BRISBANE, General Sir Trro3rAs MAKDOUGAL, a distinguished soldier and astronomer, was b. at Brisbane, the hereditary seat of his family, near Largs, Ayrshire, July 23, 1773. At the early age of 16 he entered the army as an ensign, and in the following year, when quartered in Ireland. he formed an intimate acquaintance with Arthur Wellesley, after wards duke of Wellington. With a company he had raised in Glasgow in 1793, B. took part in all the engagements of the campaign in Flanders; and in the West Indies, to which he was sent in 1796, he greatly distinguished himself under sir Ralph Abercromby. He afterwards served in the West Indies as col. of the 69th; and in 1812 obtained command of a brigade under the duke of Wellington in Spain. For his conspicuous bravery at the battle of the Nive he received the thanks of parliament. When Napoleon abdicated, B. was sent in command of a brigade to North America, from whence he was recalled in 1815. but too late to admit of his being present at Waterloo. In 1821, B., on the recommendation of his friend the duke, was appointed governor of New South Wales. a position he held for four years, during which time lie introduced many wise reforms, especially in penal treatment; 'secured at his own expense good breeds of horses for the colony; promoted the cultivation of the sugar-cane, vine, tobacco, and cotton; and left at the close of his administration—which was marked by perfect tolerance and protection of all classes of Christians-50,000 acres of cleared land where he had found only 25,000. But high as 13. ranks as a soldier and administrator, as a man of science he holds
a still higher place. While in Australia, he catalogued no less than 7385 stars, for which great work—kno•n as " the Brisbane Catalogue of Stars"—he received the Copley medal from the royal society. On his return to Scotland, he had an astronomical observatory established at. his residence at Makerstoun, and devoted himself entirely to scientific pursniis. He entered warmly into the plans of the British association for ascer taining the laws of the earth's magnetism, and in 1841 had a splendid magnetic observatory erected at 3lakerstoun, the observations made there filling three large volumes, published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of which he was president, having been elected on the death of sir Walter Scott. He founded two gold medals for scientific merit—one in the award of the royal society, the other in that of the society of arts. He died Jan. 27, 1860.