The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-11-13 00:00:00

DEATH OF MR. PEABODY.

The deceased gentleman who ended a life of honour
and usefulnens on Thursday night, in last week, at his
tonne is 16ton-square, London, was born in the city of
Danvers. Massachusetts, on the 18th of February,
1795. The name is supposed to be a singular cor-
ruption of a French patronymic ' • but, as far an re-
cords go, the family is of English origin. Acconling
to some accounts, it was settled, several centuriem ago,
In /,,ieeatershire ; according to others, at St. Albans.
In the 13th century the name was spelt Pabody, and
the nobodies of Hertfonimhire seem to have been re-
spectable yeomen. In 1633, Francin Pabody left this
country for New England. lie was, in fact, one of
the Pilgrim Fathers"
who helped to found that
"
State. Being at that time only twenty. mos years of
age, he herl all the energy of youth to devote to the
on•rk of colonisation, and when he died in the year
108, at a ripe old age, he left behind him at irge
Celine snd a (sillily widen uaquired a distinguished
position in he colony. Several members acted with
patriotic zeal in the war of Independence, and the
name has often been seen in connection with literature
and science as well as commerce.
George Peabody. the subject of the present notice,
began his business life at the age of eleven, when he
was entered as a junior clerk in a grocery store at
Danvers. Four years later, the lad proving to be
a snout young fellow, with an ambition beyond
" groceries," he became an apprentice to his elder
brother, at Newbury Port, but this business being
brought to a close after a short time, the boy went to
live with his uncle at George Town. The war with
Great Britain was at that time going on, for it was the
Near 1812, and the uncle was a volunteer soldier, and
speedily a general. George served under him, and was
engaged at Fort Warburton • but at the close of the
short war he returned to his original pursuits and
became a merchant in the city of Baltimore, with
branch houses at l'hiladelphia and New York. He
succeeded so well that with the generosity, dintin-
guishing him throughout his life, he charged himself
with the nmintenance and education of his father's
family. In the course f years he thought he could
still further extend his business byetiming to England.
lie first visited this country in 1837, and ulti-
mately settled in London in 1843, as a merchant and
money-broker. His business was of the same
general description as that of the Idothschilds ; but
dealt solely, or nearly so, with American interests.
"In this capacity," says a memoir of Mr. Peabody in
the last edition of "Men of the Time," "his name
has been a guarantee for many monetary transactions
on the part of more than one of the United States, and
in 1848 he largely contributed to the restoration id the
credit of ltl erylanil." But business was not his only
thought. When a mere youth behind made this solemn
vow : "If God spares my life, and prospers sue in
business then the property of which I may become
possessed I will devote to his glory in seeking the good
of my fellow.nsen wherever their claims may seem
most to rest upon me." That vow has been faithfully
and nobly kept; and, unlike those who wait for their
death to r•distribute the riches they can no longer
enjoy, Mr. Peabody has benefited others with almost
unparalleled munificence, while yet he could direct the
;dreams of his bounty, and watch the effects of his
splendid gifts.
In 1851, while residing in England, he supplied, at
his own coat, the arranging and garnishing of the
United States department uf the Great Exhi-
bition. Ile contributed, in the following sear,
to the expense of the American ex pedition,
fitted out on ler Dr. Kane, for inquiring into the
fate of Sir John Franklin in the Arctic Seas. In the
same year, he revisited his native city of Danvers, and
founded there, at a cast of £30,000, an educational
institution for the benefit of his fellow-townsmen. In
1857, he built and endowed in Baltimore an institution
mainly devoted to science, and including a free
library, which several years ago had already cast him
more than £lOO,OOO. Magnificent, however, as were
these acts, they were quite cant into the shade by that
which he ad terwards did fir the London poor. On re-
tiring from Minium in 1862. he- presented the City of
London with the mins iif £150,000, to be applied to the
benefit ,f the woikisig elassen by the erection of coal.
testable and convenient lodging houses; and this sum
was doubled in February, 1866, by the gift of another
£150,009. In the letter bestowing the first sum, dated
March 12, 1862, Mr. Peabody said
It Is now twenty-five years since I commenced my residence
and business ill London as a stranger ; but I did not long
feel myself a stranger or in a strange laud, for, in all my
isimmercial and social intercourse with my Bluish friends
durum that longpenod, I have constantly received courtesy,
kindness, and confidence. Under a sense of gratitude for
these blessings of a kind Providence, encouraged by early
associations, and stimulated by my views, as 'emit of uuty as
of inclination, to follow the path which I had hitherto
marked out for my guidance, I have been prompted for
several years past repeatedly to state to some of my c‘inftilen-
list trivet's icy Intentbdi at no distant period, if my life
was spored, to make a donation for the benefit of the poor
of London.
What rendered this act of bounty the more beautiful
and touching in spirit was that it occurred at a time
when, owing to the civil war and the Trent affair, a
good deal of ill-feeling existed between Great Britain
and America, and many Englial men, stimulated by an
insane hatred Of the United States, and by an eager
spirit of re-action against free government, did not
scruple to speak and write in the most injurious
manner of the Northern people and their cause. Mr,
Charles Reed. M.P., in a speech delivered in the
Guildhall on May 24, 1862, on the occasion of con-
ferring the freedom of the City of London on Mr.
Peabody, said, with great truthfulness arid point :
Here is a man, a denizen in our city, hound tons by no ties
but those -I common humanity, at a ci WS when some men
delight themselves in reviving the memory of ancient
jealousies, taking fiercely of national animosities and im-
placable hates, who stands out arid rebukes our unworthy
suspicions by an act of kindness t or poor whit h bring, the
blush nf shame to our cheeks when we think t.f rnerchaut
princes of ane own who bring, h,ve twen ran:tly l,oet.il tie
to the claims of Christian charity, aud, dying, have left Do

