The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-12 00:00:00

November.

Lord Elgin was chief of the Bruce family. Sir
Robert de Bruse, descended from Eynor, fourth

Earl of Orkney, brother of Rollo, who conquered
Normandy in 912, and built the castle of Le Bruse,
now Brix, near Va'agues, in Normandy, had two

sons, the elder of whom, Allen de la Bruse, remained
in Normandy, while the younger, William, " came
over with the Conqueror," became a baron in York.
shire, and possessed, before the close of the Con-
queror's life, 94 lordships in Yorkshire, besides the
castle and manor of Skelton, with Hert and Hert-
ress, in the bishopric of Durham. His son made
a great figure at the Court of Henry 1., and was an
intimate friend of the King's brother-in- law, Prince
David of Scotland, who, when King, conferred on
him the lordship of Annandale. Sir Robert de
Bruce, his descendant, was a competitor with
Baliol for the throne of Scotland ; and he was the
father of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, and
Edward Bruce, King of Ireland. From this Sir
Robert sprang the Bruces of Kennet, the Bruces of
Clackmannan, and the Bruces of Airth Stenhouse.
Sir Edward Bruce of Kinloss wash Scotch Lord of

Session towards the end of the sixteenth century;
was deputed by James VI., in 1600, in company
with the Earl of, Mar, to congratulate Queen
Elizabeth on the suppression of Essex's rebellion ;
was a Privy Councillor; and,
after settling his
master's peaceable succession to the English
throne, was created, at the close of his mission,
Baron Bruce of Kinloss anc of Torry, in the Scotch
peerage, besides obtaining the Mastership of the
Rolls for life. His younger son was created Earl
of Elgin of Elgin, in 1633, and Baron Bruce of
Whorlton, Yorkshire (this latter in the English
peerage), in 1640. The great-grandson of this first
earl (the second earl was created Baron Bruce of
Skelton, Yorkshire, Viscount Bruce of Ampthill,
Bedfordshire, and Earl of Ailesbury) procured a
patent of remainder to Baron Bruce of Tottenham,
with a remainder to his nephew, Thomas Bruce
Brudenell, who was created Earl of Ailesbury in
1774 ; but the Elgin title, in default of heirs male
of his body, came to Charles, ninth Earl of Kincar-
dine, a descendant of Sir George Bruce of Carnock,
M.P., who was one of the commissioners for nego-
tiating the Scotch treaty of union with England,
and who wasan elder brother of Sir Edward Bruce
of Blairhall, the father of the first Earl of Elgin,
under the creation of 1633. The most distinguished
representative in modern times of this distinguished
family, the Viceroy whose death all of us are now
deploring, James Bruce, eighth Earl of Elgin, and
twelfth Earl of Kineardine, Baron Bruce of Torry,
in the Peerage of Scotland, baron Elgin of Elgin,
in the peerage of the United Kingdom, Lord Lieu-
tenant of Fifeshire, was born on the 20th of July,
1811. He was the second son of Thomas, seventh
earl—who, while ambassador at Constantinople,
collected, at a cost of nearly £75,000, the splendid
Grecian antiquities, taken mainly from the Acro-
polis at Athens, between 1801 and 1812, and known
as the "Elgin marbles," and purchased by Govern-
ment for L 35,000 for the British Museum--by
his second marriage with Elizabeth, youngest
daughter of Mr. James Townshend Oswald, of
Dunnikeir, Fifeshire. The earl, by the way,
had been married previously to Mary, only
child of Mr. Hamilton-Nisbet, of Dirleton,
Haddingtonshire, and had by her a son, George
Constantine, Lord Bruce, born in 1800, and Lady
Mary Bruce, married to the present Right lion. R.
A. Christopher Hamilton-Nisbet, the well known
protectionist M.P. for North Lincolnshire from
1837 to 1857, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
in Lord Derby's first Ministry.
Bornfamily,
a younger son of a not over wealthy Scotch
a son, too, of a second marriage, Lord E'giu
began life with no very
brilliant prospects. He had
to make a reputation for himself, and, when he had
done so, hereditary rank and possession of the ances-
tral estate gave the young Fellow of Merton a chance
of emulating his school-fellows, William Ewart
Gladstone and the present Duke of Newcastle, in
their already promising Parliamentary career. He
distinguished himself both at Eton and at Oxford.
At the university he added the late lamented
Marquis of Dalhousie, Viceroy of India, and the late
beloved Lord Herbert of Lea, both popular Harro-
vians, to the list of his friends. That was a brilliant
constellation of future statesmen viho were about