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  applications from proprietors of newspapers to take command of their offices, and on such an invitation he undertook the editing of the ‘Perth Constitutional’ in 1835. After a visit to London in 1837, and two years' management of the ‘Fifeshire Journal,’ he accepted, in 1839, the post of editor of the ‘Bombay Times,’ with which his name is most intimately connected, and for twenty years devoted himself with exceptional zeal and success to the development of this important paper. His bold repudiation in its columns of the policy of retaliation after the Kábúl massacres of 1842 compelled the admiration of all parties, and the government showed its confidence in the unflinching journalist by giving him an opportunity of reviving the scientific studies of his early life in the capacity of unpaid inspector of the astronomical, magnetic, and meteorological observatories of Bombay, the efficiency of which he so increased that he was able to report that 300,000 observations had been made, recorded, corrected, and prepared for publication during the two years and a half in which he conducted the work. The loss of his wife in 1845 induced him to seek change in England for a few months, during which he busied himself with drawing up the ‘Bombay Observatory Report for 1844,’ which contained records of 170,000 observations. In January 1846 he was back again at the office of the ‘Bombay Times,’ where he continued his editorial labours, with one brief intermission, until within a year of his death. In 1859 he retired to take up a government appointment at Allahabad, but died at Calcutta on 1 Oct. 1860. He contributed many scientific papers to the ‘Journal’ of the Bombay branch of the Asiatic Society, and before leaving Scotland had written, for the Highland Society, some topographical and geological articles on the counties of Perth and Fife. He also compiled a useful ‘Index to Books and Papers on the Physical Geography, Antiquities, and Statistics of India’ (Bombay, 1852). During his absence in England in 1845 he obtained special grants from the government for improving agricultural machines and rural economy in India, and for establishing twelve observatories from Cape Comorin to the Red Sea for meteorological and tidal research. He also formed the geological collection for the museum of Elphinstone College, Bombay.

In 1837 Buist received from the Highland Society of Scotland a prize of fifty guineas for a paper on the ‘Geology of the South-eastern portion of Perthshire.’ In 1846 he was appointed to the honorary position of sheriff of Bombay. In 1847 he projected, and in 1850 founded, the Bombay Reformatory School of Industry for the reformation and education of native children, of which he was superintendent, under the patronage of the governor, Lord Elphinstone.

[G. Buist, Memoir with Testimonials, Cupar, 1846, where the date of birth is misprinted 1803; Annual Reg. 1860; Proceedings of Bombay Branch Asiatic Society, 1860.]  BUITE, (d. 521), son of Bronach, was descended from Tadhg, son of Cian, and therefore belonged to the Cianachta. He was known as the ‘bishop of the monastery,’ that is of Monasterboice, which seems in early times to have been pre-eminently ‘The Monastery.’ The date of his birth is not known, but his death took place in 521, and this date is of special interest as determining that of St. Columba's birth, which is not given in the ‘Annals,’ but is stated in the following lines from Tigernach to have taken place on the same day:— The beloved Columba the clerk is born, This day in Ireland the most learned, On the same festival, I do not speak ignorantly, With the fair triumphant death of the son of Bronach. Born in the neighbourhood of Mellifont, in the south of the county of Louth, his parents, who were christians, were in much difficulty as to his baptism, no clergyman being within reach. But some missionary priests having touched at an adjoining port, one of them baptised him; a fountain, called Mellifons, i.e. sweet water, having sprung up, as it was supposed, to supply water for his baptism. An incident of his youth indicates the bent of his mind. Sent by his mother to bring home some calves, and not returning in the evening, his parents went in search of him, and found him asleep. When awoke he asked them why they disturbed him, as ‘the angels were teaching him psalms and ecclesiastical offices, and if he had not been awoke he would have learned the wisdom of God.’

When grown up he desired to devote himself to the service of God, and for this purpose seems first to have gone to Wales, with which the early christians of Ireland were in close connection. Thence he proceeded to Italy, where, ‘in the monastery of St. Tylia, he was gladly received on account of his knowledge of monastic discipline and acquaintance with holy scripture.’ St. Tylia appears to be St. Theilo, who became bishop of Llandaff A.D. 512, and some of whose people at a later period, when dispersed by a plague, took refuge in Italy, where the institution here referred to may have afforded them shelter.