without being pursued for a specified time. A special convention was therefore made between Cotton and the Russian admiral, by which the ships were delivered to Cotton, to be restored within six months after the conclusion of peace. Cotton returned to England in December 1808, in which year he was made full admiral, and in March 1810 was appointed to command in the Mediterranean in succession to Lord Collingwood. In May 1811 he was recalled to take command of the Channel fleet in succession to Lord Gambier, and was at Plymouth when, on 23 Feb. 1812, he died suddenly of apoplexy.
He married in 1798 Philadelphia, daughter of Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley, bart., by whom he had two daughters and two sons, the elder of whom was St. Vincent [q. v.]
[Naval Chronicle (with a portrait), xxvii. 354; Ralfe's Nav. Biog. ii. 215.]
COTTON, GEORGE EDWARD LYNCH, D.D. (1813–1866), bishop of Calcutta, was son of Captain Thomas Davenant Cotton of the 7th fusiliers, who was killed at the battle of Nivelle a fortnight before the birth of his son. His grandfather, the dean of Chester, was the second son of Sir Lynch Salusbury Cotton, bart., of Combermere Abbey, an uncle of Sir Stapleton Cotton, the first Viscount Combermere [q. v.] George Cotton was educated at Westminster and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where in 1836 he took a first class in the classical tripos, coming out eighth on the list. In the following year he was appointed by Dr. Arnold an assistant-master at Rugby School, with the charge of a boarding-house. Both at school and at the university he was remarkable for force of character, accompanied by a quaint and grotesque humour, was very industrious and methodical in his work, and was earnestly religious. At Cambridge his most intimate friends were W. J. Conybeare [q. v.] and C. J. Vaughan, the present (1887) dean of Llandaff. His religious views at that time were of the evangelical school, but at Rugby he speedily came under the influence of Arnold, and in the words of his biographer ‘thoroughly absorbed and reproduced in his own life and work the most distinctive features of Arnold's character and principles.’ He was ‘the young master’ of ‘Tom Brown's School Days.’ He remained at Rugby for fifteen years, gradually developing into a singularly efficient master, and devoting himself to the moral, as well as the intellectual, training of his pupils. In 1852, having previously failed in a candidature for the head-mastership of Rugby on the retirement of Dr. Tait, he was appointed master of Marlborough College, which, established only nine years before, had been very unfortunate in its management, and stood urgently in need of reform. Cotton's mastership was the turning-point in the history of the college. By firmness, method, and untiring industry he restored the finances, improved the teaching, gained an almost unexampled influence over masters and boys, raised the whole tone of the school, and at the end of six years left it in possession of the high place among the public schools of England which it still maintains. His retirement from Marlborough was caused by his appointment as bishop of Calcutta, made on the recommendation of Dr. Tait, whose colleague he had been at Rugby, and with whom he had afterwards been connected in the capacity of examining chaplain. On his leaving Marlborough the governing body of the college paid him the rare compliment of allowing him to name one of the closest of his Rugby friends as his successor.
Cotten was consecrated bishop of Calcutta on 13 May 1858, his friend Dr. Vaughan preaching his consecration sermon. At Madras, the first Indian port at which he landed, the day of his arrival (8 Nov. 1858) happened to be the day of the public reading of the royal proclamation issued on the occasion of the queen's assumption of the direct government of India. Although the rebellion had been practically suppressed, men's minds were full of questions of various kinds—among them that of the attitude to be maintained by the government of India in regard to christian missions and the education of the natives. By some persons it was alleged that the extension of education in India and the encouragement which had been given to christian missionary work by grants in aid of mission schools under the education despatch of 1854 had had much to do with the discontent which resulted in the mutiny. By others it was contended that too little had been done in recognition of christianity, and that the compulsory use of the Bible in government colleges and schools ought no longer to be delayed. At such a time an indiscreet or impulsive metropolitan might have added very seriously to the difficult task which the government had before them. But Cotton was an eminently practical man, well able to see both sides of a complicated question. While rendering most valuable help to the missionary cause and promoting other measures of great importance in their bearing upon religion and education in India, he speedily acquired an influence in the administrative and official circles of Indian life which had not been possessed by any of his predecessors. The work which will always be most closely associated with his
