of the Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street. His works are mostly portraits and figure-subjects of domestic character.
He periodically visited his native town, and is author of a number of poems in the Westmoreland dialect, and of some of sentimental strain in ordinary English. He died at his house in Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, London, 27 Dec. 1867.
His writings have been collected under the title 'Rustic Studies in the Westmoreland Dialect, with other scraps from the sketch-book of an artist,' London and Kendal, 1868. A pamphlet, 'Specimens of the Westmoreland Dialect,' by Rev. T. Clarke, William Bowness, &c., Kendal, 1872, contains one poem from the above-named collection.
[Cat. Royal Academy; Cat. Brit. Institution; Cat. Soc. Brit. Artists; Art Journal, February 1868; Kendal Mercury, 4 Jan. 1868; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists (1878).]
BOWRING, Sir JOHN (1792–1872), linguist, writer, and traveller, was born at Exeter on 17 Oct. 1792. He was descended from an ancient Devonshire family, which gave its name to the estate of Bowringsleigh, in the parish of West Allington. For many generations the Bowrings had been engaged in the woollen trade of Devon, and in 1670 an ancestor coined tokens for the payment of his workmen bearing the inscription, with a wool-comb for a device, 'John Bowring of Chulmleigh, his half-penny.' Sir John was the eldest son of Mr. Charles Bowring, of Larkbeare. He was first placed under the care of the Rev. J. H. Bransby, of Moretonhampstead, and subsequently under that of Dr. Lant Carpenter.
Bowring entered a merchant's house at Exeter on leaving school, and during the next four years laid the foundation of his linguistic attainments. According to the brief memoir written by his son, he learned French from a refugee priest, Italian from itinerant vendors of barometers and mathematical instruments, while he acquired Spanish and Portuguese, German and Dutch, through the aid of some of his mercantile friends. He afterwards acquired a sufficient acquaintance with Swedish, Danish, Russian, Servian, Polish, and Bohemian, to enable him to translate works in those languages. Magyar and Arabic he also studied with considerable success, and in later life, during his residence in the East, he made good progress in Chinese. In 1811 Bowring became a clerk in the London house of Milford & Co., by whom he was despatched to the Peninsula. He subsequently entered into business on his own account, and in 1819-20 travelled abroad for commercial purposes, visiting Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Russia, and Sweden. In. France he made the acquaintance of Cuvier, Humboldt, Thierry, and other distinguished men. On his return from Russia in 1820 he published his 'Specimens of the Russian Poets.'
In 1822 he was arrested at Calais, being the bearer of despatches to the Portuguese ministers announcing the intended invasion of the Peninsula by the Bourbon government of France. He was thrown into prison and passed a fortnight in solitary confinement. The real object of his imprisonment was to extort from him admissions which would enable the Bourbon government to prosecute the French liberals. Canning, then British foreign minister, insisted upon an indictment or a release. Bowring was eventually released without trial, but as he had been accused of complicity in the attempt to rescue the young sergeants of La Rochelle, who were executed for singing republican songs, he was condemned to perpetual exile from France. Lord Archibald Hamilton brought the illegality of the arrest before the House of Commons, but Canning explained that the proceedings, however despotic, were warranted by the then existing laws of France. Bowring published a pamphlet entitled 'Details of the Imprisonment and Liberation of an Englishman by the Bourbon Government of France,' 1823. In 1830, Bowring was the writer of an address from the citizens of London congratulating the French people on the revolution of July. He headed the deputation which bore the address to Paris, was welcomed at the hotel de ville, and was the first Englishman received by Louis-Philippe after his recognition by the British government.
Bowring's intimate friend and adviser, Jeremy Bentham, founded, in 1824, the 'Westminster Review,' intended as a vehicle for the views of the philosophical radicals. The editorship was first offered to James Mill, but declined by him on the ground of the incompatibility of the post with his official work. Bowring and Southern eventually became the first editors of the 'Review,' the former taking the political and the latter the literary department ; but subsequently the management passed into Bowring's hands alone. Bowring not only wrote many of the political articles, but also papers on the runes of Finland, the Frisian and Dutch tongues, Magyar poetry, and a variety of other literary subjects. In 1824 Bowring issued his 'Batavian Anthology' and 'Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain ;' in 1827 appeared his 'Specimens of the Polish Poets,' and 'Servian
