The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-08 00:00:00

SIR WILLIAM' HAMILTON.

The University of Edinburgh has suffered an immense
loss in the death of its 'most distinguished Professor on
the morning of Tuesday, the 6th inst. For years he had
been in delicate health, and with energy of mind undi-
minished struggled bravely against an attack of paralysis
that affected the whole of his right side from the eye to
the foot. With some little assistance from a reader he
regularly every year went through the arduous duties of
his chair, climbing with difficulty a steep staircase to
to his lecture-room, and his spirit was so indomitable
that his class was known to the last as the best worked
and most enthusiastic in the whole University. He had
just concluded the usual winter session in his accus-
tcmed health, and the news of his death, which in the
last instance we believe arose from congestion of the
brain, will take bis friends and pupils by surprise. He
had projected so many works which have been promised
to the public for years that it would seem at first as
if be had died before his time. But his work was
really accomplished in the system of thought which
he developed in his lectures and in his contibutions
to the Edinburgh Review, and the works on which he
was engaged were chiefly either editorial or historical,
which called for powers of memory and research pos-
sessed by many, rather than for powers of thought pos-
sessed by few. His research was, indeed, enormous,
and, amid the general poverty of Scottish scholarship,
he achieved a reputation as one of the most learned
men of his time. In scholastic literature Lis erudition
was probably unrivalled, and, unless some of his pupils
undertake to arrange his notes, immense stores of infor-
mation from the most recondite sources are lost to the
world. He was always adding to these stores, and not
long before his decease be might be seen stretched on a
sofa, his right eye in a shade, and his right arm in a
sling, with some ponderous tome of the middle ages
before him ; in this way, indeed, he submitted to the
drudgery of making an index to one of Dsgald Stewart's
treatises, which he was preparing for the press. Sir
William's lectures will, we suppose, be published ; they
are very carefully written out, and when these are
given to the world the public will have some better
idea of his systems, both of metaphysics and of logic,
than can new be gathered from the fragments which
have already appeared.

THE EMBASSY AT ST. PETERSBURG.—We have reason
to believe that Lord Wodehouse is appointed Minister
Plenipotentiary at the Russian Court. The noble lord's
known abilities, and his intimate acquaintance with the
affairs of Europe, eminently fit him for this important
post.—Post.
A special general meeting of the Standard Life Assur-
ance Company was held at Edinburgh, on Ist May
inst., for the purpose of receiving a report by the di-
rectors, on the investigation of the company's affairs, as
at 15th November, 1855, and sth division of profits ;
George Moir, Esq., sheriff of Ross and Cromarty, iu the
chair. A bonus to the policy holders was declared,
varying from 271. 18s, to 18s. per cent. on the sums
assured, according to the dates at which the assurances
were effected, and it was reported that the earlier po-
licies of the company are thus more than doubled. A
policy opened in 1825 for 1,000/. being now raised by
additions to 2,1521. A policy opened in 1826 for 1,0001.
to 2,0951. A policy opened in 1827 for 1,0001. to
2,038/. The directors took the same opportunity of
proposing certain resolutions, with the view of providing,
as far as possible, against the forfeiture of policies from
inadvertence or neglect, which were unanimously adopted.