forerunner of perfidy in old age. His manners were natural and engaging, free from anything like affected politeness, and were marked by much courtesy of demeanour. A friend and contemporary at Princeton, John Randolph Bryan, of Gloucester County, Virginia, once informed the author, as they were sailing up the James River from Norfolk to Richmond in 1848, that he regarded William Peyton while at college as the finest pattern he had ever known of the thorough conservative high-toned gentleman. In a letter addressed to the author, in 1856, by the distinguished writer, N. Parker Willis, he spoke of him, when they were fellow students in Yale, in the same terms of commendation. Mr. W. held him to be a man of genius, whose failure to achieve greatness he would have deemed a marvel, but that he knew the race was not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.

His influence in preserving order, or stilling storms, among the Princeton students was of great service to the faculty. On occasions when disorders were apprehended from rough and reckless students, and the combinations they formed among the idle, the dissolute, and refractory, the masters applied to him, and through his exertions many a disturbance was avoided. Such in fact was his success in this way, arising from the power of influence he possessed, that the epoch of his college life was marked as one of the most quiet and respectable which had for many years occurred.

It was soon discovered at Princeton that he had a warm imagination, a feeling heart, and keen passions.

These latter were, however, under such control that they did not betray him into idleness, sensuality, or any of the usual vices of youth. From his earliest years, indeed, he seemed imbued with the necessity of acquiring virtuous habits. So much was he noted for his pure and lofty principles, that he was, while yet in his teens, the subject of remark, some attributing his excellence to the training of his parents, particularly to the influence of his mother, while others believed they were innate; for in whatever he undertook he was guided by the principles of virtue; they formed so essential a part of his character that through life he inspired all with whom he came in contact with perfect confidence, and consequently could not fail to exercise great influence. And it may be said with truth that the world at no period of his life ever narrowed or debased his affections, but his virtuous youth led to an accomplished manhood and tranquil old age.

If the newspapers of Virginia be consulted during the period of his public life, it will be found that those journals, of whatever political complexion, and however heated the contest might be, always spoke of him with the utmost respect, and paid high tribute to his talents, but above all to his lofty personal character. It is a matter of deep regret to the writer that none of these papers are contained in the library of the British Museum, or can now be procured, else many interesting extracts would be adduced to illustrate the esteem in which he was held by the people of his native State. It is not too much to say that in after life his honesty

and straightforwardness, his invincible fortitude, gave a vigour to his mind, a weight to his character, and a nobleness to his sentiments, which exalted him to the highest fame among the gentlemen of Virginia. With those who were near him, his personal popularity was unbounded, yet he never resorted to a dishonest act or stooped to the slightest meanness. There are but few public men of whom this can be truly said! It is proper that I should say on this subject, that, though singularly amiable, he never neared, or much less fell into, that vicious prostitution of mind in which a man has no will, sentiment, or principle of his own. So far from wanting the courage to avow his opinions, however distasteful they might at times be, his openness of character caused him often to display a generous, almost reckless boldness, in their expression.

His physical and moral courage, it should not be forgotten to mention, was, as may be readily imagined, soon proved to be equal to his frankness, and was of the heroic type. In illustration of which it may be related that on his return to Yale in his nineteenth year, when he was over six feet in height and of great bodily strength, he fought with and overcame, after a severe contest, Thomas van Bibber, known as "Big Tom" an intrepid fighting cock and recognized Athletæ.

His health was so much impaired by the end of his second year's residence at Princeton, his physical system so unstrung by close application to books, that he was withdrawn, and he returned to pass some time in the pure, dry atmosphere of Western Virginia. This course

was deemed necessary for his restoration to health, and the result was highly complimentary to the hygienic qualities of the mountain air. A few months spent in the Alleghanies, far from his studies and confinement, and near the trout stream and the hunting ground, enabled him to recover his customary tone and vigour, and at the end of six months he resumed his labours.

On his return to college, our wise father gave him the following abstract of the advice of Celsus, with respect to the preservation of health. "A man," says he, "who is blessed with good health, should confine himself to no particular rules, either with respect to regimen or medicine. He ought frequently to diversify his manner of living; to be sometimes in town, sometimes in the country; to hunt, sail, indulge in rest, but more frequently to use exercise. He ought to refuse no kind of food that is commonly used, but sometimes to eat more and sometimes less; sometimes to make one at an entertainment; sometimes to forbear it; to make rather two meals a day than one, and always to eat heartily, provided he can digest it. He ought neither too eagerly to pursue, nor too scrupulously to avoid, intercourse with the fair sex; pleasures of this kind, rarely indulged, render the body alert and active, but when too frequently repeated, weak and languid. He should be careful in time of health not to destroy, by excess of any kind, that vigour of constitution which should support him under sickness."

Notwithstanding the youth's amended health, our prudent father determined, upon the advice of his

family physician, the late William Boys, M.D., of Staunton, a noted provincial member of the profession, and a descendent, I believe, of the Boys, of County Kent, in England, so many of whom have found a sepulchre in Canterbury Cathedral, to send him farther north, to the more bracing air of Connecticut. He was accordingly entered at Yale College, in 1824.

As a proof of the high estimation in which he was held at Princeton, it may be mentioned, that when it was known that owing to ill health he would not return to the University, the authorities wished, in consideration of his fine scholarship and exemplary deportment, to confer upon him the degree which he would have obtained had he remained there two years longer. Indeed they were prevented from doing so only by the statutes of the Institution, which were found, on close examination, to prohibit that course, and also William Peyton's declared purpose not to accept such a degree. The Whig Society, however, a literary association and debating club to which he belonged, conferred upon him the honour reserved for their most distinguished members, and though he refused this mark of appreciation from his comrades also, the society dispatched to our father, in Virginia, the diploma my brother would not accept. This document, handsomely framed, long graced the walls of the library, at Montgomery Hall, and is now (1873) in the possession of my eldest sister.

It was the opinion of the litterateurs of Princeton that the peculiar faculty of acquiring languages was developed in him in the highest degree, and that he