IIG 



for some time, a consular appointment. He improved the opportunity 

 which his foreiojn residence afforded him of forming intimacies with 

 some of the most distincruished scholars and men of learninof in the 

 countries he visited. In 1840, he was appointed Her Britannic 

 Majesty's Consul for Pennsylvania, and came to Philadelphia, where 

 he spent the residue of his life. He soon found here many congenial 

 friends, whose society he liked, and to whom his highly social spirit, 

 kind heart, and acquaintance with hooks and men, rendered him al- 

 ways acceptable. He was received into membership of this Society, 

 on the sixteenth day of April, 1841. 



He died on Sunday afternoon, 6th day of February, 1853, in the 

 64th year of his age. 



Mr. Peter's taste, was eminently literary. Plis classical education 

 was good, and he was especially fond of Greek literature. In the 

 quiet country life which he led for some years in England, he had 

 full opportunity for the indulgence of this passion. He had read 

 much, especially of history and poetry. In several of the modern 

 languages, he had attained great proficiency, being well acquainted 

 with German, French, and Italian. But all his acquisitions of this 

 kind were through the eye. His vocal organs did not enable him to 

 speak either of these tongues, and he had no ear to understand them 

 when pronounced. Yet his attainments were thorough, he had mas- 

 tered their idiomatic niceties, and was conversant wit'i their leading 

 writers. In the early part of his life, he wrote various essays, chiefly, 

 it is believed, on political questions. Several of these pamphlets have 

 from time to time fallen in my way; but being on temporary and 

 local topics, they need not be referred to here ; one, I remember, was 

 a highly ingenious and plausible argument in favour of the viva voce 

 system of public suffrage, over that by ballot. There is no doubt, 

 that the nobility and gentry of England prefer that mode of giving 

 expression to popular preference: but it may be doubted whether the 

 open vote is best for those in the lower walks of life, whose social and 

 pecuniary condition places them in a state of dependency upon the 

 higher classes. He published in England, an edition of the works of 

 Sir Samuel Romilly, to which he prefixed a very interesting account 

 of his life. This undertaking was a labour of love; for he manifests 

 in his sketch, as he always discovered in his conversation, the highest 

 appreciation of the virtues, learning and abilities of the subject of his 

 memoir. The biography justly places Romilly where his career en- 

 titles him to stand — among the purest and most illustrious of En- 

 gland's worthies. 



