ELGIN 



2UIN 



ELGIN 



1300 patients, was opened in Elgin in 1872. 

 The Larkin Children's Home is supported en- 

 tirely by voluntary contributions of citizens. 



History. In Villa Street Park is a natural 

 stone, marking the spot where the first white 

 settlers, two brothers from New York state, 

 erected a log house in 1835. The town was 

 laid out in 1836 and chartered as a city in 1854. 

 The commission form of government was 

 adopted in 1912. The city water supply is 

 obtained from artesian wells. E.H.K. 



ELGIN, cl'gin, JAMES BRUCE, Eighth Earl of 

 (1811-1863), a British diplomat and colonial 

 administrator, Governor-General of British 

 North America from 1847 to 1854 and Viceroy 

 of India for the last eighteen months of his 

 life. Both in 

 Canada and in 

 India his work 

 was constructive, 

 and in both of 

 these great Brit- 

 ish dependencies 

 he had to pro- 

 ceed along un- 

 tried lines ; in 

 Canada he was 

 the first Gover- 

 nor-General t o 



put into practice the principles of responsible 

 government, and in India he was the first Vice- 

 roy appointed directly by the Crown. Elgin 

 was the second son of the seventh Earl of Elgin, 

 who is best remembered for his zeal in gather- 

 ing a collection of sculpture and marble frag- 

 ments from the Parthenon and other buildings 

 in Athens. These have world-wide fame as 

 the Elgin Marbles (see below). The son was 

 sent to Eton and in due course to Christ 

 Church, Oxford. There he was one of a small 

 group, several of whom later became famous. 

 One of them was William Ewart Gladstone. 



In 1841 Elgin, then merely James Bruce, 

 entered the House of Commons as a Conserva- 

 tive, but before the end of the year the death 

 of his father made him Earl of Elgin; the 

 earldom was a Scotch peerage, which compelled 

 him to retire from the House of Commons but 

 did not entitle him to sit in the House of 

 Lords. For the moment he had no opening 

 for activity. Early in the next year he ac- 

 cepted the position of governor of Jamaica, 

 where he remained four years, won the respect 

 of all classes and improved the condition of 

 the negroes. Almost immediately after his 

 return to England in 1846 he was offered and 



EARL OF ELGIN 



accepted the Governor-Generalship of British 

 North America. After his appointment but 

 before his departure for this wider field he 

 married Lady Mary Lambton, daughter of the 

 Earl of Durham. 



As the son-in-law of the popular Earl of 

 Durham, Elgin was warmly received in Can- 

 ada, but he had many difficulties to face. Ac- 

 cording to one of his biographers he laid down 

 for his own guidance certain broad principles; 

 that he should identify himself with no party, 

 but make himself a mediator between the in- 

 fluential men of all parties; that he should 

 retain no ministers who did not enjoy the confi- 

 dence of the assembly or 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 partisan character 

 such as the assembly or the people would be 

 sure to disapprove. These principles are to-day 

 accepted as commonplace, but in 1847 they 

 were startling, and in 1848, when Baldwin and 

 Lafontaine were summoned to form a Ministry, 

 they were first actually put into practice. Re- 

 sponsible government, for which Canadians had 

 fought for a generation, was an accomplished 

 fact. 



The Baldwin-Lafontaine Ministry intro- 

 duced the Rebellion Losses Bill in 1849. This 

 bill, which was really the conclusion of work 

 done by previous governments, met violent 

 opposition, both in Canada and in England, 

 because it provided compensation for damages 

 caused in the Rebellion of 1837, even though 

 inflicted by persons in authority. The bill was 

 approved by Elgin, in spite of great pressure 

 brought on him to withhold his signature. On 

 leaving the Parliament buildings in Montreal 

 after signing the bill, Elgin was jeered and 

 threatened by a mob, and on the evening of 

 the same day, April 25, 1849, the Parliament 

 buildings were burned to the ground. That 

 Elgin's course met the approval of the British 

 government, however, was shown shortly after- 

 ward when he was elevated to the English peer- 

 age as Baron Elgin. 



After the excitement caused by the passage 

 of the Rebellion Losses Bill had subsided, 

 Elgin's frank and genial manners were of great 

 service in restoring good 'feeling, and before 

 very long he was generally spoken of as the 

 most popular man in Canada. The chief event 

 of the administration thereafter was the sign- 

 ing of a reciprocity treaty with the United 

 States. After the negotiations had continued 

 for nearly six years, Lord Elgin and Francis 



