The Earl of Elgin | |
|---|---|
 The 8th Earl of Elgin,c. 1860 | |
| 2ndViceroy and Governor-General of India | |
| In office 21 March 1862 – 20 November 1863 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | The Earl Canning |
| Succeeded by | Sir Robert Napier As Acting Governor-General |
| Governor General of the Province of Canada | |
| In office 1847–1854 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | The Earl Cathcart |
| Succeeded by | Sir Edmund Walker Head |
| Governor of Jamaica | |
| In office 1842–1846 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | Sir Charles Metcalfe |
| Succeeded by | George Berkeley As Acting Governor |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1811-07-20)20 July 1811 London, England |
| Died | 20 November 1863(1863-11-20) (aged 52) |
| Resting place | St. John in the Wilderness Church,Punjab,British India |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin |
| Parents |
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| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Signature |  |
James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine,KT, GCB, KCSI, PC, FSA Scot (20 July 1811 – 20 November 1863) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. He served asGovernor of Jamaica (1842–1846),Governor General of the Province of Canada (1847–1854), andViceroy of India (1862–1863).[1] He is also noted for his role during theSecond Opium War.[2]
In 1857, he was appointed High Commissioner and Plenipotentiary in China and the Far East to assist in the process of opening up China and Japan to Western trade. In 1860, during theSecond Opium War in China, he ordered the destruction of theOld Summer Palace inBeijing, an architectural wonder with immeasurable collections of artworks and historic antiques, inflicting incalculable loss ofcultural heritage.[2] Subsequently, he compelled theQing dynasty to sign theConvention of Peking, addingKowloon Peninsula to theBritish crown colony ofHong Kong.
Lord Elgin was born inLondon on 20 July 1811, the son of the7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine and his second wife, Elizabeth Oswald. He shared his birthday, 20 July, with his father. He had six brothers and sisters, and three half-sisters and one half-brother from his father's first marriage.[3] Lord Elgin's father was reportedly impoverished by his acquisition of theElgin Marbles; it had cost him a large amount of money to transport them, and he sold them to the British government at a significant loss.[3]
James Bruce was educated atEton College andChrist Church, Oxford, graduating with afirst in Classics in 1832. While at Oxford, he became friends withWilliam Ewart Gladstone.[3]
He was elected at the1841 general election as aMember of Parliament forSouthampton, but the election was declared void on petition. He did not stand in the resultingby-election.[4] In November 1841, on the death of his father, he succeeded as8th Earl of Elgin.
James Bruce became Governor ofJamaica in 1842,[5] During an administration of four years he succeeded in winning the respect of all. He improved the condition of the Afro-Caribbean workers, and conciliated the white planters by working through them.[6]
In 1847 he was appointedGovernor General of the Province of Canada by theSecretary of State for War and the Colonies,Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey, in the administration ofLord John Russell.[7] Under Lord Elgin, the first real attempts began at establishingresponsible government in Canada. Lord Elgin became the first Governor General to distance himself from the affairs of the legislature. Since then, the Governor-General has had a largely symbolic role with regards to the political affairs of the country. As Governor-General, he wrestled with the costs of receiving high levels of immigration in the Canadas, a major issue in the constant debate about immigration during the 19th century.[citation needed]
In 1849 the Baldwin-Lafontaine government passed theRebellion Losses Bill, compensating French Canadians for losses suffered during theRebellions of 1837.[citation needed] Lord Elgin grantedroyal assent to the bill despite heatedTory opposition and his own misgivings over how his action would be received in England. The decision sparked theBurning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal by an English-speaking mob. Elgin was assaulted. Instead of calling in the military, he withdrew his family to their country residence and allowed civil authorities to restore order. Due to his relations with theUnited States, his support of the self-government and defence of the colony, and his settlement of the free-trade and fishery questions, he was raised to thepeerage as Baron Elgin in 1849.[6]
Also in 1849, theStony Monday Riot took place inBytown on Monday 17 September. Tories and Reformists clashed over the planned visit of Lord Elgin, one man was killed and many sustained injuries. Two days later, the two political factions, armed with cannon, muskets and pistols faced off on theSappers Bridge. Although the conflict was defused in time by the military, a general support for the Crown's representative, triumphed in Bytown (renamed Ottawa by Queen Victoria in 1854). In 1854, Lord Elgin negotiated theReciprocity Treaty with the United States in an attempt to stimulate the Canadian economy. Later that year, he granted royal assent to the law that abolished theseigneurial system in Quebec, and then resigned as Governor-General.[citation needed]
Elgin supported theBagot Report, which was published in 1847 by Governor GeneralCharles Bagot, and which is seen as the foundational document for theCanadian Indian residential school system.[8] Elgin had been impressed by industrial schools he had seen while in the West Indies.[9]: 15
Soon after his return to England in 1854,Lord Palmerston offered him a seat in the cabinet asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which he declined.[6]
In 1857, Lord Elgin was appointed High Commissioner and Plenipotentiary in China and the Far East to assist in the process of opening up China and Japan to Western trade.[3] During theSecond Opium War, he led thebombardment of Canton (Guangzhou).
In 1858, while passing through Nanjing, Lord Elgin was presented a poetic message byHong Xiuquan, in which the self-styled Heavenly King referred to him as "our foreign younger brother of the Western Seas." Hong invited Lord Elgin to join his rebellion: "Let us together serve God and our Elder Brother, and destroy the hateful insects." Lord Elgin saw the invitation as a "strange document," and furthermore it would "be awkward for me to have any intercourse with the rebel chiefs," he did not land.[10]
Lord Elgin oversaw the end of the Second Opium War by signing theTreaty of Tientsin (Tianjin) on 26 June 1858.