trace behind. _
The same speaker said further of Mr. Peabody :
Ile has made himself familiar with dlstre•s that he snicht
!earn how best to mitigate woe ; he has Acorn;e aotpiainted
by personal investigation with the overwhelming vicissi-
tudes the labouring poor that he might ameliorate their
routiition ; and he has given a practical illustration of
the way to do good, which leaves all our busy theorists far
behind.
'the freedom of other cities besides London was con-
ferred on Me. Peabody, and her Majesty (learning
that that was the only form of acknowledgment he
would accept) undressed to hint a letter expressing
her sense of the grandeur of his gift. That letter is
well worth reproducing at the present moment. It ran
as follows :

Windsor Castle, March 29, 1866.
The Queen hears that Mr. Peabody intends shortly to
return to America, and she would he sorry that he should
leave England without being assured by herseif how deeply
she appreciates the nettle act of nifire than pi nicely mull
licence by which he has sought Pi relieve the w mits of her
isifirer subjects residing in London. It Is an act, as the
Queen believes, wholly without parallel, and which will carry
Its best reward in the coneciousness of having contributed no
largely to the assistance of thos,, who can little help them-
selves The Queen would not, however, have been satisfied
without givieg Mr Pe trimly genie public mark of her sense
of his munificence, and she would gladly have conferred
upon him either a baronetcy or the Grand o'ol4B of the Order
of the Bath. bet that she understands Mr. Peabody to feel
himself &bared from accepting such dbtiectlons. It only
remains, therefore, for the Queen to give Mr Peabony this
assurance of her personal feelings, which she would further
wits to mark by caking him ti accept a miniature portrait of
her-elf, which she will desire to have painted for him, and
which, when finished, can either he sent to him to America,
or given to him on the return which she rejoices to hear he
meditates to the country that owes him no much.
Mr. Peabody's reply was not without a certain
graceful and kindly epigram in the close, where he
says :—" The portrait which your Majesty is graciously
pleased to bestow on me I shall value as the most pre.
toils heirloom that I can leave in the land of my birth,
all, re, together with the letter which your Majesty
has addressed to me, it will ever be regarded as an
evidence of the kindly feeling of the Queen of the
'United Kingdom towards a citizen of the United
States." Mr. Peabody never sympathised with the
irritable feeling towards royalty sometimes evinced by
Ins countrymen, and X. Reed, in the speech already
quoted, relatee that on one occasion, in iso assembly of
Americans in England, he " had the moral courage
publicly to denounce sman—and he a high official per-
sonage—who had rendered his name ignominioudy
conspicuous as, perhaps, the only being so utterly
destitute of the spirit of chivalry as to refuse to the
Qieen of these realms the honour and respect which
even the enemies of her crown generously accord to her
royal person."
Mr. Peabody evinced throughout these proceedinge
a great dislike of publicity, from whioh he shrank with
the utmost delicacy of perception. He lived iii great
retirement and simplicity, and only once appeared in
pubik, when he presented himself at the close of the
Working Classes Industrial Exhibition in the Guild-
hall, and received an ovation worthy of the man, and
of his work. Since then, a bronze statue of the great
Philanthropist has been erected close to the Royal
Exchange.
The first block of buildings erected by Mr. Pea-
body's money WM opened in 1864 in Spitalfiehls, and
since then other blocks have been built in Chelsea,
Bermondsey, Islington, and Shadwell. They are not
intended for habitual paupers, but, like Miss Burdett
Coutts's dwellings, are designed for working men and
their families, especially for those who have been
crowded out of their old houses by the recent metropoli-
tan alterations. "These buildings," said a well-informed
Writer, a short time ago, "occupy 176,931 square feet,
and at present there are 680 persons enjoying the
benefits of cornfortahlis houses, at a cost rending from
two sbilliries and sixpence to five shillings per week,
according to the class of the apartments; live shillings
givirt three good rooms, in a louse drained, ventilated,
with wati r supplies, and dust regularly removed, with
baths and laundries, wringing-machines, and dryings
rooms, with gas free of coat. Every kitchen is pros
video' with cupboards, an oven and a boiler; and the
families being selected upon the principle of ex-
cluding all persons of known immoral conduct and in-
temperate habits, parents are able to enjoy the sight of
their children's sports, no longer in the pent up alleys
and clang, rout streets, but in ample and airy spaces
which form the glaygrounds." dbe tenants of these
buildings are, with but rare exceptions, remarkable
for their decent and orderly conduct.
Shore ly after his second macnifieent gift, Mr. Pea-
body lift England for his native country, where he
rrtidrd Rolhe time, and where he presented to Harvard
Y 150,000 &Afars to establish a museum and
professorship of Americ in areleifilogy and ethnology.
The United Static Congress, in March, 1867, passed a
vote f thanks to him for his gifts to the people; but
the highest reward of such a man is in the conscious-
ness of great gifts gloriously used, and great riches
converted into mighty and prolific blessings.

