Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/55

 of Fleming by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1889.

Fleming's personal charm and grace of speech made him popular, but he was neither a student nor a thinker. 'The Stolen Sermon, or Canon Fleming's Theft,' a pamphlet issued in 1887 (embodying an article in the 'Weekly Churchman,' 6 May), showed that one of two sermons by Fleming, published as 'Science and the Bible' (1880), reproduced almost verbatim 'The Bible Right,' a sermon by Dr. Talmage ('Fifty Sermons,' 2nd series, 2nd edit. 1876, pp. 312-21). Fleming explained in a published letter that he had inadvertently transferred Dr. Talmage's sermon from his common-place book. Apart from some twenty separate sermons, chiefly for special occasions, Fleming published a useful manual on 'The Art of Reading and Speaking' (1896) and 'Our Gracious Queen Alexandra' (1901) for the Religious Tract Society.

 FLETCHER, JAMES (1852–1908), naturalist, born at Ashe, near Wrotham, Kent, England, on 28 March 1852, was second son of Joseph Flitcroft Fletcher by his wife Mary Ann Hayward. The eldest son, Flitcroft Fletcher, was an artist who exhibited five pictures at the Royal Academy (1882–6), dying at the age of thirty-six. Fletcher was educated at King's School, Rochester, and joined the Bank of British North America in London in 1871. In 1874 he was transferred to Canada and stationed at Montreal. In 1875 he entered the Ottawa office of the bank, and, resigning in May 1876, was employed in the library of parliament until 1 July 1887. Fletcher, whose leisure was devoted to the study of botany and entomology, was then appointed entomologist and botanist to the recently organised Dominion experimental farms. Since 1884 he had acted as Dominion entomologist in the department of agriculture. Elected a fellow of the Linnæan Society on 3 June 1886 and a member of the Entomological Society of America and other scientific societies, he was one of the founders of the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club. At his death he was president of the Entomological Society of Ontario, and honorary secretary of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1896 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Queen's University.

Fletcher was a voluminous writer. To the 'Transactions' of the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club he contributed a 'Flora Ottawaensis,' and with George H. Clark he published 'Farm Weeds of Canada' (1906). Valuable papers on injurious insects and on the diurnal lepifloptera appeared at intervals. Seventeen species of butterflies bear his name. He died at Montreal on 8 Nov. 1908, and is buried in Beech wood cemetery, Ottawa.

He married in 1879 Eleanor Gertrude, eldest daughter of Collingwood Schreiber, C.M.G., Ottawa, by whom he had two daughters.

The Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club erected in his memory a drinking-fountain with bronze medallion at the experimental farm, and had a portrait painted by Franklyn Brownell, R.C.A., which now hangs in the Ottawa public library.

 FLINT, ROBERT (1838–1910), philosopher and theologian, born near Dumfries on 14 March 1838, was the son of Robert Flint, at that time a farm overseer, by his wife (born Johnston). His first school was at Moffat. In 1852 he entered Glasgow University, where he distinguished himself (without graduating) in arts and divinity. Having been employed as a lay missionary by the 'Elders' Association' of Glasgow, he was licensed to preach in 1858, and for a short time acted as assistant to Norman Macleod the younger [q. v.], at the Barony Church, Glasgow. He was minister of the East Church, Aberdeen (1859–62) and of Kilconquhar, Fife (1862–4), a country parish, which gave him leisure for study, improved by visits to Germany. On the death of James Frederick Ferrier [q. v.] in 1864 Flint was elected to succeed him in the moral philosophy chair at St. Andrews University, among the competing candidates being Thomas Hill Green [q. v.]. This chair he held till 1876, when he succeeded Thomas Jackson Crawford [q. v.] in the divinity chair of Edinburgh University. On this appointment he was made LL.D. of Glasgow and D.D. of Edinburgh. Thomas Chalmers [q. v.] had similarly migrated from the one chair to the other. Flint was appointed to a number of foundation lectureships. He was Baird lecturer (1876–7); in 1880 he crossed to America, and delivered a course 