James Bruce, who afterwards became eighth Earl of Elgin and twelfth Earl
of Kincardine, was born in London, on the 20th of July, 1811. He was the
second son of his father, the seventh Earl, whose embassy to Constantinople
at the beginning of the present century was indirectly the means of
procuring for him a reputation which will probably endure as long as the
English language. All readers of Byron are familiar with the circumstances
under which this reputation was gained. In the year 1799, Lord Elgin
was despatched by the British Government as envoy extraordinary to
Constantinople. During his embassy he had occasion to visit Athens, where
he found that the combined influence of time and the Turks was rapidly
destroying the magnificent vestiges of the past wherewith the city and its
neighbourhood abounded. Actuated by a wish to preserve some of these relics
of departed greatness--and probably wishing to connect his name with
their preservation--he conceived the idea of removing a few of the more
interesting of them to England. Without much difficulty he obtained
permission from the Porte to take away from the ruins of ancient Athens
"any stones that might appear interesting to him." The British Government
declined to lend its assistance to what some members of the Cabinet
regarded as an act of spoliation, and Lord Elgin was thus compelled to
carry out the project at his own expense. He hired a corps of artists,
labourers, and other assistants, most of whom were specially brought from
Italy to aid in the work. About ten years were spent in detaching from
the Parthenon, and in excavating from the rubbish at its base, numerous
specimens of various sculptures, all or most of which were presumed to have
been the handiwork of Phidias and his pupils. Other valuable sculptures
were disinterred from the ruins about the Acropolis, and elsewhere in the
neighbourhood. Upon the arrival in England of these great works of ancient
art all the world of London went to see and admire them. In 1816 they were
purchased for the nation for £35,000, and placed in the British Museum,
where they still remain. Many persons, however, censured Lord Elgin for
what they called his Vandalism in removing the relics from their native
land. Among those who assailed him on this score was Lord Byron, who hurled
anathemas at him both in prose and verse. "The Curse of Minerva" may fairly
be said to have made Lord Elgin's name immortal. The case made against him
in that fierce philippic, however, is grossly one-sided, as the author
himself subsequently acknowledged; and there is a good deal to be said on
the other side. The presence of these magnificent sculptures in the British
Museum gave an impetus to sculpture not only throughout Great Britain, but
to a less extent throughout the whole of Western Europe. It should also
be remembered that had they been permitted to remain where they were they
would most likely have been totally destroyed long before now in some of
the many violent scenes of which Athens has since been the theatre. Some
art critics have--more especially of late years--decried the workmanship of
these marbles, and have argued that they could not possibly have been the
work of Phidias. It is beyond doubt, however, that they display Greek art
at a splendid and mature stage of development, and their value to the
British nation is simply beyond price.
The subject of this sketch was destined to achieve a higher and less
dubious reputation than that of his father. Being only a second son, he was
not born heir-apparent to the family title and estates, and his education
was completed before--in consequence of the death of his elder brother and
of his father--he succeeded to the peerage. At the age of fourteen he
went to Eton, from which seat of learning he in due time passed to Christ
Church, Oxford. Here he formed one of a group of young men, many of whom
have since attained high distinction in political life. Among them we find
the names of William Ewart Gladstone, the late Duke of Newcastle (the
friend and guardian of the Prince of Wales upon the occasion of his visit
to this country in 1860), Sidney Herbert, James Ramsay (afterwards Earl
of Dalhousie, son of a former Governor-General of Canada), Lord Canning,
Robert Lowe, Edward Cardwell, and Roundell Palmer--now Lord Selborne.
Between young Bruce and two of these--Ramsay and Canning--an uncommonly
warm intimacy prevailed; and it is a somewhat curious coincidence that they
lived to be the three successive rulers of India during the transition
period of British Government there. Ramsay, then Lord Dalhousie, was the
last Governor before the breaking out of the Mutiny; Canning was the
over-ruler of the Mutiny; and Bruce, as Lord Elgin, was the first who went
out as Viceroy after the Indian Empire was brought under the government of
the Crown.
