James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin

The Earl of Elgin and Kincardine

For other persons bearing this name, see James Bruce (disambiguation).

James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine (20 July 1811 – 20 November 1863) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat, best known as Governor General of the Province of Canada and Viceroy of India. He was the son of the 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine. His second wife was Lady Mary Lambton, daughter of the 1st Earl of Durham, the author of the groundbreaking Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839), and niece of the Colonial Secretary the 3rd Earl Grey.

Career

Jamaica

He became Governor of Jamaica in 1842, and in 1847 was appointed Governor General of Canada.

Canada

Under Lord Elgin, the first real attempts began at establishing responsible government in Canada. In 1848, the moderate reformers of both Canada East and Canada West, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin, won their elections, and Lord Elgin asked them to form a government together. Lord Elgin became the first Governor General to remove himself from the affairs of the legislature, leading to the essentially symbolic role that the Governor-General now has.

In 1849 the Baldwin-Lafontaine government passed the Rebellion Losses Bill, compensating French Canadians for losses suffered during the Rebellions of 1837. Lord Elgin signed the bill despite heated Tory opposition and his own personal misgivings, sparking riots in Quebec, during which Elgin himself was assaulted by an English-speaking mob and the Parliament buildings were burned down. The French-speaking minority in the Canadian legislature also unsuccessfully tried to have him removed from his post.

In 1849, the Stony Monday Riot took place in Bytown on Monday September 17. Tories and Reformists clashed over the planned visit of Lord Elgin, one man was killed and many sustain injuries. Two days later, the two political factions, armed with cannons, muskets and pistols faced off on the Sappers Bridge. Although the conflict was diffused 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 the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States in an attempt to stimulate the Canadian economy. Later that year, he signed the law that abolished the seigneurial system in Quebec, and then resigned as Governor-General.

China and Japan

In 1857, he became High Commissioner to China, and he visited China and Japan in 1858-59, where he oversaw the end of the Second Opium War and ordered the destruction of the Yuanming Yuan, the Old Summer Palace outside Beijing.

Elgin also signed a Treaty of Amity and Commerce with Japan in August 1858, soon after the Harris Treaty.

India

He became Viceroy of India in 1861, and died in Dharamasala in 1863.

See also

• List of Lieutenant Governors of Ontario
• List of Lieutenant Governors of Quebec
• Anglo-Japanese relations
• Anglo-Chinese relations

References

• Wrong, George M. The Earl of Elgin. Toronto : G.N. Morang, 1906. Also digitized by Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions 2003.
• Morison, John Lyle. The eighth Earl of Elgin : a chapter in nineteenth-century imperial history. London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1928.
• Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's mission to China and Japan, 1857-8-9 (2 volumes), Laurence Oliphant, 1859 (reprinted by Oxford University Press, 1970) {No ISBN}
• Checkland, S.G. The Elgins 1766-1917 : a tale of aristocrats, proconsuls and their wives. Aberdeen : Aberdeen University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-08-036395-4.
• John Newsinger, 'Elgin in China,' The New Left Review, 15 May/June, 2002. pp. 119-40.
• James L. Hevia, English Lessons: The Pedagogy of Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century China (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003)

External links

• Works by James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin at Project Gutenberg
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Erik Ringmar, Fury of the Europeans: Liberal Barbarism and the Destruction of the Emperor's Summer Palace

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