NOTABLE MEN OF 1876.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 139, 9 March 1877, Page 3

NOTABLE MEN OF 1876.

The obituary of the year that has Just ended contains many names that had long been conspicuous in politics and society, in literature and art. Amono- the " losses" which we had to record in Scotland come first that of Sir George Harvey, the President of the Royal Scottish Academy ; Thomas Aird, the poet and journalist, whose <% Devil's Dream" will be best remembered by Scottish readers ; Alexander Russell, editor of the Scotsman, a writer •of remarkable force and humour, and a a sagacious and thoroughgoing politician ; George Hope (once of Fentonbarns), the most distinguished of agri-

culturists; Lord Ardmillan and Lord Neaves, whose vacant places on the Scottish Bench it will not be easy for any of the younger generation worthily to fill. In Glasgow we have had to regret the deaths more especially of three men, who, in very different posi- , tions, had won the high esteem of the community-— Dr Badie, whose work as a preacher and theologian was only surpassed by his attainments as a scholar ; Robert Napier, who more than any other represented in his life and undertakings the immense growth ot shipbuilding and marine engineering which is one of the most remarkable features of the century; and Sheriff Dickson, whose sudden and unexpected death revealed the universal admiration and esteem which his too short occupancy of Sheriff-Principalsbip had q-ained for him on all hands. Passing from these well-known names in Scotland, we find not a few noteworthy gaps that have been made in the ranks of politics and society. The year had scarcely begun when the death was au nounced of Sir Anthony Rothschild, who best deserves remembrance, not for his connection with politics like his brother, Baron Lionel, nor with the turf, like his brother Baron Meyer, but for his interest in the many charities which he

generously aided by his personal care as well as by his wealth. A few days later died Lord Amberly, whose extreme views on religious questions did not prevent general regret at the untimely termination of a career which might have been a happier one, and called forth sympathy with his bereaved and venerable parents. In Sir J. T. Coleridge was lost one of the most honourable and revered English lawyers, whose literary tastes were worthy of the name he bore, the life-long friend and the biographer of Keble, an eminent judge and a good man. Among the younger race of judges the year made sad havoc. Sir H. Williams, Mr Justice Quain, Sir John Stuart, Mr Justice Archibald, and the Right Hon. James Whiteside — who was more famous in politics and at the bar than he was as Lord Chief- Justice iv Ireland — are among those who have been taken away. The lamented death of Lord Lyttelton deprived us of one whose scholarly tastes were only the ornament of a most thoughtful and vigorous mind, and who had done admirable service in more than one department of po.itical work. Mr Horsman was once a prominent and promising character in public life; but his finished career might serve as a lesson for able and ambitious politician--, who have a future before them, of the way in which a reputation can be tiling- away. Lord Sandhurst, by bis military services, bad well won the reward bestowed upon I him by the Crown ; but he was better I able to handle men in the field than out j of it. London society and the London ! poor had reason alike to regret the | loss of Lady Augusta Stanley ; and there have been few more conspicuous instances of a business man making another business for himself in the management and furtherance of benevolent institutions than was furnished in the life of the late Mr George Moore. Sir John W. Kaye had been for many years Political Secretary to the India Office ; he was better known to the public as the able and voluminous historian of India; and more particularly of the Sepoy War. Of those who were known in literature alone, if no one ot the first rank has been removed during the year, more than one of worth and eminence have ceased to write and live. Mr John Forster might have been described as one of the last links between the literary men of the early part of the century and those of to-day ; a man of letters himself, too, of a class which has not many representatives ; the friends of Dickens and Landor, he did not, in writing their memoirs, excel his earlier works of historical biography, and if he had lived longer his " Life of Swift" mightworthily have crowned his literary labours. During a life time of more than seventy years Harriet Martineau had built up for herself a reputation for able work done in a field which writers of her sex have rarely excelled in* The rising generation had to take it upon trust, for she had long ceased to renew the impressions once made by her vigorous handling of public questions. Headers of the most popular department of current literature lost a genial purveyor of wholesome amusement in Henry Kingsley ; as the author of 44 Guy Livingstone" and the first patentee of the muscular hero, George j Lawrence ought not to be parsed over j without notice. In the less frequented i pursuits of philology we have to record the loss of three of our most eminent Orientalists ; Mr E. Lane had reached ; an advanced age, though he was still hard at work on his Arctic lexicon ; but Mr George Smith and Professor Childers were cutoff t.io soon, while their work at the antiquities and languages of the East was just opening out before them. Casting our eyes to other countries the long roll of the dead numbers too many to be adequately noticed here. But some of these must be at least recorded. Francis Deak has left his name written on the hearts of his countrymen ; wiser or more fortunate than many of his friends of thirty years ago, he became the statesmen as well as the patriot of a fierce and aspiring nationality; and if Hungarians wept when he died, Austria also mourned the loss to the Empire. The fate of

Abdul Aziz, Sultan of Turkey, was one of the most sensational events in a year which has certainly had its share of them. France has lost one of its most famous writers in Madame Dudevant, " George Sand," whose genius had made her writings known and read all over the world. The most distinguished servant of the Papacy, and the last of the ecclesiastical statesmen who worked for the maintenance and rule of the Temporal Power, Cardinal Antonelli was a notable figure in Europe, and his disappearance from the stage at this time is only second to one other possible event as a landmark in the modern history of the Court of Rome. — Glasgow Mail.