The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-11-30 00:00:00

THE DEATH OF SIR JOHN BOWRING.

The Daily!Telegraph, in remarking upon the death of
Sir John Bowring, says :
" By the death of Sir John Bowring, a kind heart has ceased
to beat, a strong brain has finished its earthly work, and a
vigorous frame has succumbed to the necessary laws of decay.
The line of the Latin poet may well be his epitaph : "
hiultls
Me boots tiebilis occi Without ranking with the
foremost spirits of the time, he was nevertheless em-
phatically a remarkable man, and if it were possible to
measure the life-work of Jeremy Bentham's favourite pupil it
would be found that Sir John limning had done a great
deal more than the average amount for "the greatest good
of the greatest number." Executor and literary legatee
of Jeremy, he helped to establish Bentharolxm, which,
under ether names, is now amongst the strongest of modern
schools he popularised theless-known Continental I olk-songs,
translating with a versatile linguistic !snotty which recalled
that of Mezzofmtl, from the Berrien, Polish Magyar, Scan-
dioavian, Ytisian, Esthonlan, Icelandic, and other lan-
guage. Ile poured forth pamphlets and volumes upon
the questions of labour morals, fiscal and commercial
systems, the slave trade, war and what not Ile nego-
tiated commercial treaties in France. Belgium, Switzerland,
and the Ziillvereln. lie was the author of excellent
incidental reforms in Parliament ; he was the father
of the fiorio, and. consequently, grandfather of the decimal
system in Great Britain. What a prominent part he played
In China, and how he went to Siam, and familiarised us with
white elephants, and the two Kings who reign there, as nest
in Breutford—all this is written in political annals. rhea,
hrilno ling.:mon, he gave us Chinese novels and Sia-
mese philosophy all which immense work did hut
keep his powerful mind healthy sod amused. Sir John
was in truth a fine specimen of the British capa-
city for hard work ; what he did would have far-
joshed a dozen Southern men with materials of a busy
existence. Let it be honourably added that his activity
was almost always on the side of human progress.
that he was enlightened in religious and social respects, and
that his support was seldom wanting to a good cause. Of
such a man we may in truth say that "his works do follow
him ;" and dying ash. has done, at 81 years of age, he re-
bukes that spirit which grudges to the soul the free use of the
body. Sir John is afresh proof that soon may thrive on hard
work and die of idleness.'
Sir John Bowring was twice married—first, in 1816,
to Muria, daughter of the late Mr. Samuel Lewin, of
Hackney, Middlesex, who died in 1858 from the effects
of poison administered to her by some of the " Celes-
tials " at Hongkong. He married secondly in 1880,
Mies Deborah Castle, daughter of Mr. Thomas Castle,
of Bristol, who survives him without issue. By his
former marriage Sir John had a family; his eldest
son, Mr. John Charles Bowring, of Larkbeare,
Exeter, is a 'magistrate for Devonshire ; his name
is known as the donor to the British Museum,
of a magnificent collection of Coleoptera, consisting of
more than 84,000 specimens, and styled the " Bow-
ringian Collection ; another of his sons, Mr. Lewin
Bowring, lately an eminent member of the Bengal
Civil Service, was private secretary to Lord Canning
and Lord Elgin in India ; and his fourth son, Mr.
Edgar A. Bowring, C. 8., for many years Registrar to
the Board of Trade, and Secretary to the Royal Corn-
mission for the Great Exhibition of 1811, is the
colleague of Sir John Duke Coleridge in the representa-
tion of Exeter.

"The death of Bk. John Bowring removes the last
of the iTtilitararn Radicals of the peculiar school which
Bentham founded and the IVatininster Review repre-
sented. We may at all events regard him as the last
of the more conspicuous acolytes at the altar of that
temple of Philosophical Radicalism, for although there
doubtless still linger some who were as3ociated in the
movement, there is none left, we think, whose name
may be considered fairly as public property."—Leader
in Daily New:

