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

THE LATE LORD ELGIN,

(From the Morning Post.)
The announcement which it is our painful duty
to make this morning of the death of the Governor-
General of India is provocative of the most melan-
choly feelings. The Marquis of Dalhousie and
Earl Canning only left India to see their native
country and die; to Lord Elgin it has not been
allowed even to breathe his last, wearied out and
exhausted, on British soil, or to rest in Westminster

Abbey—like his illustrious predecessor in the splen

did viceroyalty—among the noble of all ages—

-
44 heroes not yet dead,
But in old marbles ever beautiful."
The Viceroy died at Dhurmshalla, on the 20th of
November, of what has been erroneously called
"dropsy of the heart"—the strict term being "peri-
carditis," or an effusion of fluid into the cavity of
the pericardium. In February last Lord Elgin went
on a tour through the North-Western Provinces of
Bengal, reviewed troops, and gave audiences to
native chiefs, completing his " royal march" before
the summer. In September his lordship left Simla
to make another progress—this time through the
Punjsub. He intended to reach Peshawar by way
of Lahore, and was to open the Punjsub Exhibition
at Lahore early in the next year. His lordship had
been suffering from disease of the heart for some
time past, and while on his way to meet Sir Hugh
Rose he ascended the Rotang Pass, 13,000 feet high.

The mountain air affected his breathing, and mate-
rially increased his disorder. Becoming rapidly
worse, he telegraphed for Sir William Denison,

Governor of Madras, to act as Viceroy in his room,
and sent home his resignation of his office. He sank
rapidly, and expired, as we have said, on the 20th of

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 i❑ 912, and built the castle of Le B ruse,
now Brix, near Valagues, 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-
querors life, 94 lordships in Yorkshire, besides the
castle and manor of Skelton, with Hert and H ert-
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 Braces of Kennet, the Bruces of
Clackmannan, and the Bruces of Airth Stenhouse.
Sir Edward Bruce of Kinloss was a 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 an 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
Whoriton, Yorkshire (this latter in the English
peerage), in 1640. The great-grandson of thisfirst

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 was an 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 Kincardine, 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 £35,000 for the British Museum—by
his second marriage with Elizabeth, youngest
daughter of Mr. James Townstiend Oswald, of
Duanikeir, 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
protectionistin
L ord
Derby's
o n Mge.Prfirst
son for
of North Lincolnshire from
a n Mary Bruce, married to the present Right Hon. R.
A. Christopher Hamilton•Nisbet, the well known
1837 to 1857, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Ministry.ot
Born a
younger over wealthy Scotch
family, a son, too, of a second marriage, Lord Elgin
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
vb
ieal
no vs
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totohred
listerflo bf ehrit o s
friends. f L ea, brio,ht h popular a
twasaa rr o-
brilliant
constellation of future statesmen who were about