Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin | Page 3

Hong-Kong--Mission completed --Homeward
Voyage

CHAPTER XII.
SECOND MISSION TO CHINA--OUTWARD.
Lord Elgin in England--Origin of Second Mission to China--Gloomy
Prospects--Egypt--The Pyramids--The Sphinx--Passengers Homeward
bound --Ceylon--Shipwreck--Penang--Singapore--Shanghae--Meeting
with Mr. Bruce --Talien-Whan--Sir Hope Grant--Plans for Landing.

CHAPTER XIII.
SECOND MISSION TO CHINA--PEKIN.
The Landing--Chinese Overtures--Taking of the Forts--The
Peiho--Tientsin --Negotiations broken off--New
Plenipotentiaries--Agreement made--Agreement broken--Treacherous
Seizure of Mr. Parkes and others--Advance on Pekin --Return of some
of the Captives--Fate of the rest--Burning of the Summer
Palace--Convention signed--Funeral of the murdered
Captives--Imperial Palace--Prince Kung--Arrival of Mr. Bruce--Results
of the Mission.

CHAPTER XIV.
SECOND MISSION TO CHINA--HOMEWARD.

Leaving the Gulf--Detention at Shanghae--Kowloon--Adieu to
China--Island of
Luzon--Churches--Government--Manufactures--General
Condition--Island of
Java--Buitenzorg--Bantong--Volcano--Soirées--Retrospect--Ceylon--T
he Mediterranean--England--Warm Reception--Dunfermline--Royal
Academy Dinner --Mansion House Dinner.

CHAPTER XV.
INDIA.
Appointed Viceroy of India--Forebodings--Voyage to
India--Installation --Deaths of Mr. Ritchie, Lord Canning, General
Bruce--The Hot Season --Business resumed--State of the
Empire--Letters: the Army; Cultivation of Cotton; Orientals not all
Children; Missionaries; Rumours of Disaffection; Alarms; Murder of a
Native; Afghanistan; Policy of Lord Canning; Consideration for
Natives.

CHAPTER XVI.
INDIA.
Duty of a Governor-General to visit the Provinces--Progress to the
North- West--Benares--Speech on the Opening of the
Railway--Cawnpore--Grand Durbar at Agra--Delhi--Hurdwar--Address
to the Sikh Chiefs at Umballa --Kussowlie--Simla--Letters: Supply of
Labour; Special Legislation; Missionary Gathering; Finance; Seat of
Government; Value of Training at Head-quarters; Aristocracies; against
Intermeddling--The Sitana Fanatics --Himalayas--Rotung Pass--Twig
Bridge--Illness--Death--Characteristics --Burial-place.

MEMOIR
OF
JAMES, EIGHTH EARL OF ELGIN,
&c. &c.

CHAPTER I.
EARLY YEARS.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE--SCHOOL AND COLLEGE--TASTE
FOR PHILOSOPHY--TRAINING FOR PUBLIC LIFE--M.P. FOR
SOUTHAMPTON--SPEECH ON THE ADDRESS--APPOINTED
GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA.
[Sidenote: Birth and parentage.]
James, eighth Earl of Elgin and twelfth Earl of Kincardine, was born in
London on July 20, 1811. His father, whose career as Ambassador at
Constantinople is so well known in connection with the 'Elgin Marbles,'
was the chief and representative of the ancient Norman house, whose
hero was 'Robert the Bruce.' From him, it may be said that he inherited
the genial and playful spirit which gave such a charm to his social and
parental relations, and which helped him to elicit from others the
knowledge of which he made so much use in the many diverse
situations of his after-life. His mother, Lord Elgin's second wife, was a
daughter of Mr. Oswald, of Dunnikier, in Fifeshire. Her deep piety,
united with wide reach of mind and varied culture, made her admirably
qualified to be the depositary of the ardent thoughts and aspirations of
his boyhood; and, as he grew up, he found a second mother in his elder
sister, Matilda, who became the wife of Sir John Maxwell, of Pollok.
To the influence of such a mother and such a sister he probably owed
the pliancy and power of sympathy with others for which he was
remarkable, and which is not often found in characters of so tough a
fibre. To them, from his earliest years, he confided the outpourings of
his deeper religious feelings. One expression of such feeling, dated
June 1821, may be worth recording as an example of that strong sense
of duty and affection towards his brothers, which, beginning at that

early age, marked his whole subsequent career. 'Be with me this week,
in my studies, my amusements, in everything. When at my lessons,
may I think only of them; playing when I play: when dressing, may I be
quick, and never put off time, and never amuse myself but in playhours.
Oh! may I set a good example to nay brothers. Let me not teach them
anything that is bad, and may they not learn wickedness from seeing
me. May I command my temper and passions, and give me a better
heart for their good.'
[Sidenote: School and college.]
He learned the rudiments of Latin and Greek under the careful teaching
of a resident tutor, Mr. Fergus Jardine. At the age of fourteen he went
to Eton, and thence, in due time, to Christ Church, Oxford, where he
found him self among a group of young men destined to distinction in
after-life --Lord Canning, James Ramsay (afterwards Lord Dalhousie),
the late Duke of Newcastle, Sidney Herbert, and Mr. Gladstone.
There is little to record respecting this period of his life; but a touching
interest attaches to the following extracts from a letter written by his
brother, Sir Frederick Bruce, in November, 1865.
'My recollections of Elgin's early life are, owing to circumstances,
almost nothing. In the year 1820 he went abroad with my father and
mother, and was away for two years. From that time I recollect nothing
until he went to Eton; and his holidays were then divided between
Torquay, where my eldest brother was, and Broomhall;[1] and of them
my memory has retained nothing but the assistance in his later holidays
he used to give me in classical studies.
We were together for about a year