EARL OF

See also:

• GEORGE
• GEORGE, 8TH MARQUESS OF TWEEDDALE (1787-1876)
• GEORGE, HENRY (1839—1897)
• GEORGE, LAKE
• GEORGE, SAINT (d. 303)

GEORGE

See also:

• EDEN
• EDEN, SIR ASHLEY (1831-1887)

EDEN

See also:

• AUCKLAND
• EARL OF GEORGE EDEN AUCKLAND (1784-1849)
• AUCKLAND, WILLIAM EDEN, 1ST BARON (1745-1814)

AUCKLAND (1784-1849)  , English statesman, was the second son of the 1st Baron Auckland . He completed his education at Oxford, and was admitted to the bar in 1809 . His elder brother was drowned in the Thames in the following year ; and in 1814, on the death of his father, he took his seat in the House of Lords as Baron Auckland . He supported the Reform party steadily by his vote, and in 183o was made president of the Board of Trade and master of the Mint . In 1834 he held office for a few months as first lord of the admiralty, and in 1835 he was appointed governor-general of India . He proved himself to be a painstaking and laborious legislator, and devoted himself specially to the improvement of native schools, and the expansion of the commercial industry of the nation committed to his care . These useful labours were interrupted in 1838 by complications in Afghanistan, which excited the fears not only of the Anglo-Indian government but of the home authorities . Lord Auckland resolved to enter upon a war, and on the 1st of October 1838 published at Simla his famous manifesto dethroning Dost Mahommed . The early operations were crowned with success, and the governor-general received the title of earl of Auckland . But reverses followed quickly, and in the ensuing campaigns the British troops suffered the most severe disasters . Lord Auckland had the double mortification of seeing his policy a complete failure and of being superseded before his errors could be rectified . In the autumn of 1841 he was succeeded in office by Lord Ellenborough, and returned to England in the following year .

In 1846 he was made first lord of the admiralty, which office he held until his death, on the 1st of

January 1849 . He died unmarried, and the earldom became extinct, the barony (see below) passing to his brother Robert . See S . J . Trotter, The Earl of Auckland (" Rulers of India " series), 1893 .