_Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart._--As those who have read the deeply
interesting memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton are aware, he was placed at
a school in Donnybrook in the year 1802, and shortly after "entered" the
University of Dublin. His success in that seat of learning, where able
competitors were many in number, was brilliant; for "on the 14th of April
in the same year [1807], he received his thirteenth premium, and also the
highest honour of the university,--the gold medal. With these distinctions,
and the four silver medals from the Historical Society, he prepared to
return to England." In fact, so high did his character stand, that a
proposal was made to him by the electors (which, however, he deemed it
prudent to decline) to come forward as a candidate for the representation
of the university in the imperial parliament, and good grounds were given
him to expect a triumphant return.
Now, this man was doubtless an honour to the "silent(?) sister" in Ireland;
and, as an Irishman, I feel some little degree of pride in our having
educated him so well for his subsequent career. With surprise, then, do I
find, on referring to the _Dublin University Calendar_ for the present
year, the name of a "Mr. _John Powell_ Buxton" in the list of gold
medallists. The editor appears to be sadly ignorant of the proper person,
and cannot lay the blunder at the printer's door, having very unaccountably
repeated it from year to year. I have taken the trouble of examining many
volumes of the _Calendar_.