The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-10-23 00:00:00

I4R. PEABODY'S RISE AND PROGRESS.

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It appears from some recollection* of Mr. Peabody,
published in a late number of the New York halepen-
dr at, that it was in 1851, and in connection with the
original Great Exhibition, that this gentleman first
brought himself into notice by an act of public spirit.
'lie American products intended for the Exhibition
bad arrived, so also had the United States Commis-
sioner ; but the portion of the I 'rystal Palace set apart
for American display "was a barn-like space, in which
neither platform nit counter, show-case nor decoration
had been prepared." The Government of the Union
Pat ma le no appropriation of funds, and "everything
iiked like a dead failure." In this dilemma
Mr. Peabody stepped forward. "Not a person con- '
et -el with the Exhibition had ever seen him. As
r gent or exhibitor, consignee or juror, DO claim could be
noide upon his help. Neither in the meetings that had
e. en hell, nor in the pious that had been devised, was
his name meotioned. Without pretence or show, upon
the ground of a simple business transaction, as be chose
coi eider it, with no valid ...entity, and ,imply that
native land might not be disgraced, he advanced to
Mr. Riddle (United States Commissioner) and his secre-
tary nearly £4,000 sterling."
About this time slr. Peabody introduced a grext
linsineas innovation. Ha began to invite "to cinner
v -ry person who brought a letter of credit on his
Louse. The thing had been unknown heretofore. . . .
A day or two after a stranger's arrival there was a
lite note of invitation to dinner at the Star and
Giater, or to a Sunday's bite at Hampton Gant, or to
s rail on the Thames, or at least to an 'at home' at
• lob chambers, left at his door." The benefit con- .
ferred on the visitor to London is apoarent ; and it
gratifies the best feelings of our nature to learn that
Mr. Peal. sly's attentions to his compatriots were
beneti&al to himself. " From 1851 to 1861, in which
I,i ter year he retired from active interest in his firm,
I o valuations upon him in American letters of credit
ii,.•reased twentyfold."
li this P 3331.1 year 1851 he commenced another prac-
t:., which brought him considerable notoriety, and f,
tile involved him in unpleasantness with some of his
t,!;:iw-coun,rynien here. He conceived the idea of
ving an "Independence dinner" on the 4th of duly,
t which repre-entative Englishmen and Americans
• •'i I sit down together. But " whoof the aristocracy
accept the invitation if a city tradesman? And 1
,ut the society of the West-end all that money could
iirehase would give neither éclat to the occasion nor
-.our to the host. Mr. Peabody sought the American
minister, and laid before him his plans. The latter
opiisieved, and presented them in turn to the Duke
oi Wellington. toe old Duke liked the idea, promised
t.. mention it to his friends, and agreed to accept Mr.
I 'eabody's invitation when it should come. This stamped
toe affair. When the Duke went all could go."
The dinners were continued, and brou;ht the host
great popularity. "There was one drawback only.
the prepared toasts the Queen was first named.
The President of the United States came second." In
1834 General Sickles was Secretary if Legation here,
and he proposed on this ground a subscription " Inde-
pendence" dinner. A meeting was held to consider
I lie proposal, at which Mr. Peabody unexpectedly ap-
peared. The writer in the ladApendent states that he
o and said, "that he had no wish to put himself
forward, and that if he might be permitted to give the
iboner he would place himself at the disposal of the
iommittee of arrangements, lath as regarded the
,iiests to be invited and the toasts to be given." His
otter was accepted. But no committee was appointed.
The dinner was given in a style of unusual splendour.
Bit when the cloth was removed and the glassies
iliargeti to pltdge the national toast, great was the
dismay at Mr. Peabody's preface upon rising, That
in deference to her sex, if not to her position,
he woad propose as the leading toast, 'The
health of her Majesty Queen Victoria.'" General
suckles moved from the table and left the room.
