The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-21 00:00:00

NESVSPAPER

lel a
DEATH OF THE MARQUIS OF DAL• -
HOME.

The Marquis of Dalhousie died at Dalhousie
Castle, Midlothian, on Wednesday evening, at half-
past six o'clock. The state of his health had for
some time precluded all hope of his recovery.
Having no male issue, the Scotch earldom and
estates of Dalhousie fall to his cousin, Lord Pan mure.
His death in his 48th year is another sad instance of
the sun going down at noon. Few statesmen have
raised such expectations. After a life of splendid
achievement he has passed away about the critical
age when Nelson was shot down at Trafalgar, when
Napoleon closed his public life, and when Wel-
lington ended his military career, but when Minis-
ters generally are only beginning to put forth their
powers. Lord Dalhousie had not only a large ad-
ministrative faculty, but also the happy art of in-
spiringc
feeling.am e in confidencea
ar
rat
enirnds making
plansn alle
owaf
and
which
iwe
cl
hhl
oomwmsa
many
yt
in
t
an abler man has made shipwreck of his policy.
How Sir Charles Napier despised it ! How he
talked of the little vanities of "the little man !"
withwh which
hh him
characterised and t o
Lord assured
Dalhousie,
aol fh their
uos
He forgot that the easiest thing on earth is
opinion
to sneer, and that the continual desire to carry the
igpfuoiobtd be might called vanity by his enemiesl
11 he called prudence and good policy 1; must
y all
impartial persons who know that even an Indian
Viceroy is not exactly an autocrat, and that his
whole power is based on public opinion. There
probably never was a statesman, unless it were Sir
Robert Peel, and he had the honour of numbering
the late Marquis among his political posterity, to
whom the habit of setting himself right with the
public, by speeches, by minutes, by reports, by
State papers of every sort, had become so much a
matter of necessity—so clearly an axiom of govern-
ment. Everything that he did was conducted on
the principle of personal frankness and public un-
derstanding, a very curious illustration of which is
mentioned by Sir Charles Napier himself. When
the old lion of Meeanee was sent to take the chief
command of the Indian army he went with a repu-
tation for impracticability and quarrelling which
could scarcely have been very comfortable to his
future colleagues. On their first interview Lord
Dalhousie received him in the frankest manner; he
said, half laughing, that he had been told in ever so
many letters] to beware of this Tartar. " I have
been warned, Sir Charles,"not to let you encroach
upon my authority, and" he added, " I shall take
-- good care that you shall lot." The brusque
cordiality of this address, which excited the indig-
nation of Sir William Napier, but which his brother
took in good part, as he ought to have done, was
very characteristic of Lord Dalhousie. Perhaps
another man in his place would have received
Napier with fulsome compliments,
while deliberat-
ing_ how best he could countermine his authority
and thwart his influence if occasion arose. It
was part of Lord Dalhousie's system to avoid
finesse, to break the ice as soon as possible,
and to have an open understanding on
all points. The consequence was that few
public men have fought their way upwards with
so little of opposition and amid so much general
applause. There has not been in our time a Gover-
nor-General so popular; and when he left India
with shattered health, many in England would
have risked heavy odds on the chance of his one
day attaining the most splendid position within
the reach of a British subject—that of Prime
Minister. It was not so to be. The hand of death
was upon him, and be came home from the scenes
of his glory to waste away the space that was left
him in the vain search for health.
James Andrew Broun-Ramsay was born on the
22d of April, 1812, at Dalhousie Castle, the son of
the ninth Earl of Dalhousie, more familiarly known
in Scotland as " the Laird of Cockpen," from his
representing in right of possession, if not of
descent, the hero of a certain humorous song whose
courtship by no means ran smoothly. When Sir
Robert Peel returned to power in 1841 he had to
satisfy so many expectants of a party long
excluded from power that at first he could find no
office for the son of Christ Church and the con-
nexion of the Duke. In 1843, however, an op-
portunity served. Mr. Gladstone rose to the
Presidency of the Board of Trade, and Lord Dale
housie took his place as Vice-President. Then,
again, when the chief resigned the presidency in
1845, Lord Dalhousie reigned in his stead, and
occupied the same office, not only during the
remainder of Sir Robert Peel's term of Govern=
ment, but also under Lord John Russell,
who begged him to retain his post. This
was a compliment paid to the untiring energy
and remarkable administrative ability which Lord
Dalhousie had displayed in the conduct of his de-
partment, at a time when the sudden development
of the railway system and the transition to a new
commercial era had created an immense amount of
work that sorely taxed the resources of his office.
His power of work was unlimited; he was among
the first to arrive at his office and the last to go
away, often egending his labours to two and three
o'clock of the fellowing morning. In those years
he thoroughly studied the railway system and all
that it involves in the way of intercommunication ;
he made himself acquainted with every detail of
outlay, of management, and of returns; he framed
rules for the preparation of the legion of bills that
were presented to Parliament in the height of the
mania, and thus giving his mind to the great public
works, as well as to the vast trade of this country,
he was educating himself for the government of an
empire less advanced in civilisation, and especially
needing the creation of similar public works for the
development of its resources. He was, in fact, after
a short but active apprenticeship at the Board of
Trade, offered the splendid position of Governor-
General of India, as successor to Lard Hardinge.
He accepted the offer, and arrived at Calcutta on
the 12th January, 1848.
It is not yet possible to write the history of Lord
Dalhousie's administration in India. Splendid to
all appearance, it must be read by the light of that
bloody commentary of the rebellion which suc-
ceeded it. That his views were of the largest, that
his ambition was of the noblest, that his faculty of
direction and government was of the highest
order, we do not for a moment doubt.
On the 29th of February, 1856, Lord Canning
commenced his reign over India, and on the 6th of
March Lord Dalhousie left Calcutta. The day
before his departure he received an eddress front
the inhabitants, to which he made a very touching
reply. After recapitulating some of his services,
and warning his hearers that we have learnt by
hard experience how a very small difference with a
native Power may rapidly darken and swell into a
storm of war •, reminding them, also, of the insur-
rection which they had seen rise in the midst of
them like an exhalation from the earth, and " how
cruel violence, worse than all the excesses of war,
may be suddenly committed by men who to the very
day on which they broke out in their frenzy of
blood have been regarded as a simple, harmless,
that
a
and timid race, not by the Government alone, but
even by those who knew them best, were dwelling
among them, and were their victims"
—sentences, these, which were curiously illus-
tratedearliest
after but one short
confidence in the continuance of peace, and
then referred to himself personally in the
hin
fol-
lowing t language :—" You have made
ng has long been to accomplish the
expressed his
ait
kindly allusion
to
the future
—h e
may
await
me. I do not seek to fathom that future. My
only ambioti touching
task which lay beforeme here, and to bring it to
a close with honour and success. It has been per-
mitted to me to do so. I have played out my part ;
and, while I feel that in my case the principal act
in the drama of my life is ended, I shall be well
content if the curtain should drop now upon my pub-
lic course. Nearly 13 years have passed away since
I first entered the service of the Crown. Through
all these years, with but one short interval, public
employment of the heaviest responsibility and
labour has been
imposed upon me. lam wearied
and worn, and have no other thought or wish than
to seek the retirement of which I stand in need, and
which is all I am now fit for." On the next day he
embarked, attended to the landing-place by a large
concourse of friends, who were full of sympathy
and sorrow. They tried to cheer as the boat pushed
off, but the cheer was a failure. They were unfit
to do anything but bow a farewell. From that
moment, to use his own image, the curtain droppedh
upon him. He had but too truly calculated t
si:
strength. The farewell which he had found i
.
hard to utter was an eternal one.

