A portrait of Lord Amherst; Source: Wikipedia

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Lord Amherst could scarcely be indifferent about his career - he had been employed for a long time in Colonial affairs, and by virtue of his aristocratic origins, had landed up in the good places. Not so much in China, however. He had been assigned to lead a mission to China as a diplomat, an equivalent representative of the British crown to the Qing Dynasty.

The Chinese had not taken kindly to that and following their own conception of trade and foreigners, had thought of him as an inferior, although still accepting his gifts. Yet the coveted trade treaty did not come. It wasn't his fault. 

> As he made his way back to England in 1817, he would echo the same in his discussions with none other than the exiled French Emperor - Napoleon! At St. Helena, where he was kept under watch, both would discuss China and their relations with it.

That interesting episode aside, he would be assigned after a longish stay back home to India, where he was to replace Lord Hastings in 1823 as the Governor-General. The issue was simple - the East India Company wanted profits, and, by constant warring against Nepal and the Marathas, Hastings had made the treasury empty- even though he had taken almost all of the subcontinent barring the north. Amherst was supposed to fix that and also lower the salary of the Company's Bengal Army.

Amherst was quite inexperienced when he took the post of Governor-General, often coming under the influence of military officers like Sir Edward Paget in Calcutta. Furthermore, the acting Governor-General, John Adam, would get into a tussle with Burma over disputed boundaries on the riverine borders of the Naaf. 

> The resulting Anglo Burmese war was another hefty one for the Company, tying up a whopping 13 million pounds, and leading up to an economic crisis in India.

Amherst was promptly replaced in 1828 as he had failed to do his task as well, and English rule continued on.

Lord Amherst passed away on the 13th of March, in 1857. His lasting legacy would be the 1824 Barrackpore Mutiny during the war, along with the long-drawn consequences that were felt in later mutinies too.

Lord Amherst, the Governor-General of India in the 1820s, passes away in 1857. He had promised to not lead the Company to more wars, but ended up in a costly one with Burma himself, provoking monetary losses.