The Times also pays the following tribute to the
memory of this great philanthropist and truly noble
man :

.
The news of Mr. Pcahody's death will be received with no
common sorrow on both sides of the Atlantic The 'mitt-
meld of regret will not be a mere passing tribute of grati-
tude to the munificent benefactor. Mr. Peabody, through-
out the contic of a long life luau been accumulating mani-
fold tales to he isinentril It, was an ardent patriot, who
was heed abroad an much air at home, lie was a New
Englander, who, when the Soul It wan brie ed flown to the
dust, stepped forward with two millions of dollars and
010100 ,1 the right to succour it. so courtier, lie was
honored oy S..vereigns and Princes He was profuse in
bit enarit), hut hie charity lisa pauperiz-d nobody.
plitlanthropmt who was liked an well
04 honoured. There was nothing hard or tiothihg
Mr,ro. about Mr. Peabody's philanthropy. He simply
dill ',bitterer good came in his way. Wherever an occasion
litelented Ilan for a generous and benevolent action, there

was fie found with puts° in hand, eager to aid. W lien his
adopted State of Maryland was in sore pecuniary straits he
repaid it for having afforded him a home by negotiating a
lan for it free of mist. When the American Department at
the Great Exhibition was in danger of appearing on the day
of opening a niece chaos of unasserted goods, his contribution
of £3 COO woe ready to save his countrymen from even a
passing mortification. When a faint hope awoke in America
that survivors of Sir John Franklin's expedition might be
rescued. Mr. Peabody's subsidy consummated the generous
enterprise of Mr. Grinnell, ills vast gifts of millions of
dollars for vicious purposes from IMO downwards dazzled
the world. It looked upon su.E generosity 118 a sort of
sudden meteor, lint a survey of Mr. Peahody's Career shows
that all this was but the natural crown and blossom of a life

