The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-12-18 00:00:00

A LIBEL CASE.

IN MEMORY OF THE "PRINCE OF
GIVERS."

On Sabinlay morning hat, the remain° of the
late Mr. Peaho weie removed from the temporary
grave in W.:Animater Abby, and were conveyed by
pecirl train t 4 Portsmouth. accompanied by the
'United St des Mini•do-r, Mr. Peabody Russell, and the
execut we (Sir C. M. L.tmpson and Mr. C. Reed,
M.P.). The body wo, mci elved at Portsann.th by the
Corporation, and, amid many tokeLs of respekt Iron
the vessels in the d(.ekyanl, WAS placed on board her
Majesty's ship Monarch.

The Daily Telegraph, in a tribute to the memory of
the late Mr. teal, ily the philanthropist and bene-
factor of nanakind—whom Dialand justly honoured with a
temporary sepulture in Westmlbster Abbey, and atterwards
had his body borne in one of her best war ships ti the
country where the good man wished to have his grave,
says :
Three famous ships that have borne the dead are
destined to live in story. One, fourand-fitty years
ago, a gient man-of-war, her pails yet jagged, her
aides splintered an I dinted by French bullets, came
out of Trafalgar Bay, and nailed for Greenwich, where
her illustrious freight was to lie in state in the l'ainted
Hall of the Hospital, thence to be conveyed to the
Cathedral of Sr. Paul. The corpse was that of
Horatio, Viscount Nelson and Duke of Bronte.
Again, nine-and twenty years since, a French fi igate
left the hurb err if James Town, St. Helena. She was
called La Bdle Pode, and was COlllillaladea by &Prince
of the House of Orleans. With flags half-reast high,
with soidiery carrying their arms reversed, to the
booming of minute gnus and the slow swell of martial
music, a ceefliti waabradight clown frotu a tomb in Slane's
Valley, transported to a beige, carried on board the
frigate, and deposited in a mortuary chapel between
decks. At once the solemn dirges changed to lively
strains ; the flags were hoisted speak ; a Royal salute
thundered from the heights, and the crew of La
Bilk Poole cried '•Vive l'E inpereur "—for the corpse
she carried was that of Napoleon Bonaparte, !one-
time Emperor of the French and King of Italy, called
the Great. To-day (Saturday) at three in the after-
noon, a great English war-ship will be in readiness at
Portsmouth to receive a plain c lfin ltronetht by rail-
way from a temporary tomb in Weatminster Abbey.
Bodice of marines, and small-arm companies from the
men-of-war in port, will serve as a guard of honour.
At the arrival of the remains within the dockyard, the
Monarch will display her ensign half mast, and the
American fi ag will be hoisted abreast it the foretop-
mast cross-trees. The flag-ship will fire twenty gong,
at intervals of one minute ; and, the corpse embarked,
the Mottled& wil proceed to the United States, con.
voyed by an American corvette. The man to whom
these solemn honours are to be paid was neither king nor
conqueror, warrior nor gate-amen. He had not the
tiniest peg of a handle to his name ; lie had contracted
no splendid alliance; he came not of noble stock ; he
was identified with neither dipl,macy nor politics—
with neither church, law, physic, science, art, nor
letters. He was merely an America-5 hanker who
hail
made an immense future in London—a plan who
bought and sold bonds, who cashed letters of credit,
and speculated for the 'rise." Yet, "when Kim s
and Miniet-re are forgotten, and measures are felt only
in their rem deer: cousequeticea"—when the renown of
a Nslon or a Bonaparte may I ...me dim and half
mythical as that of a Sesorais (Cr a Xerxes—the fame
of the man where ashes are to be this day earned to
his distant home may perchance shine with as pure and
bright a radiance as that of the Good Samaritani,
although hie name we never knew and never shall
know. The man to whose mem ry England thus
dors honour was G,orge Peabody, woo gave five hum
dred thousand pounds to help the poor of Land-u.

REQUIESCAT IN PACE.
We send him home.
England sends home her n—her son, for he
Is yours, and ye oar first ben—send' him hone,
As nations s-,,,d the men they houunr must,
In pride and state and pump ot splendid death.

We viol hlm home:
The laud he loved to his own loving land—
The loan to the ler :It r,—stol we add thereto
A royal usury, a peoples tears.

We send him home
The good kind heart, the simple gentleman,—
And sending say" This holy anima the gull:
We stretch across, as with a fleshly aria,
And our own flesh (oh never doubt! will clasp
The hand of brotherheoil with strong right hand.
Wims out the past. All but the old kind tears,
Before all of c-reurettel harshness inapt
The filial link the years when liagland still
Was ' home ' to far-off hearths, and saw with pride
Her Titan offspring towering into strength..
Wipe out the past: the wrongs, the unnatural strife—
And Om red hood that English hands have posed
Irons Entlish veins. War is a curse, but war
Betwixt one race, one kindred, doubly cursed.
What gain in scar? No gain, but loss of pinch,
Of life, of treasure: gain of honour, then!
The weaker falls—what honour to the strong 1
Or, war what honour hest thou! Houma.: one.
But war treads down the blossomidg rose of peace;
With iron heel aliening out the smoul luring sparks
Of spiritual fire, and the strugglines taint
01 poor blind dumb humanity for light.
We send him home.
Who showed a better way. With good, not ill,
He nobly conquered ; and where darkness reigned
Amidst the abodes of night made day, I k ttt self
Illumined by the bright nets that he gave.
He taught us love ; and let Us learn the theme ;
Prelude alike and close of all that is:
And whilst, with stooping flsg and muffled march,
The great ship bears the lowly to his rest ;
Whilst twice tea thousand brazen lips ring woe,
And thousand thousand hearts re echo it ;
Yea, whilst the funsral peal is thundering forth
Eon from the black cannonmiouths agape for war;—
Join we cur hands above the gracious dead,
Alla mingling teal a in one b•ng sorr..s• &wear
To write this epitaph above him—hi:ACE.

From the Standard.