The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl
of Elgin, by James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

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Title: Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

Author: James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

Release Date: January 6, 2004 [EBook #10610]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF
JAMES, EIGHTH EARL OF ELGIN

GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA,
ENVOY TO CHINA, VICEROY OF INDIA

EDITED BY THEODORE WALROND, C.B.

WITH A PREFACE BY ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D.
DEAN OF WESTMINSTER

PREFACE.

Having been consulted by the family and friends of the late Lord Elgin as
to the best mode of giving to the world some record of his life, and
having thus contracted a certain responsibility in the work now laid
before the public, I have considered it my duty to prefix a few words by
way of Preface to the following pages.

On Lord Elgin's death it was thought that a career intimately connected
with so many critical points in the history of the British Empire, and
containing in itself so much of intrinsic interest, ought not to be left
without an enduring memorial. The need of this was the more felt because
Lord Elgin was prevented, by the peculiar circumstances of his public
course, from enjoying the familiar recognition to which he would else have
been entitled amongst his contemporaries in England. 'For' (if I may use
the words which I have employed on a former occasion) 'it is one of the
sad consequences of a statesman's life spent like his in the constant
service of his country on arduous foreign missions, that in his own land,
in his own circle, almost in his own home, his place is occupied by
others, his very face is forgotten; he can maintain no permanent ties with
those who rule the opinion, or obtain the mastery, of the day; he has
identified himself with no existing party; he has made himself felt in
none of those domestic and personal struggles whic