Lord Elgin | Page 3

others which were the recognized traits
of his character in after life. Conscious of the unsatisfactory state of the
family's fortunes, he laboured strenuously even in college to relieve his
father as much as possible of the expenses of his education. While
living very much to himself, he never failed to win the confidence and
respect even at this youthful age of all those who had an opportunity of
knowing his independence of thought and judgment. Among his
contemporaries were Mr. Gladstone, afterwards prime minister; the
Duke of Newcastle, who became secretary of state for the colonies and
was chief adviser of the Prince of Wales--now Edward VII--during his
visit to Canada in 1860; and Lord Dalhousie and Lord Canning, both of
whom preceded him in the governor-generalship of India. In the college
debating club he won at once a very distinguished place. "I well
remember," wrote Mr. Gladstone, many years later, "placing him as to
the natural gift of eloquence at the head of all those I knew either at
Eton or at the University." He took a deep interest in the study of
philosophy. In him--to quote the opinion of his own brother, Sir
Frederick Bruce, "the Reason and Understanding, to use the
distinctions of Coleridge, were both largely developed, and both
admirably balanced. ... He set himself to work to form in his own mind
a clear idea of each of the constituent parts of the problem with which
he had to deal. This he effected partly by reading, but still more by
conversation with special men, and by that extraordinary logical power
of mind and penetration which not only enabled him to get out of every

man all he had in him, but which revealed to these men themselves a
knowledge of their own imperfect and crude conceptions, and made
them constantly unwilling witnesses or reluctant adherents to views
which originally they were prepared to oppose...." The result was that,
"in an incredibly short time he attained an accurate and clear
conception of the essential facts before him, and was thus enabled to
strike out a course which he could consistently pursue amid all
difficulties, because it was in harmony with the actual facts and the
permanent conditions of the problem he had to solve." Here we have
the secret of his success in grappling with the serious and complicated
questions which constantly engaged his attention in the administration
of Canadian affairs.
After leaving the university with honour, he passed several years on the
family estate, which he endeavoured to relieve as far as possible from
the financial embarrassment into which it had fallen ever since his
father's extravagant purchase in Greece. In 1840, by the death of his
eldest brother, George, who died unmarried, James became heir to the
earldom, and soon afterwards entered parliament as member for the
borough of Southampton. He claimed then, as always, to be a Liberal
Conservative, because he believed that "the institutions of our country,
religious as well as civil, are wisely adapted, when duly and faithfully
administered, to promote, not the interest of any class or classes
exclusively, but the happiness and welfare of the great body of the
people"; and because he felt that, "on the maintenance of these
institutions, not only the economical prosperity of England, but, what is
yet more important, the virtues that distinguish and adorn the English
character, under God, mainly depend."
During the two years Lord Elgin remained in the House of Commons
he gave evidence to satisfy his friends that he possessed to an eminent
degree the qualities which promised him a brilliant career in British
politics. Happily for the administration of the affairs of Britain's
colonial empire, he was induced by Lord Stanley, then secretary of
state for the colonies, to surrender his prospects in parliament and
accept the governorship of Jamaica. No doubt he was largely
influenced to take this position by the conviction that he would be able
to relieve his father's property from the pressure necessarily entailed
upon it while he remained in the expensive field of national politics. On

his way to Jamaica he was shipwrecked, and his wife, a daughter of Mr.
Charles Cumming Bruce, M.P., of Dunphail, Stirling, suffered a shock
which so seriously impaired her health that she died a few months after
her arrival in the island when she had given birth to a daughter.[3] His
administration of the government of Jamaica was distinguished by a
strong desire to act discreetly and justly at a time when the economic
conditions of the island were still seriously disturbed by the
emancipation of the negroes. Planter and black alike found in him a
true friend and sympathizer. He recognized the necessity of improving
the methods of agriculture, and did much by the establishment of
agricultural societies