and the result was so great a Free Trade movement in the wine districts, as to cause no small apprehension to the French government, which complained of the agitation which he was reported to have caused. But as the Doctor has truly said, "Little is to be done in France or elsewhere by negotiation; our example, not our diplomacy, will change foreign tariffs." This example England is now giving.

In 1835, he visited all the manufacturing cantons of Switzerland, and reported thereon to parliament. He was impressed with the fact, that the Free Trade principles, paramount there, had enabled Switzerland, notwithstanding a disadvantageous position, remoteness from the supply of raw materials, remoteness from ports of shipment, difficult communication through mountainous regions, high value of land, and comparatively high value of labour, to compete successfully with her rivals in all the great markets

of the world.

In 1836, Dr. Bowring went on a mission to Italy, and reported to parliament on the state of our commercial relations with Tuscany, Lucca, the Lombardian and Pontifical states. The liberal commercial code of Tuscany stands out in advantageous contrast to the restrictive and prohibitory policy of the other Italian states: and the English missionary of commerce was enabled to report on the beneficial effects of Free Trade as seen there in the better cultivation of the land, in its higher value, and in the superior conduct of the Tuscan people.

In 1837 and 1838, he travelled in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey, on a government commercial mission. The results were embodied in a report to the Foreign Office, which was printed and presented to both houses of Parliament. He was absent on this mission twelve months: visited every part of Egypt as far as Nubia in the south; traversed Syria from Aleppo to Acre, and returned by Constantinople and the Danube to London.

In 1839, he was commissioned by the government to go to Berlin to attend the meeting of the Zoll Verein (the German Customs Union): on this he made an elaborate report, which was presented to parliament, and has had considerable influence over the minds of reflective statesmen both at home and abroad, by its exposition of the disadvantages of hostile tariffs. The memorable report to parliament on the impost duties, which led to the preposed relaxation of the English tariff by the Whigs, and the dissolution of their ministry in that year; which sub

sequently led to Sir Robert Peel's amended tariff in 1842, and again justified him in his Free Trade revolution in 1846, was chiefly drawn up by Dr. Bowring. There was, however, another commercial reformer associated with it, to whom the emancipated commerce of England are deeply indebted, and to whom as yet less than justice has been rendered-Joseph Hume.

Dr. Bowring for several years laboured with assiduity, though not with the success which his labours and their object deserved in the reformation, or rather abolition of the quarantine laws; relics of ignorance, which hinder free commerce, and are a discredit to the science and common sense of our age and country.

In contested elections Dr. Bowring has had a share of disappointments more than enough to discourage ordinary men, relieved, however, with occasional success. In 1832, on the enfranchisement of Blackburn by the Reform Act, he stood a contest for that place, and was beaten by twelve votes. In 1835 he again_contested it, and was again beaten by thirteen votes. The same year he contested the Clyde district of burghs, and won the election by a majority of 237 votes. In 1837 he lost these burghs by 71 votes. In 1841 he was defeated at Kircaldy, by a majority of 87 votes; and the same year was elected for Bolton by a majority of 78 votes.

The miscellaneous services of Dr. Bowring are far too numerous to be repeated here. Within the last two or three years the Isle of Man, which was afflicted with a faction of monopolists oppressing it like a nightmare, applied to him for his advice and assistance. He gave both. He brought the grievances before government privately, and effected a reformation that has made him the most popular man that ever set foot on that island.

A letter in the newspapers dated Douglas, Isle of Man, September 19, 1846, conveys the estimate of the Doctor's services as held by the islanders. It says:

"Political demonstrations are of so rare occurrence on this little NON-REPRESENTED island, that when they do occur we make the most of them. In a late number

of your journal, it is stated that Dr. Bowring is the most popular man that ever set foot on the island. The statement is true, and the cause of it is obvious. When the learned gentlemen first visited the Isle of Man, three years ago, he found its commerce tied up, by a paltry licence systein, which in the practical operation proved an instrument of favouritism, fraud, oppression, and petty tyranny. He found

our ports and harbours shut against the tempest-tossed seamen, unless a large sum in harbour dues was paid by the vessel in distress. The Doctor brought these grievances before government, got the licences abolished, trade put on a satisfactory footing, and the ports opened.

"On the occasion of his recent visit, 17th September, 1846, Dr. Bowring desired that he might pass through the country unnoticed. But the people's gratitude would not have it 80. By five o'clock, p.m., one hour before the arrival of the steamer, all the shops and places of business were shut in the town of Douglas. The people from the adjoining country began to pour into town in goodly numbers. Flags and streamers were displayed at mast-head by the shipping in the harbour. Banners, mottos, and flags waved over the principal streets, and were hung out from the windows. The steamer, King Orry, in which the Doctor came was dressed out with its colours. On approaching th harbour, a large boat took off from shore a body of the Reform Committee, who went on board the steamer to escort their benefactor into the town. By this time many thousands of people of both sexes thronged the long, commodious pier, and blocked up the principal thoroughfares of the town. As the boat containing our honoured visitor and his friends approached the pier, loud and hearty cheers burst forth from the multitude. After landing, Doctor Bowring arose in his carriage, and addressed the dense throng around him, saying all that was kind and appropriate.

