The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-23 00:00:00

TI/B LATA LfiRD DoXPeIIeMLINP,

f‘{-\:‘
Severkl yalrs ago, Led Dunfermline received,
in the form of a paralytic shock, one of those inti-
nr.tions that here we have no abiding place, which
less than most men he neither needed or feared.
Ho wrapped his robe round him, and placidly
waited the end—
Calmly he looked on either life—and here
Saw irnhing to regret, not there to tear."
Bat, though ready, he did not feel entitled nor in-
clined to be idle, but continued to the last as from
the first in the performance of whatever he thought
given him to do. It was his kind fate to have pre-
served to him till the close his acute perception, his
full and accurate memory, and especially his keen
interest in all that concerned the country he loved
and the principles for which he had striven.

For professional advice in these Tate-r Years of
failing health, Lord Dunfermline relied on the skill,
vigilance, and congenial ca.° of Dr. J. Brown, the
well-placed confidence and esteem of the patient
tiading a warm response in the affectionate Teue-
ration and solicitude of the physician.
Lord Dunfermline was the third son of the gat.
laut and beloved Sir Ralph Abercromby, and was
born iu 1776. Educated for the English bar, and
for some time in practice, he early showed a ten.
deucy to political life. This tendency, so far new*
infer motives from results, had its origin not in lore
of show or thirst for notoriety, but in a desire
to aid certain public princip:es, a conviction its
favour of which had been early and deeply engraved
on his mind. Like several other Scotchmen who
have b 1-roe a great part on the Liberal side in the
politics of the la-t 60 years, he was first made to
feel and to think politically by the degraded spec-
tacle which Scotland presented at the end of last
century, and especially by the cruel and unconsti-
tutional polit,cal prosecutions, which raised a flame
iu his and ocher breasts that did not burn uselessly
and was not extinguished but with life. He entered
Parliament in 1812 for the borough of Caine ; in
1827 he was appointed Judge-Advocate-General,
and made a Privy Councillor. Among his services
there was his famous exposure of the character of
the Scotch electoral system as exemplified in the
ea e of Edinburgh, when moving in 1824 and 1826
that the franchise should be given to the inhabi-
tants instead of to " the 33." His admirable de-
inonstrations of the necessity fur rtform in that
particuliar instance did much to accelerate the
approaching triumph of the general cause. In 1830
he was appoinied Chief Baron of the Scottish Ex-
chequer, which he held till the abolition of the
office ; in 1834 he was made Mester of the Mint.
Besides thee public posts he for some years acted
as ainlitor of the Devonshire estates, and was also
for some time a Commissioner in Banltruptcy. One
very characteristic incident of his Parliamentary
career was his bringing before the house in 1824 a
breach of privilege on the part of Lord Chancellor
Eldon, who had referred in extraordinary terms
om the bench to a speech of Mr. Abercromby's.
His motion on the subject, brought forward in a
very spirited manner, would most probably have
been carried, had not Mr. Canning exerted his
utmost influence to avert such a result. The dis-
cussion,
Mackintosh
iollihowe took
ver,i in
which
t, Brougham,
as efficiently
answered am 'Searinettltj
n
answered the ends iu view—the vindication not
only of Mr. A bercrowby, but of the privileges of
the House of Commons ititlf. _ _

When Parliamentary Reform was achieved, and
E iinburgh, instead of one member elected by a
close corporation, was to elect two for herself,
almost all eyes turned upon James A.bercromby and
Francis Jeffrey as the men at once most fitting and
thse. ving. When, after the Tory coup d'etat aid
dissolution in 1835, the Liberals thought they had
good reason for substituting a Liberal in the chair
of the House of C minions, their choice fell upon
Mr. Abercromby ; and he held that high position
till 1839, when, according to custom, he retired
w.th a Peerage. Since then, he has lived in the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh, quietly but not idly
—not seeking publicity, ncr yet shunning it when
duty seemed to call and strength permitted. It
was a renta kable and an honourable career—a his-
tory which testifies alike to the merits and value
of the man, to the soundness of the principles he
espoused, and to the wisdom of being just and
fearing not.
Lord Dunfermline was one of the most eminent
of that school of public men whose characters
derived at once elevation and hardihood from
having been nursed amidst the cold, and storm, and
danger which compassel round political life in this
country half-a-century ago. He had felt the in-
fluence ot Fox and his disciples—the resolute pur-
pose, the broad sympathies, the deep love and
belief of great maxims and principles. Ho had
been taught to labour steadilyand wait patiently—.
to esteem honesty and courage, and to abhor
servility. In those stormy times the chaff was
effectually separated from the wheat—
" Dieinction, with a broad and powerful fan
Puffing at all, winnowed the light away."
And while it is painful to remember how few were
it ft, there is pride in thinking who and what those
few were, and how their labours were in the end
rewarded and justified. Among the foremost was
he whose departure we have to-day to deplore.
Few ltboured harder in seed-time, or lived to see
more of the harvest. Politically, ho saw all old
things pass away, his principles and his friends
ascend and reign after an exile of forty years, and
the laggards and deserters experiencing the truth
of Charles Fox's fine description of " that very
foolish class of men whom the world calls wise in
their generation."

