Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/262

 and forts of Porto Ferraio in the isle of Elba, by way of counterpoise to the recent occupation of Leghorn by the French. In September, however, he received from the Duke of Portland a despatch directing him to withdraw from Corsica, and he accordingly evacuated the island on 26 Oct., and betook himself to Naples, where he met with a splendid reception from the court. Here he remained until 15 Jan. 1797, when he sailed for England, where he landed on 15 March 1798. In the following October he was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Minto of Minto, in the county of Roxburgh. On 19 March 1799 he delivered in the House of Lords a weighty speech on the union with Ireland, which he supported mainly on the ground that it afforded the only means of effectually controlling the mutual animosities of catholic and protestant. In the following June he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at the court of Vienna, where his strenuous efforts to infuse energy into the conduct of the war with France were unsuccessful. He obtained, indeed, on 20 June 1800 the conclusion of a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, by which the emperor engaged, in consideration of a subsidy of 2,000,000l., not to make peace without the consent of his Britannic majesty. This treaty, however, was broken by the treaty of Lunéville on 9 Feb. 1801, and Elliot accordingly was recalled. He arrived in London at the end of November 1801. In February 1803 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and also of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. On the formation of the whig ministry in 1806 Elliot received the office of president of the board of control, and was soon after appointed governor-general of India. He sailed from England early in February, and reached Calcutta at the end of July 1807. He found the company's finances in considerable disorder, but by careful management soon converted a deficit into a surplus, and that without resorting to cheeseparing economy. He recognised the importance of respecting the religious views of the natives, and accordingly soon after his arrival established a censorship of the missionary press at the Danish settlement of Serampore, which had long been a source of danger to the state by reason of the scurrilous libels upon the Mahommedan faith and Hindu mythology which issued from it. He also prohibited for a time the practice of employing native converts in preaching work. These judicious measures raised a vehement outcry in England that the governor-general was suppressing the propagation of the christian religion in India, which was entirely unjustified by the facts. In 1808 it became necessary to take measures for establishing order in the recently annexed province of Bundelkhand, which had fallen into a state of complete anarchy. The country was mountainous, and the reduction of the fastnesses in which the robber chieftains who infested it had established themselves cost several campaigns and a considerable expenditure of treasure. The work was, however, successfully completed in 1813. Elliot also found it necessary to despatch a force against Abd-ul-samad Khan, a military adventurer who had possessed himself of Hariana. This expedition was brought to a successful conclusion in 1809. In order to provide for the defence of the peninsula against an anticipated invasion by the French by way of Persia and Afghanistan, Elliot despatched in 1808 three missions to Persia, Lahore, and Cabul respectively, with the view of establishing offensive alliances with those states. The mission to Persia failed by reason of the hectoring tone adopted by the envoy, Colonel Malcolm; that to Lahore, which was managed with the utmost tact by Charles (afterwards Sir Charles) Metcalfe, also failed of its original object, the Raja Ranjit Sing being more occupied with his designs against the Sikhs than with fears of a French invasion. Metcalfe, however, compelled him to sign a treaty ceding his recent acquisitions between the Jumna and the Setlej to the company (25 April 1809). For the mission to Cabul Elliot selected Mountstuart Elphinstone, who on 19 April 1809 concluded a treaty (ratified at Calcutta on 17 June) with Shah Shuja, by which, in consideration of a subsidy, that potentate agreed to resist the advance of any French and Persian force, and to exclude all Frenchmen from his country for ever. This treaty, however, was almost immediately rendered nugatory by the expulsion of Shah Shuja from Cabul by Shah Mahommed. Negotiations were also entered into with Scinde the same year, which ultimately resulted in the conclusion of a treaty of general amity with the ameer of that country and the admission of a resident. The suppression of the dakoits, who for years had infested Lower Bengal, of the pirates of the Persian Gulf, of a mutiny at Madras, and the defence of Berar against a formidable irruption of Pathans under Amir Khan also occupied Elliot's attention during this year. In September he sent a small expedition to Macao to protect that port against the French; but the Chinese declining such protection it was withdrawn. About the same time he annexed the island of Amboyna, and the entire group of the Molucca islands in the following spring. 