ELPHINSTONE

Hon. Mount stuart, Indian administrator, son of the eleventh Lord Elphinstone, born in Scotland in 1778, died in 1859. He joined the Bengal Civil Service in 1795, was Amba ador to the Afghan Court in 1808, Resident at the Court of Poonah from 1810 to 1817, and British commi ioner to that province from 1817 to 1819, when he became Governor of Bombay. During a government of seven years he established a code of laws, lightened taxes, and paid great attention to schools and public institutions. He resigned in 1827. A college established by the natives was called after him Elphinstone College. He was the author of an Account of the Kingdom of Cabul and its Dependencies (1815), and a History of India (1841). He was offered the governor-generalship of India in 1835, and afterwards that of Canada, both of which he declined.