Bowring was a student of literatures as well as languages. Removed to London at the age of eighteen, he found himself in the employment of a commercial house which did a large business in the way of furnishing supplies to the British army in the Peninsula, then the scene of a terrible war. In 1813, he was sent as the representative of his house to Spain and Portugal, where he led a wandering life, shifting from place to place, as the movements of armies determined. In the midst of his commercial occupations, he studied the literature and social life of the Peninsula, and formed a friendship with its leading liberals. It was this knowledge of Spain, and sympathy with its liberalism, that in 1820 introduced him to the notice of Jeremy Bentham, of whom he became the friend and disciple, whose eyes he closed, and who appointed him his executor. After the peace of 1815, Bowring started in business for himself, with varying success; and in the course of his subsequent commercial career (which did not close until 1828), he visited most of the countries of Europe, uniting to commercial activity a keen study of the language and literature of each country visited. In 1821 he began with the publication of his "Specimens of the Russian Poets," that remarkable series of works which has interpreted for the English mind the popular sentiment and fancy of almost every European race. To the "Specimens of the Russian Poets," succeeded (often with valuable introductions) the "Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain;" "Servian Popular Poetry;" and "Bohemian Anthology" (all three published in 1824); the "Specimens of the Polish Poets," 1827; the "Poetry of the Magyars," 1830; of the "Poets of Holland;" and the "Cheskian Anthology," 1832. Shortly after the commencement of his acquaintance with Bentham, he edited from the MSS. of the utilitarian sage, a work expository of "Free Trade Principles," published in 1822. It was in this year that his intimacy with some French liberals led to his arbitrary arrest at Calais, from which he was released by the prompt interposition of Mr. Canning. To the same period belongs his publication of "Matins and Vespers," devotional poems, original and translated, which have gone through several editions. In 1824 Jeremy Bentham founded the Westminster Review to be the quarterly organ of utilitarian radicalism, and Bowring was its first political editor. The duke of Wellington thwarted the wish of the conservative chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Herries, to adopt in 1828 the recommendation of a select committee of the house of commons, and make Dr. Bowring one of the commissioners for the reform of the public accounts. But meanwhile he was sent to Holland to report on the Dutch system of keeping accounts, and the illustrator of Holland's popular poetry became also the expositor of its national bookkeeping. With the accession of the liberals to power, and of his friend, Mr. Poulett Thompson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, to the Board of Trade, began Dr. Bowring's famous commercial missions on the continent and to the East, 1831-39, the results of which he embodied in a series of valuable reports. It was on his return from a commercial mission to the East in the September of 1838, that at a dinner given to him at Manchester, was originated the anti-corn-law association, which before long became the anti-corn-law league. Dr. Bowring had represented Kilmarnock from 1835 to 1837, and Bolton from 1841 to 1849, actively advocating commercial and general liberalism in the house of commons, when, in the last-named year he was appointed British consul at Canton. Subsequently he became acting plenipotentiary in China, and was knighted in February, 1854, on being appointed governor of Hong Kong, and superintendent of trade in China. His later official career belongs to the domain of contemporary politics. Since the affair of the Arrow, Sir John Bowring has returned home, and is about to add to his interesting work, "The kingdom and people of Siam" (London, 1857), an account, similarly based on recent personal observation, of the Philippine islands. Sir John Bowring edited the Works of Jeremy Bentham, which with memoirs and the correspondence of their author, were published in Edinburgh in 1838-41. He has also contributed some volumes of "Minor Murals" to juvenile literature. The decimalization of the coinage and the reform of the quarantine laws are among the many objects which have been advocated by this indefatigable worker, who, it should be added, derives his title of LL.D. from the Dutch university of Groningen.—F. E.
