Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/339

Rh wards raised to the bench under the title of Lord Eldin. On the retirement of the latter into private life, Mr. Henderson obtained the situation of private secretary to the Earl of Lauderdale, which he afterwards quitted for the more lucrative appointment of secretary to Francis Jeffrey, then Lord Advocate, in which office he continued till 1831.

All this was nothing more than the successful career of a diligent young lawyer, devoted to his profession, and making it the means of advancement in life; and as such, his biography would not have been worth mentioning. But simultaneous with his application to the law, another course of study had been going on, from which he was to derive his future distinction. It often enough—too often—happens, that dry legal studies send the young mind with a violent recoil into the opposite extreme ; and thus many a young Hopeful of a family is

Henderson, however, chose more wisely, for his favourite by-study was that of astronomy, which he commenced so early as during the period of his apprenticeship which he prosecuted so as not to retard his professional pursuits and to which he did not wholly resign himself, until he found that he could do it with safety and advantage. In Dundee he applied to astronomical investigations during the leisure hours of his apprenticeship, and continued in like manner to prosecute them after his arrival in Edinburgh, where his proficiency in the science gradually introduced him to the acquaintanceship of Professors Leslie and Wallace, Captain Basil Hall, and other distinguished scientific men of the northern capital. At this time it was fortunate for him that an observatory had been erected upon the Calton Hill, which, though poorly furnished with the necessary apparatus, had yet enough to satisfy the wants of ordinary inquirers. Of this establishment Professor Wallace had charge; and finding that he could intrust Mr. Henderson, though a stranger, with free access and full use of the instruments, the latter gladly availed himself of the opportunity, by which he improved himself largely in the practical departments of astronomical science, in addition to the theoretical and historical knowledge of it which he had already acquired. These studies upon the Calton Hill were the more commendable, when we take into account his weak health, his tendency to a disorder in his eyes, and his diligence in the duties of his laborious profession, which he had too much wisdom and self-denial to neglect.

It was not till 1824 that Mr. Henderson presented himself to notice as an astronomer, which he did by communicating with Dr. Thomas Young, at that time superintending the "Nautical Almanac." To him he imparted his method of computing an observed occultation of a fixed star by the moon, which Young published as an improvement upon his own, in the "Nautical Almanac" for 3827, and the four following years, to which Henderson added a recent method and several calculations. These methods were also announced to the scientific world by being published in the " London Quarterly Journal of Science," while Mr. Henderson received for them the thanks of the Board of Longitude. In 1827 he communicated a paper to the Royal Society of London, "On the Difference of Meridians of the Royal Observatories of London and Paris," which the society published in its " Transactions." Mr. Henderson's reputation, as a scientific and practical astronomer, was now established, while his communications to Dr. Young were about to change his public career in life for one more