John Bowring

While Bowring's interests were only sporadically concentrated on Protestantism in Italy, his global mercantile, literary and diplomatic peregrinations, significant 'observation' writings, and his interest in freedom of conscience, indicate how general were the conditioning factors which propelled the Waldensians into the British public eye in the early 19th century.

Born in 1792 to a Unitarian family of woolbrokers, by the age of 16 John Bowring had followed his father, Charles Bowring of Larkbeare into the family business. He was educated under unitarian ministers, the idiosyncratic James Hews Bransby, of Cross Street Chapel, Moretonhampstead, and Dr. Lant Carpenter (who would remain a constant presence in the Bristol circle from which Bowring's second wife, Deborah, would come), at the time minister of a unitarian chapel in Exeter. Bowring then entered a merchant's house at Exeter: its international reach fed his prodigious talent for languages.

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. (Gordon 2004)

In 1811 he became a clerk in the London house of Milford & Co., by whom he was despatched to Spain and Portugal. In 1816, he married Mary (1794–1858), the daughter of Samuel Lewin of Hackney. Having learned the trade, he entered into business on his own account, and in 1819-20 he travelled widely commercial purposes. In. France he made the acquaintance of Cuvier, Humboldt, Thierry, and other distinguished men. On his return from Russia in 1820 he published Specimens of the Russian Poets.

Restoration Europe was a nervous place for dissenters and foreigners. In 1822 Bowring was arrested and held in solitary confinement at Calais-- ostensibly for carrying Portuguese Despatches referring to an intended invasion of the Peninsula by the French Bourbon government, though Gordon (2004) proposes that the Bourbon government wanted to 'sweat' him for information which would enable them to prosecute his French liberal contacts. He was eventually released without trial after pressure from Whitehall, and condemned to perpetual exile from France. Bowring published a pamphlet entitled Details of the Imprisonment and Liberation of an Englishman by the Bourbon Government of France (1823). He would, in 1830, support the July Revolution, and was 'the first Englishman received by Louis-Philippe after his recognition by the British government.' (Gordon 2004)

Bowring's interest in the Waldensians was an extension, first, of his still very close associations with Unitarian reformers; secondly, of his linguistic and cultural interests; and finally, of his self-image as an agent of the British liberal agenda around the world. While he was in Europe for business, he had heard of the Waldensians' purity of faith and ancient forms - and then he encountered some of their leaders in the Vaudois diaspora in Amsterdam. This was not unusual - as Nishikawa notes, the founding continental operations of the SPCK were connected through people such as 'Thomas Hoare, Henry's brother, [who] after his education with merchants in Amsterdam, worked in Hamburg' (Nishikawa 2005:738), and through the Tuscan free port of Livorno. For Bowring, too, it was the 'singular enthusiasm' of the Dutch that excited the 'liveliest interest' in Bowring himself, who came to see the Waldensians an argument for greater religious liberty in his own country: 'it is a bitter reproach against our own country that illiberality and intolerance can refer to it as an authority as well as an example'. (Bowring 1820) He entered into correspondence with Pierre Geymet, who (along with Annaeus Ijpeij, Mosheim and others, which Bowring read in the original Dutch, German, etc.) was the primary source of his Account of the Present State of the Vaudois Churches in Piedmont (1820). Comparing Geymet's account to that of Mosheim, he reports the Waldensian assertion that here was a very ancient church indeed, founded on the Apostles Creed, and admirably undisturbed by 'the noise of modern controversy'. Bowring's sources went directly to their needs - funds for a hospital which would enable the Waldensian community to care for their own, and not expose them to the 'furious zealots' in the state-supported Catholic system. Bowring's account contributed not only to his own reputation, but also to the breadth of British interest in support for the Waldensian cause. He himself joined a dissenting Protestant committee to raise funds for the cause.

In 1824, Jeremy Bentham and his circle founded the Westminster Review as a vehicle for philosophical radicals. When James Mill declined the editorship, Bowring and Southern were made the founding editors. Bowring wrote prodigiously, on politics, the runes of Finland, the Frisian and Dutch tongues, Magyar poetry, and a variety of other literary subjects. Bowring published a string of books introducing the British readership to Continental literature: Batavian Anthology and Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain (1824); Specimens of the Polish Poets, and Servian Popular Poetry [sic. Serbian] (1827), Poetry of the Magyars (1830); Cheskian Anthology (1832), among others. Not surprisingly, he rapidly acquired a string of honorary degrees and awards from the Continent (including Groningen, 1829; and 'no fewer than thirty diplomas and certificates from various academies and other learned bodies and societies'), and laurels from Dutch and Russian leaders. (By the end of his life he was a fellow of the Royal Society, knight commander of in the Orders of Leopold [Belgium], Christ [Portugal]; Isabella the Catholic [Spain], and of Kamehameha I. Other honours were bestowed in Siam, Austria, Sweden and Italy). As virtually Bentham's literary publisher, Bowring published the great Utilitarian's Deontology (1834), and later Bentham's Collected Works (1843) in eleven volumes.

Unable, due to his radical views, to hold a public position while the Conservatives were in power, he was successively appointed a commissioner for reforming the system of public accounts; in charge of an investigation into Dutch approaches to national financial management, which extended over time to other European states. His reports led to a sweeping changes in the English exchequer, and the national military accounts, and made him a key figure in a succession of international trade commissions through Europe, north Africa and the Middle East. He became convinced of the commercial and cultural benefits of free trade. He translated Peter Schlemihl out of German, into French Thomas Clarkson's Opinions of the Early Christians on War, and published in Spanish a Contestacion á las Observaciones de Don Juan B. Ogavan sobre la esclavitud de los Negros. He also published a significant amount of spiritual literature (Matins and Vespers 1823; Minor Morals 1834-9), and popular travel recollections for young people. Some of his poems and hymns (such as 'In the cross of Christ I glory', written later in life) acquired considerable renown.

