The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-03-13 00:00:00

DEATH OF SIR ARTHUR HELPS.

H I

On Sunday, about two o'clock in the afternoon, at
the residence of a friend—Mr. G. Faudel Phillips, of
13, Lower Berkeley-street, London—Sir Arthur Helps,
K.C.B.' breathed his last. Affectionately tended by
his family, and unremittingly watched over by Sir
William Jenner, Dr. Hutton' and Dr. Eustace Smith,
he succumbed to a severe attack of pleurisy. In no-
ticing his death, the Daily Telegraph says :—" On Mon-
day last Sir Arthur attended the levee of his Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales, and was the next day
seized with severe cold, which speedily developed into
pleurisy of one lung. After considerable suffering,
inflammation of the other lung set in, the patient then
gradually sank, and finally died a peaceful and painless
death. His extraordinary kindliness of nature was
strikingly evinced by almost the last incident of his life.
He had written to the Prince of Wales, asking him to
interest himself on behalf of the child of one of the
victims of a recent shipping disaster, and who was a
candidate for a place in Christ's I lospital School. The
deceased gentleman thought that if his Royal Highness
saw him at the lev6e it would bring to his memory the
application that had been made. Throughout his
illness many kindly messages were forwarded from
Windsor by the Queen."

Sir Arthur Helps was born in 1817, and, having re-
ceived a liberal education, destined to aid in the later
evolvement of his ripened gifts, entered the public ser-
vice in his twenty-first year. Mr. Helps had graduated
B.A. at Trinity College, Cambridge, .vhen he became
the private secretary of Lord Monteagle, whilst Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, and was appointed Commis-
sioner of French, Dani-h, and Spani,li claims. He
afterwards acted as private secretary to Lord Morpeth
(the late Earl of Carlisle), who was then holding the
post of Chief Secretary for Ireland, and succeeded to
the office of Clerk of the Privy Council on the re-
tirement of the Hon. W. L. Bathurst, in 1859.
Besides the "Friends in Council," "Companions cf
my Solitude," and "Animals and their Masters,"
he has written several historical works, chief of
which are "The Conquerors of the New World and
their Bondsmen." " The Spanish Conquest of
America." "The Life of Pizarro, with some Account
of his Associates in the Conquest of Pern," and "The
Life of Hernando Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico."
His other books have been "Essays Written in the
Intervals of Busines.s," "The Claims of Labour,"
" Brevia, or Short Essays and Aphorisms," "Con-
versations on War and General Culture," and
"Thoughts on Government." In 1872 he received the
honour of knighthood, with the creation of K.U.8., in
recognition of his long and manifold services.

The Daily Telegraph has also a leader on the death of
Sir Arthur, from which we make the following extracts :
One of the most gentle and enlightened spirits of our
time has passed away. Sir Arthur Helps is dead.
The Queen loses a faithful servant, English literature
an ornament, and humanity a friend, by this sad
termination of his short illness. There is for all
alike a profound melancholy in the reflection that the
"Friends in Council" will talk no more in wise and
suggestive debate—the goodly company is scattered
by Sir Arthur' death, and the number is diminished
by one of those few philosophers who had "the hate of
hate, the scorn of scorn, the love of love." Four things,
indeed, tho accomplished gentleman who is gone fer-
vently hated—war, foul dwellings, big cities, and com-
petitive examinations; and his antagonism to all
grew out of the same root. He saw in war not its old
political causes or remote effects, but the instant hor-
rors of the field—the soldier dying in agony, the
wounded horses, the shattered dwellings, the ruined
homes. The unhealthy houses of our poor affected
his tender nature in the same measure; he burned
with pity for the breadwinner struck down by fever,
the wife overburthened with cares, the children bereft
of fresh air, of playgrounds, of all chances of mirth, or
nope of healthy growth. Huge cities made the relief of
these evils well-nigh impossible, and the advance of
brick and mortar over fields and woods seemed to
him like the advent of one of the old mythological
monsters, encroaching only to devour. Competition
for the Civil Service again, struck him also in the cruel
picture of some lovable boy, slow in mental growth,
and beaten in the battle of the examination-room.
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