Many refused to rise. Some turned their glasses upside
In, and rnurmors of disapprobation were heard on
all sides. Mr. Peabody, however, persiated. The
t Nut was drunk with mingled applause and hisses, and
the American elinister, taking occasion in his response
afterwards to express pointedly but courteously his
regret, remained seated at the table. This affair gave
rise to much bitterners; of feeling. But Mr. Peabody
continued to give these dinner; till 1858.

for they belong to our national life. There is peculiar
fitness in the consecration of this spot to public use in
these uniting times, for its chief sesociations are with
those who suffered frein tin divisions of the past.
Bunhill-fields was from the first ass,ciated with
those who were retused sepulture in the ordinary bury-
ing grounds. Defoe says he had heard that the victims
of the Great Plague were laid together in a great pit
in Finsbury, and that many who were delirious with
the disorder cast themselves M and expired there be-
fore any earth could be thrown upon them. When
the plogue was over the place was enclosed "at the
sole charges of the City ;" and the Nonconformists,
who could not be buried in the ordinary churchyards
made it their chief burying-place. Defoe hituselt was
hauled there, and the matchless allegorist who wrote
the " Progress" had previously been laid in
the same ground. The historical line of association
, takes us back to the worthies of the Commonwealth
and down almost to our own day. Fleetwood, Crom-
well's somiln law ; Dr. John Owen, his learned Chap-
lain, and Dr. Goodwin, who attended the Protector on
his death-bed ; Mrs. Wesley, the mother of the great
founder of Methodism ; Dr. Williams, founder of the
library now in Queen-square, which bears his name;
Dr. Watts, who, with all the defects of his poetry, is
still the chief singer of English Protestantism ; George
Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends ; Dr.
Price, Dr. Gifford, and the learned Dr. Lordlier were
all burl' din this cemetery, and their graves consecrate
it, not only to the various denominations of Dissenters
to which they belonged, but to all who can appreciate
services rendered to religion, and to literature, anti to
polities. In the grave numbered 80, but without a
monument, lies William Blake, the eccentric painter
and poet; Ilitson, the antiquary, sleeps there in an
unmarkid grave; Thomas Hardy and Horne Took
rest from their troubled labours for reform under a
monument which celebrates their sacrifices, anti Stod.
hart, the illustrator of the "Canterbury Pilgrims" and
"Robinson Crusoe," lies in the sane ground. The
names of other celebrities would make a catologne.
Neal, the historian of the Puritans; William
Kittin anti House's-I Knollys, the celebrated Baptists,
Theophilui Lindsey, the founder of Essex-street
Chapel, and Dr. Rees, the editor of the "Eucyclo-
psedia," all deserve a mention. Most of their names,
with many more, will be read by the sitizens of Lone
don on the monument which celebrates the re-dedica-
tion of the place to the public use; and that use will
not be the less enjoyed because so many of the names
suggest the trouttlous times they lived in, and are as-
sociated with struggles in which they fought for them-

selves and won for Us.
But it is not only the known names that tell of the
ecclesiastisal troubles of our pad history. Bunhill-
fields is peculiarly the burying-place of those who
fought the battle of the middle claws against ecclesias-
tical and political oppression. Many of the rank and
file of the great Liberal army lie able by side with
their leaders. More than 120,000 persons are buried
there, and on many of the memorial stones which
thickly stud the ground are to be read the names of
multitudes of the forgotten dead who served truth
and freedom in their generation, and served by
sacrifice. The quaint inscriptions, many of which
have now yielded to the touch of time, in
which survivors celebrated the virtues of those
who are now nothing but a name, told of the
troubles of the times. Of Francis Smith, Book-
seller, it was recorded that " he sustained, betweeuthe
years 11;59 and 1688, great Persecution, by Imprison.
mente, Exile, and large Fines .......r printing and
promoting Petitions for calling of a Parliament.
and after nearly forty imprisonments he was tined
£5OO for printing and selling the Speech of a Noble
Peer, and Three Times Corporeal Punishment." Of
John Penny man it is quaintly said he "was required
by Abraham's God, to offer up, as Abraham did, an
unusual Sacrifice at the Royal Exchange in London,
upon the 28th day of July, PAM." Of William Jenkyn,
M.V.11 , it is said, "inter graves Ecclesiae procellee,
Novopyloincarceratus Martyr obiit An. 'Etat. LXII.''