,T,Gh
General
cop©e
rarlr ej3snoenddeekn thaosf tinhorimcedb ahtsi s a
ttroTopusrltnhastatyhse;
must be prepared for war in the spring, and that it is at
Mantua he means to crush Garibaldi and his adherents.
A lady wrote to Sir Cresswell Cresswell the other
day asking to be favoured with a "a prospectus of the
Divorce Court, with the various rates of charges for the
respective descriptions of divorce l'! •
THE PERFECTION OF MECHANISM.—" In short, all the
improvements for our convenience and comfort, dating
from arstate of barbarity to one of high civilisation, are
but the cumulative results of inventive ingenuity; and in
no instance is this more clearly seen than in the history of
those beautiful inventions which have from ;time to time
been brought to'bear upon the science of Horology. Trace
its history from the time of the Romans with their dep•
sydra or water-clock, and Alfred with his candles, from
hour-glasses and sun-dials, down to that miracle of inge-
nuity ' The Watch,' and see how improvement has suc-
ceeded improvement, until at last those now manufactured
by Benson, of Ludgate hill, London, have been charac-
teristically described as the perfection of mechanism.'
—Standard. Benson's Illustrated Pamphlet, post free
for two stamps, is descriptive of every construction of
watch now wade. Watches safe by post to all parts of the
globe,

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