_
rho,ld Move (=recta past experience shows that Ire-
land will cause us little or no additloguil strain on our
food supplies by the partial failure of her potatoe crop,
and any portion of it that her weal
inthere farmers
and
we will realize • double price g
Ifootch porta most accessible to her.
I may, therefore, confine my attention to the pro-
bable extent of the foreign wheat required for the
bread supply of the Hinted Hingcluna, and the sources
whence the deficiency of potatoes in Great Britain are
likely to be made good. Last year I felt myself obliged
to differ from Mr. lames in the estimate of the wheat
crop, but this year my own observation leads me to
agree with him that it would be unsafe to reckon
on a requirement of leas than one million quarters
of wheat per month to supplement the home growth
of the kingdom. Any decided rise in the price of
breed would cause a proportionate economy in con-
sumption, which, as in the crop of 1867, I will esti-
mate at 5 per, cent. on the total home and foreign
supply, by which a saving of fully one million quarters
might be effected. On the other hand, we began the
eea.son with a small stock, and the high price of
potatoes will have a tendency to increase the consump-
tion of wheet. This brings me to the conclusion that
we are likely to require in the harvest year —Septem-
ber, 1872, to September, 1873-12,000,000 quarters of
foreign wheat and flour.
Now, this is the largest quantity we have ever yet
iifl
ported, and it will be interesting to inquire whether we
are likely to receive it, and what price it may be
necessary to pay for it. We shall find that it is not
solely a question of price (though that has much to do
with it), but also very greatly a question whether
nature has been more prolific in other great wheat
-
growing countries, and chiefly whether France is or is
not a competitor with us as a purchaser. On the latter
point the testimony is clear. In the huit 15 years the
three years of highest price were in 1867,1868, and 1871,
when the average prices were respectively 565. 43.
635. 9d., and 565. Bd., and in each of those years France
was an active competitor with us. In the four
years 1858, 1859, 1865, and 1866, when the average
prices were respectively 445. 28., 435. 9d., 41s. 101,
and 495. lid. (with one exception the lowed prices
in the whole period), France gave us from
her surplus considerably more than one-fourth of our
whole foreign supply. Her turn of good crops seem
to have again come round, and we may well congratu-
late our nearest neighbour on the bountiful harvest
she has reaped this year, for it is not only advantageous
to herself, but beneficial to us in the double quality
that it takes her out of the market as a competitor and
has enabled her during the last two months to contri-
bute to our wants at a rate of 40 per cent, higher than
she has ever previously done in her years of greatest
abundance. If I might venture to offer an opinion to
the trade in regard to price, I would say Mutt France is
the controlling force. When she is a buyer prices rule
high, and in every year when she has had much to sell
prices have been moderate.
That this Is likely to prove true in this present
season is shown by the fact that the prices ruling dur-
ing the last two months have brought up the unpre-
canted supply of 2,581,000 quarters, or at the rate of
more than 15,000,000 quarters within the year, an im-
port considerably greater than we seem likely to re-
quire. This enormous supply has undoubtedly been
stimulated by the disastrous accounts of the Northern
harvest, and therefore boding* of a total failure of the
potatoe crop in this country. I have already stated the
very moderate degree in which the loss of the Scotch wheat
crop is likely to affect the supply of bread. The great
bulk of the wheat crop in England was harvested in
fine condition. The deliveries are at present small,
but the weather for out-of-door thrashing has been
most unpropitious. If the setting in of trout fora time
should claws the Russian and Baltic ports and Ame•
ricer' canals, and during the winter months the foreign
supply should decline, I feel very confident that the
home supply will rapidly increase and will carry us in
safety to the period when foreign corn will again flow
in upon us without stint.
But we have still to ascertain whence the loss of a
million and a half tons of potatoes is to be made good
to the consumer. The foreign imports, which in
October, 1870 and 1871, were 1,170 and 3,900 tons re-
spectively, sprang up at once, in October, 1872 to
85,400 tons. They come from all quarters in near
Continental ports—Prussia, Belgium, and France.
Prussia and France together are believed to grow
about 25 million tons a year, so that a considerable in-
crease in the usual price can hardly fail to draw
from so large a source the comparatively small
quantity we require. The importers do not appre-
hend any difficulty in continuing the present rate of
supply so long as the present rate of price is main-
tamed, and except such interruption SA may be caused
by frost. £6 a ton here for the best foreign potatoes
leaves a large profit beyond the usual price to the
foreign grower, and will probably guarantee to us a
sufficient supply. The British grower will be a heavy
loser, but it cannot matter much to the British con-
sumer where hia money goes if he receives nearly the
usual supply at no very great increase of price.
I trust what I have now stated will help to calm the
public mind, after BO unpropitious a season, in regard
to the probable supply and price of food during the
coming winter. Ido not see any good reason to ap-
prehend either great scarcity or much, if any, advance
in price. Ireland, I trust and believe, will be able to
sustain herself, and if she has to import a mere than
usual quantity of Indian corn, the supply is abundant
and the price very moderate.
My greatest anxiety is in the prospect of the next
wheat crop. The crop of 1867 was worse than that
of 1872, and it was also accompanied by a short
crop of potatoes, but the autumn seed time
was one of the best we have seen, and a large
breadth of land was sown in the finest pee-
sible condition. This year it is very different. An
inferior crop is followed by a bad seed time. I
would venture to offer a word of counsel. Where
the heavy and damp lands cannot be touched with
advantsge let the lighter and drier lands on every
farm suitable far wheat be now sown with it, top-
dreesed with nitrate of soda and superphosphate in
spring where thought advisable, and if the tsOB.SOII
is
then suitable 1!•-.. the heavy lands be sown with spring
corn. Most men will naturally think of this, and it
seems to me of national importance that it should be
speedily and generally acted upon if we are to escape
the loss cd a large portion of our next wheat crop.