DEATH OF MR. GEORGE COMBE.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 116, 30 November 1858, Page 4

DEATH OF MR. GEORGE COMBE.

The Standard of the 20th August supplies the following :-— Intelligence rescued Edinburgh yesterday of the death of Mr. George Combe, author of " The Constitution of Maru" In the deep regret with which this announcement will be received by all his friends we have double cause to join, losing as we do.at once a highly valued personal friend, and one of our most able and esteemed contri- I butors. Beyond the mere fact that he is no more—the announcement having reached Edinburgh only by telegraph—we have almost nothing to stare as to his death ; of his honored and well-spent life we must take a future and fitter opportunity to speak. Mr. Combe had, as was his annual custom, left Edinburgh early in the summer, and paid visits to several of his friends and connections in the South of England, the mild and equable climate of which was peculiarly beneficial to his delicate constitution. He had profited in health and spirits by the change, and a week or two ago went to the hydropathic establishment of Moor Park, Surre\% not as a patient, but for the sake of the agreeable residence, and of the pleasant society which he knew, from former experience, was generally to be found presided over by his friend Dr. Lane. The weather, which had been very warm and fine, about a fortnight ago became somewhat less so, affecting Mr. Combe unfavorably. It was only, even, within a week that he was considered decidedly ailing. On Thursday or Friday last his malady, an affection of the chest, left no hope of recovery, and he expired on Saturday morning. Mr. Combe had been more or less of an invalid for several years, and in his particularly delicate state of health the fatal issue of anything of the nature of acute disease could not be unexpected by an}' of his friends. Still less could it be so by himself; he knew well the frailty of his tenure, and though conscientiously careful in all that conduced to the preservation of such moderate share of health as he enjoyed, had long himself prepared to rest from the labors of a worthily laborious life.. He had attained the threescore and ten years which is set down as the common term ; that he did so was undoubtedly due, under Providence, to his strict obedience to those laws of physical and moral wellbeing, to the knowledge and practice of which his works have done so much to extend and enforce. His life was in all points a wonderful example of the sound- j ness and beneficial influence of the practical precepts of his philosophy; but it was only those who enjoyed and were honored by his friendship who really knew how thoroughly compatible that philosophy was with the exercise of every amiable and generous feeling. Those who knew him most intimately the best appreciated the depth and soundness of his moral nature ; his intellectual powers and position are before the world. Throughout a very wide circle—a circle not limited to this country only, but extending to continental Europe and America—the announcement of Mr. Combe's death will be received not merely as telling of the departure of a man in many respects one of the most remarkable of his generation, but as of the loss of a kind, considerate, zealous friend; and the news will also sadden very many fait and near— citizens of Edinburgh or dwellers in other and it may be distant lands—who have experienced the ready and unassuming hospitality which, in spite of always feeble health, he exercised with a catholicity of welcome daily, wefear, becoming more and more rare among us.— Scotsman. While the Emperor and Empress of the French were staying at Lorient, they went unaccompanied to Port Louis, and entered the citadel there in which is situated the little room were the Emperor was confined for a week in 1836, after the expedition to Cherbourg. The husband and wife spent some -short time in the room, attended solely by an old woman who had waited on him while a prisoner there. It would be a curiouß speculation to penetrate the thoughts of this extraordinary man at such a time and place. Prince Napoleon has undertaken a journey, incog., to Switzerland, under the title of Prince de Meudon. In the absence of political matters to discuss, the editors of the Madrid journals are entertaining the public with personal attacks upon each other. They are political men, and connected with the opposition or holding places under the present government. Election news and provincial intrigues fill the remainder of their columns. It is expected that the Cortes will be re-

rnarkable for the number of serviceable members who will be sent to it.

A desperate brigand, known by the name of the Muschina, who has long been the terror of the farmers of the province of Cordova, has at last met his deserts, having been slain by the Guards sent to hunt him up. He had retired to his birthplace, at Estepa, with a view to enjoy at leisure the fruits of his crimes, but he was betrayed by one of his spies and killed in his own house. Spain has long been infested with such villains, and the fall of this, it isjioped the last one, is a matter of public rejoicing in the quarter which suffered from his depredations. The .Esperance, of Athens, gives insertion to a letter from Oaudia, of the 27th ult., which states that the elections of the provincial representatives were proceeding satisfactorily. The chiefs of the insurgent Christians were making a moderate use of their victory, and had so far consolidated their power that the Mussulman authorities were glad to appeal to them against their co-religionists when the latter committed any excesses or disturbed the public peace. A French official despatch announces that the Montenegro frontier commission has completed its task. Turkey is willing to accord such an amount of territory as shall finable the mountain tribes to live without becoming brigands. It is to be hoped, therefore, "that Europe will not every month be troubled with stories which raise doubts whether the Mussulmans or Christians are the .greater savages.