On the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832 Bowring appeared as a candidate for the representation of Blackburn, but lost the election by twelve votes. He was returned to parliament for the Clyde burghs in 1835, but lost his seat at the general election of 1837. Defeated at Kirkcaldy, he was elected for Bolton in 1841. He was a frequent speaker on commercial and fiscal questions, on education, the factory acts, and similar subjects.

British navigational and trade regulations were a significant barrier to free trade. In September 1838 (while halting at Manchester on his way to Blackburn), Bowring met Cobden and others at the York Hotel, leading to the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. Bowring was given the remit to persuade Prussia to modify its tariff on English manufactures. His Report to parliament on the import duties was an important impetus to Sir Robert Peel's revised tariff scheme of 1842. Supported by the prince consort, Bowring obtained, after a discussion in the House of Commons, the issue of the florin, intended as the first step towards the introduction of the decimal system into the English currency. (The Decimal System in Numbers, Coins, and Accounts, 1854). His publications and submissions on the tie between education and economic development were an influence on educational debates in other parts of the empire, such as the 1844 NSW Legislative Council debates on the implementation of the Irish National system of schooling. (Sydney Morning Herald 7 Oct 1844: 2.)

With the collapse of his commercial interests, especially in an ironworks in Glamorganshire, Bowring applied for the consulship at Canton, and was given it through the influence of Palmerston. He resigned his seat in parliament, and relocated, attempting to open up Canton to British mercantile activity. In 1854 he was appointed plenipotentiary to China, and thence governor, commander-in-chief, and vice-admiral of Hong Kong and its dependencies, overseeing trade in China, and diplomatic affairs with Japan, Siam, Cochin-China, and Korea. Bowring succeeded in concluding a treaty with Siam, a feat which had evaded many Western delegations. The Kingdom and People of Siam (1857). In recognition of his contributions, he was knighted by Queen Victoria, but shortly afterwards found himself in conflict with the Chinese government. His wife was one of those poisoned in an attempt to undermine British control of Hong Kong. The turmoil in Parliament sparked by his high handed behaviour resulted in an election, in which his allies (under Palmerston) were returned to power with an increased majority. After returning to China in 1859, and touring the Philippines in order to encourage more open trade, in May of that year he resigned his office as governor, and returned to England.

The poisoning killed his wife and undermined Bowring's health. He remarried in 1860, to Deborah nee Castle (1816–1902), the daughter of Thomas Castle of Bristol - herself an active reformer in the causes of women's suffrage, education, university extension and the like. In that year Bowring was commissioner of inquiry into commercial relations with the newly formed kingdom of Italy, and he continued to work for commercial treaties with various European and Asiatic powers. He also maintained an active life in voluntary clubs and circles (including the British Association, the Social Science Association, the Devonshire Association, and other institutions), and wrote widely for reviews and magazines, public lectures on international topics. He continued his 'hyperglot' activities in global languages, gathering extensive materials and translating sources from Chinese, Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Spanish, Serbian, Magyar, 'Cheskian', Russian, and other poetical selections. He did not come back to the Waldensians per se in his Autobiographical Reflections (1877), but it was clear that Italy and the contribution of rational protestant faith to the newly unified nation remained with him. He had a lasting disdain for despotic regimes, and said so in his accounts of being followed and threatened by the secret police during his various pre-unification visits to Italy: 'Wonderfully have events assisted the progress of Italian emancipation, and the establishment of good constitutional government. Whatever has been done in hostility to freedom has but served freedom's cause, and all things have worked together for good. Austria has paid the price of her obstinacy, and Italy has reaped the benefit of her patriotism and foresight.' (Bowring 1877: 164)

After a very brief illness Bowring died at Exeter on 23 Nov. 1872, almost within a stone's-throw of the house where he was born. His eldest son, J. C. Bowring, was an eminent amateur entomologist, presenting to the British Museum the extensive Bowringian collection. His younger brother, Lewin B. Bowring, served under Canning and later British administrations in India; E. A. Bowring, C.B., was an MP representing Exeter (1868 to 1874) and one of the organizers of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Like his father, he gained a reputation as a translator of Goethe, Schiller, and Heine.

Sources:

• Bowring, John (1877). Autobiographical Recollections of Sir John Bowring, Lewin B. Bowring (ed.), London: Henry S. King & Co.

• Bowring, John (1820). 'Account of the present state of the Vaudois Churches in Piedmont', Monthly Repository, xv (November 1820): 629-631.

• Bransby, J. H. (nd.). 'Correspondence of James Hews Bransby', University of Manchester Library GB 133 UCC/2/6, https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb133-ucc/ucc/2/6

• Gordon, Alexander. (rev. 2004). 'Bransby, James Hews (1783-1847), rev. R.K. Webb, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

• Nishikawa, Sugiko. (2005). 'The SPCK in Defence of Protestant Minorities in Early Eighteenth-Century Europe', Journal of Ecclesiastical History 56.4 (October): 730-748.

• Reynolds, K. D. (2004). 'Bowring [née Castle], Deborah, Lady Bowring (1816–1902)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/56282.