These storms of the Church during which this martyr
died in Newgate, cast many of their wrecks upon this
historic spot.
It is a most honourable feature in the character of
the English middle classes that they ehould still look
back from amid these brighter times, and treat the
memory of such men with honour. We hear much of
the toadyism of the middle classes, and unquestionably
their worship of success is one of their characteristic
weaknesses. But it is only fair to them on such an
o maeion as this to give them credit for their reverence
for men who be described as Mr. Faircloogh
was, as "a great contemner of riches and despiser of
vain glory."
It was not tbe successful men who were buried in
Buuhilhfields, it was men who lived for something
nobler than success. Learning and conscientiousness
and faithful service of unpopular causes led to Bunhill-
fields, far different qualities from those which have
won illustrious places in Westminster Abbey and St.
Paula. A nation which can honour these humbler
viitues as well as more illustrious qualities must still
be sound at heart. Bunhill-tielits is essentially ACIMEIO[IO
Santo of the middle classes. Its heroes were warrii,rs
on a field where no glory is to be gained and no titles
won. But it is of such men as these that the strength
of a nation consists A patient, htimble, hardworking
life, which courts no applause and aims at no rewards,
which only seeks to do its duty and serve its genera-
tion, is the kind of life which the great bulk of the
world's benet actors must always live.
It would have been a la,ting disgrace to this genera-
tion of Londoners if the place whicii more than any
other is crowded by the relics of the men who lived
sneh lives when England sorely needed their quiet,
s 1' forgetting service, should have been given over to
desecration. In resouing it the Corporati-m of London
have done a service to the time. "Hilton, thou
shouldst be living at this hour," sang Wordsworth in
troublons times. In all timee we need that men like
those whose relics consecrate these acres of City soil
should be living amimg us. Is it too much to hope
that, as the citizens look upon their monuments, and
recreate themselves in a place dedicated for ever to
their memories, something of the spirit of the heroic
age of middle-clam life may still hover over the spot,
and never be entirely banished from our midst?

be satisfactory either to one party or the other.
Practically speaking, agents would be found necessary
us keepiug the burrineres together, kit the legitimate
C is, e it agency mr. old never be onerous.
V-ey rafierent, however, is the cage ef payments
made ror business brought, in the shape either of
.•commission" to agents bringing it or purchase money
to ot lire offices for goodwill and custom. At the same
time it inuat be understood that business to a certain
amount is absolutely essential to se Insurance Com-
pany. The whole system is based on the calculable
duration of human life on an average of cases!, but the
ease must be sufficiently numerous to allow the
law of averages to work. Leas than a certain number
of lives—that is to gay, customers—would not suffice
to give the results required, and thus an office with only
a limited amount of custom would be unsafe from that
fact alone. It is indispensable therefore. to an Insurance
Company to procure business. The only question is on
what terms reasonable or ruinous—the business is
procured. We have heard a good deal about the
debatable character of a sum paid by one office for
the goodwill or business of another, but the truth is it
may represent a pr, fit or loss according to the nature
of the particular transaction. A Company which
makes over to another, say, five hundred or a thousand
policy-hollers makes over a positive source of profit,
inasmuch as each of these policy-holders is presumed to
pay annually a certain sum which includes a propor-
. iou of profit to those wh ,receive it. Si, far the pur-
chase of an Insurance bu.iness is exactly analogous to
the purchase of any other business in ordinary trade.
It may he a good or a bad bargain, according to the
amount of custom bought as compared with the money
paid font. Similarly, it might poseibly be worth while
to reward an agent for his activity and success
in bringing fresh business ti the office by a pecu-
niary donati,m, or to encourage such efforts on his
part by the pr.ispect of a "commission" on business
actually brought. There is nothing necessarily
ruinous, though there is much to be suspected, in such
practice, but it is always to he remembered that it
must needs add mat. rially to the cost of management;
anti if, as would usually be the case, the annual pre-
udunis remain at the ordinary rates, the residue left
for the needs of the Company would be propor-
tionately diminished. An ettice which can dispense
with the purchase of business, which attracts
customers by its own intrinsic reputation, and which
is relieved, therefore, from all such expenditure as we
have been considering, is of course iti the most favour-
able position, as having an income less subject to
abatement, and therefore a greater chance of accumu-
lating funds. Still it may be fairly worth while fir
an Insurance Company to buy Mediae's, provided
always it is not bought too dear.
