This, we believe, will be the case, for we do not belong to those who imagine that humanity is on the decline, that the energy of man is decaying, that the heart is becoming harder, and the imagination and intellect are dwindling away. On the contrary, in our opinion, man is, on the whole, advancing, and will continue to advance, intellectually and morally, until the world shall have answered all the purposes of its creation and the immortal state begins. What else means the vast improvement in morals, the ameliorations of war, the progress of political science, the redemption of woman from her degradation and bondage, the abolition of slavery, the general and wonderful progress of the race the last hundred years. To his descendants now scattered through the States of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, New York, and the far West, this compilation will possess deep interest, if it possess none for others, and for them and their connections alone, it is designed. May the remembrance and contemplation of his virtues inspire them with a desire to imitate them! MEMOIR OF JOHN HOWE PEYTON. John Howe Peyton, who acquired so much fame as a lawyer, statesman and orator, was descended from Henry Peyton, of "Acquia", Westmoreland county, Va., the first of the Peytons to leave England for Virginia, which he did about the year 1644. Henry Peyton died at his home "Acquia", in Westmoreland county, 1659. We learn from the National Cyclopedia of Biography that from the period of their settlement in Virginia to the present day, 250 years, the family has been "prolific of men full of gallantry and public spirit, of thrifty habits, hospitable, charitable and generous, whose lives have been useful and blameless, and whose characters were without blemish". The grandson of the first emigrant, or Henry Peyton the third, who removed to Stafford county, left among other issue, a son, John Peyton, of Stony Hill, Stafford, who was the grandfather of John H. Peyton, and is described as a man of "undeviating rectitude of conduct, of unshaken constancy in friendship, active in benevolence and pure in his habits." John Peyton left by his second wife a son, John Rowze Peyton, of Stony Hill, Stafford county, who served seven years in the Revolutionary Army and acquired by his dauntless valor and faithful discharge of duty, the sobriquet of the "hero boy of 1776". He was a man of strong convictions, probably of strong prejudices, and enforced his views in newspaper articles, showing marked ability as a thinker and writer. His son, John Howe Peyton, the subject of this sketch, was born at Stony Hill, April 27th, 1778, and died at Montgomery Hall, near Staunton, Augusta county, Va., April 3rd, 1847. And it may be truly said that no one was more loved, more honored or more mourned by those who knew him best.