been giving rise to uneasiness, and when Lord Amherst assumed the governor-generalship he was met by a demand from that sovereign for the cession of the whole of Eastern Bengal. Not satisfied with making this bold request, the king drove out by force of numbers the English garrison on the island of Shapporee at the mouth of the Naef river, and despatched General Máha Bundoola to conquer Bengal. So full was he of arrogant confidence as to the result of the campaign that he ordered this general, after vanquishing the English troops, to bring Lord Amherst, bound in golden fetters, into his presence. This presumptuous conduct made a continuance of peace impossible, and on 24 Feb. 1824 Lord Amherst issued a proclamation of war. Although our successes during the operations which followed were by no means unchequered by misfortune, the net result of the various campaigns was that Rangoon, Martaban on the Tenasserim coast, and Prome, the capital of Lower Burmah, were captured by our troops. Having by these reverses had his eyes opened to the real strength of the British power in India, and fearing lest further disasters should overtake him, the king proposed terms of peace, and eventually agreed to cede to the English Tenasserim, Arracan, and Assam, and to pay the expenses of the war. No sooner had Lord Amherst thus succeeded in securing peace with Burmah than a case of disputed succession at Bhurtpore again taxed his statesmanship. The circumstances of this affair were of a kind well understood by students of Oriental history. A youthful heir had succeeded to the rajahship, and had been deposed by an ambitious cousin, Doorjun Sál by name. As the young rajah had been recognised by the government of India, Sir David Ochterlony, the English political agent in Northern India, at once ordered a force to march on Bhurtpore to support his claims. At the moment this policy was disapproved of by Lord Amherst, who recalled the troops. Subsequent events, however, proved that Sir David Ochterlony's policy was the true one, and Lord Combermere was despatched with a force of 20,000 troops of all arms and 100 guns to reinstate the rightful rajah on his throne. After a short campaign, in which Bhurtpore was captured by assault, Doorjun Sál was deposed, and the young rajah was left in undisputed possession of his heritage. For his services in this matter and in the general conduct of affairs in India, Lord Amherst was created an earl, and received at the same time the thanks of the directors and proprietors of the East India Company. Towards the close of the same year (1826), he made a politically successful tour through the north-west provinces, and in the following summer he inaugurated Simla as a vice-regal sanatorium. For some time previously his health had been uncertain, and in February 1828 he embarked for England, having already sent in his resignation as viceroy. During the remainder of his life he lived comparatively retired from public affairs, and died in 1857 at the age of 84. Lord Amherst was twice married, first, on 24 July 1800, to Sarah, countess dowager of Plymouth, relict of Other Hickman, fifth earl of Plymouth, by whom he had issue one son, William Pitt, Viscount Holmesdale, and one daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, who married Sir John Hay Williams; and secondly, on 25 May 1839, to Mary, countess dowager of Plymouth, relict of Other Archer, sixth earl of Plymouth.
[Ellis's Journal of the Proceedings of the late Embassy to China, 1817; Taylor's Manual of the History of India, 1870; Burke's Peerage.]
AMHURST, NICHOLAS (1697–1742), poet and political writer, was born at Marden in Kent 16 Oct. 1697 (C. J. Robinson's Register of Merchant Taylors' School, ii. 22). He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, whence he was elected (16 June 1716) to a scholarship at St. John's College, Oxford. He published, whilst at Oxford, an ‘Epistle from a Student at Oxford to the Chevalier;’ a ‘Congratulatory Epistle to Addison on his being made Secretary of State;’ and a translation of Addison's poem on the resurrection; but on 29 June 1719, when he would have proceeded in due course to a fellowship, he was expelled from the university, on account, it was alleged, of his libertinism and misconduct. According, however, to Amhurst's own account of the affair, the action of the authorities was prompted solely by their dislike of his persistent whig principles, and of his openly expressed hatred of toryism and of the extreme high-church party. In the ironical dedication to Dr. Delaune prefixed to his poems, he gives the following reasons why ‘one Nicholas Amhurst of St. John's College was expelled. Imprimis, for loving foreign turnips and presbyterian bishops. Item, for ingratitude to his benefactor, that spotless martyr, William Laud. Item, for believing that steeples and organs are not necessary to salvation. Item, for preaching without orders and praying without a commission. Item, for lampooning priestcraft and petticoat-craft. Item, for not lampooning the government and the revolution. Item, for prying into secret history.’ It is impossible to say how much truth there
