Amherst Town, situated in the district of the same name, about 30 miles south of Maulmain. It was founded by the English in 1826 on the restoration of the town of Martaban to the Burmese, and named in compliment to the Governor-General of India who projected it. The proclamation inviting the natives to people the town was well adapted to the character and capacities of those whom it addressed. “The inhabitants of the towns and villages who wish to come shall be free from molestation, extortion, and oppression. They shall be free to worship as usual, temples, monasteries, priests, and holy men. The people shall go and come, buy and sell, do and live as they please, conforming to the laws. In regard to slavery, since all men, common people or chiefs, are by nature equal, there shall be under the English government no slaves. Whoever desires to come to the new town may come from all parts and live happy, and those who do not wish to remain may go where they please without hindrance.” Shortly after its settlement the number of houses amounted to 230, and the population to 1200. Large teak forests abound in its neighbourhood, and the timber is exported in considerable quantities. The harbour, though large and capable of accommodating ships of any burden, is difficult of access, and dangerous during the south-west monsoon. Amherst town has been eclipsed by the rapidly rising city of Maulmain, which has absorbed to itself the trade and mercantile enterprise alike of Amherst district and of the Tenasserim province.

AMHERST, a post township of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, United States. It is a picturesque village intersected by two branches of the Connecticut river. Its water-power is utilised for manufactories of machinery, edge tools, cotton goods, paper, &c.; but it is principally known as the seat of Amherst college, a valuable institution founded in 1821, mainly for the purpose of educating poor and pious young men for the ministry. The charity fund is large, and pays the tuition fees of forty or fifty students. The faculty of the college consists of eighteen professors, beside the president. The number of students in 1873 was 261. The buildings of Amherst college are situated on a hill at the southern extremity of the village. An octagonal building in advance of the line of college halls is devoted to the purposes of a museum. Some of the collections are of great value, especially those in the palaeontological department. The Massachusetts Agricultural school, founded in 1863, has also its seat at Amherst. Its handsome buildings are on the edge of a rich plain from which fine views are obtained of the mountains on the west and south. There is a large farm for experiment attached to the school, which is esteemed one of the best in America. The population of Amherst in 1870 was 4035.

AMHERST, Earl (William Pitt Amherst), born in 1773, was the nephew of Jeffery Amherst, who, for his services in America, where he was commander-in-chief at the time of the conquest of Canada, was raised to tha peerage as Baron Amherst in 1776. The patent of nobility was renewed in 1788 with remainder to the subject of this notice, who succeeded to the title in 1797. In 1816 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to the court of China, with the view of establishing more satisfactory commercial relations between that country and Great Britain. On arriving in the Peiho, he was given to understand that he could only be admitted to the emperor’s presence on condition of performing the ko-tou, a ceremony which Western nations have always considered degrading, and which is,, indeed, a homage exacted by the Chinese sovereign from his tributaries. This Lord Amherst, following the advice of Sir George T. Staunton, who accompanied him as second, commissioner, refused to consent to, 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 Peking, and the object of his mission was frustrated. His ship, the “Alceste,” after a cruise along the coast of Corea and to the Loo-Choo Islands, on proceeding homewards was totally wrecked on a sunken rock in Gaspar Strait. Lord Amherst and part of his shipwrecked companions escaped in the ship’s boats to Batavia, whence relief was sent to the rest. The ship in which he returned to England in 1817 having touched at St Helena, he had several interviews with the Emperor Napoleon (Ellis’s Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China, 1817; M i Leod ’ s Narrative of a Voyage in H.if.S. ii Alceste f 1817). Lord Amherst held the office of governor-general of India from August 1823 to February 1828. The principal event of his government was the Burmese war, resulting in the cession of Aracan and Tenasserim to Great Britain. He was created Earl Amherst of Aracan in 1826. On his return to England ho lived in retirement till his death in March 1857.