history of Sir ROBERT PEEL. The death of this
illustrious person has caused a profound sensation not only in Great
Britain, but throughout Europe. In the House of Lords, most eloquent
and impressive speeches upon the exalted character of the deceased,
and the irreparable loss of the country, were delivered by the Marquis
of Lansdowne, Lord Stanley, Lord Brougham, the Duke of Wellington,
and the Duke of Cleveland, and in the House of Commons, by Lord John
Russell, and Messrs. Hume, Gladstone, Goulburn, Herries, Napier,
Inglis and Somervile. The House, in testimony of its grief, adjourned
without business, an act without precedent, except in case of death
in the royal family. A noble tribute of respect was also paid by the
French Assembly to the memory of Sir Robert Peel. The President, M.
Dupin, pronounced an affecting eulogy upon the deceased, which was
received with the liveliest sympathy by the Chamber, and was ordered
to be recorded in its journal. A compliment like this is totally
unprecedented in France, and the death of no other foreigner in the
world could have elicited it.
* * * * *
BOYER, EX-PRESIDENT OF HAYTI.
Jean Pierre Boyer, a mulatto, distinguished in affairs, and for his
abilities and justice, was born at Port-au-Prince, on the 6th of
February, 1776. His father, by some said to have been of mixed blood,
was a tailor and shopkeeper, of fair reputation and some property, and
his mother a negress from Congo in Africa, who had been a slave in
the neighborhood. He joined the French Commissioners, Santhonax and
Polverel, in whose company, after the arrival of the English, he
withdrew to Jacqemel. Here he attached himself to Rigaud, set out
with him to France, and was captured on his passage by the Americans,
during the war between France and the United States. Being released
at the end of the war, he proceeded to Paris, where he remained until
the organization of Le Clerc's expedition against St. Domingo. This
expedition he with many other persons of color joined; but on the
death of Le Clerc he attached himself to the party of Petion, with
whom he acted during the remainder of that chieftain's life, which
terminated on the 29th of March, 1818. Under Petion he rose from
the post of aid-de-camp and private secretary to be general of
the arrondissement of Port-au-Prince; and Petion named him for
the succession in the Presidency, to which he was inducted without
opposition.
|