The truth of the !flitter is, as we suggested on a pre-
vious occasion, that the unsound proportion of In-
surance business, whatever that may he, is due to ex-
cessive competition. Three years ago it was argued.
on behalf of certain Financial Companies, that as all
the good business in their line had been forestalled
by older establishments, they had only the option
of mire doubtful business or no business at
all. Now, it is one of the privileges of
Life Insurance business that there can be no
such thing as a bad customer, except in the
form of an uesound life, which Can always be rejected ;
and the compet. tion, therefore, took place in biddings
, for custom itself. Too much money was, perhaps,
paid to another office for its goodwill, or too much to
an agent for a fresh customer procured by his recom-
mendations, but, except for such mistaken, it is hardly
too much to say that no Insuranee Company with
given number of policy-holders should ever be other-
wise than secure. In a few words, Insurance business
itself is infallibly safe; it can only be rendered unsafe
by the anticipation of its necessary profits in the ac-
quisition of the custom which brings them.

None this all: a great deal of stress is laid on the
"immense reduction of expenses" which would ensue,
first, by running carriages direct from point to poirst
on trunk lines, and requiring passengiire to change at
the jutictiona, thus abolisbing the system of through
carriages, and therefore largrly seducing the cost of
conveying pssseo2are, while increasing the puny
tuality of the trains; secondly, by the diminished
expense of issuing tickets; thirdly, by the simpli-
fication of accounts; fourthly, by relieving 12400
dirs.:tole of their labour—and their salaries: fifthly,
by removing troops and police at one-sixth of
the present cost; sixthly, as all mails could be
°mind free, by relieving the country of the present
charge for their carriage; weventhly, by a more equit-
able system of local rating, reduction of compensation
for accidents to a fixed sum equivalent to that at
which any us could insure his lite ; and, lastly, by a
lower legal and Parliamentary expenditure. In fine,
the only point of doubt which Mr. Jones thinks it
necessary VI show in dealing with the question
of whether his plan will pay, is the question whether
the people would travel on the terms propused.
A counter theorist—though perhaps he would refuse
each a designation—to Mr. G. W. Jones, with his
Universal Penny Railway System, is to be found in
Mr. Frederick Haggard, who, in two pamphlets en.
titled respectively "A Circle of Railway in the United
Kingdom," and "Railway Facts and Lower Fares,"
is the advocate not only to a certain extent of things
as they are, but it would appear almost of an increase
of railway charges. Join many words, in one I lace,
he almost defiesu the possibility of producing a profit
even of 4 per cent, on railway capital, if the
fares are lowered. He argues that you may in.
or. ace your gross takings and your mileage sc.
count, but these faits do not necessarily imply a
profit. As the question is treated by Mr. Hacgard,
it may he said to resolve into a question of weight.
Weight involves wear and tear, wear and tear involve
expense, and every addition to weight is an iticrease of
expesisse ; hence incr. age of passengeis and goods is
addition to cost, mat the estensitile advantage of
numbers of travellers, induced by low fares, disappears.
Every additional passenger iloe. not, ace very additianal
letter carried by the Poet Office does, add the net
amonnt of his fare to the revenue earned by the railway
carriage. On the contrary, the cost of a railway paesens
ger will be round to increase in the direct ratio of the
numbers conveyed, for this reason, that he weighs—
in the eyes of a traffic manager—from 15 to 25 cwt.
