The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-22 00:00:00

MR. GEORGE . PEABODY.

In 1856 Mr. Peabody revisited his native land. The
fame of his liberality and public spirit had been diffused in
the chief cities of America by all those who had enjoyed,
when they came to London, his open hospitality,—who had
joined his American dinner-parties at the Crystal Palace,
or had found his place of business in Old Broad-street a
convenient and agreeable resort. Deputations from New
York and Boston, therefore, met him upon his arrival, in-
viting him to receive public demonstrations of welcome,
which would have been imitated by other towns, convert-
ing his progress through the country into a series of ova-
tions. These, however, he declined. At Danvers only did
he consent to receive, on the 9th of October, in that year,
an enthusiastic reception of the gratitude and affection of
his fellow •townsmen. Everything was done by triumphal
arches, flags, inscriptions, and wreaths of flowers,
to beautify the streets, usually so quiet, of that town, which
seemed to have turned itself inside out for joy at his return ;
and seventeen hundred children, who attended the cere-
monies that morning, worn Mr. Peabody's portrait pinned
to their frocks or hung from their necks. A minute narra-
tive of these proceedings, with a sketch of the Peabody
Institute, has been printed, forming a volume of two hun-
dred pages. It includes a report of the speeches of Mr.
Edward Everett, Governor Gardner, Professor Walker,
and other distinguished men of Massachusetts, who spoke
at the banquet spread between a huge marquee, after the
formalities of the day were done. They show that a
beneficent millionnaire, if not a prophet, may some-
times have honour in his own country. A few months
later Mr. Peabody visited Baltimore, the city where he be-
gan his prosperous career. His welcome there, as may be
supposed, was exceedingly cordial. An intention he had
long cherished of doing for Baltimore, on a scale propor-
tioned to the amount of her population, what he had already
done for the small town of Danvers, was now fulfilled. He
at once bestowed 300,000 dollers, and has since given
1 200,000 dollars more, to establish in the capital of Mary•
land an institution, which has not yet been inaugurated,
because of the deplorable strife and confusion that now
prevails throughout the Union. It will comprise
an extensive free library, the periodical delivery
of literary and scientific lectures, annual prizes
for the graduates and pupils of the public schools, an Aca-
demy of Music, a Gallery of Art, and accommodation for
the Maryland Historical Society, under whose perpetual
management the whole is placed, with 25 trustees named by
the founder. He enjoined upon them, "that the institution
shall never be made a theatre for the dissemination or dis-
cussion of sectarian theology or party-politics ; that it shall
never minister, in any manner whatever, to political dis-
sension, to infidelity, or to visionary theories of a pre-
tended philosophy, aiming at the subversion of the approved
morals of society ; that it shall never lend its aid or
influence to the propagation of opinions tending to create or
encourage sectional jealousies in our happy country, or
which may lead to the alienation of the people of one State
or section of the Union from those of another ; but that it
shall be so conducted as to teach political and religious
charity, toleration, and beneficence, and prove itself to be
in all contingencies the true friend of our inestima-
ble Union, of the salutary institutions of free government,
and of liberty regulated by law." Mr. Peabody has not
been in America since 1857, We sincerely trust that when
he a second time revisits his native country, he will find
peace restored, liberty and prosperity undiminished, neither
Maryland nor Massacusetts in a worse condition than he
saw them last. In the meantime we are happy still to
have him among us. The admirable instance of his bounty,
announced by his letter of the 12th of March last, is quite of
a piece, as we have here shown, with his previous acts of
beneficence. What he has given, at one stroke of thO pen,
" to ameliorate the condition and augment the comforts of
the poor resident in London," without distinction of birth,
politics, or religion, is a sum which about equals the total
amount of his donations for the public benefit in America,
—London Review.

FOREIGN NAIL PACKET LIST.

MAILS DUE.

Auslralia and Mauritius, viavia
i‘Sittsherepaton.
..
............
AJulugy.
,129..
&sail and Cape Verds, by British packet. ..... Aug 4.
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Ilefena..Aug.. 1.
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton.July:l9.
via Marseilles .. July 27.
Falkland Islands.,
Gibraltar, via Southampton .. ............. July 19.
Ceylon, vvii.aaSi‘oluatrhaaanainepato.n...:
July
yy
2179..
India (Calcutta), and
_
India (Bombay), via Southampton. ............ July 30,
via Marseilles ................ July 24.
Lisbon ............ Aug. 4
Malta, Egypt, and Aden, viaia Si‘oinartsheaimllepato.n.
................ j -3. uull y-y
. 2194' ..
Newfoundland .......... July 23.
Oporto and Vigo . . ,;., .......... Aug. 4.
A
U. S. and British N. merica, •
b;;B it packet.... July 23.
by U.S. packet..
• •
by Canadian packet. July 23.
W.C. of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe .......... Aug. 10.
Bahamas, via New York
..... ...July 31.
Mexico ............. :..... . .
All parts of West Indies, including_umi Chili Peru, l July 29.
California, and British col b a.. '.....-:

ST. SvvlTHlN.—Notwithstanding the unpopu-
larity
of this watery saint, he has not been so bad as be is
called. The records et the Greenwich Observatory (ac-
cording to the Athenaum) show that, taking the average
of the last twenty years, of the forty days which followed
the greater Fart were rainy when St.
the
15th of July,
Swithin's-day was fine. There never have been forty con-
secutive wet or dry days after the anniversary, whatever
the condition of the weather may have been on that day.
There have never been less than thirteen, never more than
thirty-one rainy days, out of the forty. In 1851, after a
wet St. Swithin,
we had but thirteen wet days in the
course of nearly six weeks ; whereas the thirty-one rainy
days of 1848 followed a dry St. Swithin. Certain locali-
ties (the Isle of Skye, for example) may have had more
rain during the forty days than tne kingdom generally;
but the old story of St. Swithin is a popular fallacy, and
will "not hold water."
Sir Charles Eastlake has just bought Gains-
borough's portrait of Mrs. Siddons for the National Gal-
-1%9, from Major Mair, the husband of Mrs. Siddons'
raUdaughter, for 1,000 guineas,