BOWRING, JOHN. 



BRAZIL. 



69 



translated into Dutch, procured for him the 

 degree of Doctor of Laws from the University 

 of Groningen. Soon after, he was appointed 

 by the British Government a commissioner to 

 inquire into its commercial relations with sev- 

 eral of the European states. He visited for 

 this purpose France, Switzerland, Italy, Egypt, 

 Syria, and the states of the German Zollve- 

 rein, and his reports in relation to these coun- 

 tries possess great and permanent interest, 

 lie was a Member of Parliament for the bor- 

 ough of Clyde, from 1835 to 1837, and from 

 Bolton from 1841 to 1849, and took an active 

 part in the business of the Commons, intro- 

 ducing and promoting many important meas- 

 ures connected with the revenue and com- 

 mercial affairs of Great Britain. He was an 

 earnest advocate of free trade, although the 

 Government which conferred so many ap- 

 pointments and honors upon him was not then 

 so much in favor of that policy as it has been 

 since. In 1849 he was appointed British con- 

 sul at Canton, and superintendent of trade in 

 China ; and in 1854, after receiving in the mean 

 time the honor of knighthood, he was pro- 

 moted to be Governor of Hong-Kong. In 1855 

 he proceeded on a special mission to Siam, and 

 concluded a treaty with the two kings of that 

 country. He had charge of the European af- 

 fairs of the Hawaiian Government for some 

 years, and in 1861 was sent abroad by the 

 British Government to report on the state of 

 the commercial relations between Great Brit- 

 ain and the new kingdom of Italy. The 

 Published works of Sir John Bowring, aside 

 *om the collected edition of Bentham's Works 

 and Life, in twenty-three volumes, already 

 alluded to, were: "Specimens of the Rus- 

 sian Poets," two vols., 1821-'23 ; "Matins and 

 Vespers, with Hymns," 1823 and subsequently 

 (several of his hymns are among the choicest 

 lyrics of our English hymnology) ; in conjunc- 

 tion with H. S. Van Dyk, " Batavian Anthol- 

 ogy," 1824 ; " Ancient Poetry and Romances 

 of Spain," 1824; "Specimens of the Polish 

 Poets," 1827; "Servian Popular Poetry," 

 1827 ; " Poetry of the Magyars," 1830 ; " Czes- 

 kian Anthology, being a History of the Poetical 

 Literature of Bohemia," 1832 ; " Minor Morals 

 for Young People," three vols., 1834-'39 ; "Re- 

 ports on the Commercial Relations between 

 France and Great Britain," two vols. folio, 

 1835-'36; "Reports on the Statistics of Tus- 

 cany," etc., 1837; "Observations on the Ori- 

 ental Plague, and on Quarantines," etc., 1839 ; 

 "First Lessons on Theology, for Children," 

 1839; "Manuscript of the Queen's Court, 

 with other Ancient Bohemian Poems," trans- 

 lated, 1843; "Decimal Coinage," illustrated, 

 1854; "Decimal Systems in Numbers, Coins, 

 and Accounts," 1854; "The Kingdom and 

 People of Siam, with a Narrative of the 

 Mission to that Country in 1855," two vols., 

 1857; "A Visit to the Philippine Islands in 

 1858," 1859. He also published a collection 

 of his poems and some religious works. 



BRACE, JOHN PIERCE, a distinguished teach- 

 er and journalist, born in Hartford, Conn., in 

 1793 ; died in Litchfield, Conn., October 18, 

 1872. He was educated at Williams College, 

 whence he graduated in 1812, and, after de- 

 voting several years to the study of the three 

 learned professions, he took charge of the 

 Litchfield Academy, then just opened, where 

 he remained until 1832, when he became prin- 

 cipal of the Hartford Female Seminary, where 

 his niece, Miss Catharine E. Beecher, had al- 

 ready become distinguished as a teacher. In 

 these two institutions Mr. Brace trained many 

 young ladies who have since become leading 

 women in society, charities, or literature, 

 throughout the land ; among them, Mrs. H. B. 

 Stowe, Mrs. Isabella B. Hooker, Mrs. Cyrus 

 W. Field, Mrs. Cornelius Du Bois, of New York, 

 Mrs. Wilson of Brooklyn, Mrs. Marshall 0. Rob- 

 erts, the missionaries Mrs. Bliss and Mrs. Van 

 Lennep, of Hartford, Mrs. McCullough, the wife 

 of the United States Secretary of the Treasury, 

 and numerous others. No other teacher in the 

 United States has ever had so many influential 

 and intelligent pupils. After teaching for many 

 years, Mr. Brace entered the editorial profes- 

 sion, and was for a number of years the editor 

 of the Hartford Courant, and gave to that pa- 

 per a higher literary reputation than it had 

 previously enjoyed. Mr. Brace's acquirements 

 were vast and multifarious. He was fitted 

 thoroughly in the studies of the three profes- 

 sions law, medicine, and theology and could 

 have entered any one with honor. His knowl 

 edge of ancient and modern history was both 

 wide and minute. In mineralogy he had 

 made extensive researches and collections ; in 

 botany, he was a correspondent of De Can- 

 dolle and other European botanists, and his 

 valuable herbarium will be found a treasure- 

 house of collections. Even in out-of-the-way 

 subjects of investigation, such as heraldry, 

 astrology, deciphering cryptograms, and mu- 

 sical composition, he was singularly well 

 versed. But these vast and varied acquire- 

 ments were all most willingly consecrated to 

 the service of his pupils. For the past nine 

 years he had been living in quiet and comfort 

 on the old homestead in the village of Litch- 

 field, enjoying the treasures of his ample libra- 

 ry, and the society of friends and pupils who 

 gratefully remembered " the faithful teacher." 

 Mr. Brace published very little in a collected 

 form : several monographs on mineralogy and 

 botany ; a volume of lectures to young con- 

 verts ; a learned but humorous work entitled 

 " Tales of the Devil ; " and two novels, " The 

 Fawn of the Pale-Faces," and another story 

 of early New-England life. His great work, 

 and one which will be imperishable in its re- 

 sults, is the thorough mental training he im- 

 parted to those who, in their turn, have become 

 the lights of the present age. 



BRAZIL (IMPEEIO DO BEAZIL), a country of 

 South America, and the only empire in the 

 New World, extending from lat. 4 30' N. to 



