Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/332

  

ELPHINSTONE, MOUNTSTUART (1779–1859), governor of Bombay, fourth son of John, eleventh Baron Elphinstone, and his wife, Anne, daughter of Lord Ruthven, was born Oct. 1779, and passed his early years at Cumbernauld in Dumbartonshire. His father, a general officer, being appointed governor of Edinburgh Castle, Elphinstone spent some of his boyhood there, and attended the high school of the town in 1791-2, after which he was removed to a school at Kensington kept by a Dr. Thompson. Elphinstone obtained an appointment in the Bengal civil service by the interest of an uncle, who was a member of the court of directors, and landed at Calcutta 26 Feb. 1796. He was at that time a clever but not particularly studious youth, full of energy and high spirits, fond of desultory reading, and much disposed to sympathise with the principles of the French revolution. His earliest predilections had been for a military career, His brother being at Benares, Elphinstone was posted to that station by the favour of Sir John Shore, the governor-general. Here he served under Mr. Davis, the magistrate of the district, by whose influence and example he was first led to the study of Indian literature. He passed much of his time in repairing the defects of his school education, and laid the foundation for that love of the classics which ever afterwards formed the chief amusement of his leisure hours. In May 1798, Vazir Ali, who had lately been deposed from the nawabship of Oudh by Shore and made to reside at Benares, murdered the resident and attempted a general massacre of all the Europeans at the station. Elphinstone was only saved by the fleetness of his horse. In 1801 he proceeded to Calcutta to attend the college of Fort William, then newly opened for the instruction of the young officers of the civil service. He joined on 1 Jan. 1801, and on 6 March set off on a circuitous land journey to join a new appointment as assistant to the governor-general's agent at the court of the peshwa at Poona; E. Strachey being at the same time appointed to the post of secretary. The young men travelled together, marching through 'the Northern Sircars' to Madras, and proceeding thence across the breadth of the Deccan. Elphinstone's journal abounds in interesting remarks upon the scenery and people of the countries traversed, and at the same time presents constant records of study. Then, as always, Elphinstone appears as the omnivorous recipient of the most varied mental food, extending from Horace, Anacreon, and Háfiz, to the writings of Bacon, Warburton, Hume, and Schiller, Timur's 'Memoirs,' Orme's 'Indostan,' and novels innumerable. He combined through life a love of books with a love of sport and a devotion to public business. Early in 1802 Elphinstone arrived at Poona. The then peshwa, Bajee Rao, representative of the Brahmin dynasty, who, from being minister at the court of Satára, had risen to the virtual head of the Mahratta confederacy, was an avowed poltroon. On Sindhia coalescing with the bhonsla of Berar in a manner which threatened the stability of Wellesley's arrangements, war was declared against him by the British. Lake was sent with an army into Hindustan, and Wellesley took the field in the Deccan, Elphinstone being attached to his staff. At the battle of Assaye, 23 Sept. 1803, he was by the general's side, and his letters contain animated pictures of the action. This was in September. Little more than two months after, Elphinstone took part in the battle of Argaum, where he charged with the cavalry. The campaign virtually ended with the siege of Gáwilgarh, where Elphinstone mounted the breach with the storming party. On the restoration of tranquillity, Elphinstone was appointed, on the strong recommendation of the general, to the important post of resident at the court of the bhonsla at Nagpur. He owed this rapid advancement solely to his conspicuous services and merits. Not only did the general dwell upon these in despatches to his all-powerful brother, but on parting he paid Elphinstone what he doubtless intended for the highest possible compliment by saying that Elphinstone had 'mistaken his profession and ought to have been a soldier.'

At Nagpur Elphinstone remained four years and a half, during which his time was almost entirely divided between sport and study; but his diplomatic conduct, although not conspicuous in history, was evidently approved by his employers. In the middle of 1808 he was appointed ambassador to the Afghan court of Cábul, where Shah Shuja, afterwards Lord Auckland's unfortunate protégé was on the precarious throne of that turbulent region. A French embassy was now at the court of Persia, with a justly suspected outlook towards India, and it was deemed of the highest importance to establish British influence in the Punjab, in Sindh, and in the Afghan country. Towards this purpose, however, Elphinstone's mission effected little. He was not allowed to penetrate