CHAPTER XV.

RETURN TO ENGLAND.

Illness of Mr. Peabody. — Return to England. — Sir Curtis Lampson.

"Adieu, adieu! my native shore

Fades o'er the waters blue."-CHILDE HAROLD.

"And, like some low and mournful spell,

To whisper but the word, Farewell!"-PARK BENJAMIN.

"Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more."-ACTS xx. 38.

T is said that the last time Mr. Peabody spoke in public was at the National Peace Jubilee in Boston. His health was then failing; but he

had a notion a strange one, when we consider how many tons of coal-dust there are always floating about in the London atmosphere that his life would be prolonged by remaining in London.

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"On this point I am somewhat of a Cockney," he would say: "I believe in London air and London living. It is my intention to revisit America; but I shall return to England."

And he did return to England, leaving his family and

friends to feel that he had spoken to them his last farewell. He was to be seen no more in America.

"Mr. Peabody was slightly above the medium height. His full, round face beamed with goodness. He laughed seldom, but had a smile for everybody. There was nothing ideal or poetical about his face it was what we tritely term a good face.' He never spoke hurriedly. His nature was not impulsive."

But, having resolved, he carried out his purpose; and to England, though feeble and worn, "The Scotia " carried him. Col. Forney has already described his appearance on the voyage. His friends say that he always preferred English steamers, believing them to be more safe.

"The Baltimore Sun" gives an interesting memorandum of a conversation with Mr. Peabody, furnished by Dr. J. J. Moorman, a resident physician of White Sulphur Springs, Va.; whither Mr. Peabody went for his health during his last visit to America. Dr. Moorman says, Aug. 22, 1869, –

“During my professional attendance on Mr. Peabody for the last four weeks, I have had various short but interesting conversations with him on general subjects, and to-day a more lengthy one. I note down some of his remarks, for future reference.

"On my observing to him that he had great cause of gratitude to God for having been made the instrument of doing so much for his fellow-men, Mr. Peabody replied, and

with much more than usual animation, 'I never fail to take that view of it; and always, in my prayers, thank God that he has enabled me to do what I have done.' He said that the attention he receives from the world seemed strange to him; that he feels himself to be a very humble individual, and is enabled only by the attentions and opinions of the world in reference to his acts to regard himself as differing from others.'

"On my expressing the opinion that not the least of the great benefits that would result from the liberal distribution of his large wealth during his lifetime, for charitable objects, would be the representative character of such a course, inducing other men of wealth to do likewise, he said he assented to the sentiment; and then remarked, 'Such may not be the case during my life, as men do not generally like to seem to be influenced by their contemporaries ;' but added, 'I hope and expect such an ultimate result.'

"I observed to him that the fact of his not having forgotten his relations in the distribution of his large estate, gave, in my opinion, a beautiful symmetry to his benevolence. He said, 'Yes; I should have thought I was doing very wrong if I had done so :' and then remarked, 'I have made all my near relations rich. I have given them all enough, — perhaps more than enough.' He then stated the amount he had given to each, to Mr. George Peabody Russell, three hundred thousand dollars; to a sister, three hundred thousand dollars; to another nephew, three

hundred thousand dollars; to another, two hundred thousand dollars; and to none less than one hundred thousand dollars.

"Mr. Peabody described the character, and what would be the operations, of his great gift for the poor of London; contrasted it with other great schemes that had been inaugurated for the benefit of that class, that contained important reservations for the benefit of the families of the donors, while in his case he had entirely divested himself and his heirs of any ulterior benefit that might accrue; and said, that, if the donation alluded to was 'judiciously managed for two centuries, its accumulations would amount to a sum sufficient to buy the city of London.'

"Mr. Peabody was evidently much and very properly gratified at the great attention paid to him both in England and in this country; and especially, with the London statue, and its unveiling under circumstances so imposing and so honorable to him; and with the Queen's autographletter to him, which he showed me.

"It being absolutely necessary for Mr. Peabody to reach a warm climate before cold weather set in, that he might have the slightest chance of lengthening his days, and his mind being somewhat balanced between Florida and the south of France, he formally submitted it to me, as his physician, to decide the question. In comparing all the advantages and disadvantages of the two places for his winter residence, I preferred the south of France, and the

city of Nice; and advised that he should proceed directly there, and with as little delay as possible after leaving the mountains. He adopted my views promptly and entirely upon the subject, and immediately wrote to secure a passage on a steamer to sail the 28th of September; saying to me, he would remain a few days only with a friend in London to attend to some necessary business, and then proceed directly, by a route which he pointed out, to Nice, so as to reach there before the setting-in of cold weather."

But it was too late. The days of "the philanthropist of two worlds" were numbered, and his friends all felt this; so that his last public visit to Peabody, Mass., is thus described:

"The last visit of a public character which Mr. Peabody made to his native town was in the summer of 1869, when he invited a number of personal friends, and several of the trustees of his various charities, to meet him at the Peabody Institute. An elegant lunch was served in the library, and the treasures of the Institute exhibited. Among the distinguished public characters present on that occasion were the Hon. Charles Sumner, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, Ex-Gov. Clifford, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and others. Wealth was represented by such heavy weights as James M. Beebe and Stephen Salisbury. The aggregate wealth of the twenty or thirty gentlemen who were entertained at that board was said to be fifty million dol