HENRY DEACON 197 



His family in London belonged, with 

 Faraday, to the small sect of the Sande- 

 manians, but he was a liberal churchman, or 

 probably with more accuracy he might be 

 described as a very broad churchman: he 

 had a perfect horror of all cant and shams ; 

 in politics he was a philosophical Radical. 



It was at the early age of only 53, that his 

 career was cut short ; but for several years 

 his health had not been good ; he subjected 

 his physical powers frequently to no ordinary 

 strain, the wear and tear was too great, or, 

 as he himself acknowledged when he found 

 his health breaking down, " I have taken too 

 few holidays." We surmise that it was the 

 ceaseless activity of his intellect and his 

 temperament, engaged in undertakings that 

 were varied, difficult, and complicated, needing 

 constant labour and anxious thought, that 

 undermined his constitution, and made him 

 an easy prey to an attack of typhoid fever, of 

 which he died, after a week's illness, at 

 Appleton House, near Widnes, on the 

 23rd of July, 1876. He was twice married, 

 to his first wife in 1851, and to his second in 

 1866. His widow survives him with a family 

 of seven sons and four daughters. 



By this brief review of the life of Henry 



