the writing of his own "Memoirs; comprehending the History of the Progress of Indian Literature, and Anecdotes of Literary Characters, in Britain, during a Period of Thirty Years." Part I. was printed in 1819, and a second edition in 1821. The second part of the "Memoirs," followed in 1820; including a Tour in 1775, to Derbyshire, Westmorland, and Cumberland; and the third part was published in 1822. This brings down Mr. Maurice's history to about the year 1796; but the fourth, or what was to be the final part, we regret to say was never published.

This is a most amusing piece of autobiography. The author does not conceal his own indiscretions, but the pleasant way in which he narrates them, and the evident goodness of his heart, induce the reader to pity and to forgive. But what renders the work truly delightful, are the numerous interesting anecdotes of the eminent contemporaries with whose acquaintance and friendship Mr. Maurice was honoured.*

From this review of Mr. Maurice's various publications, it will appear evident to every one who remarks the number, variety, and extent of his works, that with much talent he united great industry, exhibiting, indeed, a perseverance seldom to be met with. The rewards he received were certainly not commensurate with his deserts, when it is considered that he reinforced the doctrine of the Trinity with new auxiliaries, and strengthened the prevailing faith in Europe, by means of facts and arguments drawn from the remotest periods of the history, and the most distant regions of Hindostan.

Among whom may be particularly noticed Archbishops Moore and Markham; Bishops Horsley, Percy, Bennett, and Tomlyne; Marquis of Abercorn and the Yorke family; Earls of Mansfield, Liverpool, Spencer, Dartmouth, and Harborough; Viscount Sidmouth; Lord Auckland; Right Hon. Wm. Pitt; Sir William Jones; the Leviathan of Literature, Dr. Johnson; the deeply-learned and benevolent Dr. Samuel Parr; Rev. Dr. Graham, of Netherly, and his two sons; Dr. John Wilkinson; Dr. George Pearson, the celebrated chemist; Mr. Burke; Jacob Bryant; Walter Pollard, Comptroller of the Exchequer; Monsey Alexander; W. Warburton Lytton, and the Grecian Club; that unfortunate genius, but indiscreet democrat, Joseph Gerald; Joseph Payne, the facetious barrister; John Goddard and William Godfrey, Esqrs., both of Woodford; John Smith, of Coom's Hay, Esq. (who afterwards took the name of Leigh); Rowland Stephenson, Esq., the banker, &c. &c.

The death of this learned and esteemed person, which took place on the 30th of March, 1824, at his apartments in the British Museum, after a long and painful illness, was a most desirable release from helplessness and hopeless misery. He was a man of great genius, lively, instructive, and good humoured. His talents, attainments, and virtues, amply expiated his singularities and his infirmities.

He was buried on the 6th of April, in the churchyard of Woodford (where the remains of his beloved wife had been many years before deposited); attended to the grave by his only nephew, William Bevill Maurice, Esq.; and by his executors, Henry Ellis and J. B. Nichols, Esqrs.; and by Dr. Badeley, jun., Andrew Gaspar Giese, Esq. his Prussian Majesty's Consul; Taylor Combe, Esq.; T. J. Pettigrew, Esq.; and W. Bulmer, Esq. In his will he strongly recommends to his nephew to reprint his Indian Antiquities.

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No. XIV.

THOMAS EDWARD BOWDICH, Esq.

By the death of this accomplished and enthusiastic traveller, science has lost a zealous votary, and literature a distinguished

ornament.

Mr. Thomas Edward Bowdich was born in the year 1790, in the city of Bristol. His father was a merchant and manufacturer of great respectability, an elder branch of the ancient family of Bowdyke, in Dorsetshire. His mother was a co-heiress of the Vaughan family, of Payne's Castle, in Wales. Very early in life he began his classical education at the grammar-school in Bristol; and at the age of nine years was removed to a celebrated school at Corsham, in Wiltshire, where he shortly became head-boy, which place he retained until the moment of his departure.

