosophy-in the Edinburgh University. The Town Council of Edinburgh were looking out for a successor to him. They offered the post to Sir John Herschel, but he declined it. It seems that they next offered it to Mr Drummond; at least, a party in the Council must have solicited him to come forward as a candidate. In a letter to his brother, dated November 14, 1832, he says:-"I saw the Chancellor yesterday evening; he exclaimed against my accepting the professorship. You know I had already declined it for different reasons. I have had a letter from my mother this morning entreating me to accept the offer. I have written to her explaining the whole grounds of my refusal [the letter has not been preserved], what the Chancellor said, &c. The Chancellor

told me he understood Dr Brewster had applied; if so, he should be the successful candidate." He was not, however. Another was preferred, and Sir David's connection with the University (as Principal) was postponed for nearly thirty years.

Drummond's task at this time in connection with the Ordnance Survey was to prepare for publication an account of the measurement of the base at Lough Foyle, which, it is much to be regretted, he never finished. He had, early in 1830, prepared a sketch of the operation in a lecture for the Royal Institution. He now drew up a synoptic view of former bases, with a brief notice of their merits and defects. In the preparation of this paper he was led to the study of Probabilities; and La Place, says Larcom, was, it is believed, his last mathematical reading. He would probably have finished his account of the measurement of the base but for two reasons that additional experiments were required for

the comparison of the new standards and those formerly used, and that it was necessary to await the final decision of the Legislature on the actual standard. On the experiments for comparing the old and new standards Mr Drummond was engaged, along with Mr Simms and the Rev. Mr Sheepshanks, in March and April 1833.* This was his last scientific labour. In April 1833 he became Private Secretary to Lord Althorp, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and for the rest of his life all his labours were of a social or political nature.

Mr Drummond's scientific career was a very short one, extending over little more than seven years, during which he was also engaged in discharging the laborious duties of his profession. Many of these duties, indeed, were of a scientific nature-the work of observation and calculation; but many of them also involved labour rather of the body than of the mind. The scientific labours by which he will be remembered, are not those of the service immediately, but those undertaken from time to time to meet its various exigencies.

If Mr Drummond had not been led by a genuine love of science to its cultivation in the earlier years of the service, he could not possibly, in the later years, have advanced its interests as he did. But we saw that by 1824 he had been engaged on researches on light; was an ardent student of meteorology, and a good chemist and optician. He had previously been an excellent and ingenious mathematician. In 1824 he began to apply his resources to render the Survey worthy of the contemporaneous state of science, and to

*The results appear at page 12 of the Appendix to Captain Yolland's "Account."