SOME FAMOUS OLD MEN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1405, 12 November 1886, Page 3

SOME FAMOUS OLD MEN.

Toe longevity of famous statesmen ia remarkable Imagine Lord Palmerston acting vigorously as Prime Minister of England when over eighty, governing the vast British Empire wi h steady band, and making fpeeches three hou r s long In the House of Commons, and ritirg next day ai fresh as a man of forty ! Think of the venerable the French statesman, who at the age cf eighty-seven, was el ill writing h stories, presiding over religions conventions, and carrying on lire y discus i ms in the French Academy. The lata Lord Lyndhnist made able speeches in the House of when he pa's d his ninetieth year ; and his long time rival, 1o d Brougham, wrote his autobiography in three goodly volume! when he had nearly rei-c ed ninety years. The Marquis of Lmdsduwn-*, who aa Lord Henry Petty, was a hading member of the “All :ha Talents” Cabinet, of which Charles 3ames Fox was the chief, in 1806, was still an active member of the House of Lords nearly six'y years later, in 1868, ard died in that year at the ago cf ■eighty-three The Duke of Wellington took par* in Sublic affaire until his 'death in 1852, in is eighty-third year. In former generations energetic statesmen of advanced years are found th ckly scattered through the pages of hia-oiy. There was the old Maiquis of Winchetter, who could rememter dward IV, the first York seven-urn, in 1483, and who, when he died in 1572, at 'he age of ninety-seven, was holding office under Queen Elizabeth. Referring to the statesmen of our own country, it is famahar Let that John Adams and Thomaa Jefferson, the second and third Presidents, both died on the 4th July, 1826, just half a century from the day on which both signed the Declaration of Independence, Adams being nlnty-one and Jefferson eighty-three, President Andrew Jackson lived to be eighty-two, John' Quincy Adams to be eighty-one, Madison eighty-five.—Youth’ Companion.