XI 



formerly Lieut.- Governor of Bengal, and subsequently Governor of 

 the Island of Jamaica. Lady Colvile survives him, but their only 

 child, a son, died in early youth. 



Immediately after his return to England Sir James was sworn in as 

 a Privy Councillor, and made one of the assessors to the Judicial Com- 

 mittee of the Council on Indian Appeals ; his fellow assessor being- 

 Sir Lawrence Peel, his predecessor in the Chief Justiceship of Bengal, 

 and his most intimate friend. In 1865 he became a member of the 

 Judicial Committee itself, and in 1871 (on the re-organization of the 

 Council) he was chosen one of the paid judges of the same. 



Sir James Colvile's legal attainments were of a very high order. It 

 is written of him by a competent judge, " His knowledge of Indian 

 systems of law, and his acquaintance with India were highly valued 

 by his colleagues and by suitors ; and his judgments were full and 

 exhaustive statements, often of cases intricate and involved in the 

 highest degree. According to the custom of the Privy Council, they 

 embodied the opinions, which he had assisted to form, of other judges ; 

 the practice of a separate judgment being delivered by each judge not 

 having taken root." 



It was, however, as the wise, the calm, the considerate President of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal, that Sir J. Colvile's name and memory 

 are esteemed by every scientific man who had the privilege of know- 

 ing him in India. He occupied the chair from the date of the 

 resignation of his genial predecessor, Governor- General Lord Hardinge, 

 in December, 1847, till that of his own departure from England in 1848. 

 During not a few years of that interval, when the Society's affairs 

 were troubled, and itself not exempt from internal dissensions, it was 

 steered through its difficulties by the inexhaustible patience, sound 

 judgment, firmness, and conciliatory measures and manners of its 

 watchful chief. It need hardly be added, that when he left India, the 

 Council of the Society placed on record its feelings of regret at the 

 loss of his valuable services, and its thanks for the zeal and ability 

 with which he had for ten years discharged the office of President, 

 and had promoted the objects and interests of the Society. 



After his return, Sir James resided during the autumn vacation at 

 his seat, Craigflower in Fife, on the banks of the Forth, a few miles 

 west of Dunfermline, a property which he inherited and to which he 

 was devotedly attached. He died at his residence in London, 8, Rut- 

 land Gate, from a sudden cessation of the heart's action, preceded, 

 however, by a gradual failure of both the digestive and circulatory 

 powers. He was elected a Fellow of this Society on April 29th, 

 1875, being one of the first under the modified rules for the election 

 of persons of the Privileged Class, which restricted these to members 

 of the Privy Council. J. D. H. 



