Buckingham, JAMES SILK

Buckingham, JAMES SILK, traveller and lecturer, a farmer's son, was born at Flushing, near Falmouth, in 1786, and went to sea before he was ten. After years of unsettled and wandering life, he in 1818 established a journal at Calcutta, the boldness of whose strictures on the Indian government led to his expulsion from Bengal. In London he established the Oriental Herald (1824), and the Atheneum (1828), now the leading weekly literary journal. Subsequently he travelled through the United States, and from 1832 to 1837 was member for Sheffield. He was projector of a literary club, the British and Foreign Institute (1843-46); and president of the London Temperance League (1851). Besides eighteen books of travel, &c., he had published two volumes of his Autobiography, when he died June 30, 1855. His youngest son, Leicester (1827-65), was a skilful dramatic adapter.