The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-09 00:00:00

Lord Elgin's Last Days,

At times he delighted to hear his little girl, who had
been the constant companion of his travels, repeat some of
Keble's hymns, especially those on the festivals of St. John
the Evangelist, and of the Holy Innocents. Years ago he
had prided himself in having been the first to introduce
into Scotland "The Christian Year," which he brought as
a student from Os ford, where the first edition—first of its
seventy-seven editions—had just appeared. Huw touching
a reward to him—how touching a tribute to the enduring
piety and genius of its venerable author, that after the lapse
of so long a tract of time to both—of quiet pastoral life
and eager controversies for the one ; of diplomacy and
government, war and shipwreck, and travels from hemi-
sphere to hemisphere for the other—that fountain of early
devotion should remain still fresh and pure to soothe his
dying hours.
Until his strength failed him he was carried at times into
the verandah, and showed by words and looks his constant
admiration at the grand evidences of God's power and good-
ness in the magnificence of the scene before him; and on
one such occasion was delighted with the sublime descrip-
tion of the wonders of nature in the 38th and 39th chapters
of the Book of Job. At times he was able to enter into
conversation and argument on serious subjects. When under
the pressure of his sufferings he was one night entreating to
be released—" Oh that God would in mercy come and take
me!"—Dr Macrae reminded him of the dread of pain and
death which seemed to be expressed in the account of the
Agony of Gethsemane, and he appeared to find much com-
fort in the thought, repeating once or twice that he had not
seen it in thin liislat horses, rani. ec -crnl truica zaj-iia6 with
fervour, "Not my will, but Thine be done."
At other times he could even be led, by way of steadying
his wandering thoughts amidst the distraction of restless-
ness, to fix them on his school and college days, to tell
anecaotos of his hard reading, or to describe the visit to
Oxford of his venerable friend Dr. Chalmers. He dwelt in
this way on a sermon of Dr. Chalmers' at Glasgow, which
he remembered even in detail, and from which he quoted
some eloquent passages, bringing out the general scope of
the sermon, to the effect that, rather than teach men to hate
this bad world, we should teach them to love and look up to
a better one. It will naturally be understood that long
converse was really impossible. As occasions rose, a •few
words were breathed, an appropriate verse quoted, and a few
minutes were all that could be given at any one time to
discourse upon it.
It is characteristic of his strong, cheerful faith, even dur-
ing those last trying moments, that he on one occasion asked
to have the more supplicatory, penitential Psalms exchanged
for those of praise and thanksgiving in which he joined,
knowing them already by heart, and in the same strain of
calm yet triumphant hope, he whispered to himself on the
night when his alarming state was first made known to him,
" Hallelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. We
shall all meet again." ,
That thought was raised to its highest pitch by the sight
of a portrait of a beloved son, who had died in England
during his absence. It arrived in the close of those sad days.
He recognised it at once, with a burst of tenderness and
delight which at once lifted his mind above the suffering et
his mortal illness. Again and again he desired to see it, and
to speak of it, with the fixed conviction that he and his
"angel boy," as he called him, would soon meet in a better
world. " 011.1 when shall Ibe with you ?" " You know
where he is; we shall all go to him ; he is happy."
Every care had been taken for the' public interests, and
for the interests of those still nearer and dearer to him. He
laid the most solemn charge on his faithful secretary to
conduct Lady Elgin home on her mournful and solitary
voyage. He had given to Dr Macrae with the tenderest
marks of affection, a turquois ring—" We have had a long
struggle together ; keep this in memory of it." He had
dictated a telegram to the Queen resigning his office, with a
request that his successor might be immediately appointed.
With this exception, public affairs seem to have faded
from his mind. " I must resign myself to doing no work.
I have not sufficient control over my thoughts. I have
washed my hands of it all." But it was remarkable that
as the end drew nearer, the keen sense of public duty
once more flashed up within him. Is was on the 19th
that ha could not help expressing his wonder what was
meant by his long lingering ; and once, half wandering, he
whispered, " If I did not die, I might go to Lahore, and
carry out the original programme."
Later on in the day he sent for Mr. Thurlow, and desired
that a message should be sent, through Sir Charles Wood,
expressive of his love and devotion to the Queen, and of his
determination to do his work to the last possible moment.
His voice, faint and inaudible at first, gained strength with

Le earnestness of the words which came forth as if direct
from his heart, and which, as soon as proneuncei, left him
prostrate with the exertion. He begged, at the same time,
that his "best blessing" might be sent to the Secretaries of
the Indian Government, and also a private message to Sir
Charles Wood in England.
These were his last public acts. A few words and looks of
intense afftc,ion for his wife and child were all that escaped
him afterwards. One more night of agonised restlessness,
followed by an almost sudden close of the long struggle,
and a few moments of perfect calm, and his spirit was re-
leased, Ills death was on the 20th of November, and on
the 21st he was privately buried, at his awn request, on
the spot selected beforehand.

