Minto, Sir GILBERT ELLIOT

Minto, Sir GILBERT ELLIOT, first EARL OF, was born at Edinburgh, April 23, 1751. As a boy he spent two years at a school at Fontainebleau under the eye of David Hume, and, after passing through the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford, in 1769 entered Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1774. Two years later he entered parliament as a supporter of Lord North, but from 1782 attached himself to Fox and Burke. In 1794-96 he was viceroy of Corsica. He was created Baron Minto in 1797, and went out to India as governor-general in 1806. He showed great vigour in his measures for establishing order and securing the frontiers by treaties, like that of Amritsar with Ranjit Sing. He next captured Mauritius and Bourbon, the Spice Islands and Java, but returned to England as Earl of Minto and Viscount Melgund in May 1814, to die on June 21st. See his Life and Letters, edited by his great-niece, the Countess of Minto (4 vols. 1874-80).