James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin

Lord Elgin conceded responsible government in Canada, forced two treaties on China, and ordered the burning of the Summer Palace. He was the son of the Elgin who removed the Parthenon marbles, and inherited debts from that transaction along with the title. He was governor of Jamaica and then governor general of British North America from 1847. There he made the decision that defines him in Canadian history: in 1849 he signed the Rebellion Losses Bill, compensating Lower Canadians for damage in the risings of 1837, because the elected assembly had passed it, even though he personally disliked it and knew what would follow. A Montreal mob stoned his carriage and burned the parliament building. The principle that the governor acts on the advice of an elected ministry was established by his refusal to intervene. He negotiated the reciprocity treaty with the United States in 1854. Sent east in 1857, he diverted troops to India during the rebellion, then took Canton and imposed the Treaty of Tientsin in 1858, opening ports and legalising the opium trade; he wrote in his journal that he was ashamed of what he was doing. Returning in 1860 after the treaty was repudiated, and after a British and French negotiating party sent under flag of truce was seized and about twenty of them tortured to death, he ordered the Yuanmingyuan burned - three days of fires that destroyed the emperor's palaces and their contents. He chose it over destroying the Forbidden City on the argument that it punished the emperor rather than the people. He died as viceroy of India in 1863.

• Lived: 1811 CE – 1863 CE
• Nationality: British
• Roles: ruler