ever accessible; his indulgence encouraged his observations enlightened — his judgment confirmed; and I may add, where genius required it, his liberality sustained. It is not to aggravate your misfortune that I intimate the extent of your loss; but to stimulate in those younger bosoms amongst you

and many there are, I trust, who thirst for fame and honour

the emulation of his great qualities; to excite you to the exercise of the precepts he has delivered to you; and to remind you, that though his counsels are withdrawn, the examples he has left, and the principles he pursued for their achievement, were the result of perseverance and welldirected time and genius. To his country, and to those who loved him, it is a proud consolation that Heaven spared him until he had by his talents justly acquired the judgment of his own, and accordance of rival countries, to place him in the list of those imperishable names which serve at once to adorn, to dignify, and to perpetuate, the history and arts of his country."

331

No. IX.

THE RIGHT REVEREND

JOHN THOMAS JAMES, D. D.

LORD BISHOP OF CALCUTTA.

In the Index to our last volume we noticed the death of this amiable prelate. A Memoir of him has since appeared, from the pen of one of his brothers, the Rev. Edward James, M. A., Prebendary of Winchester, and Examining Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of the Diocese. Of that Memoir the following is an abridgment. To those, however, to whom active virtue, rational piety, and all the kindly feelings of human nature, are subjects of pleasing contemplation, we recommend the perusal of the original *; one of the most interesting portions of which consists of extracts from the unaffected and admirable letters of Mrs. James to her friends in England.

John Thomas James, D.D., late Bishop of Calcutta, was born on the 23d of January, 1786, at Rugby in Warwickshire. His father, Thomas James, D.D., was well known as a scholar, and held, for many years, the laborious office of Head Master of Rugby School, to which he was elected in 1778, having previously been Fellow and Tutor of King's College, Cambridge. Dr. James's health being impaired by his unremitting exertions in the school, he resigned the mastership in 1794, and on the application of the Trustees of the foundation at Rugby to Mr. Pitt, then Prime Minister, he was shortly afterwards preferred to a prebendal stall in the Cathedral Church of Worcester; in the enjoyment of which situation he continued to be among the foremost in every work of charity in that city, and equally zealous in the discharge of

* Published by Hatchard and Son.

his duties as a parish priest at his rectory of Harvington in the vale of Evesham, till the day of his death in September, 1804. An elegant piece of sculpture by Chantrey, representing his full-length figure, has been erected by his scholars in the newly-built chapel at Rugby School; but his proudest monument, in the present age, is seen in the grateful recollection with which his memory is cherished by those, the improvement of whose early years was the object of his care.

John Thomas was the eldest of eight children Dr. James had by his second marriage with Arabella, daughter of William Caldecott, Esq., whose family was long resident at Catthorpe in Leicestershire. He received the rudiments of his education at Rugby School, under the immediate eye of his father; till, at the age of twelve, he was placed on the foundation at the Charterhouse by the late Earl of Dartmouth, one of the Governors. Here he soon won the good opinion of the Head Master, Dr. Matthew Raine, and the regard and esteem of his schoolfellows, among whom were the present learned Master of the school, Dr. Russell, and Robert W. Hay, Esq., late one of the under Secretaries of State, whose friendship he highly valued throughout his life. Besides distinguishing himself in the usual studies of the school, he here began to show considerable talent for drawing; and, in 1803, the first prize medal was awarded to him by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Sciences, for a drawing of Worcester Cathedral.

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The following sketch of his boyish character is from the pen of his schoolfellow at the Charterhouse, the Rev. C. R. Pritchett, now reader and librarian on that foundation: "The leading feature in James's character, at school, was excellent feeling; he always felt kindly, and few, that I have known, seemed to feel more correctly. I should say, that the singleness united with kindness of heart, which so strongly marked his father's course through life, was no less conspicuous in the son. His disposition was particularly amiable, and he was universally beloved. But while he possessed a calmness which entitled him to be called dispassionate, no one

private room, hired for him,

was more warm than he, no one showed greater animation under circumstances which so fell in with his turn of mind, as to rouse him from his usual quiet and thoughtful retirement. He was always considerate of the feelings of others; of this I remember a particular trait. His father used to allow him, during the winter, a fire in a with Dr. Raine's permission, at the gardener's house; but James would often deny himself this indulgence, rather than appear to enjoy what other boys could not have. With this thoughtfulness he was always cheerful, and had much original humour. In his studies he was diligent, and fond of private reading. Retired and sedentary in his habits, he seldom took an active part in the games common at schools. Drawing, in which he greatly excelled, constituted his chief amusement. But still he was always ready to engage in any exploit that embraced objects of more than ordinary enterprise and hardihood."

1

His own inclination, at this time, was to go to sea, and he showed great fondness for every pursuit connected with naval tactics; but at the earnest wish of his mother he forbore to indulge this inclination, and soon began to turn his mind to that profession in which he afterwards attained so high a rank.

In May, 1804, he was removed to Christ Church, Oxford, where he entered as a commoner; but had scarcely begun to reside, when the death of his father deprived him at once of his best instructor and his ablest guide. He soon, however, recommended himself to the notice of that ready patron of merit, Dr. Cyril Jackson, then Dean, who, according to his yearly custom of rewarding some one of those who had best acquitted themselves at the collections or terminal examin-" ations in the College, nominated him the Dean's student.

After proceeding to the degree of M. A. in 1810, he remained as one of the Tutors at Christ Church, till an opportunity occurred of indulging his wish to see foreign countries. The events of the war having now begun to open the Continent to Englishmen, he went abroad in 1813, with his college

friend, Sir James M. Riddell, Bart., and travelled over the greater part of the North of Europe. On returning to England, Mr. James published his travels in one volume quarto, and had the satisfaction to find that two editions in octavo also were soon called for in succession. At the wish of many of his friends he published, the year before he went to India, a series of views taken during this tour, which he engraved upon stone with his own hand, and coloured in a manner that gives the effect of the original drawings.

In 1816, he visited Italy with another Christ Church friend, the late George Hartopp, Esq., and enjoyed the opportunity of cultivating that taste for painting, which afforded the chief recreation of his mind amidst the graver studies to which it had been at all times habitually directed. Soon after his return from Italy, he was admitted to holy orders, and resigned his studentship at Christ Church on being presented by the Dean and Chapter to the small vicarage of Flitton, with Silsoe, in Bedfordshire. Here, in the leisure hours which his parochial duties afforded, he followed up those literary pursuits to which he had early become attached, and embodied the observations he had made on his favourite art during his tour in Italy, in a work called "The Italian Schools of Painting;" the success of which led him afterwards to publish, in 1822, "The Flemish, Dutch, and German Schools," which he enriched with many interesting anecdotes of the painters. He had it in contemplation to proceed to the painters of the English school, and also those of France and Spain, but his attention was now engrossed by a more serious subject. He could not be a silent spectator of the attempts which were made to bring revealed religion into disrepute; and the attacks upon Christianity, which had recently issued from the English press, induced him, as he had seen much of the evils of infidelity on the Continent, to give to the world his own reflections on the most important of all subjects, in a volume which he entitled "The Semi-sceptic; or, the Common Sense of Religion considered."

In 1823, he married Marianne Jane, fourth daughter of