Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

Letters and Journals of James,
Eighth Earl of Elgin

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters and Journals of James, Eighth
Earl
of Elgin, by James, Eighth Earl of Elgin This eBook is for the use of
anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project
Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.net
Title: Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin
Author: James, Eighth Earl of Elgin
Release Date: January 6, 2004 [EBook #10610]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOURNALS
OF ELGIN ***

Produced by Robert Connal and PG Distributed Proofreaders from
images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for
Historical Microreproductions

LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF JAMES, EIGHTH EARL OF
ELGIN
GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF
CANADA, ENVOY TO CHINA, VICEROY OF INDIA

EDITED BY THEODORE WALROND, C.B.

WITH A PREFACE BY ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D.
DEAN OF WESTMINSTER

PREFACE.
Having been consulted by the family and friends of the late Lord Elgin
as to the best mode of giving to the world some record of his life, and
having thus contracted a certain responsibility in the work now laid
before the public, I have considered it my duty to prefix a few words by
way of Preface to the following pages.
On Lord Elgin's death it was thought that a career intimately connected
with so many critical points in the history of the British Empire, and
containing in itself so much of intrinsic interest, ought not to be left
without an enduring memorial. The need of this was the more felt
because Lord Elgin was prevented, by the peculiar circumstances of his
public course, from enjoying the familiar recognition to which he
would else have been entitled amongst his contemporaries in England.
'For' (if I may use the words which I have employed on a former
occasion) 'it is one of the sad consequences of a statesman's life spent
like his in the constant service of his country on arduous foreign
missions, that in his own land, in his own circle, almost in his own
home, his place is occupied by others, his very face is forgotten; he can
maintain no permanent ties with those who rule the opinion, or obtain
the mastery, of the day; he has identified himself with no existing party;
he has made himself felt in none of those domestic and personal
struggles which, attract the attention and fix the interest of the many
who contribute in large measure to form the public opinion of the time.
For twenty years the few intervals of Lord Elgin's residence in these
islands were to be counted not by years, but by months; and the
majority of those who might be reckoned amongst his friends and
acquaintances, remembered him chiefly as the eager and accomplished
Oxford student at Christ Church or at Merton.'
The materials for supplying this blank were, in some respects, abundant.
Besides the official despatches and other communications which had
passed between himself and the Home Government during his

successive absences in Jamaica, Canada, China, and India, he had in the
two latter positions kept up a constant correspondence, almost of the
nature of a journal, with Lady Elgin, which combines with his
reflections on public events the expression of his more personal
feelings, and thus reveals not only his own genial and affectionate
nature, but also indicates something of that singularly poetic and
philosophic turn of mind, that union of grace and power, which, had his
course lain in the more tranquil walks of life, would have achieved no
mean place amongst English thinkers and writers.
These materials his family, at my suggestion, committed to my friend
Mr. Theodore Walrond, whose sound judgment, comprehensive views,
and official experience are known to many besides myself, and who
seemed not less fitted to act as interpreter to the public at large of such
a life and character, because, not having been personally acquainted
with Lord Elgin, or connected with any of the public transactions
recorded in the following pages, he was able to speak with the sobriety
of calm appreciation, rather than the warmth of personal attachment. In
this spirit he kindly undertook, in the intervals of constant public
occupations, to select from the vast mass of materials placed at his
disposal such extracts as most vividly brought out the main features of
Lord Elgin's career, adding such illustrations as could be gleaned from
private or published documents or from the remembrance of friends. If
the work has unavoidably been delayed beyond the expected term, yet
it is hoped that the interest in those great colonial dependencies for
which Lord Elgin laboured,