Home > William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst

1 Ambassador extraordinary to China

In 1816 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to the court of China, with a view of establishing more satisfactory commercial relations between that country and the United Kingdom. On arriving in the Peiho he was given to understand that he could only be admitted to the emperor Jiaqing's presence on condition of performing the kow-tow, a ceremony which Western nations considered degrading, and which was, indeed, a homage exacted by a Chinese sovereign from his tributaries. To this Lord Amherst, following the advice of Sir George Leonard Staunton , who accompanied him as second commissioner, refused to consent, as Lord Macartney had done in 1793, unless the admission was made that his sovereign was entitled to the same show of reverence from a mandarin of his rank. In consequence of this he was not allowed to enter PekinBeijing Sh Abbreviation: ( pinyin: Jing The Forbidden City Origin of Name bei north jing capital put together: northern capital Pronounced''Bay-jing (J as in joy Area Total % of national Ranked 29th 16,808 km² 0. 175% Population Total ( 2001) % of nationa, and the object of his mission was frustrated.

His ship, the Alceste, after a cruise along the coast of KoreaKorea is a formerly unified country, situated on the Korean Peninsula in north East Asia adjacent to China in the west and Russia in the north. When World War II ended in 1945, the country was divided into two: the Republic of Korea ( South Korea) and the and to the Loo-Choo Islands, on proceeding homewards was totally wrecked on a sunken rock in Caspar Strait . Lord Amherst and part of his shipwrecked companions escaped in the ship's boats to BataviaBatavia is a Latin name used for the Netherlands, derived from the Batavii tribe. See also Batavian Republic. Batavia is also the Latin name of the German city Passau. Batavia was the name of the settlement by the Dutch East India Company at Java island., whence relief was sent to the rest. The ship in which he returned to England in 1817Events March 4 James Monroe succeeds James Madison as the President of the United States of America April Earthquake in Palermo, Italy April 3 Princess Caraboo appears in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England July 4 At Rome, New York, construction on th having touched at St Helena, he had several interviews with the emperor Napoleon (see Ellis's Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China, 1817; McLeod's Narrative of a Voyage in H.M.S. Alceste, 1817).

2 Governor-general of India

Lord Amherst held the office of governor-general of India from August 1823Events July 15 San Paolo fuori le Mura church in Rome almost completely destroyed by fire September 10 Simon Bolivar named President of Peru December 2 US President James Monroe delivers a speech to the United States Congress, announcing a new policy of f to February 1828. The principal event of his government was the first Burmese war of 1824, resulting in the cession of Arakan and Tenasserim to Great Britain. He was created Earl Amherst of Arakan in 1826. On his return to England he lived-in retirement till his death in March 1857.