Book Description

James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, KT, GCB, PC (20 July 1811 - 20 November 1863), was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. He was the Governor General of the Province of Canada, a High Commissioner in charge of opening trades with China and Japan, and Viceroy of India. James Bruce became Governor of Jamaica in 1842, and in 1847 was appointed Governor General of Canada. Under Lord Elgin, the first real attempts began at establishing responsible government in Canada. Lord Elgin became the first Governor General to remove himself from the affairs of the legislature, leading to the essentially symbolic role that the Governor-General has since had with regards to the political affairs of the country. In 1857 he became High Commissioner to China and travelled to China and Japan in 1858-59, where he led the bombing of Canton and oversaw the end of the Second Opium War by signing the Treaties of Tianjin on 26 June 1858. On 18 October 1860, Elgin, not having received the Chinese surrender and wishing to spare Beijing itself, ordered the complete destruction of the Yuan Ming Yuan (or Old Summer Palace) outside Beijing in retaliation for the imprisonment, torture, and execution of almost twenty European and Indian prisoners (including two British envoys and a journalist for The Times). This edition contains his letters and journals from those times giving a unique insight into the work carried out by British representatives overseas in shaping the world today.