Elphinstone, Mountstuart

(1779-1859)

Fourth s. of the 11th Lord E., was ed. at Edin., and entered the Bengal Civil Service in 1795. He had a very distinguished career as an Indian statesman, and did much to establish the present system of government and to extend education. He was Governor of Bombay (1819-1827), and prepared a code of laws for that Presidency. In 1829 he was offered, but declined, the position of Governor-General of India. He wrote a History of India (1841), and The Rise of the British Power in the East, pub. in 1887.