James Hume (magistrate)

James Hume (23 January 1808 – 17 September 1862) was a British magistrate and civil servant who worked in the East India Company court at Calcutta.

He was a prominent political commentator, the founder of the daily newspaper Calcutta Star which he edited, as also the periodical the India Sporting Review which ran from 1845 to 1859.

Hume wrote numerous essays under the pen-names of "Idler" in the Calcutta Star and "Abel East" in the India Sporting Review.

Hume wrote in 1843 that "Whiggism has become so contemptible, that Radicalism is the only refuge for a reasonable man.

He married Martha Weatherhed and they had five children of whom James Torrens Hume (1847 - 1930) was later a public prosecutor at Calcutta.