Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

CHAPTER XI.. First Mission to China--the Yangtze Kiang.

FIRST MISSION TO CHINA--THE YANGTZE KIANG.

Delays--Subterfuges defeated by Firmness--Revised Tariff--Opium Trade--Up the Yangtze Kiang--Silver Island--Nankin--Rebel Warfare--The Hen-Barrier --Unknown Waters--Difficult Navigation--Hankow--The Governor-General --Return--Taking to the Gunboats--Nganching--Nankin--Retrospect--More Delays--Troubles at Canton--Return to Hong-Kong--Mission completed --Homeward Voyage

CHAPTER XII.. Second Mission to China--Outward.

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.

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.

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--The Mediterranean--England--Warm Reception--Dunfermline--Royal Academy Dinner --Mansion House Dinner.

CHAPTER XV.. India.

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.

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

JAMES, EIGHTH EARL OF ELGIN,

&c. &c.

CHAPTER I.. Early Years.

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.

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.'

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; 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 and a half at Oxford. But he was so far advanced in his studies, that we had very little in common to bring us together; and I hardly remember any striking fact connected with him, except one or two speeches at the Union Club, when in eloquence and originality he far outshone his competitors.

'I do not know whether Mr. Welland is still alive: he probably, better than anyone, could give some sketch of his intellectual growth, and of that beautiful trait in his character, the devotion and abnegation he showed o poor Bruce in his long and painful illness.

'He was always reserved about his own feelings and aspirations. Owing to the shortness of his stay at Oxford, he had to work very hard; and his friends, like Newcastle and Hamilton, were men who sought him for the soundness of his judgment, which led them to seek his advice in all matters. He always stood to them in the relation of a much older man. He had none of the frailties of youth, and, though very capable of enjoying its diversions, life with him from a very early date was "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." Its practical aspect to him was one of anxiety and difficulty, while his intellect was attracted to high and abstract speculation, and took little interest in the every-day routine which is sufficient occupation for ordinary minds. Like all men of original mind, he lived a life apart from his fellows.

'He looked upon the family estate rather as a trust than as an inheritance--as far more valuable than money on account of the family traditions, and the position which in our state of society is given to a family connected historically with the country. Elgin felt this deeply, and he clung to it in spite of difficulties which would have deterred a man of more purely selfish views.'

'It is melancholy to reflect,' adds Sir F. Bruce, 'how those have disappeared who could have filled up this gap in his history.' It is a reflection even more melancholy, that the loved and trusted brother, who shared so many of his labours and his aspirations, no longer lives to write that history, and to illustrate in his own person the spirit by which it was animated.

The sense of the difficulties above referred to strongly impressed his mind even before he went to Oxford, and laid the foundation of that habit of self-denial in all personal matters, which enabled him through life to retain a feeling of independence, and at the same time to give effect to the promptings of a generous nature. 'You tell me,' he writes to his father from college, 'I coin money. I uncoined your last order by putting it into the fire, having already supplied myself.'

About the middle of his Oxford career, a studentship fell vacant, which, according to the strange system then prevalent, was in the gift of Dr. Bull, one of the Canons of Christ Church. Instead of bestowing it, as was too commonly done, on grounds of private interest, Dr. Bull placed the valuable prize at the disposal of the Dean and Censors, to be conferred on the most worthy of the undergraduates. Their choice fell on James Bruce. In announcing this to a member of the Bruce family, Dr. Bull wrote: 'Dr. Smith, no less than the present college officers, assures me that there is no young man, of whatever rank, who could be more acceptable to the society, and none whose appointment as the reward of excellent deportment, diligence, and right-mindedness, would do more good among the young men.'

A letter written about this time to his father shows that the young student, with a sagacity beyond his years, discerned the germs of an evil which has since grown to a great height, and now lies at the root of some of the most troublesome questions connected with University Education.

In my own mind I confess I am much of opinion, that college is put off in general till too late; and the gaining of honours therefore, becomes too severe to be useful to men who are to enter into professions. It was certainly originally intended that the degrees which require only a knowledge of the classics should be taken at an earlier age, in order to admit of a residence after they were taken, during which the student might devote himself to science or composition, and those habits of reflection by which the mind might be formed, and a practical advantage drawn from the stores of knowledge already acquired. By putting them off to so late an age, the consequence has been, that it has been necessary proportionably to increase the difficulty of their attainment, and to mix up in college examinations (which were supposed to depend upon study alone) essays in many cases of a nature that demands the most prolonged and deep reflection. The effect of this is evident. Those who, from circumstances, have neither opportunity nor leisure thus to reflect, must, in order to secure their success, acquire that kind of superficial information which may enable them to draw sufficiently plausible conclusions, upon very slight grounds; and many who have this form of knowledge, most will eventually be proved (if this system is carried to an excess) to have but little of the substance of it.

Continue reading Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin free in the Wunder reader →