Lord Ellenborough [For another view] was a British politician heavily involved with British Imperial affairs in India. In 1813, Ellenborough entered the House of Commons, and in 1818 became Baron Ellenborough in the House of Lords. His service in India included a two-year run as the Governor-General, which ended when his attempts to dominate trade led to his recall "from India for being out of control" (Encyclopedia Britannica On-line). Once in England again, Ellenborough served four times as president of the Board of Control for India. During this time, he drafted a new plan for the governance of India in response to the Indian Mutiny, but amidst conflict over his opposition to Lord Canning's Oudh Proclamation, Ellenborough resigned from the Board. Essentially, Lord Ellenborough appears to have been an arrogant man with "a desire for indiscriminate vengeance."
Carlyle uses Lord Ellenborough in "Hudson's Statue" in response to Jefferson Brick's observation about Britain's "multifarious patented anomalies." Although the Bishops of Durham were reprehensible, Carlyle portrays Lord Ellenborough's abuse of his financial power and of the capitalist system as even worse. He represents one of Britain's "Overgrown monsters of Wealth."
Last modified 23 October 2002