it requires some remarkable qualities to create a gigantic '
fortune, but more remarkable qualities still are needed to
know how to spend it. The two faculties are seldom found
together. They were, however, combined in Mr. Peabody.
Ile was a keen and shrewd man of tattiness, he made noire;
energetically, and his tastes were too simple for him re ex-
pend it upon himself ; but front an almost Puritan case
shone forth the nod of an sild Creek where any purpose of
public munificence, could he served. lie was a discoverer.
and of something a good deal more precious than the chill- .
ing Arctic deserts which his money helped to rept.: e, rail
which bear his name. Wlt.it Ise has discovered iv a new '
Maitre for heaping together wealth—the pleasure of giving :
it away. But his liberality may be shown to have been
always guided by certain very ii tathict principles. Heel:end
and America contributed in /shout equal proportions to ,
his riches, anti he acted as if lie accounted himself
simply a depositary and hanker for hoth. Twenty
years of absence never coned him to forget that he was an
American citizen ; yet it is pertideashle to suspect that his
feeling of duty and loyalty to his native conistry win not in-
consistent with a warm love anil attachment to his adopted
home. In any case, ass anxious desire to treat the good of
each of the two nat as common ground for the charity
of a citizen of either ft a principle of unity which imolai.
and Muds together the infinitely various objects of his gene-
rosity. Ile slid not lay himself out for the gratitude of one
or bah countries by simply fielding them %Rh money, but
he took the heat measures In his power hi render the accm
mnlatissu iu his person of wealth derived front England and
America a source of permanent benefit to each. If Mr. Pea-
body had by will built almshouses or endowed chinches his
title to national gratitude would meet with no general re-
cognition. Persons who adopt this way of employing their
fortunes have seldom the interest in the advaucement of
their couittry whteh deserves national gratitude. They awl
themselves its the possession of wsialth whirls they cannot
use on thensselves. Tney use it, therefore, for public pur-
poses: hut it Is almost an accident what particular purposes
they select. Mr. Peahody's mode of disbursipg his million
or millions hears scrutiny for the reason that he did not
become charitable because he had become rich, but that, as
It may almost be said, he Lyceum rich in order that he
might be charitable, and charitable hi a fashion to benefit
his native mot adopted homes. That this was his single aim
and desire appears as well in many other ways as patties.
bitty irs MB ni.lestly delegating to strangers the choice of
the objects which should receive the charity he had
set apart for London. lie was not actusted in this by
indolence or the fear of responsibility. lit America he had
landmarks to guide him, and his A alerts:an gifts were accord-
ingly apporti; died ir, himself it stated deginations. Ile was
less clear as to the special needs of London, and he believed,
as millionaires are pot very apt at believing. that othere
might have a truer discernment. It marks a high gratin in
the scale of chat it; to give up the pleaaure of being charit-
able alter sore's own taete.
If there had been nothing certain about Mr. Peabody's
gifts to this country but the manifest alfr ction which
prompted them, there would be ample cause for regretting
his death. But for the full Pleasure of cratitude on account
' of munificence like his, not the niotive alone for giving, but
the manner, nor that only, but the nature of the gift. ought
to bear the test of criticism. Mr. Peabosls's London charities
more than itrltli all three coalition. No higher motive could
exist for the distrilottion of an enormous fortune than
tire desire to link together the briunliel of a great
race by the consciousness of being the common objects
of his noble generosity. The thne—his own life—which
lie selected for the gifts, and his unselfish diselaitner
;sf all tamer over their particular slestlnation, enhance
the feeling of obligation. But to make a benefactor's
memory dear it is also necessary that the objects of his
liberality should actually benefit by it. As for thin, the
machinery which Mr. Peabody constructed ter the applica-
tion of his money was so happily constituted as to he fitted
to turn it to the most advantageous account. Some bone.
factors have been supremely unfortunate in the uses to
which their offerings have been diverted. Mr. Walker, of
Beverley notoriety, is not the first donor, and will not be the
last, ivlsose trust has been alsusesl. But it was 110 mere for-
ttliette accident which will have gu tratiteed the Pealemly
Gift against becoming a perennial snore° of jobbery or
tainperism. The 114111or'S whole life was in tVi.ionce here—a
life stn roped 'snit the characteristic of doing with all 011011
might a hat one has to do. Aimee all, he 1•49 01111/111g lit
point the exanyple. Ibis trustees were mitt liaely to err, but
if they had been, he, Irving in their sight, was a con-
stant reminder that the object of his charity was not
to eiscourege elependence, but to help those who will help
themselves. A quarter of a million sterling is no trivisl
present e vett to a city rich as I. onion. Wealthy as a emu-
niunity may be, its wealth Is appropriated as strictly anti in-
alienably as a workman'a five- and-twenty shilliege a week
There is at Mom • margin of a hundred theUstiud pountis
available for this or that philanthropic experiment. It tsar.
light thing for a man whis las heaped rog,ther a huge estate
to divest himself of it while still able It rill, it. age 111111
the certainty—whi,h is never felt as a certainty—that it and
its owner must soon part company do not mistier it easier.
Tim, posthumous devotion of wealth to charitable uses in ass
elaborate device tor keeping hold of it still, and hr retrain-
ing asseciated with it ; but the world sees little connexion
between such bequests and the testator. Mr. George Pea-
body, in abdicatiug all property in his riches elide living,
has made it impossible to ans.:tate his identity from them
now that he is dead. Every fresh token of the utility of hia
benevolence must tend to excite affection for his memory.