"Such is the enthusiasm of our people toward the Hon. Member for Bolton, that they would elect him, I believe, King of Man to-morrow, the successor of the Stanleys and Athols, if they were put to the vote. The Doctor has given his pledge that he will still lend his services to the island until the people are represented in the legislature. Hitherto the people have been governed by an oligarchy, which the Danes established over them, when the island was in subjection to that power. The intelligence of the Manxmen has now entirely outgrown their Scandinavian institutions; and it is reasonable and right that the people should have a voice through their representatives, in framing the laws which are to control their property, their liberty and their lives."

In literature Dr. Bowring has taken a wide range. He has written sentimental sonnets, and edited the ju risprudence of Bentham. Had he been less philosophic, he would have perhaps been more popular; as certainly,

if he had been less democratic he would have been a more liberally rewarded politician. As a speaker he is argumentative, clear, animated, and often eloquent in the very highest sense of that term. The speech he delivered on the 20th of September, 1838, at Manchester, which led to the immediate formation of the society that ended as the National Anti-Corn-Law League, is a master-piece, and, from its intrinsic value as well as from the historical circumstances associated with it, will be long preserved. It comprehends the whole subject involved in commercial emancipation, from the loaf of bread of the weaver and his web of cloth in Manchester, to the future destiny of nations and of races of men when there shall be universal brotherhood; and England (so he said) when she establishes Free Trade, shall "create for herself a condition of society and state of opinion that will make her the lever of the universal world." And again he said of war,-" Commerce is as yet the Hercules in his cradle, not having strangled the serpent, but the serpent will be strangled;" and he foretold what has happened, that if the men of Manchester would arouse themselves and be united, and would instruct others as they were instructed, there was no human obstacle that could prevent the abolition of the chiefest monopoly in a very few years this is done; and all the rest will be fulfilled in

due time.

The foregoing was written in 1846, he then added; whether the Free Traders, merchants, and manufacturers who have the means and the ability to dispense rewards, or whether the government which has been elevated to power and popularity by the labours of such men as Dr. Bowring, have done all they should do in acknowledgment of such services as his, they must each for themselves determine. But to himself, to a high intellectual nature like his, there must be a great reward in seeing those principles triumphant, which he has advocated for so many years in so many lands and in every language of the people amongst whom he has travelled.

In 1849 a testimonial of esteem was forwarded to him in China, by the inhabitants of the Isle of Man, he having accepted at the end of 1848 the appointment of Consul at Hong Kong. It is a matter for deep regret that so able a financier, so sound a politician, so worthy a man, was not appointed to some more exalted office, and at home where his many good services entitled him to be employed.

At the general Election in 1847, he stood for Bolton, in

conjunction with Mr. John Brooks of Manchester, who had been an eminent member of the Council of the League. He was returned, but owed the majority to the characteristic disinterestedness of Mr. Brooks. The manner and quality of that self-denying act are written in the memoir which forms our next section. Doctor Bowring, at date of present writing, 1850, remains Consul at Hong Kong.

SECTION IV. JOHN BROOKS.

The following memoir was written by the present writer on the death of Mr. Brooks, 24th October, 1849, and was presented to the public through the Manchester newspapers on the day of his funeral.

JOHN BROOKS, whose death may be regarded as a pub lic calamity, was born at Whalley, Lancashire, in 1786, and died at Clarendon House, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, on Saturday, 27th October, 1849. He was the son of William Brooks, (afterwards of the firm of Cunliff and Brooks, Bankers,) and brother of Samuel Brooks, Esq., of Whalley, Manchester, the successor of their father in the bank. He began business as a calico printer in 1809, in partnership with the late Mr. Butterworth, under the designation of Butterworth and Brooks. Ultimately they were led by the prospect of success, and impelled by the energy natural to Lancashire, and largely inherited by the Brooks, to extend their operations to spinning and manufacturing, to the exportation of manufactures and the importation of the products of foreign countries. Like others they achieved success, in spite of occasional serious reverses. The experience of a career so long and so varied gave Mr. Brooks, in latter days, an advantage in the discussion of commercial politics over men more practised in eloquence; as, for instance, when his examination of Lord Stanley, at Lancaster, in 1841 (on the celebrated Tamboff fallacies,) silenced his lordship on mercantile statistics for several years afterwards.

The first appearance of Mr. Brooks as a speaker at a public meeting, was at Manchester, in the Town Hall, on the 25th of February, 1830. That meeting was convened by the Boroughreeve, on the requisition of 158 manufacturers and merchants, to take into consideration the heavy pressure of the taxes, the depression of trade, and to petition parliament for relief. Mr. Richard Potter, Mr. J. Shuttleworth, Mr. Hyde Greg, Mr. Brooks, Mr. Harvey, Mr. W. B. Grime, Mr. Prentice, and Mr. F.