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The national desire to honour the memory of one of the greatest statesmen in the gallery of illustrious Englishmen was no evanescent feeling. His reputation has been growing year after year since his death; and as the blessings of free trade are more and more appreciated and enjoyed, the public gratitude deepens for the services and sacrifices by which Sir Robert Peel secured the triumph of its principles. It was not in the United Kingdom alone that his loss was felt; the Continent of Europe and the United States of America, as well as our colonies, also deplored the calamity. When the news of his death reached Paris on the 5th of July, M. Dupin, the President of the Assembly, rose and said - "At a moment when a neighbouring and friendly nation is expressing its painful sentiments for the loss which it has recently sustained in the person of one of its most eminent statesmen, I think it would be honouring the French tribune to proclaim here our sympathetic regret, and to manifest our high esteem for that illustrious orator, who, during the whole course of his long and glorious career, was always animated with sentiments of justice and kindness towards France, and ever spoke of its Government in the most courteous terms. In consequence of the adhesion given to my words by the Assembly, they shall be inserted in the procès verbal."
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