"_John H. Peyton, Esquire_, who has acted as Commonwealth's Attorney in this county for thirty-two years, having on this day resigned the said office, the Justices of the county, in full session at their June term, do, with unanimous consent, express their high sense of Mr. Peyton's long and valuable services. They add a willing testimony to the distinguished ability, fidelity and zeal, with which he has guarded the interests of the Commonwealth within the limits of the county--to his impartiality, prudence, and firmness as a public prosecutor, and to the commendable courtesy which has marked his intercourse with the Court, as becoming a public officer and a representative of the Commonwealth. And it is the will of the Court that this testimonial, as an additional tribute of respect, be spread upon the records." _Spectator, July 4, 1844._ Immediately after his resignation, the County Court, as the only honor yet in their power to confer, elected him a member of their body, and on several occasions, before his death, he presided in the Court where he had so long practiced. Mr. Peyton was a member of the committee, appointed in 1843, to prepare an address to the people of Virginia, and aided in the preparation of that able and interesting document, but as it covers over fifty pages and may be found in the newspapers of the day, it is not necessary to insert it here, in order to make clear what were his political opinions. The committee was composed of B. W. Leigh, Robert W. Carter, James R. Hubbard, Chas. J. Faulkner, Wyndham Robertson, Chapman Johnson, and John H. Peyton, and was said to have united more talent than any similar body ever raised in Virginia. SKETCH OF JOHN HOWE PEYTON, BY COL. JOHN T. L. PRESTON, A. M., OF YALE, PROFESSOR OF MODERN LANGUAGES &c., IN THE V. M. INSTITUTE. The late John H. Peyton, Esq., of Staunton, Va., was one of the finest specimens that we have ever known of the complete lawyer. During the prime of his life he pursued the profession with a laborious assiduity rarely equalled, and though as age advanced upon him he remitted his efforts, he did not discontinue his practice until a short time before his death, [he took no new cases after his 60th year]. None of his contemporaries secured a more ample reward in either reputation or pecuniary emolument.