New World.

In 1845 he took a first class in mathematics, and he afterward won the
junior (1846) and the senior (1847) university mathematical
scholarships. He returned to Oxford for a term or two, and gave a
course of lectures in Balliol College on Geometry of Three
Dimensions--a favorite subject of his. He was examiner in the
mathematical schools in 1857-58. On leaving Oxford, he immediately, we
believe, took an active part in the working management of the business
of the Queen's printers, about this time resigned to him by his
father, Andrew Spottiswoode, brother of the Laird of Spottiswoode. The
business has largely developed under his hands.

Other subjects than mathematics have occupied his attention: at an
early age he studied languages, as well Oriental as European.

[Illustration: WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE.]

As treasurer and president, he has been continuously on the Council
of the Royal Society for a great many years, and through his
exceptional gifts as an administrator he has rendered it invaluable
services. He has rendered similar services to the British Association,
to the London Mathematical Society, and to the Royal Institution. We
have permission to make the following extract from a letter written by
a friend of many years' standing: "In the councils (of the various
societies) he has always been distinguished by his sound judgment and
his deep sympathy with their purest and highest aims. There never was
a trace of partisanship in his action, or of narrowness in his
sympathies. On the contrary, every one engaged in thoroughly
scientific work has felt that he had a warm supporter in Spottiswoode,