e news of Washington's death reached England, Lord
Bridport, who had command of a British fleet of nearly sixty sail of the
line, lying at Torbay, lowered his flag half-mast, every ship following
the example; and Bonaparte, First Consul of France, on announcing his
death to the army, ordered that black crape should be suspended from all
the standards and flags throughout the public service for ten days."

The great American orator of that day, Fisher Ames, delivered a eulogy
before the Massachusetts Legislature, in which he said:

"The fame he enjoyed is of the kind that will last forever; yet it was
rather the effect than the motive of his conduct. Some future Plutarch
will search for a parallel to his character. Epaminondas is perhaps the
brightest name of all antiquity. Our Washington resembled him in his
purity and the ardor of his patriotism; and like him, he first exalted
the glory of his country."

Lord Brougham said:

"How grateful the relief which the friend of mankind, the lover of
virtue, experiences, when, turning from the contemplation of such a
character [Napoleon], his eye rests upon the greatest man of our own or
of any age; the only one upon whom an epithet, so thoughtlessly lavished
by men, may be innocently and justly bestowed!"

Edward Everett, by whose efforts and influence "The Ladies' Mount Vernon
Association of the Union" were enabled to purchase (twenty-five years
ago) two hundred acres of the estate, including the mansion-house and
tomb, for preservation and improvement, says, in his biography of
Washington:

"In the final contemplation of his character, we shall not hesitate to
pronounce Washington, of all men that have ever lived, THE GREATEST OF
GOOD MEN AND THE BEST OF GREAT MEN!"

Posterity honors itself by calling him

"THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY!"

XXV.

EULOGY BY GENERAL HENRY LEE.

In obedience to your will, I rise, your humble organ, with the hope of
executing a part of the system of public mourning which you have been
pleased to adopt, commemorative of the death of the most illustrious and
most beloved personage this country has ever produced; and which, while
it transmits to posterity your sense of the awful event, faintly
represents your knowledge of the consummate excellence you so cordially
honor.

Desperate, indeed, is any attempt on earth to meet correspondently this
dispensation of Heaven; for while, with pious resignation, we submit to
the will of a