Increase the number of passengers as you will by
attractive tariffs, and you will still be obliged to treat
the individual as a log of 20 cwt. on the average, to be
pulled along at a c rtain cost, arising out of the
conisunaption of coal, oil, tallow, cotton, waste, wages,
wear and tear of engines, carriages, rails, sleepers,
ballast, bridges, embankments, cuttings, stations,
which are subject to all the deteriorating influences of
weather in our climate.
The dead weight of a passenger on a railway is one
ton, that of one ton of mineral is nearly three tons,
and that of one ton of ordinary goods is three to four
tuns. These weights are pulled along by means of a
most complicated, perishable, and therefore costly
machinery; and, consequently, no increase of the num.
her of passengers, or of the tonnage of goods, will avail
to swell profits, sinless the tariffs if charges an
graduated heist. hand. according to the actual nioney•
value c..st of haulage of the unit of freight in each clans.
From all these faaaa COMts the deduction, that in-
creased traffic costs 50 per cent, to work it, and there.
fore each year will show an increased outlay per mile.
Into the vast array if figures and elaborate calcula-
tiona into which Mr. Haggard enters to prove his case.
against what he deems a rash and illogical recourse to
extraordinary low fares, we need not enter ; but it may
be added that, in dealing with that important part Of
the theory of the advocates of low fares—namely.
the prevention of waste of space, by filling all the
carriages in every train—he urges that there
can be only two fixed lass s which could make
every mile traversed by a passenger trim a full
paying mile. The first is, that, say, 200 pasisen
germ should fill the train and travel the whole run ;
and the other, that 200 passengers should start in the
train, and that 50 should get in as 50 got out. Is it
possible, it is asked, that such a wonderfully balanced
Traffic as this could ever exist? The author admits
that if the passenger traffic could be equally distri-
mi.sa throughout day and night, carriages equal to
L 670,914 trains could be dispensed with; but he
•eseerie that no such peesibility exists ; for the people
af the United Kingdom is not likely to change its
habits and customs to help the railways.
The pamphlets of which we have thus given a brief
outline ought to attract attention; and being read in
connection they will materially aid in the formation of
mantel opiniau on a subject which is of no small interest
to the public, and of immediate consequence to that
section of the public which has invested 500 millions
in railways.

pickpocket unbuttoned his coat, and revealed upon his breast ,
something remarkable, for the gentleman burst into a iit of
laughter, took his handkerchief, slipped a few pence into the
Mini of the young man, and departed laughing still more. I
was puzzled At sight of me the young pickpocket slackened
his pace. He evidently reckoned upon trying on me the
tame operation 511 noon his previous victim ; for he pre-
tended to be plucking some flowers :dome the way, until I
had passed Mtn, woes he quickened his step. A moment
after I felt his hand lifting the tail of my overcoat, and I
Iseized him by the arm. "Rascal !" I exclaimed, "I saw
you coming." The young robber was probably sixteen or
seventeen years of age, and had a face full of in-
Itelligence and mischief. "I see how it is," he replied,
laughing; "you saw me take the gentleman's handker-
chief ; bat I am not it pickpocket, i assure you." "I
. should like to know then, what you son" "What I am?
You had better see for yourself" So saying, be opened his
cost again, and on his waistcoat I perceived a yellow metal '
plate bearing the words painted in black letters, ANTI- .
PICKPOCKETS' SOCIETY. "The anti-Pickpockets' S.ielety," I
exclaimed in astoutahment, "What ou earth is that i" "It
is very simple, sir. We follow a gentleman, or a lady, whom
we strip of a handkerohlef or some other article. Then we
Present them with their property, pointing out how easy it
would have been to rob them In this way they learn to be
on their guard against real pickpockets." "And what do
you gain by all this?"" People generally give us a few
pence to recompense us for our honesty." "A singular
trade yours." "Quo ropier-eons, Monsisor. One must live."
And with these words my Emma fr cod left the to pursue au
old gentleman who was approaching behind lat.
Here, aaya the chronicle', in conclusion, in a chapter
which, if I am not mistaken, ha.s yet to be added to
the history of the curious industries of London. In
this it is difficult not to agree with him. Anyway
nothing of the kind appears to have engaged the at-
tention of any English chronicler.