[3] His elder brother.

[4] ’We are disposed, in fact, to regard the question, of
    University extension, in this sense, as depending entirely on the
    possibility of reducing the time required for a University degree, and
    we should like to see more attention paid to this point....  The
    opinion is strongly and widely entertained, that students now stay too
    long at the Public Schools and Universities, and that voting men
    ought not to be engaged in the mere preparatory studies of their life
    up to the age of twenty-three or twenty-four.’—­Times, May 22, 1869.

[5] There remains a memorandum in his handwriting of a systematic
    course of study to be pursued for his degree, in which two points are
    remarkable—­1st, the broad and liberal spirit in which it is
    conceived; 2ndly, that the whole is based on the Bible.  Ancient
    History, together with Aristotle’s Politics and the ancient orators,
    are to be read ‘in connection with the Bible History,’ with the view
    of seeing ’how all hang upon each other, and develops the leading
    schemes of Providence.’  The various branches of mental and moral
    science he proposes, in like manner, ’to hinge upon the New Testament,
    as constituting, in another line, the history of moral and
    intellectual development.’

CHAPTER II.

JAMAICA.

Shipwreck—­death of lady Elgin—­position of A governor in A west Indian
colony such as Jamaica—­state of public opinion in the island—­questions
of finance, education, agriculture, the labouring classes, religion, the
church—­harmonising influences of British connexion—­resignation
—­appointment to Canada.

[Sidenote:  Shipwreck.] [Sidenote:  Death of Lady Elgin.]

Lord Elgin sailed for Jamaica in the middle of April 1842.  The West Indian steamers at that time held their rendezvous for the collection and distribution of the mails not, as now, at St. Thomas, but at a little island called Turk’s Island, a mere sandbank, hedged with coral reefs.  The vessel in which Lord Elgin was a passenger made this island during the night; but the captain, over anxious to keep his time, held on towards the shore.  They struck on a spike of coral, which pierced the ship’s side and held her impaled; fortunately so, for she was thus prevented from backing out to sea and foundering with all hands, as other vessels did.  Though the ship itself became a total wreck, no lives were lost, and nearly everything of value was saved; but from the shock of that night Lady Elgin, though apparently little alarmed at the time, never recovered.  Two months afterwards, in giving birth to a daughter, now Lady Elma Thurlow, she was seized with violent convulsions, which were nearly fatal; and though, to the surprise of the medical men, she rallied from this attack, her health was seriously impaired, and she died in the summer of the following year.