fications for the
high office to which he is about to be raised." Principal Barclay enjoys
in his present capacity an _otium cum dignitate_ to which, after the
labours of a long life, he is well entitled. Although verging on his
eightieth year, he is still hale, hearty, and vigorous, and able to
converse intelligently on the most abstruse and recondite subjects.
Principal Barclay was married in 1820 to Mary, the daughter of the late
Captain Adamson of Kirkhill. They have had a large family, but only two
daughters and one son survive. Both the former are married, and the
latter is following the medical profession in China.

PROFESSOR RANKINE.

The Clyde is indissolubly connected with the history and progress of
naval architecture. It was on the Clyde that steam navigation was first
successfully applied. The Clyde may almost be said to be the cradle of
iron shipbuilding; and it is to Clyde engineers and shipbuilders that
the compound marine engine, and other improvements that have rendered
ocean navigation more easy, safe, and practicable, are mainly due. But
while the earlier history of naval architecture is bound up with that of
the Clyde, its ultimate development and its present high state of
perfection were brought about by the sustained and unflagging energy,
enterprise, and ability of men like Professor Rankine, Robert Napier,
and John Elder, who exerted themselves to maintain the pre-eminence
which, thanks to their discoveries and exertions, the Clyde has never
lost. The two latter gentlemen carried out in practice what the former
demonstrated in theory. Never having been directly engaged in commercial
pursuits, Professor Rankine could not earn the credit of building those
leviathans that have directly contributed to our commercial prosperity;
but in another, and not less essential way, he has assisted to build up
and consolidate our industrial supremacy, and his numerous writings and
discoveries in the science of mechanics will ever cause him to be
regarded as a pioneer, not less than Henry Bell or Robert Napier, of a
trade that has proved a source of untold wealth to the West of Scotland.

Professor William John Macquorn Rankine was born in Edinburgh. His
father was an officer in the Rifle Brigade, and afterwards a railway
manager and director. After receiving his education at Edinburgh
University, he studied engineering under his father, and afterwards
under Sir John M'Neill, who subsequently became Pr