One principle was especially dear to Lord Dun-
fermline, as to most men of his school and time.
The dectriLe of religious freedom, in all its
depth and to all its consequences, he thoroughly
appreciated, and watched over it with a jealous,
and often, as well he might, with an anxious care.
If in anything " those times were better than
these," it was in the attachment to religious tole-
ration prevailing among the chief public men of
both parties—for in that respect even Pitt and Fox
were at one. In speaking of religious equality,
we do not mean that vapid and sickly sentiment of
which we possess such abundance in our days—
which asserts very loudly liberty to such opinions
as are not very different, but that great principle
under which there is shelter and justice even for
the most odious beliefs and disbelief's, and the na-

ture of which is such that it can never be compro-
mised or made a questi n of degree without being
made also a question of mere expedience, power,
or
opportunity. Whether in things small or great,
national or local, this principle was a thing which
Lard Dunfermline held steadfastly and defended
zealously. He maintained it in Parliament against
political friends as readily as against opponents ;
and he maintained it no less zealously when he saw
it assailed by small enemies and deserted by local
friends. We doubt whether in any act of his life
he felt a greater zeal or a prouder consciousness of
right than when he set himself, with all his soul
an strength, to meet with practical protest ,and
D'inedy the paltry injustice sought to be in-
flicted on the Boman Catholics in the mat-
ter of the Edinburgh Ragged Schools ; and
whether, even when presiding over the Commons
of Britain, he was more elevated in the estimation
of his own conscience and feelings than when, in •
rickety room in a noisome Edinburgh close, he sat
as chairman over troops of ragged children and a
handful of those faithful to the old cause and un-
sed uced by the new cants.
Along with sincerity and courage, a chief oha-
racteristlc of Lord Dunfermline was sagacity--
which is " one of Wisdom's names." He was •
careful thinker. Resolute as he was in defending
and zealous in promoting his opinions, be was no
less cautious and unconscientions in forming them.
.-r
of h
day Ito~e
e lyinis
been more consulted and trusted regarding
business both of the public and of individuals. The
but in inqu parliivtyate he exercised
affairs . andnfeot merely
men
the
extent and efficacy of his counsels on public evecits
and. men durin and later. years, were far greahr
than appeared,lessmnililttirotnuadlescoonfedeirftnicuhlatviees
owedand
controversies of
their solution to his clear discernment and calm-
ing influence.
In expressing his views either by speech or pee,
Lord Dunfermline shunned ornament, and did
not aim at point, but made his words a re-
flex of the downrightness and condensation of
ther
m
meaning
so moods and tevets ee
eenase li Pgolfi
wcwi
Ihti
hanisd,tlwinitiregnlitsin.
cetFrmhtreaeoiamnon
expression, of
ceitain themtehse,
at
he said was apt to be partly lost, at least for
the time. Dropping his thoughts and arguments
quietly,
raendoiten,
sometimesso left
to s
they pueankob'isner°vlede,urtehocuorgnhersin,
the end they might, as many of them did, take
rootA and
greatm
springanl, andll4 perhaps even more a good
man, his departure makes a void that will be felt.
Though the fulness of his time had come, and
though the public eye had for some years rested but
seldom upon him, many conversant with public
affairs in Scotland will look round not hopefully to
find his like, and will feel prompted towards asking
help, because the righteous fail.
Lord Dunfermline has left a widow, to whom he
had been for nearly sixty years united by no com-
mon b nd. He is succeeded by his only son, the
Hon. Sir Ralph Abercromby, at present British
Minister at the Hague, who was with his father in
his last moments, and who is imbued with the
principles and worthy the name of him whose tomb
may boast that his departure is not merely a family
but a national grief,—Scotsman.