708 



the Church, whose name occurs among the losses sustained by us in 

 the past year, it is scarcely possible to record his scientific attain- 

 ments and to forget at the same time the principle on which he pur- 

 sued them, and the general tendency of his professional life and ser- 

 vices. His principle was to employ faithfully, as a Christian minister, 

 every talent committed to him ; and, in his functions as Fellow and 

 Tutor of Trinity College, and afterwards as Professor of Mathe- 

 matics in the East India College (to which, with many very eminent 

 men, Fellows of this Society, who have passed away before him, he 

 was nominated at its first institution), he endeavoured to discharge 

 his official duties always in harmony with his higher obligations as 

 a Christian. Though most moderate in his temper and in his ex- 

 pressions, he was most firm in his views of truth and most fearless 

 in his defence of them ; and the part which he took as foremost in 

 the early controversy on the Bible Society, thirty- five years since, 

 may be admitted, without entering into the merits of the question, 

 as a proof of the vigour of his mind and of the integrity of his prin- 

 ciples. His latest public act was to preach the Fast- Day Sermon 

 before the House of Commons on the 24th of March 1847, a duty 

 comparatively frequent at an earlier period, but which, as no such 

 case, it is believed, had occurred in the last quarter of a century, 

 may not unfitly be recorded as constituting so^e distinction in the 

 life of one selected for such an office. 



The Right Hon. Sir Ejuvard Hyde East was born in Jamaica 

 on the 9th of September 1 764, and was the grandson of Captain John 

 East, who assisted Penn and Venables in the conquest of the island 

 in 1655, and for this service had a grant of an estate from the Crown 

 after the Restoration, which has descended to the present Baronet. 

 By marriage Sir Edward was connected with the family of a cousin 

 of the Lord Chancellor Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. Sir Edward's uncle, 

 Mr. Hinton East, established a Botanic Garden in Jamaica, which 

 boasted of contributions from the East Indies and China. Sir 

 Edward was sent to England when seven or eight years old, and 

 having passed through Harrow school, entered Magdalen College, 

 Oxford. He became a student of the Inner Temple, and was called 

 to the Bar in November 1786, having been previously two years 

 under an eminent special pleader. In December 1786 he married 

 Miss Hankey, who died in 1844, leaving an only son. Mr. East 

 was introduced by the Duke of Chandos to Lord Mansfield, which 

 led to an acquaintance with Mr. Justice Buller ; and the friendship 

 and advice of these distinguished men materially facilitated Mr. East's 

 progress. But chiefly to himself he owed his first distinction, by 

 the entirely new proceeding of periodical and systematic Reports of 

 the King's Bench : a plan which has since been taken up in all the 

 other courts in Westminster Hall. The Term Reports with which 

 Mr. East was connected, consisted of 24 volumes, from 1794 to 

 1813, the first eight of which were the joint labours of Mr. Durn- 

 ford and himself, and the last sixteen volumes resulted from his own 

 industry and ability. Contemporaneously with these works he pub- 



