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

TILE LATE LORD D'UNFTBllll.4typ.

Several years ago, Lord Dunfermline received,
in the form of a paralytic shock, one of those inti-
mations that here we have no abiding place, which"'
lees than mcst men he- neither needed or feared.
He wrapped his robe round him, and ptaCidly—
waited the end— • - •

" Calmly he looked on either life—and here

. -
Saw nothing to regret, not there to fear."
But, though ready, he did not feel entitled nor in
clined to be idle, but continued to the last as from
the first in the performanOe Of whatever he thought
given' him to dO. It was his kind, fate to have pie-
served to him till the close his acute perception, his
full and accurate memory, and especially his keen
interest in all that concerned the colintry. he loved
and the principles for 'which he had striven.
For professional advice in these later years of
failing health, Lord Dunfermline relied on the skill
vigilance, and congenial ewe of Dr. J.. Brown, the
-
well-placed confidence and esteem of the patient
finding a warm response in the affectionate vene-
ration and solicitude of the physician.
Lord Dunfermline was the third son of the gal-
laOt and beloved Sir Ralph Abercromby, and was'
born in 1776. Educated for tlre English bar, and
for some time in practice, he early showed a ten-
dency to political life. This tendency, so far as we
infer motives from results, had its origin not in love
of show or thirst for notoriety, but in a desire-
to aid certain public ptincip:es, a conviction in-
favour of which had been early and deeply angt aved
on his mind. Like several other Scotchmen who
have bOrre a great part on the Liberal side in the.
politics of the last 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 unconstis
tutional politic-Jr prosecutions, which raised a flame,
in his and other 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 service
there was his famous exposute of the character of
the Sco:ch electoral system as exemplified in the.
ca.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-
monstrations of the necessity for rtform in that
partieuliar instance did much to accelerate the
approaching triumph of the general cause. In 1830
he was appoinied Chief Baron of the S;:ottish Ex.;
chequer, which he held till the abolition of the
office ; in 1834 he was made Master of the Mint.
Besides these public posts he for some years acted
as auditor of the D,2vonshire estate., and was also
for some time a Commissioner in Baniruptcy. 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
from the bench to a speech of Mr. Abercromby'..
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. Tire dis-
cussion, however, in which Brougham, Searle tt,
and Mackintosh took part, almost as efficiently
answered the ends in view—the vindic.ticn not
only of Mr. Abercromby, but of the privileges of
the House of Commons itself.
When Parliamentary Reform was achieved, and.
E!inburgh, instead of one member vl-cted by a
close c n-poration, was to elect two for herself,
almost all t:yes turned upon James Abercromby and
Francis Jeffrey as the men at, onto most httiu,g and ,
deseiving. When, after the Tory coup d'etat and
dissolution in 1835, the Liberals thought they had
go :d reason for substituting a Liberal in the chair.
of the House ( f Commons, their choice fell upon
Mr. Abercromby ; and he held that high position
till 1839, when, according to custom, he retired
with a Peerage. Since then, he has lived in the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh, quietly but not idly
—not seeking publicity, nor yet shunning it when.
duty seemed to call and strength permitted. It
w:is a ram a kable and an honourable career—a his-
tory which testifies alike to the nueri!s and value
of the man, to the soundOeis cf the principles he
espJused, 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, audstorm, and
danger which compassed round political life in this
country hslf-a-century age. He hal felt tile in-
fluence of Fox and his disciples—the resolute pur-
pose, ,the broad sympathies, the deep love and
belief of great maxims and principles. lie had
been taught to labour i-teaoilyand wait patiently—
to e steem honesty and courage, and to abhor
setvili•y. lii those stormy times the chaff was
effectu ti 1y separated from the wheat—

" Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan
Pulling at all, winnowed the light away."
And while i: is painful to remember how few were
lift, there is pride in thinking who and wha- 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 laboured harder in se2d-time, or lived to see
more of the harvest. Politically, he 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 desctiption 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 sCho2l and time.
The dectrine of religious freedom, in ,all its
depth and to all its consequences, he thoroughly
arpreniated, and watched over it with a j,alOtis,
and often, as up ell he m ghf., 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
bath par.i-s—fer in tl.at 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 disbefiefp, 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 'alio a qu-stion of mere expedience, power, or
opportunity. Whether in things small or great,
national or local, this principle was a thing which
L .rd Dunfermline held steadfastly and defended
zealously. Ile inairitainad 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 ivhether in any act of his life
he felt a greater zeal or a prouder consciowness cif
right
.than when he set himself, with all his soul
ati.l strength, to meet with practical protest and
r medy the paltry injustice sought to be in-
flicted on the Roman Catholics in the mat-
ter of the Edinburgh Ragged Schools ; and
whether, even when presiding over the Commons
of Bft.ain, he was more elevated in the estimation
of his own conscience and feelings than when, in a
rickety room in a noisome Edinburgh close, he sat
as chitirman over troops of ragged children and a
handful of those faithful to tho old cause aird un-
se lucid by the new cant,.
Along with sincerity and courage, a chief cha-
racteristic of Lord Dunfermline was sagacity—
which is " one of Wisdom's names." He was a
careful thinker. Resolute as he was in defending
and zealous in promoting his opinions, he was no
less cautious and unconscientious in fermi n
ogl
thi
ce
aml
This quality he exercised not nii-rely in.
P
but
nin
nip
(r,irveu tceoanirsitelilitse ,•
dand
dfewtrtinisetendo if•ehglasrddainyghathvee
business both of the public and of individuals. The
an
extent and efficacy of his counsels on
.public events
and men during his later years, were far greater
than appeared; and multitudes of difficulties and
controversies of less national concern have owed
their solution to his clear discernment and calm-
ino•
In expressing his views either by speech or pen,
Lord Dunfermline shunned ornament, and did
not aim at point, but made his words a re-
flex of the downrightness and condensation.. of
hi* thoughts. From the extreme simplicity,
and, when in certain moods and dealing with
certain themes, the occasional reticence of his
insgptatraotlnuldyg.hltovssata,nudeatarelr
gfe.mtwehulaottrs
th hexpression,
:taiimd
e .11.
e.
apt
rahipt
pmi
ton ega
bnhei
quietly, and often, to to speak, of scur
e corners
they were sometimes left ,
tuo served, though- in
the end they might, as many of them did, take
root and spring up.
A • gr.at man, and perhaps •:
even more a good
man, his departure makes
Though the fulness hisa void that will be felt.
ftime had come, and
though the public
eyehad for some years rested but
seldom upon him, many conversant wi'h public
affairs in Suutland'will look round
not hopefully to
find ,his like, and will feel proMpted towards asking
help, because the righteous fail. _ .
„ ,

Er:rd llnnferailine has left a widow, to whom he
had Leen for nearly sixty years united by no otm-
mon bend. Ho is succeeded by his only sop, 'the
Hon. Sir Ralph Abercroinby, at present British
Minister at the Hague, who was with his father.in
his last moments, and who is imbued with tho
prinoles and worthy the name of him whose,tornb
may boast that his departure is not merely a family
but a. national grief. —ii'cofstnan,