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Durham (JOHN GEORGE LAMB- TON EARL)
JOHN GEORGE LAMB- TON, EARL OF, an English statesman; DUSE born in Lambton Hall, Durham, April 12, 1792. Of decided liberal sympathies, he was in 1813 elected to Parliament for his native county, and took an active part in furthering all projects of a reforming tendency. In 1828 he was raised to the peerage, with the title of Baron Durham of the city of Durham.
Under the administration of Lord Grey (1830) he held the office of Lord Privy Seal, and was one of the four persons ported it in the House of Lords. He resigned office in 1833 and was made an earl. For a time he was ambassador at St. Petersburg. In 1838 he was appointed governor-general of Canada, where, owing to the revolt of the French in lower Canada, the constitution had been suspended. Lord Durham's measures were statesmanlike, but dictatorial; and the House of Lords voted disapproval of some of his acts. Thereupon he took the extraordinary step of returning to England without being either recalled or obtaining the royal consent. Lord Durham's famous report on Canada (which, however, was mainly written by his secretary, Charles Buller) anticipated many of the best features in the present Canadian constitution. He died in Cowes, Isle of Wight, July 28, 1840. who drew up the Reform Bill, and sup- DÜRRENSTEIN (dür'en-stin), a village in lower Austria, on the Danube, 41 miles N. W. of Vienna. Here are the ruins of the castle in which Leopold, Duke of Austria, imprisoned Richard Cœur de Lion on his return from Palestine, in 1192.