In 1859 Chinese troops continued to attack, andLord Russell sent out Lord Elgin as ambassador extraordinary to demand an apology for the attack, the execution of the treaty, and an indemnity for the military and naval expenditure.[6] In June 1860, Lord Elgin arrived in China to assist with additional attacks, which were initially led by his brother. On 18 October 1860, not having received the Chinese surrender and wishing to spare the imperial capital ofPeking (Beijing), he ordered the complete destruction of theOld Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan) outside the city in retaliation for the torture and execution of almost twenty European and Indian prisoners, including two British envoys andThe Times journalistThomas Bowlby. The Old Summer Palace was a complex of palaces and gardens eight kilometres northwest of the walls of Beijing; it had been built during the 18th and early 19th centuries, and was where the emperors of the Qing dynasty resided and handled government affairs. An alternative account says that Lord Elgin had initially considered the destruction of theForbidden City. However, fearing that this act might interfere with the signing of theConvention of Peking, which was where it was being negotiated, he opted for the destruction of the Old Summer Palace instead.[11]
The Old Summer Palace was set ablaze by a force of Anglo-French troops. The troops hurriedly looted the imperial collections in the palace before it finished burning. Attacks on the nearbySummer Palace (Qingyi Yuan) were also made, but the extent of destruction was not as great as to the Old Summer Palace. On 24 October 1860, Lord Elgin signed the Convention of Peking, which stipulated that China was to cede part of Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong in perpetuity to Britain.[citation needed] According to historian Olive Checkland, Lord Elgin "was ambivalent about the British imperial policy of forcing trade on the peoples in China and Japan. He deplored what he called the 'commercial ruffianism' which effectively determined British policy responses." In a letter to his wife, in regard to the bombing of Canton, he wrote, "I never felt so ashamed of myself in my life."[3]
In between Lord Elgin's two trips to China, he had visited Japan. In August 1858, he signed theTreaty of Amity and Commerce, whose negotiation was much eased by the recentHarris Treaty between Japan and the United States. He would also present the Tokugawa administration theHMY Emperor, a modern and luxuriously appointed steam powered yacht as a present for the Emperor fromQueen Victoria to commemorate the signing of the treaty.[12]
Within a month of Elgin's return to England, Lord Palmerston selected him to beviceroy and governor-general of India. He became viceroy in 1862, the first viceroy directly appointed by the Crown, and as subject to theSecretary of State for India. Elgin tried to hold the Dutch inSumatra in check, and marched a force to the Peshawar border to enforce earlier treaties.[6]
He was the first to usePeterhoff, Shimla as the official residence of the Viceroy. In 1863, he was travelling from there toSialkot, an arduous journey at a high elevation which exhausted him.[6] He died in 1863 of a heart attack while crossing a swinging rope and wood bridge over the river Chadly, on the lap between Kullu and Lahul.[13] He was buried in the churchyard ofSt. John in the Wilderness inDharamshala.
Elgin married Elizabeth Mary Cumming-Bruce, the only child of MPCharles Lennox Cumming-Bruce, on 22 April 1841. The marriage was short lived, his wife dying shortly after the birth of their second daughter on 7 June 1843 in Jamaica. They had, along with another daughter:[14]
On 7 November 1846, Elgin marriedLady Mary Louisa Lambton, daughter of the1st Earl of Durham, a prominent author of theReport on the Affairs of British North America (1839) (as well as Governor General of the Canadas), and niece of the Colonial Secretary the3rd Earl Grey (who was uncle toAlbert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, laterGovernor General of Canada). They had four sons and a daughter:[14]
In Ontario, the towns ofKincardine,Port Elgin, andBruce Mines, along withBruce County andElgin County are named for the 8th Earl. The longBruce Peninsula intoLake Huron, and the communities ofElgin, New Brunswick, andElgin, Nova Scotia, are also named for him. There are numerous Elgin Roads and Elgin Streets in Canada and in India.
TheElgin Bridge in Singapore, and Elgin Street, Carlton,State of Victoria, andElgin Street, Hong Kong, are also named for Bruce, as is theLord Elgin Hotel inOttawa.[15]
Elgin's legacy in Canada was the subject of aNational Film Board of Canada short docudrama,Lord Elgin: Voice of the People (1959), directed by Julian Biggs.[16]
While China has opened up to French relations, the sale of Chinese art and artifacts in British auctions remains a point of tension between London and Beijing.[17] However, all zodiac animal heads from the Summer Palace that have been found have been returned to the BeijingPoly Museum.[18]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Elgin and Kincardine, Earls of s.v. James Bruce".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 268.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSouthampton 1841–1842 With:Charles Cecil Martyn | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Postmaster General 1859–1860 | Succeeded by |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Jamaica 1842–1846 | Succeeded by George Berkeley (acting) |
| Preceded by | Governor General of the Province of Canada 1847–1854 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Viceroy of India 1862–1863 | Succeeded by Sir Robert Napier (acting) |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Fife 1854–1863 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor ofKing's College 1847–1849 | Succeeded by Peter Boyle de Blaquière (asChancellor of the University of Toronto) |
| Preceded by | Rector of the University of Glasgow 1859–1862 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of Scotland | ||
| Preceded by | Earl of Elgin Earl of Kincardine 1841–1863 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Elgin 1849–1863 | Succeeded by |
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