Ashburton, ALEXANDER BARING, LORD

Ashburton, ALEXANDER BARING, LORD, born in 1774, second son of Sir Francis Baring (q. v.), was for several years engaged in the United States, in the service of the great London mercantile house established by his father. On the death of the latter in 1810, he became the head of Baring Brothers & Co., having four years before been elected member for Taunton. He represented that place, Callington, and Thetford in the Liberal interest till 1832, and in 1833 was returned for North Essex as a moderate Conservative. In Peel's brief administration (1834-35) he was President of the Board of Trade, and was created Baron Ashburton in 1835. In 1842 his knowledge of business, and thorough acquaintance with American institutions, caused him to be appointed special ambassador to the United States to settle the north-west boundary question, and other disputes, which then threatened to involve the two countries in war. In August of that year he concluded the famous treaty of Washington, commonly called the Ashburton Treaty, by which the frontier line between the state of Maine and Canada was definitely agreed to. Seven-twelfths of the disputed territory, and the British settlement of Madawaska, were given by it to the United States; but it secured a better military frontier to Britain, and included heights commanding the St Lawrence, which the award of the king of Holland had assigned to the Americans. Provisions were also made for putting an end to the African slave-trade, and for the mutual extradition of criminals. Lord Ashburton opposed free-trade, but strongly supported the penny-postage system when first proposed by Rowland Hill in 1837. He died May 13, 1848.—His son, WILLIAM BINGHAM BARING, second Lord Ashburton (1799-1864), held two or three offices, but is chiefly remembered through his first wife, who made their house a meeting-place of politicians and men of letters, among the latter Thackeray and Carlyle.