ELGIN, eighth Earl of, and KINCARDINE, htelfth Earl of. .1.vmEs CE 1-63). A British diplomat and statesman, the son of the preceding. Ile was lawn in London. and was educated at Eton and Christ Church. Ox fo•d, where he graduated. M.A. in 1833. In 1841 Southampton elected him a Liberal-Con scrvative member of Parliament. but as his father died the same year In succeeded to the Scotch peerage. which excluded him front the House of Commons without admitting him to the House of lords. He began hi. official career at the age of thirty. as Governor of Jamaica. and was Governor-General of Canada from 1847 to 1854. His settlement of the free trade and fishery questions with the Cnited States led to his admission to the English peerage in 1849. as first Baron Elgin, with a seat in the House of Lords. In 1857 he proceeded to China with an army, as special envoy to demand reparation for the illegal seizure of a British vessel. At Point de Galle lie heard of the Indian Mutiny. and without hesitation diverted his army to the assistance of Lord Canning, who with his help was enabled to hold out until reinforcements arrived. The mission to China was delayed, but eventually Lord Elgin arrived there. and the
Tientsin Treaty was consummated in 1858. On his return to England he was appointed Post inaster-General, and elected lord rector of Glas gow University; but as the Chinese refused to ratify their treaty, he went hack to China, and with a combined force of English and French captured Peking (in 1860). and this time con cluded a satisfactory convention. which regulated the Chinese relations with the West down to 1890. In 18112 Lord Elgin became Vice roy of India. butt in the following year death cut short his able service. Consult: Wal rond (ed.). Letters and Journals of James. Eighth Earl of Elgin (London, 1872) ; Loch. Personal 'Narrative of Occurrences During Lord Nf et md E m bassy to China, 1SIN (London. 1869): Oliphant. Narratirc of the Earl of Elyin's Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857 58-59 (New York. 1860) ; Stephen, Dictionary of Xational Biography. vii., pp. 104-00. by Arbuthnot : Kaye, Life of Lard lIrtealfe (London, 1858). For his Indian administration. see Bibli ography on 1Nor.v.