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BIRKS.

the Universal Exhibition hold in Paris in that year. These services were acknowledged by his being appointed Sheriff of Bombay and by the addresses presented to him on his being forced to finally leave India, through permanently broken health, in 1869, by the Royal Asiatic Society, the Agri-Horticultural Society, the University of Bombay, of which he was then Registrar, and the students of Grant Medical College. On the occasion, also, of the proclamation of the Queen as Empress of India, Jan. 1, 1877, he was appointed to the Companionship of the Star of India. Since his return to this country Dr. Birdwood has chiefly devoted himself to writing on Indian subjects, and more especially on Indian art. For his services on behalf of Indian art the Queen conferred on Dr. Birdwood the honour of knighthood in Sept., 1881. Sir George Birdwood also still maintains his official ties with India, having been appointed about 1879 Special Assistant in the Revenue, Statistics, and Commerce Department of the India Office. He is the author of "Catalogue of the Economic Products of the Bombay Presidency (Vegetable)," 1st edition, 1862, 2nd edition, 1868; "The Genus Boswellia (Frankincense plants), with illustrations of three new species;" in the "Transactions of the Linnean Society," vol. xxvii.; the article "Incense," in the "Encyclopædia Britannica"; "Handbook to the British Indian section, Paris Exhibition of 1878"; "Handbook on the Industrial Arts of India," 1880; "The Arts of India," 1881; "Austellung Indischer Kunst-Gegenstände, zu Berlin," 1881; "Indiens Konstslöjd en Kortfattad Skildring," Stockholm, 1882. He was a constant contributor to the Indian Press, and for some time editor of the Bombay Saturday Review. He wrote two letters in the Times of 6th Dec., 1881, and 26th Jan., 1882, in which he contended that the opium revenue of the Indian Government is as sound and moral as the revenue derived by this country from the excise. These letters were republished in Mrs. W. H. Brereton's "Truth about Opium," 1882.


BIRKS, The Rev. Thomas Rawson, M.A., born Sept., 1810, graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1834, as second wrangler and second Smith's prizeman. In the same year he became fellow of his college, and won the Seatonian prize for the best English poem in 1843–44. In the latter year he became rector of Kelshall, Herts. He is the author of "Memoirs of the Rev. E. Bickersteth, of Watton," whose daughter he married. He was for five years examining chaplain to Bishop Villiers, of Carlisle, and afterwards of Durham; and for 21 years, from 1850 to 1871, he was one of the honorary secretaries of the Evangelical Alliance. He was appointed vicar of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, in 1865, and held that incumbency till 1877. He was an examiner for the Theological Examination in 1867 and 1868, and a member of the Board of Theological Studies. He has been one of the Select Preachers before the University. Mr. Birks was elected Knightbridge Professor of Moral Theology, Casuistical Divinity, and Moral Philosophy at Cambridge, on the death of the Rev. J. T. D. Maurice, in April, 1872. His principal works are:—"First Elements of Prophecy," "The Four Empires," "The Two Later Visions of Daniel," "Outlines of Unfulfilled Prophecy," "The Mystery of Providence," "Treasures of Wisdom," "Modern Rationalism," "The Christian State" (afterwards republished as "Church and State"), "Horæ Apostolicæ, a Supplement to Paley's Horæ Paulinæ"; "Horæ Evangelicæ," on the internal evidence of the Gospels; "The Bible and Modern Thought," "The Exodus of Israel," "The Pentateuch and