COLENSO, John William, English clergy man, bishop of Natal: B. Saint Austell, Corn wall 24 Jan. 1814; d. Bishopstowe, Natal, June une 1883. He was educated at Saint John's College, Cambridge; was assistant-mas ter at Harrow 1838-42; resided at Saint John's College 1842-46, when he was preferred to the rectory of Forncett Saint Mary, Norfolk, and on 20 Nov. 1853 was appointed the first bishop of Natal. His numerous writings ex tend over a wide field. His treatises on arith metic and algebra have become textbooks in schools and universities. In 1853 he published a collection of
ecclesiastical quarrel was that the Anglican community of the Cape was divided into two hostile parties; Colenso still remained the only bishop of the Church of England in Natal, but the Rev. W. K. Macrorie was consecrated bishop of Maritzburg for the Church of that province of South Africa 25 June 1869. About the end of 1874 Colenso visited England, and during this visit he pleaded before the Secre tary for the Colonies and other members of the government the cause of Langalibalele, a Zulu chief, who had been dispossessed of his terri tory and imprisoned at Cape Town. From that time forward the humane bishop was foremost in advocating the cause of the aboriginals against the oppression of the Boers and the en croaching policy of the Cape officials supported by Sir Bartle Frere. The captive Cetewayo (see ZULULAND) appealed to Colenso to place his case before the English people, and it was mainly owing to the bishops efforts that the Zulu king was allowed to go to England to plead his own case with the ministry. In the meantime Colenso continued his literary labors.
New Bible Commentary by the Bishops and Other Clergy of the Anglican Church Criti cally Examined' was published in 1871, the sev enth and last part of his work on the Penta teuch in 1879, and