ABERDEEN, GEORGE ITAMILTON Gonnoc, EARL OF, was born at Edinburgh in 1784. He was educated at Harrow and at St. John's college, Cambridge, where he took his degree of M.A. in 1804. Before this, on succeeding to the earldom in 1801, he made a tour through Greece, the record of which is preserved in Byron's well-known line— "The travelled thane, Athqnian At>cideen." in his twenty-second year, he was elected one of the sixteen Scottish representative peers, and-entered public life as a tory. In 1813, he was appointed ambassador to the Austrian court, and conducted the negotiations which terminated in the alliance of that power with Britain. At this time he formed that close friendship with prince Metter nich which so decidedly influenced his subsequent policy as a statesman. On the con clusion of the war, he was elevated to the British peerage as viscount Gordon. From this time till the year 1828, his lordship made no promincu appearance in public life. In that year he took office in the new ministry formed under the duke of Wellington. The general principle which guided his policy, as secretary of state for foreign affairs, was that of non-interference in the internal affairs of foreign states, which, joined to his well-known sympathy with such statesmen as Metternich, has exposed him—not always justly—to the suspicion of being inimical to the cause of popular liberty. His gradual abandonment of high tory principles was evinced by his support of the bill for the repeal of the test and corporation acts, and of the Rothan Catholic emancipation act. From the fall of the Wellington ministry till the Peel administration in 1841, his lord ship was out of office, with the exception of his brief administration of the colonial office in the tory ministry of 1834-5. In 1841, he again received the seals of the
foreign office. M. Guizot was at that time foreign minister in France, and the two statesmen acted in cordial alliance. The conclusion of the Chinese war, the Ashbur ton treaty, and the Oregon treaty, were the principal services rendered to the coun try during his administration of foreign affairs. His act in 1843 for removing doubts regarding the admission of ministers to benefices in Scotland, neither saved the disrup tion of the church nor pleased those for whom it was meant, and is now virtually repealed by the "act for the abolition of patronage" (1874). From the time that the repeal of the corn-laws became the rallying-point of the Peel party, he became iden tified with their policy. In 1846, he resigned with Sir Robert Peel. In 1853, on the resignation of lord Derby, the extraordinary state of parties necessitated a coalition, and lord A. was selected as the fittest man to head the new ministry, which for some time was extremely popular. The feeble and vacillating policy displayed in the conduct of the war with Russia gradually undermined its stability, and the disastrous misman • agement brought to light in the winter of 1854, in all departments of the public business connected with the war, filled up the measure of the popular discontent. On Feb. 1, 1855, lord A. resigned office. He was author of an essay on Grecian architecture (1822). He died in 1860.