Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/68

46 was pronounced in presence of the first consul and all the civil and military authorities, in what is now the Hôtel des Invalides. More striking still is the fact, mentioned by Jared Sparks, that the British fleet, consisting of nearly sixty ships of the line, which was lying at Torbay, England, under the command of Lord Bridport, lowered their flags half-mast on hearing the intelligence of Washington's death.

In later years the tributes to the memory of Washington have been such as no other man of modern or even of ancient history has commanded. He has sometimes been compared, after the manner of Plutarch, with Epaminondas or Timoleon, or Alfred the Great of England. But an eminent living English historian has recently and justly said that the place of Washington in the history of mankind "is well-nigh without a fellow." Indeed, the general judgment of the world has given ready assent to the carefully weighed, twice repeated declaration of Lord Brougham: "It will be the duty of the historian and sage in all ages to let no occasion pass of commemorating this illustrious man; and, until time shall be no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington!" Modest, disinterested, generous, just, of clean hands and a pure heart, self-denying and