In 1860, during the Second Opium War in China, he ordered the destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, an architectural wonder with immeasurable collections of artworks and historic antiques, inflicting incalculable loss of cultural heritage.

[2] Subsequently, he compelled the Qing dynasty to sign the Convention of Peking, adding Kowloon Peninsula to the British crown colony of Hong Kong.

James Bruce became Governor of Jamaica in 1842,[5] During an administration of four years he succeeded in winning the respect of all[citation needed].

[citation needed] Lord Elgin granted royal assent to the bill despite heated Tory opposition and his own misgivings over how his action would be received in England.

Due to his relations with the United States, his support of the self-government and defence of the colony, and his settlement of the free-trade and fishery questions, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Elgin in 1849.

Although the conflict was defused in time by the military, a general support for the Crown's representative, triumphed in Bytown (renamed Ottawa by Queen Victoria in 1854).

Later that year, he granted royal assent to the law that abolished the seigneurial system in Quebec, and then resigned as Governor-General.

In 1858, while passing through Nanjing, Lord Elgin was presented a poetic message by Hong Xiuquan, in which the self-styled Heavenly King referred to him as "our foreign younger brother of the Western Seas."

Hong invited Lord Elgin to join his rebellion: "Let us together serve God and our Elder Brother, and destroy the hateful insects."

On 18 October 1860, not having received the Chinese surrender and wishing to spare the imperial capital of Peking (Beijing), he ordered the complete destruction of the Old Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan) outside the city in retaliation for the torture and execution of almost twenty European and Indian prisoners, including two British envoys and The Times journalist Thomas Bowlby.

On 24 October 1860, Lord Elgin signed the Convention of Peking, which stipulated that China was to cede part of Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong in perpetuity to Britain.

[citation needed] According to historian Olive Checkland, Lord Elgin "was ambivalent about the British imperial policy of forcing trade on the peoples in China and Japan.

Elgin tried to hold the Dutch in Sumatra in check, and marched a force to the Peshawar border to enforce earlier treaties.

[6] He died in 1863 of a heart attack while crossing a swinging rope and wood bridge over the river Chadly, on the lap between Kullu and Lahul.

[16] While China has opened up to French relations, the sale of Chinese art and artifacts in British auctions remains a point of tension between London and Beijing.