LAUDERDALE, James Maitland, 8TH EARL OF, Scottish statesman: b. Ratho, Mid lothian, 26 Jan. 1759; d. Thirlestane Castle, Berwickshire, 13 Sept. 1839. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, Trinity College, Oxford and Glasgow University, read law at Lincoln's Inn and in 1780 became a member of the faculty of advocates. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1780 and in 1781 he was an advocate of Fox's demand for a com mittee on the state of the American War, maintaining that the authors of the war were "no less Inimical to the liberties of Great Britain than America.° He supported Fox's East India Bill in 1783, and in 1787 was one of the managers of Hasting's impeachment. In 1789 he succeeded to the peerage and was elected a Scottish representative peer. He was in Paris at the time of the attack upon the Tuileries; and later strongly opposed the French War, but without appreciable support from his associates. His continued opposition to the ministry prevented his re-election in 1796 and in 1802, but with the return of the Whigs to power he was in 1806 created a peer of Great Britain and Ireland with the title Baron Lauderdale of Thirlestane, Berwick. He
declined the appointment as governor-general of India, but accepted the office of Lord High Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland and was sworn a member of the Privy Council, 21 July 1806. Upon Lord Grenville's downfall in 1807 he resigned and became an active mem ber of the opposition in the House ot Lords. He was leader of the Whig party in Scotland, and received the Order of the Thistle in 1821. He afterward became affiliated with the Tory party and exerted a considerable influence with its leaders. With the Duke of Bedford he at tacked the pensioning of Burke, calling forth Burke's famous