Among the brilliant young men who were his friends and compeers at college,
James Bruce is said to have been as conspicuous as any for the brilliancy
and originality of his speeches at the Union. Mr. Gladstone himself has
said of him, "I well remember placing him, as to the natural gift of
eloquence, at the head of all those I knew, either at Eton or at the
University." But he was not less distinguished by maturity of judgment, by
a love of abstract thought, and by those philosophical studies which lay
the foundation of true reasoning in the mind. In 1834 he published a
pamphlet to protest against a monopoly of Liberal sentiment by the
Whigs; and in 1841 he went into the House of Commons for Southampton on
Conservative principles, which had, however, a strong flavour of Whiggism
about them. He soon developed a remarkable aptitude for political life. He
seconded the Address which turned out Lord Melbourne and brought in Sir
Robert Peel, in a speech prophetically favourable to free trade, and he
would doubtless have been a cordial supporter of Peel's liberal commercial
policy had not his Parliamentary career speedily come to an end. In 1840,
George, Lord Bruce, elder brother of James, died, unmarried, and the latter
became heir-apparent to the family honours. On the 22nd of April, 1841, he
married Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Mr. C. L. Canning Bruce. The death of
his father soon afterwards raised him to the Scottish peerage. He had no
seat in either House of Parliament, and in 1842 he accepted from Lord
Stanley the office of Governor of Jamaica--an appointment which decided his
vocation in life. With his career at Jamaica we have no special concern,
and it need not detain us. It may be remarked, in passing, that he remained
there four years, during which period--owing, doubtless, in some measure to
the sudden death of his wife soon after their arrival in the island--he
led a somewhat secluded life. He quitted his post in 1846, and returned to
England. Almost immediately after his arrival there Lord Grey, the Colonial
Secretary, offered him the position of Governor-General of British North
America. He accepted it, says his biographer, not in the mere spirit of
selfish ambition, but with a deep sense of the responsibility attached to
it. It was arranged that he should go to Canada at the beginning of the
new year. In the interval, on November 7th, he married Lady Mary Louisa
Lambton, daughter of the first Earl of Durham, whose five months' sojourn
in this country in the year 1838 was destined to produce such important and
beneficial effects upon our Constitution. Lord Elgin was wont to say that
"The real and effectual vindication of Lord Durham's memory and proceedings
will be the success of a Governor-General of Canada who works out his views
of government fairly." Thus it happened that the young Conservative Peer,
who had already shaken off his early Tory prepossessions, found himself
called upon to build on the broad foundations laid by the most advanced
member of the Liberal party of that day, and to inaugurate the new
principle of government which Lord Durham and Charles Butler had conceived,
not merely in Canada, but throughout the colonial empire of Britain.
Leaving his bride behind him, to follow at a less inclement season, he set
out for the seat of his new duties early in January, and reached Montreal
on the 29th. He took up his quarters at Monklands, the suburban residence
of the Governor.
Nine years had elapsed since the Rebellion of 1837, Lord Durham, Lord
Sydenham, Sir Charles Bagot, Lord Metcalfe, and Lord Cathcart had
successively governed the North American Provinces in that short interval,
but--except in the case of Lord Durham--with not very satisfactory results.
The method of Responsible Government was new with us. The smouldering fires
of rebellion were only just extinguished. The repulsion of races was at
its strongest. The deposed clique which had virtually ruled the colony was
still furious, and the depressed section was suspicious and restive. It was
just at the time, too, when, between English and American legislation, we
were suffering at once from the evils of protection and free trade. The
principles upon which Lord Elgin undertook to carry on the administration
of the affairs of the colony were that he should identify himself with no
party, but make himself a mediator and moderator between the influential
of all parties; that he should retain no Ministers who did not enjoy the
confidence of the Assembly, or, in the last resort, of the people; and that
he should not refuse his consent to any measure proposed by his Ministry,
unless it should be of an extreme party character, such as the Assembly
or the people would be sure to disapprove of. For some months after
his arrival in this country matters went smoothly enough. The Draper
Administration, never very strong, had for several years been growing
gradually weaker and weaker, and was now tottering towards its fall; but so
far it could command a small majority of votes, and continued to hold the
reins of power. The result of the next general elections, however, which
were held at the close of the year, was the return of a large preponderance
of Reformers, among whom were nearly all the leading spirits of the Reform
Party. Upon the opening of Parliament on the 25th of February, 1848, the
Draper Administration resigned, and its leader accepted a seat on the
judicial bench. The Governor accordingly summoned the leaders of the
opposition to his councils, and the Baldwin-Lafontaine ministry was formed.
