The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-24 00:00:00

A VICTIM OF ISANDULA.

The Western Morning News states that an interment
of a somewhat remarkable character has taken place
in Woking Cemetery under the superintendence of a
firm of Southampton undertakers. The body was that
of Lieut. Edgar Oliphant Anstey, of the Ist Battalion,
24th Regiment, who fell at Isairlula on the 15th of
JanuarY, 1879. The body remained unburied on the
battlefield until the following September, when it was
recovered by Captain Aristey, R.E., one of deceased's
brothors, who went out from England for the
purpose. Identifica,tion Vira:B made by the teeth, the
body otherwise being quite unrecognisable, a portion
of clothing, and a book which remained. It was
brought to England some months ago, and has been
under private care at Seuthamßton awaiting the
arrlysi from abroad of Mr, Wand A.rtotoy, of tho

71st Highlanders, another brother who wished to at-
tend the funeral Lieutenant Anstey was only 28
years old when he was killed. This is the only case in
which a body has been recovered from Isandula for in-
terment in England or elsewhere than Zululand.

THE ELECTION OF SCOTCH REPRE-
SENTATIVE PEERS.

The election of 16 representative peers to represent
the peerage of Scotland in the }louse of Lords, in
terms orthe Act of Union, took place on Friday in
last week in the Picture%Gallery of the ancient palace
of Holyrood. This hall derives its name of the
Picture Gallery" from the circumstances that its walls
are covered with 100 fanciful portraits of the kings of
Scotland, beginning with Fergus 1., and coming down
to.j.ames VI. In the middle of the gallery there was
placed a table or tables, forming the shape of an
eldilgated T, for the accommodation of the peers.
The table was covered with 'Crimson cloth, while the
array of ink bottles, sheets of foolscap, and quill pens
gave it a business-like air. Places were provided for
some 40 peers, but not more than 20 or 25 were pre-
sent. The rest of. the room was occupied by friends of
the peers an by the general public. ,
The Earl of Glasgow, Lord Clerk Register, presided;
the arrangements were under the superintendence of
Mr. Ross, Baillie of Holyrood, and the high constables
and guard of honour of Holyrood House were in at-
tendance. The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, attended
by Sword and Mace and several of the magistrates and
Council of Edinburgh, were also present in their
robes. Alter the reading of the Royal Proclamation,
and some preliminary proceedings, the election was
proceeded with, signed lists being handed in for a
number of peers, and at the close the clerk register
announced that the following peers had been elected:
—The Earls of Mar and Kellie, 53 votes ; Morton,
52 ; Strathmore and Kinghorn, 51; Haadington, 53;
Air 4, 57 ; Leven and Melville, 45; Selkirk, 54 ,•
Dundonald, 51; Viscount Strathallan, 52; Lord
Forbes, 52 ; Lord Saltoun, 52; Lgyd Elphinstone,
54 ; Lord Borthwick, 44; Lord Blantyre, 52; Lord
Colville of Culcross, 52; Lord Balfour of Burleigh,
52. The result of the election is that the Earl of
Leven and •Melville and Lord Borthwick take the
places of Lord Sinclair, who retires, and the Marquis
of Queensberry.

The Right Hon. Alexander Leslie Melville, Earl of
Leven and Melville, who has been chosex a represen-
tative peer for Scotland in the place of the Marquis of
Queensberry, is the eldest son of John Thornton, 11th
earl (who was also for some time a representative peer),
by his marriage with. Harriet, daughter of the late
Mr. Samuel Thornton, M. P., .of Albury-park, Surrey.
He was born in the year 1817, and was educated at
Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he
took the usual degrees. He is a Deputy-Lieutenant
for Nairnshire, and succeeded to his father's title in
1876.

The Right Hon. Cunningham Borthwick., Lord
Borthwick of Borthwick, Mid Lothian, who has been
chosen a representative peer of Scotland in the place
of Lord Sinclair, is the only surviving son of the late
Mr. Patrick Borthwick (who was de jure 17th Lord
Borthwick), by his marriage with Ariana, daughter of
Mr. Cunningham Corbet, a merchant of Glasgow. He
was born in the year 1813, and established his claim to
this long-dormant title in 1870. His lordship married
in 1865 Miss Harriet Alice Day, daughter of the late
Mr. H. Thomas Day, of Rochester, Kent.

The Times, of Monday, In a leader on the election of
Scottish peers, reinarks
"The serious business of the general election is long
since over, and on Friday the tension of Scotchmen's
minds was relieved by a pageant. Irish representative
peers are elected for life, but Scottish representatives
sit bra single Parliament. On Friday the sixteen
Scotch peers had to be chosen, and the ceremony was
performed in Holyrood Palace with all due solemnity.
The Lord Provost and other magistrates of Edinburgh
came in their robes and with their -insignia of office.
Her Majesty's proclamation was read, enjoining
them to provide that the peace was kept within
their city during the election, and that the nobles
attending it were protected from the perils of riot
and faction. The Bailie of the Palaoe and its precincts
was on duty to see that the ghosts of the debtors and
other priviliged denizens of the Scotch Alsatia did not
take advantage of the opportunity to commit violence
on the magnates of the kingdom. The Lord Clerk
Register presided to record the xotes and to regulate
order. The hundred and six Kings of Scots, from
Ferg-uA downwards, sanctioned the procedure from
their several panels, proving their lineage and right
divine by the miraculous fact that each and every
one,' as Sir Walter remarked, carries 'a nose like the
knocker of a door.' Except that the assembled Leers
were attired, very much out of keeping, in the prosaic
morning dress of the nineteenth century instead of
ermine and brocade or inlaid armour, the scene
might have been a passage from the history of the
fourteenth or fifteenth century, the peers might have
gathered to deliberate on an armed raid across the
border, rather than on a selection of sixteen delegates
to Westminster. A single glance down the roll of the
Scotch peerage is enough to explain the warning to
Lord Provosts and Bailies to look to the quiet of their
town when the barons of the Border and the chief of
the Highlands were met together. Even the names
and lofty titles as they neighbour one another seem to
echo antagonism. Each recurrent election of Scotch
peers is a page of old Scotch history. For the moment
Scotland becomes a kingdom once more, and a list of
the English peerage reads after it like a catalogue of
parven us."