The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-08-18 00:00:00

DEATH OF DR. BUCKLAND

Dr. William Buckland, Dean of Westminster, died on
Thursday last, at his residence at Clapham. This gen-
tleman was better known in the scientific than in the
religions works, and his determined pursuit of geological
researches, especiilly in the details of that somewhat
abstruse science, made his opinions of the highest autho-
rity. In 1845 Sir Robert Peel appointed him to the
Deanery of Westminster, which became vacant at that
time by th, elevation of the then dean (Dr. Samuel
Wilberforce), to the Bishopric of Oxford. Within a few
weeks after his appointment to the Deanery oft West
minster, Dr. Buckland became subjeUted to " the last
infirmi y of noble minds"--his intellect gave way.
and from that time until the hour of his death his life
was one of seclusion from the world. The Deanery of
Westminster is worth £2.000 a year, and is the gift of
the First Minister of the Crown. Dr. Buckland was
horn in South Devonshire. in 1781. He was educated at
Winch ster School and Corpus College, Oxford, which
he entered in 1801, ana of which he became successively
scholar and fellow. About the year 1812 he was appinted
university reader in geology and mineralogy. His
lectures delivered at Oxford gave the first impetus to
physical science in that seat of learning. In 1818 be
was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and obtained
the Copley medal in 1822. In 1825 he was appointed to
a college living in Hampshire, and also the more
wealthy post of a canonry at Christchprch. This latter
preferment he retained until 1845, when he succeeded
Bishop Wilberforce in the D anery of Westminster. He
had not been long in possession of his deanery. when
his active and untiring mind began to show symptoms
of tailing, and he Teti!, d into private life ; not, however,
until lie had successfully exerted himself in arranging
the geological depatment of the Briish Museum, in
assisting the late Sir Henry de la Beeche in founding the
Museum of Practical Geology, of Jermyn-street, and had
shown himself a reformer of our social system of facili-
tating the admission of the poorer classes to the interior
of Westminster Abbey, and by advocating a supply of
pure water to their dwellings in the metropolis. The
chief works by which the name of Dr. Buckland will be
known hereafter, are his " Descriptive Notes of the Irish
Coast," published by him in 1813, after a tour which be
took in Ireland in conjunction with Dr. Conybeare ; his
Vindicm Qeologicm, or Connection of Science with
Religion Explained,'? published in 1820, and reproduced
in a modified (though more extended and elaborate)
form in 1836, as one of the Bridgwater Treatises, under
the title of " Geology and Mineralogy considered with
reference to Natural Theology." Besides the above pub-
lications, he was the aeihnr of "ReliquM Dituriame
or, Remarks on Organic Remains, attestjng the action
of an Universal Deluge," and a variety of papers in the
transactions of the Royal and Geological Sobietiei. A
contribution of Dr. Buckland to the " Annals of Philo-
-B°PbY," unfolding the character of the coal districts of the
Leeswa er Treatise south-west of England, is also spoken of with great
espect by the scientific world, as a standard geological
It
btic,l.l
joins*:
Flridg tshould be added that Dr. Buckland's
has proved by far the most popular
work in that able series of scientific works, aid that in
fibeisloneg"intrgi
his health andsto the stores of scientific research
study, but paid especial strengthime lie did not content himself, while
permitted, with mere theoretic
geolegl to the practicaal sattentiou to the application of
and useful purposes connected
with mining and building.p r ar lecturer
producing
an B u akl ana
was pre-eminent in the o,e
impres-
sive effect. No one whoever witm2sl;eiscl
lectures on
td'
would be an inadequate eXoresalCin)
opir et zanta
atui:ot
eensdoi foit
~syrihaant
megatherium can forget leis hmoist;o4lisc
he assumed to bare been the

monster.