After a short session the House was prorogued on the 25th March. It did not
meet again until the 18th of January following. It is hardly necessary to
inform the Canadian reader that the Canadian Parliament sat at Montreal at
that time. During the session one of the stormiest episodes in our history
occurred. Every Canadian who has passed middle age remembers that disturbed
time. The excitement arose out of the Rebellion Losses Bill, as it was
called--a measure introduced by Mr. Lafontaine, the object of which was to
reimburse such of the inhabitants of the Lower Province as had sustained
loss from the rebellion of eleven years before. Within a very short time
after the close of that rebellion, the attention of both sections of the
colony was directed to compensating those who had suffered by it. First
came the case of the primary sufferers, if so they may be called; that is,
the Loyalists, whose property had been destroyed by rebels. Measures were
at once taken to indemnify all such persons--in Upper Canada, by an Act
passed in the last session of its separate Parliament; in Lower Canada,
by an ordinance of the Special Council, under which it was at that time
administered. But it was felt that this was not enough; that where property
had been wantonly and unnecessarily destroyed, even though it were by
persons acting in support of authority, some compensation ought to be
given; and the Upper Canada Act above mentioned was amended next year, in
the first session of the United Parliament, so as to extend to all losses
occasioned by violence on the part of persons acting or assuming to act on
Her Majesty's behalf. Nothing was done at this time about Lower Canada; but
it was obviously inevitable that the treatment applied to the one Province
should be extended to the other. Accordingly, in 1845, during Lord
Metcalfe's Government, and under a Conservative Administration, an Address
was adopted unanimously by the Assembly, praying His Excellency to cause
proper measures to be taken "in order to insure to the inhabitants of that
portion of the Province formerly Lower Canada indemnity for just losses by
them sustained during the Rebellion of 1837 and 1838." In pursuance of this
address, a Commission was appointed to inquire into the claims of persons
whose property had been destroyed in the Rebellion; the Commissioners
receiving instructions to distinguish the cases of persons who had abetted
the said rebellion from the cases of those who had not. The Commissioners
made their investigations, and reported that they had recognized, as worthy
of further inquiry, claims representing a sum total of £241,965 10s. 5d.;
but they added an expression of opinion that the losses suffered would be
found, on closer examination, not to exceed the value of £100,000. This
report was rendered in April, 1846; but though Lord Metcalfe's Ministry,
which had issued the Commission avowedly as preliminary to a subsequent and
more minute inquiry, remained in office for nearly two years longer, they
took no steps towards carrying out their declared intentions. So the matter
stood when the Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration was formed. It was natural
that they should take up the work left half done by their predecessors; and
early in the session of 1849 Mr. Lafontaine introduced the Rebellion Losses
Bill. The Opposition contrived to kindle a flame all over the country.
Meetings were held denouncing the measure, and petitions were presented to
the Governor with the obvious design of producing a collision between him
and Parliament. The Bill was finally passed in the Assembly by forty-seven
votes to eighteen. Out of thirty-one members from Upper Canada who voted
on the occasion, seventeen supported and fourteen opposed it; and of ten
members for Lower Canada of British descent, six supported and four opposed
it. "These facts," (wrote Lord Elgin) "seemed altogether irreconcilable
with the allegation that the question was one on which the two races were
arrayed against each other throughout the Province generally. I considered,
therefore, that by reserving the Bill, I should only cast on Her Majesty
and Her Majesty's advisers a responsibility which ought, in the first
instance at least, to rest on my own shoulders, and that I should awaken
in the minds of the people at large, even of those who were indifferent or
hostile to the Bill, doubts as to the sincerity with which it was intended
that constitutional Government should be carried on in Canada; doubts which
it is my firm conviction, if they were to obtain generally, would be fatal
to the connection."
On the 25th of April Lord Elgin went down to the Parliament Buildings and
gave his assent to the Bill. On leaving the House he was insulted by the
crowd, who pelted him with missiles. In the evening a disorderly mob intent
upon mischief got together and set fire to the Parliament Buildings,
which were burned to the ground. By this wanton act public property
of considerable value, including two excellent libraries, was utterly
destroyed. Having achieved their object the crowd dispersed, apparently
satisfied with what they had done. The members were permitted to retire
unmolested, and no resistance was offered to the military, who appeared
on the ground after a brief interval to restore order, and aid in
extinguishing the flames. During the two following days a good deal of
excitement prevailed in the streets, and some further acts of incendiarism
were perpetrated. Similar scenes on a somewhat smaller scale, were enacted
in Toronto and elsewhere in the Upper Province. The house of Mr. Baldwin
and some other prominent members of the Reform party were attacked, and the
owners burned in effigy.
Meanwhile addresses numerously signed came pouring in to the Governor from
all quarters, expressing entire confidence in the Administration, and
unbounded regret for the indignities to which he had been subjected.
