We regret to notice the death of Sir John Bowring,
a man-who. has been before the world as author and politician for sixty years,. and as a sort of commercial Envoy for the Government whenever commercial knowledge was needed, and as an expositor of Bentham'ia views of administration and jurisprudence, had done much good work. He was, moreover, a considerable linguist, though in the judgment of many scholars a slatternly one, and as his. foiblewas omniscience, he frequently attempted enterprises which he needed assistance to carry out. He was a good statist, and had considerable imagination, which in the Hut infinencak his politics. There exists among Lord Canning's papers a letter from Sir J. Bowring, written about the beginning of 1857, in which he laid before the Viceroy a very remarkable proposal, which, had it been accepted, would have ended in
conquest of Southern China. It is quite possible that. SirJohn Bowring missed his vocation, and that as an Indian Civilian he might have been a great success, the great men of that Service having, from Hastings downward, often united high practical capacity with feeble literary ambitions. The most un- intelligible point about Sir John was his favour for the Peace Party, in which he certainly did not believe, at all events East of Suez.
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