BOWYER, William, a celebrated English printer greatly distinguished for scholarship, was born 19th December, 1699, in Whitefriars, London. His father was an eminent printer, and after William had completed his education at Cambridge, he entered into partnership with him in 1721, and took the superintendence of the literary and critical department of the business. He soon won distinction for the Bowyer press, by the accuracy and erudition he displayed when correcting for the press the numerous learned works which passed through his hands. He did not content himself with typographical accuracy, but took advantage of his extensive scholarship to supply critical notes, emendations, prefaces, and indices, which greatly enhanced the value of many of the works which he published. In printing Lyttleton's Latin Dictionary, the Greek Lexicon of Schrevelius, the Hebrew Lexicon of Buxtorf, and Barclay's English Dictionary, he supplied numerous corrections, and added many words which he had met with in the course of his own reading. A collection of his numerous papers, written in connection with the publications he superintended, and displaying great research, especially in classical archæology, was published in 1785 by his biographer, Mr. Nichols, under the title of "Miscellaneous Tracts, by the late William Bowyer." But the works in connection with which he is best remembered are—"The Origin of Printing," consisting of—1st, Dr. Middleton's dissertation on its origin in England; and 2nd, Meerman's account of its invention at Haarlem, with numerous notes and corrections, published by Bowyer in 1766; and his "Critical Conjectures and Observations on the New Testament," prepared in connection with an excellent edition of the Greek text, which he issued in 1763. This work received the highest commendations from the most eminent Greek scholars, and was translated into German by Dr. Schulz, professor of theology and of oriental languages at Leipzig. The fourth and best edition appeared in 1812. Mr. Bowyer held several lucrative appointments, such as official printer of parliamentary papers, and printer to several learned societies. He died 18th November, 1777, in his 78th year, greatly beloved and revered by a large number of men eminent in literature, with whom he had long been on terms of intimate friendship. A complete list of the valuable works which issued from the Bowyer press, and were enriched by the emendations and additions made by this "last of the learned printers," will be found in a work entitled Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, comprising Memoirs of William Bowyer, printer, F.S.A., and many of his learned friends, by John Nichols, F.S.A., in 9 vols. 8vo.—J. B.
BOXER, Edward, C.B., a rear-admiral in the navy, was a native of Dover, and was born in 1784. He entered the navy in 1798, and sensed under Lord Collingwood on the Mediterranean station, and commanded a detachment of seamen, who were landed to co-operate with the army in Egypt in 1801. In 1809 he captured three French frigates, a store ship, and seven merchantmen, in the bay of Rosas. He afterwards served on the Halifax and other stations, and in 1840 was employed in taking the soundings off the coast of Syria, previous to the bombardment of the fortress of St. Jean d'Acre. He went out with the Black Sea fleet in 1854, and was appointed by Lord Raglan and Sir E. (afterwards Lord) Lyons to superintend the harbour of Balaklava. Many severe criticisms were made in the newspapers at the time, as to the way in which he discharged the duties of this post; but Lord Raglan, in the despatch announcing his death, bears testimony to the essential services which he rendered the army by improving the landing-places and wharfs at that port. He died of cholera on board H.M.S. Jason, in the harbour of Balaklava, June 4, 1855, leaving a widow and eleven children.—(Hardwicke's Annual Biography for 1856.)—E. W.
BOXHORN, Marcus Zuerius, a Dutch critic, born at Bergen-op-Zoom in 1612; died in 1653. He was professor of eloquence at Leyden before his twentieth year; and, after the death of Daniel Heinsius, succeeded to the chair of history and politics. He published a univeral history, and editions of several of the Latin classics.—J. G.
BOYCE, William, Mus. Doc, the son of a respectable citizen of London, was born in the year 1710. A fine voice, and an early propensity to the study of music, induced his father to place him under the tuition of Charles King, master of the children of St. Paul's cathedral, into the choir of which, when prepared by the routine of the music-school, he was admitted. At the usual age he quitted the station of a singing-boy, and became an articled pupil of Dr. Greene, then organist of that church. Endowed with genius, and fortunate in the qualifications of his tutor, he made rapid progress both in theory and practice; and at the expiration of his pupilage was unanimously