SALE OF THE PRESENTATION PLATE OF MR. G.
V. BROOKE.—Yesterday afternoon Messrs. Christie,
Manson, and Woods sold at their great sale rooms, King-
street, St. James's, the gold and silver plate presented at
various times to Mr. G. V. Brooke, the eminent tragedian.
The following are the principal articles sold, with the prices
realised:—A richly-chased solid gold goblet, on stand of the
same, 340 z, 18dwt., inscribed " Presented to G. V. Brooke
by his friends and admirers in Melbourne, March 19
1856"—ill`20—a beautiful candelabrum, with branches for
six lights and frosted figures of a nymph and satyr on
shaped plinth with extra scences, about 185 ounces, " To
G. V. Brooke, from his friends in Sydney, New South
Wales, in acknowledgment of hip unsurpassed histrionic
talents, and as a mark of their appreciation of his delinea-
tion of the characters of Shakepere, 13th July, 1855"—a9
10s. A silver tea and coffee service, a tea-kettle with stand
and spirit lamp, teapot, coffeepot, sugar basin, "Presented
to G. V. Brooko, Esq., by a few of his many friends in
Boston and Providence." A piece of gold quartz, sur-
mounted by a figure of Shakspere on plinth of virgin gold,
"Presented to G. V. Brooke, Esq., by the Company of Mr
Coppin's Olympic, Melbourne." Some other articles, the
property of Mr Brooke, were also sold. The collection rea•
lised about £3OO.

The Orcadian says that a linnet's nest with five
eggs was found in the mainsail of a Kirkwall packet boat,
the sail not having been unfurled for about a fortnight pre-
viously,

The current number of the North British Review,
which is one of great ability and variety, contains .3
long article on the character of the late Lord Elgin,
under the title of "Lord Elgin In Memoriam."
Judging from internal evidence, it is supposed to
be from the pee of the Duke of Argyle. We eitract
from it the following interesting, and, in parts,
affecting account of the last days of the late Gover.
nor-General of India :

On the 6th of November, Dr Macrae came to the conclu-
sion that the illaess was mot tal. This intelligence, which
he communicated at once to Lord Elgin, was received with a
calmness and fortitude which never deserted him through
the scenes which followed. When once ho had satisfied him-
self, by minute inquiries from Dr Macrae, of the true state
of the case, after one deep, earnest, heartfelt regret that he
should thus suidenly be parted from those nearest and
dearest, to whom his life was of such inestimable importance,
and that he should be removed just as he had prepared him-
self to benefit the people committed to his charge, he
steadily set his face heavenward.
He was startled, he was awed; he felt it " hard, hard, to
believe that his life was condemned," but there was no look-
ing backward. Of the officers of his staff he took an affec-
tionate leave on that day. "It is well," he said to one of
them, "that I should die in harness." And thenceforth he
saw no one habitually, except Dr Macrae, who combined
with his medical [skill the tenderness and devotion at once
of a friend and of a pastor, his attached secretary, Mr Thur-
low, who had rendered him the most faithful services, not
only through the period of his Indian vice-royalty, but
during his last mission to China; and her who had shared
his every thought, and whose courageous spirit now rose
above the weakness of the fragile frame, equal to the great-
ness of the calamity, and worthy of him to whom, by night
and day, she constantly ministered.
On the following day the clergyman whom he had ordered
to be summoned, and for whose arrival he waited with much
anxiety, reached Dhurmsala, and administered the Holy
Communion to himself and those with him. "We are now
entering on a new Communion," he had said that morning,
"the Living and the Dead," and his spirit then appeared to
master pain and weakness, and to sustain him in a holy calm
during the ceremony and for a few hours afterwards. "It is
a comfort," he whispered, " to have laid aside all the cares of
this world, and put myself in the hands of GJd ;" and he
was able to listen at intervals to favourite passages from the
New Testament. That evening closed in with an aggra-
vation of suffering. It was the evening of the seventeenth
anniversary of his wedding day.
On the following morning, Lady Elgin, with his approval,
rode up to the cemetery at Dhurmsala to select a spot for
his grave, and he gently expressed pleasure when told of
the quiet and beautiful aspect of the spot chosen, with the
glorious view of the snowy range towering above, and the
wide prospect of hill and plain below.
The days and nights of the fortnight which foil( wed
were a painful alternation of severe suffering and rare
intervals of comparative tranquillity. They were
soothed by the never-failing devotion of those that
were always at hand to read to him or to re-
ceive his remarks. He often asked to hear chosen
chapters from the Book of Isaiah (as the 40th and sCth),
sometimes murmuring over to himself any striking
verses that they contained, and at other times repeating
by heart favourite Psalms, which recalled to him an early
feat of his youth, when he had translated into Greek the
137th Psalm--" By the waters of Babylon we sat down and
wept."