3-047-103 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Sir John Bowring, 1872. Engraving from a photograph by John Watkins. '...in the south of France...he was arrested on suspicion of being a political spy...He was soon afterwards employed by our Foreign Office to collect statistical information on the Continent for the advantage of British trade...He acted as literary secretary to Jeremy Bentham, whose literary executor he became on Bentham's decease...He has at various times acted as commercial commissioner from this country to France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, the German Customs Union, Turkey, Egypt, and Greece...He received a testimonial from the Manxmen for the services he had rendered by obtaining an Act of Parliament for their emancipation from feudal vassalage, and from the Maltese for his advocacy as their unofficial representative in the House of Commons. Aided by the support of Prince Albert, he obtained, after a discussion in the House of Commons, the issue of the florin, which was the first step towards the introduction of the decimal divisions into our currency...he was promoted to be her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China...In...1855 Sir John Bowring went on a special mission to Siam, and concluded a treaty of commerce with the two Kings of that country'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.