Lord Elgin, however, felt bound to tender his resignation to the Home
Government. Meanwhile the Bill which had caused such an explosion in the
colony, was running the gauntlet of the British Parliament. On June 14th
it was vehemently attacked in the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone himself
describing it as a "measure for rewarding rebels." The strongest pressure
had already been put upon Lord Elgin to induce him to refuse the Royal
Assent to the Bill. To do so would have been to place himself in direct
collision with his Parliament, and this he steadily refused to do. The Home
Government, represented by Lord Grey, firmly supported him, approved his
policy, and shortly afterwards conferred upon him a British peerage as an
acknowledgment of the unshaken confidence of the Queen. Being urgently
pressed to remain in office as Governor-General he consented, and the more
readily because the agitation soon quieted down. From this time we hear no
more of such disgraceful scenes, but it was long before the old "Family
Compact" party forgave the Governor who had dared to be impartial. By many
kinds of detraction they sought to weaken his influence and damage his
popularity. And as the members of this party, though they had lost their
monopoly of political power, still remained the dominant class in society,
the disparaging tone which they set was taken up not only in the colony
itself, but also by travellers who visited it, and by them carried back to
infect opinion in England. The result was that persons at home, who had the
highest appreciation of Lord Elgin's capacity as a statesman,
sincerely believed him to be deficient in nerve and vigour; and as the
misapprehension was one which he could not have corrected, even if he had
been aware how widely it was spread, it continued to exist in many quarters
until dispelled by the singular energy and boldness, amounting almost to
rashness, which he displayed in China.
Since the session of 1849 no Parliament has ever sat, nor is any ever again
likely to sit, at Montreal. In view of the riot and the burning of the
Parliament Buildings it was determined to remove the Legislature, which
met at Toronto for the next two years. Subsequently it met alternately
at Quebec and Toronto until 1866, since which time Ottawa has been the
permanent capital of the Dominion.
After the storm consequent on the Rebellion Losses Bill, the most important
event by which Lord Elgin's Canadian administration was characterized was
the negotiation of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States. The
conclusion of this Treaty was a matter requiring much time and a good deal
of prudent negotiation. In 1854, after the negotiations had dragged on
wearily for more than six years, Lord Elgin himself was sent to Washington,
in the hope of bringing the matter to a successful issue. Within a few
weeks the terms of a Treaty of Reciprocity were agreed upon, and they soon
afterwards received the sanction of the Governments concerned. Lord Elgin
returned to England at the close of 1854, being succeeded in the government
of Canada by Sir Edmund Walker Head, who had examined him for a Merton
Fellowship at Oxford in 1833. Soon after Lord Elgin's return home,
the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster was offered him by Lord
Palmerston, with a seat in the Cabinet; but he preferred to take no active
part in public affairs, and enjoyed an interval of two years' rest from
official labour. His subsequent career can only be glanced at very briefly.
In 1857 he was sent to China to try what could be done to repair, or to
turn to the best account, the mischiefs done by Sir John Bowring's course,
and by the patronage of it at home, in the face of the moral reprobation
of the people at large. He was present at the taking of Canton, and in
conjunction with the French, succeeded by prompt and vigorous measures in
reducing the Celestial Empire to terms. After signing a Treaty with
the Chinese Commissioners at Tientsin, on the 26th of July, 1858, the
conditions of which were highly favourable to the British, he sailed for
Japan, and boldly entered the harbour of Jeddo, from which foreigners had
always been rigidly excluded. Here he obtained very important commercial
privileges for the British, and on the 26th of August concluded a treaty
with the Japanese. He returned to England in May, 1859. The merchants of
London, in recognition of his immense services to British commerce, did
themselves honour by the thoroughness of their acknowledgment of Lord
Elgin's services, and presented him with the freedom of the City.
He held the office of Postmaster-General till the hostile acts of the
Chinese Government towards the English and French Ministers in China
rendered it necessary that he should go out again, and opening Pekin to
British diplomacy, returned to England in April, 1861. Almost immediately
afterwards he was offered the Viceroyalty of India. This splendid
appointment he was not disposed to decline. He accepted, and went out to
the seat of his Government He lived only eighteen months longer, a period,
says his biographer, hardly sufficient for him to master the details
of administration of that great Empire, with which he had no previous
acquaintance, and I quite insufficient for him to give to the policy of
the Government the stamp of his own mind. He died of heart-disease; while
making a vice-regal excursion through his dominions, on the 20th of
November, 1863, and was buried in the cemetery at Dhurmsala, in a spot
selected by Lady Elgin.
"Perhaps," says a sympathetic critic of Lord Elgin's career, "the noblest
part of the history of England is to be found in the recorded lives of
those who have been her chosen servants, and who have died in that service.
Self-control, endurance, and an heroic sense of duty, are more conspicuous
in such men than the love of action and fame. But their lives are the
landmarks of our race. Lord Elgin, it is true, can hardly be ranked with
the first of British statesmen, or orators, or commanders. His services,
great as they unquestionably were, had all been performed under the orders
of other men. Even among his own contemporaries he fills a place in the
second rank. But happy are the country and the age in which such men are to
be found in the second rank, and are content to be there."