His inclinations at this period seem to have led him solely to classical studies; and the slight course of mathematics which, to use his own expression, he "was flogged through," served but to increase the disgust he then felt to such a pursuit. His father intended him for the bar; but soon after his removal from school, Mr. Bowdich, sen. changed his opinions, and compelled his son to enter the counting-house, a mode of life totally opposite to his inclinations, and which rendered his attainments useless. He applied himself to commerce, however, for some years, constantly struggling between his inclinations, and, what were thought to be, his duties; indulging himself in forming small literary societies, and giving loose to his controlled feelings in many a playful jeu d'esprit, published in various periodical works. A third recreation was that of the chase, in which he was always distinguished amongst the boldest riders in the field.

On becoming the junior partner in his father's house, Mr. Bowdich married a lady nearly his own age; and this matrimonial connexion proved his pride and solace in all the vicissitudes of his chequered life. Soon after this event, his mercantile prospects, always uncongenial, became unsatisfactory, and he determined to quit the pursuit of them entirely, and entered himself at Oxford. This plan, however, met with so much opposition from those on whom he was, in a measure, dependent, that he turned his thoughts to Africa, where he had an uncle of high rank in the service of the African Committee.

Mr. Bowdich accordingly, in 1814, proceeded to Cape Coast Castle, where he was soon distinguished by his talents.

Returning to England for a short time, the mission to Ashantee was planned, and Mr. Bowdich was appointed the conductor of it; but on his re-arrival at Cape Coast, his uncle, Mr. J. Hope Smith, (then Governor-in-Chief,) and the Council, thought him too young to lead an expedition of such importance, and he was made second in rank. The embassy marched to Coomassie in April, 1815: but events soon occurred which induced Mr. Bowdich, and the junior members of the mission, to take the management of it into their own hands, and which gave Mr. Bowdich an opportunity of displaying both his diplomatic skill and his intrepidity. On the whole transaction being referred to Cape Coast Castle, the gentleman who had been placed at the head of the mission was recalled, and Mr. Bowdich was empowered to assume the command of it. This he did, and perfectly succeeded in his difficult negotiation; forming a treaty with the barbarian monarch, which promised peace, safety, and commerce to the British settlements on the Gold Coast, and to the natives under the walls of the fortresses. Never, perhaps, were prudence and self-devotion more required, or more strikingly exhibited, than in the progress of this mission. In illustration of the latter quality, we quote a passage from a despatch written by Mr. Bowdich to the Governor and Council of Cape Coast Castle, at a moment when the fate of himself and

his companions was suspended by a thread of the most fragile

texture:

"But, gentlemen, if, in your better knowledge and reflection, you cannot, consistently with your honour and your trust, meet the king's demand, the history of our country has fortified our minds with the illustrious example of a Vansittart, and his colleagues, who were situated as we are, when the dawn of British intercourse in India was scarcely more advanced than its dawn in Africa is now, and their last request to their council is our present conclusion to you : 'Do not put our lives in competition with the honour and interests of our country.""

In 1816, Mr. Bowdich returned to England with impaired health; and in 1819, appeared the singularly interesting and valuable details of his mission, in one quarto volume. It was received by the public with great favour, and excited a very deep and general interest.

Until within these few years, the powerful kingdom of Ashantee, and Coomassie, its capital, (a city of one hundred thousand souls,) although not above nine days' journey from the English settlements on the coast, were known only by name, and very few persons in England had ever formed the faintest idea of the barbaric pomp and magnificence, or of the state, strength, and political condition, of the Ashantee nation, which Mr. Bowdich's book unfolded. His narrative seems to carry his reader to a new and crowded world; and imagination could hardly produce any shapes more strange and wonderful, than the animated description which he gives of realities. For instance, the reception of the mission at Coomassie, Mr. Bowdich thus vividly and picturesquely depicts:

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"We entered Coomassie at two o'clock, passing under a fetish, or sacrifice of a dead sheep, wrapped up in red silk, and suspended between two lofty poles. Upwards of 5000 people, the greater part warriors, met us with awful bursts of martial music, discordant only in its mixture; for horns, drums, rattles, and gong-gongs, were all exerted with a zeal bordering on phrenzy, to subdue us by the first impression.