James Sutherland Cotton

“ What to the unimaginative may seem nothing but a tour de force is in truth the highest manifestation of the translator’s art.
Burton’s second great work was to be ‘The Book of the Sword,’ giving a history of the weapon and its use in all countries from the earliest times. The arme blanche, as he liked to call it, had always had a fascination for him since his youthful days on the continent. He collected a great deal of the literature, and inspected the armouries of Europe and India. ”

“ Cotton's poems were included in most collections of English poets; and two of his shorter pieces, ‘The Fireside’ and ‘To a Child of Five Years Old,’ may yet be found in anthologies. It must be confessed that Dr. Cotton was emphatically a poet of his century—cultivated, didactic, and pious. His ‘Visions in Verse’ are an attempt, both in metre and subject, to moralise for children the fables of Gay. His ‘Fables’ are less overweighted with allegory, and some of his occasional verses still preserve their power to please. The second volume of the collected works consists entirely of prose. ”

“ Hastings’s public career will probably never cease to be a subject of controversy. It was his misfortune to be the scapegoat upon whose head parliament laid the accumulated sins, real and imaginary, of the East India Company. If the acquisition of the Indian empire can be supported on ethical grounds, Hastings needs no defence. ”

“ OMICHUND (d. 1767) , an Indian whose name is indelibly associated with the treaty negotiated by Clive before the battle of Plassey in 1757. His real name was Amir Chand; and he was not a Bengali, as stated by Macaulay, but a Sikh from the Punjab. It is impossible now to unravel the intrigues in which he may have engaged, but some facts about his career can be stated. He had long been resident at Calcutta, where he had acquired a large fortune by providing the “investment” for the Company, and also by acting as intermediary between the English and the native court at Murshidabad. ”

“ Burton was but following the example of many classical scholars of high repute, and indulging a taste which is more widespread than modern prudery will allow. In his case something more may be urged. The whole of his life was a protest against social conventions. Much of it was spent in the East, where the intercourse between men and women is more according to nature, and things are called by plain names. Add to this Burton’s insatiable curiosity, which had impelled him to investigate all that concerns humanity in four continents. ”

“ As finance minister Strachey shares with his brother Sir Richard, whose work in India was closely connected with his own, the credit of extending the decentralisation of provincial finance, started under Lord Mayo in 1871, and of abolishing the customs line across the peninsula, which permitted the equalisation and ultimate reduction of the salt duty. To Strachey and his brother were due too the recognition of a light income tax as a permanent part of the system of taxation ; the creation of a famine insurance fund of incalculable benefit, amounting to a million and a half sterling annually ”

“ But though Cotton prospered in business, his chief title to fame is derived from his lifelong devotion to the cause of philanthropy, especially in connection with the church of England in the east of London. Though never a very rich man, the total of his charitable donations would amount to a large sum, for from the first he set apart a tithe of his income for this purpose. ”

“ All the officers of administration were transferred from Murshidabad to Calcutta, which Hastings boasted at this early date that he would make the first city in Asia. This reform involved the ruin of many native reputations, and for a second time brought Hastings into collision with the wily Brahman, Nuncomar. At the same time a settlement of the land revenue on leases for five years was begun, and the police and military systems of the country were placed upon a new footing. Hastings was a man of immense industry, with an insatiable appetite for detail. ”

“ At Trieste one of her chief interests was to manage a local society for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
Lady Burton’s constant efforts to further her husband's career, in the press and through semi-official channels, were not always judicious. She regarded him as the greatest and least appreciated Englishman of his time. He requited her devotion by extending to her absolute confidence, such as no male friend obtained from him, though even to her he did not soften the angularities of his character. During the last years of his life she proved herself a devoted nurse. ”

“ During the remainder of his life he stayed at Oxford, first as a 'coach' or private tutor. For some time he lectured on English literature at Wren's in London, and was always busy reading, writing, and reviewing. His long vacations were spent in travelling on the Continent, especially in Slavonic countries, where he made many friends. In very early life he acquired an interest in the literature, languages, and history of the Slav and his neighbours in the Near East, which became the main study of his life; he owed almost everything to self-teaching. ”

“ He refused to ratify his resignation; and when Clavering attempted to seize on the governor-generalship, he judiciously obtained an opinion from the judges of the supreme court in his favour. From that time forth, though he could not always command an absolute majority in council, Hastings was never again subjected to gross insult, and his general policy was able to prevail.
A crisis was now approaching in foreign affairs which demanded all the experience and all the genius of Hastings for its solution. Bengal was prosperous, and free from external enemies on every quarter. ”

“ When quite a young man (1811) he was one of the founders of the National Society, formed for establishing schools in which the principles of the church of England should be taught. He was on the original council of King's College, and a governor of Christ's Hospital from 1821. ”

“ Hodgson's curiosity was by no means confined to literature and religion. He collected a great mass of documents relating to the history, the administration, the trade, and the people of Nepal, for a work on that country which he was fated never to write. These are now deposited in the library of the India Office. He was one of the pioneers of scientific ethnology, his monograph on 'The Koch, Bodo, and Dhimal People' (1847) being always referred to as the model of what such research should be. As a zoologist his name stands equally high. ”

“ The rivalry between the English and the French, which had already convulsed the south, did not penetrate to Bengal. That province was under the able government of Ali Vardi Khan, who peremptorily forbade the foreign settlers at Calcutta and Chandernagore to introduce feuds from Europe. The duties of a young “writer” were then such as are implied in the name. At an early date Hastings was placed in charge of an aurang or factory in the interior, where his duties would be to superintend the weaving of silk and cotton goods under a system of money advances. ”

“ In 1897 he was appointed librarian at the House of Lords, where he compiled two catalogues, one of the general library and one of the law books. This appointment, while it did not interrupt his studies, nor his tenure of office at Chatsworth, introduced him to another sphere of interest, where he made himself equally at home. He became absorbed in politics and even dreamed that his ideal occupation would be to govern orientals. ”

“ In 1814 the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures awarded to him a silver medal for the introduction into the country of rhea, or China grass, an Eastern fibre of extraordinary strength and fineness, which to this day has not been profitably utilised in manufacture. He was a fellow of the Royal Society. Portraits of him and his wife were painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and engraved in mezzotint by C. Turner. The pictures are now in the possession of his grandson, Lord-justice Cotton. A marble bust of him by Chantrey is preserved at the Trinity House. ”

“ So far back as 1867 the government had resolved that a gazetteer should be prepared for each of the twelve great provinces of India. But there was no guarantee for uniformity in the execution of the work. In July 1869 Lord Mayo placed Hunter on special duty 'to submit a comprehensive scheme for utilising the information already collected, for prescribing the principles according to which all local gazetteers are in future to be prepared, and for the consolidation into one work of the whole of the materials that may be available.' This task occupied the next twelve years of Hunter's life. ”