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the Jumna Musjid (Great Mosque), a magnificent building, has only just been restored to the worshippers. Beyond the town, and over the place where the camp was pitched, lay the heights which were occupied by the British troops, and signalled by so many deeds of valour, during the eventful struggles of 1857.

"No durbar was held at Delhi, but at Umballa a large number of influential Sikh chiefs were received, at the head of whom was the young Maharaja of Puttialla, the son and heir of the Prince whom Lord Canning placed in the Council of the Governor-General.

"The Sikhs are a warlike race, and the knowledge of this fact gave a colour to the advice tendered to them. It was my wish to recognise with all due honour their martial qualities, while seeking to impart a more pacific direction to their energies. The capture of half the capitals of Europe would not have been, in the eyes of the Sikh, so great an event, or so signal a proof of British power, as the capture of Pekin. They are proud of the thought that some of their race took a part in it; and more inclined than ever-which is an important matter to follow the British standard into foreign lands, if they should be invited to do so."

On these sentiments was founded the address which he delivered on this occasion, and which is given here at length, as the last public expression of his good-will to the Indian races :

"Colonel Durand,-I beg that you will express to the native gentlemen who are assembled here my regret that I am unable to address them in their own language, and inform them that I am charged by Her Majesty the Queen to convey to them the assurance of Her Majesty's high appreciation of the loyalty and devotion to Her Majesty's person and Government which has been exhibited on various occasions by the Sikh rulers and people. Not many days ago it was my pleasing duty to determine that the medal granted to Her Majesty's troops who were engaged at Delhi in 1857, should be conferred on the followers of the Sikh chiefs who took part in the noble achievements of that period, and I can personally bear testimony to the good services of the officers and men of the Sikh Regiments who, in 1860, co-operated with the British troops in placing the British flag on the walls of Pekin, the capital of the vast empire of China.

"But, in order to be truly great, it is necessary that nations should excel in the arts of peace as well as in those of war.

"Look to the history of the British nation for an example. Most assuredly the British people are powerful in war; but their might and renown are in a great measure due to their proficiency in the works which make a time of peace fruitful and glorious.

"By their skill in agriculture, they have converted their country into a garden; by their genius as traders they have attracted to it a large share of the wealth of other lands.

"Let us take advantage of this season of tranquillity to confer similar benefits on the Punjab.

"The waters which fall on your mountain heights and unite at their

base to form mighty rivers, are a treasure which, duly distributed, will fertilize your plains and largely augment their productive powers. With electric telegraphs to facilitate communication, and railways and canals to render access to the sea-ports easy and expeditious, we shall be able to convey the surplus produce of this great country to others where it is required, and to receive from them their riches in return.

"I rejoice to learn that some of the chiefs in this part of India are taking an interest in these matters, which are of such vital importance to the welfare of this country and the prosperity of the people. It affords me, moreover, sincere gratification to find that, under the able guidance of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Sikh Sirdars in certain districts of the Punjab are giving proof of their appreciation of the value of education by making provision for the education of their sons and daughters.

"Be assured that in so doing you are adopting a judicious policy. The experience of all nations proves that where rulers are well informed and sagacious, the people are contented and willingly submissive to authority. Moreover, it is generally found that where mothers are enlightened, sons are valiant and wise.

"I earnestly exhort you, therefore, to persevere in the course on which you have entered, and I promise you while you continue in it the sympathy and support of the British Government."

He now reached Simla, the paradise of the Anglo-Indians. He was thence to explore the tea plantations amongst the mountains, and was looking eagerly forward to the great gathering of Indian chiefs and princes which was to close his progress at Lahore.

Although he had suffered often from the unhealthy and depressing climate of Calcutta during the summer and autumn of 1862, and thus, to the eyes that saw him again in 1863, he looked many years older than when he left England, yet it was not till he entered the hills that any symptom manifested itself of the fatal malady that was lurking under his apparently stout frame and strong constitution. The splendid scenery of those vast forests and snow-clad mountains inspired him with the liveliest pleasure; but the highly rarefied atmosphere, which to most residents in India is as life from the dead, seemed in him to have the exactly reverse effect.

It was on the 12th of October, that he ascended the Rotung Pass, and, on the 13th, crossed the famous Twig Bridge over the river Chandra. It is remarkable for the rude texture of birch branches of which it is composed, and which, at this late season, was so rent and shattered by the wear and tear of the past year, as to render the passage of it a matter of great exertion. Lord Elgin was completely prostrated by the effort, and it may be said that from the exhaustion consequent on this adventure he never rallied. But he returned to his camp, and

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continued his march on horseback, until, on the 22d, an alarming attack obliged him to be carried, by slow stages, to Dhurmsala. There he was joined, on the 4th of November, by his friend and medical adviser, Dr. Macrae, who had been summoned from Calcutta, on the first alarming indications of his illness. By this time, the disorder had declared itself in such a form as to cause the most serious apprehensions to others, as well as to himself the most distressing sufferings. There had been a momentary rally, during which the fact of his illness had been communicated to England. But this passed away; and on the 6th of November, Dr. Macrae came to the conclusion that the illness was mortal. This intelligence, which he communicated at once to Lord Elgin, was received with a calmness and fortitude which never deserted him through all the scenes which followed. It was impossible not to be struck by the courage and presence of mind with which, in the presence of a death unusually terrible, and accompanied by circumstances unusually trying, he showed, in equal degrees and with the most unvarying constancy, two of the grandest elements of human characterunselfish resignation of himself to the will of God, and thoughtful consideration, down to the smallest particulars, for the interests and feelings of others, both public and private.

