BOWRING (Sir John, 1792-1872, M.P., F.R.S., Linguist, Governor and Ambassador, opened up trade with King Mongkut of Siam, favourite pupil of Jeremy Bentham)

Autograph verses signed and titled 'Perpetual Production', musing on the idea that if atoms are indestructible, so perhaps are the thoughts of man, circulating and recirculating, and that even more "The soul, - which is of nobler birth Must live - must live eternally", 40 lines with several autograph alterations, 2 sides 4to., no place, no date, c.

Sir John's bent for languages was nurtured in a mercantile house in Exeter. At 19 he was in the Peninsula and then studied the public accounts of many European countries. The Government sent him on many commercial diplomatic missions in the Middle East, and later the Far East, where he was Plenipotentiary to China (1854) and Governor of Hong Kong, and established diplomatic and commercial relations with Siam (1855). He was also responsible for introducing the florin, our first decimal coin.

Item Date:  1850

Stock No:  51814      £275

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