reform, Catholic emancipation and popular education. In 1828 he visited
Holland, where the university of Groningen conferred on him the degree
of doctor of laws. In the following year he was in Denmark, preparing
for the publication of a collection of Scandinavian poetry. Bowring, who
had been the trusted friend of Bentham during his life, was appointed
his literary executor, and was charged with the task of preparing a
collected edition of his works. This appeared in eleven volumes in 1843.
Meanwhile Bowring had entered parliament in 1835 as member for
Kilmarnock; and in the following year he was appointed head of a
government commission to be sent to France to inquire into the actual
state of commerce between the two countries. He was engaged in similar
investigations in Switzerland, Italy, Syria and some of the German
states. The results of these missions appeared in a series of reports
laid before the House of Commons. After a retirement of four years he
sat in parliament from 1841 till 1849 as member for Bolton. During this
busy period he found leisure for literature, and published in 1843 a
translation of the _Manuscript of the Queen's Court_, a collection of
old Bohemian lyrics, &c. In 1849 he was appointed British consul at
Canton, and superintendent of trade in China, a post which he held for
four years. After his return he distinguished himself as an advocate of
the decimal system, and published a work entitled _The Decimal System in
Numbers, Coins and Accounts_ (1854). The introduction of the florin as a
preparatory step was chiefly due to his efforts. Knighted in 1854, he
was again sent the same year to Hong-Kong as governor, invested with the
supreme military and naval power. It was during his governorship that a
dispute broke out with the Chinese; and the irritation caused by his
"spirited" or high-handed policy led to the second war with China. In
1855 he visited Siam, and negotiated with the king a treaty of commerce.
After the usual five years of service he retired and received a pension.
His last employment by the English government was as a commissioner to
Italy in 1861, to report on British commercial relations with the new
kingdom. Sir John Bowring subsequently accepted the appointment of
minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary from the Hawaiian
government to the courts of Europe, and in this capacity negotiated
treaties with Belgium, Holland, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. In
addition to the