When once he had satisfied himself, by minute inquiries from Dr. Macrae, of the true state of the case, after one deep, earnest, heartfelt regret that he should thus suddenly be parted from those nearest and dearest, to whom his life was of such inestimable importance, and that he should be removed just as he had prepared himself to benefit the people committed to his charge, he steadily set his face heavenward. He was startled, he was awed; he felt it "hard, hard, to believe that his life was condemned," but there was no looking backward. Of the officers of his staff he took an affectionate leave on that day. "It is well," he said to one of them, "that I should die in harness." And thenceforth he saw no one habitually, except Dr. Macrae, who combined with his medical skill the tenderness and devotion at once of a friend and of a pastor; his attached secretary, Mr. Thurlow, who had rendered him the most faithful services, not only through the period of his Indian Vice-royalty, but during his last mission to China; and Her who had shared his every thought, and whose courageous spirit now rose above the weakness of the fragile frame, equal to the greatness of the calamity, and worthy of him to whom, by night and day, she constantly ministered.

On the following day, the clergyman whom he had ordered to be summoned, and for whose arrival he waited with much anxiety, reached Dhurmsala, and administered the Holy Com

munion to himself and those with him. "We are now entering on a New Communion," he had said that morning," the Living and the Dead," and his spirit then appeared to master pain and weakness, and to sustain him in a holy calm, during the ceremony, and for a few hours afterwards. "It is a comfort," he whispered, " to have laid aside all the cares of this world, and put myself in the hands of God;" and he was able to listen at intervals to favourite passages from the New Testament. That evening closed in with an aggravation of suffering. It was the evening of the seventeenth anniversary of his wedding-day.

On the following morning, Lady Elgin, with his approval, rode up to the cemetery at Dhurmsala to select a spot for his grave, and he gently expressed pleasure when told of the quiet and beautiful aspect of the spot chosen, with the glorious view of the snowy range towering above, and the wide prospect of hill and plain below.

The days and nights of the fortnight which followed were a painful alternation of severe suffering and rare intervals of comparative tranquillity. They were soothed by the never-failing devotion of those that were always at hand to read to him or to receive his remarks. He often asked to hear chosen chapters from the Book of Isaiah (as the 40th and 55th), sometimes murmuring over to himself any striking verses that they contained, and at other times repeating by heart favourite Psalms, one of which recalled to him an early feat of his youth, when he had translated into Greek the 137th Psalm," By the waters of Babylon we sate down and wept." At times he delighted to hear his little girl, who had been the constant companion of his travels, repeat some of Keble's hymns, especially those on the festivals of St. John the Evangelist and of the Holy Innocents. Years ago he had prided himself on having been the first to introduce into Scotland The Christian Year, which he brought as a student from Oxford, where the first edition-first of its seventy-seven editions --had just appeared. How touching a reward to him-how touching a tribute to the enduring piety and genius of its venerable author, that after the lapse of so long a tract of time to both of quiet pastoral life and eager controversies for the one, of diplomacy and government, war and shipwreck, and travels from hemisphere to hemisphere, for the other that fountain of early devotion should still remain fresh and pure to soothe his dying hours.

Until his strength failed him, he was carried at times into the verandah, and showed by words and looks his constant admiration at the grand evidences of God's power and goodness in the magnificence of the scenery before him; and on one such occasion was delighted with the sublime description of the

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277 wonders of nature in the 38th and 39th chapters of the Book of Job.

At times he was able to enter into conversation and argument on serious subjects. When under the pressure of his sufferings, he was one night entreating to be released-"O that God would in mercy come and take me," Dr. Macrae reminded him of the dread of pain and death which seems to be expressed in the account of the Agony of Gethsemane, and he appeared to find much comfort in the thought, repeating once or twice that he had not seen it in this light before, and several times saying with fervour, "Not my will, but Thine be done." At other times, he could even be led, by way of steadying his wandering thoughts amidst the distraction of restlessness, to fix them on his school and college days, to tell anecdotes of his hard reading, or to describe the visit to Oxford of his venerable friend Dr. Chalmers. He dwelt in this way on a sermon of Dr. Chalmers at Glasgow, which he remembered even in detail, and from which he quoted some eloquent passages, bringing out the general scope of the sermon, to the effect, that rather than teach people to hate this bad world, we should teach them to love and look up to a better one.1

It will naturally be understood that long converse was really impossible. As occasions rose, a few words were breathed, an appropriate verse quoted, and a few minutes were all that could be given at any one time to discourse upon it. It is characteristic of his strong, cheerful faith, even during those last trying moments, that he on one occasion asked to have the more supplicatory, penitential Psalms exchanged for those of praise and thanksgiving, in which he joined, knowing them already by heart, and in the same strain of calm yet triumphant hope, he whispered to himself on the night when his alarming state was first made known to him, "Hallelujah; the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. We shall all meet again."

That thought was raised to its highest pitch by the sight of a portrait of a beloved son, who had died in England during his absence. It arrived in the close of those sad days. He recognised it at once with a burst of tenderness and delight which at once lifted his mind above the suffering of his mortal illness. Again and again he desired to see it, and to speak of it, with the fixed conviction that he and his "angel boy," as he called him, would soon meet in a better world. Oh, when shall I be with you?" "You know where he is; we shall all go to him; he is happy."

Every care had been taken for the public interests, and for the interests of those still nearer and dearer to him. He had laid the most solemn charge on his faithful secretary to conduct 1"The Expulsive Power of a New Affection."-Commercial Discourses, No. ix.