The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-05
GEORGE PEABODY.
A sketch OF his Career.


land IN March following. The frigate st. Law
renee, freighted with industrial products, had
already unladed at Southampton. A large un-
finished space in the east end Of the Crystal
Palace had been set off for the United States.
France, Spain, Russia, the countries OF the
Zollverein, Portugal, and Austria were well on
with preparations for the lst of May. Zach
Commission, saveours, was provided with funds,
appropriated by its Government, adequate to
its needs. It was estimated that $l5, 600 at
least would require to be expended upon coun-
ters fixtures, and decorations to put us on
decent footing even. The floor OF our depart
ment was strewed with boxes and bales.
Pickfords vans were constantly dumping
goods at the entrance, to be Immediately
marked and warehoused within by Custom
House officials; exhibitors were uneasily
watching their property; the American
Minister, Mr.. Lawrence, was patiently listen
ing to innumerabe complaints; accounts
for freight and carriage were constantly
being presented for payment, with threats
of attachment of the goods, and the
Chairman of the Royal Commission was
politely representing the short time that re-
manned for making the necessary preparations
against the grand opening. No greater con-
fusion ever perplexed a public officer. The
exhibitors declined the proposition to raise
money by subscription; our Government felt
unauthorized to do more than furnish free
conveyance for contributions from New York
to Southampton; the Legation was powerless
to afford relief, and the Executive Committee
in Washington had no pecuniary means.
The whole affair looked like a disgrace
full failure AT this iuncture Mr.. George Pea
body, of whom not one exhibitor in twenty
had ever heard, and who was personally uu-
known to every member of the Commission,
offered through polite note addressed to Mr..
Lawrence, to advance $4,000 on the personal
responsibility of Mr.. Riddle and his secretary,
Mr.. Dodge. This loan afterward paid by Con-
gress, relieved the Commission of its difficult
Ties, and enabled our countrymen to achieve
their first success in industrial competition
with the artisans and manufacturers of Europe.
Mr.. Peabody was then ffty-seven years old.
a large-framed man, six feet in height, slight
ly STOPPING at the shoulders, of easy address,
retiring in manner, rather reticent of speech,
neat in apparel and digniied in bearing-he
appeared rather the English gentleman of
leisure than an American merchant. He had
resided in London thirteen years. His place
of business consisting of two counting-rooms
-one for his clerks, the other for himself-was
In a narrow court leading out OF Throgmorton
street. His commercial operations had
given him little public notOriety. Having
full faith in the soundness of Ameri-
can State securities, he had assisted
for several years in negotiating their sale
in Europe, first those issued by Mary
land and afterward Others until he
had realized considerable fortune
even for London. Still he was not widely
known. Mr.. Bates, Mr.. Sturgis, Mr.. (now
SIR Curtis M. Lampson, and twenty other
Americans had larger commercial reputa-
tion. Attentive to interests intrusted to his
care, punctual to appointments, exact in en-
gagements, sagacious in operations, and free
from every kind of crattiness or chicanery,
his growth in business reputation, though
slow, had been healthy and strong. At 10
every morning he could be found at his desk
in the small dingy Office just out of the noisy
thoroughfare, reading letters, signing drafts,
accepting bills OF exchange, reviewing in
voices, inditing heads of correspondence, and
receiving calls, and punctually at o'clock
every afternoon coming out OF the court to
mount his horse for ride, or to take an
omnibus towards his lodgings in the West End.
Several years before this he had inaugurated
the plan, now universal with foreign merchants
in London, of offering hospitality to such
strangers as had letters of credit on his house.
His dinners, given at the London Tavern, or
the Star and Garter in Richmond, had begun
TO be famous. Americans about to visit
Europe gave preference to bills OF exchange
which would command something more than
the mere payment of the pounds sterling they
asked for, and in consequence large numbers
OF those who visited England during the year
of the great Exhibition were the guests of the
merchant then rising to eminence.
Mr.. Peabody is almost invariably styled in
this country the London Banker. He is not,
and never has been, banker, nor has he ever
done banking business. English banks, from
the Bank of England down through the long
list of private bankers, such as Glynn, Mills
u Co., Hankey & Co., Smith, Payne & Smith,
Jones, Lloyd & Co., Childs Il Co., Coutts &
Co., and others, and the equally long list of
chartered corporations, such as London and
Westminster Bank, London and County, Union,
Agra, and others, transact business under
special acts of Parliament. Until within the last
thirty years, with the exception of the Bank Of
England, banking operations were confined to
Tivate firms. There were no chartered corpo-
tiOns. The bankers of London, and indeed
sll England, and of Scotland and Ireland as
\, were class, and a privileged class, too, as
frh as the landed aristocraoy. They grew up
tba the Longobards, the first of whom were
Ionpsini family a rich race, who settled in
name in the reign of Edward H., gave the
;SpectqL Lombard street, which Addison in the
credit malls "a certain street Of the greatest
men arouTope," and grouped their country
who took phem. They were the goldsmiths,
Jewels, and les in plate articles of virtu and
bards, the thrtout the badge OF the Longo.
family, which hagolden pills OF the Medici
pawnhrokers. Th9cended as the sign OF the
firms in Lombard sere now sixteen banking
centuries old. The Y some OF tnem are
date back to their gol&HkSeeys, ior example,
settled there in the fourteen ancestors !l Wn'
Stone q Martin occupy tlcehtury. m"[Gln
chased by their ancestor, IS premises T, PuI'
sham, IN A. d. 1919; and Sir t.iLl naiii"s eve
transmitted in the fifteenth ceH rum m 4, DOVES
estate now occupied by his sucy tne rea '1
%eathy bankers, Glynn, Mills & CO%.,IIb, on' o.'