home. During his early life at York he devoted constant thought to educational and kindred subjects, as well as to the management of the Friends' asylum known as ‘The Retreat,’ which his great-grandfather had been largely instrumental in establishing. He read much. Natural history interested him specially; and, in conjunction with his brother William, he devoted considerable attention to the study of ornithology. Many interesting observations made by the brothers are recorded in Hewitson's ‘Eggs of British Birds.’ In 1842 Tuke purchased for 5l. an egg of the great auk, which sold in 1896 for 160l. In the autumn of 1845 he accompanied William Forster (1784–1854) [q. v.] and Joseph Crosfield on a tour in the United States, undertaken for rest and change. During this journey he visited all the asylums for the insane that came within his reach, and noted his observations on them for the benefit of his father and others interested in ‘The Retreat.’ He also, in 1846 and 1853, read before the Friends' Educational Society papers (afterwards published) on the ‘Free Schools’ and ‘Educational Institutions’ of the United States.
Throughout his life he devoted whatever leisure he had from business to public objects. He worked on nearly all the important committees of Friends' associations, schools, &c., assisted in founding others, was treasurer for eighteen years of the Friends' Foreign Mission Association, and chairman for eight years of the Friends' Central Education Board. His sympathies were wide, and he supported all kinds of charitable institutions.
Tuke was one of the first to enter Paris after its evacuation by the Germans in 1871. He, with other Friends, had undertaken to distribute 20,000l., subscribed by English quakers for the relief of those whose property around the city had been destroyed during the siege. Their work was nearly completed when the revolution of the ‘Commune’ broke out. The ‘permit,’ issued a few days before, signed ‘Jules Ferry, Maire de Paris,’ was no longer of use. Application was therefore made to the ‘Comité Centrale,’ and a free pass, signed by ‘Fortune Henry,’ was issued to ‘Citoyen James Hack Tuke.’ They then finished their work and left Paris, after braving the dangers of the revolution for five days. Of this experience Tuke published a brief account (London and Hitchin, demy 8vo, 1871). In 1879 he published ‘A Sketch of the Life of John Fothergill, M.D., F.R.S.,’ the founder of Ackworth school (London, cr. 8vo, n.d.).
It is by his philanthropic work in Ireland that Tuke will be best remembered. His interest in Ireland was first aroused during the terrible famine years of 1846–7, when, in company with William Edward Forster [q. v.] and others, he actively assisted Forster in the distribution of the relief fund subscribed by English Friends. Reports of this distribution, by Tuke and others, were printed by the society. Tuke published his own observations on the condition of the country in a pamphlet of sixty pages, entitled ‘A Visit to Connaught in 1847’ (London, demy 8vo, 1847), which attracted much notice at the time and was largely quoted in the House of Commons by Sir George Grey and others. In 1848 Tuke suffered from a dangerous attack of fever, contracted when visiting the sheds provided by his father for some starving Irish who had sought refuge in York.
The impression produced upon his mind by the scenes he had witnessed in Ireland in 1847 was never effaced; and early in 1880, when the threatened acute distress in the west of Ireland was absorbing public attention, Tuke, urged by his old friend W. E. Forster (afterwards chief secretary), spent two months in the distressed or ‘congested’ districts, distributing in relief 1,200l. privately subscribed by Friends. His observations were recorded in letters printed for circulation among his friends, in letters to the ‘Times,’ in an article in the ‘Nineteenth Century’ (August 1880), and more fully in his pamphlet ‘Irish Distress and its Remedies’ (London, demy 8vo, 1880). The pamphlet was instantly recognised by the members of all political parties as an authoritative statement of the economic position, and ran rapidly through six editions. Holding that Irish distress was due to economic and not to political causes, he advocated the ‘three f's,’ state-aided land purchase, the gradual establishment of peasant proprietorship, the construction of light railways in remote districts, and the fostering by government of fishing and other local industries—suggestions all of which he lived to see adopted. For the smallest and poorest tenants, whom no legislation could immediately benefit, he urged ‘family emigration.’ He next spent some time in Canada and the States, afterwards publishing his observations (Nineteenth Century, February 1881). As a result, Forster inserted a clause in the Irish Land Act, 1881, to facilitate state-aided family emigration by means of loans, but this proved unworkable. Twice during 1881, and in February 1882, Tuke visited Ireland, again publishing his views (Contemporary Review, April 1882), with the result that at a meeting held at the house of the Duke of Bedford on 31 March, an influential committee
