Sir Robert Peel made his last speech in opposition to the vote of confidence: though, in referring to Palmerston's defence of the Government, he declared that "his speech made us all proud of the man who made it." He delivered his last vote on the fourth day of the debate, about four o'clock in the morning of June 29. Next day at noon he attended a meeting of the Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition which was to be held the following year. After the meeting he mounted his horse, went to write his name in the Queen's book at Buckingham Palace, and then rode up Constitution Hill. He stopped to talk to the Hon. Miss Ellis, whom he met riding down from Hyde Park: something frightened his horse, which, by a sudden bound, unseated him. Peel in falling kept hold of the reins and pulled the horse on the top of him. He was internally and fatally injured, one of his ribs having been broken and forced into the lung. He died on July 2, after terrible suffering. The doctors were unable to deal with the injuries owing to the intense agony caused by the slightest movement. It brings to one's apprehension what an incalculable boon to suffering humanity has since that time been discovered in the use of anæsthetics. Chloroform had already been invented, it is true, in 1850; but its employment was little understood. Three years earlier Charles Greville had witnessed one of the first operations under chloroform in St. George's Hospital. How many suffering ones and friends of suffering ones have had cause to echo the feeling expressed in his journal: "I have no words to express my admiration for this invention, which is the greatest blessing ever bestowed on mankind, and the inventor of it the greatest of benefactors, whose memory ought to be venerated by countless millions for ages yet to come." In spite of this, it is greatly to be feared that the names of Guthrie the American and Soubeiran the Frenchman, who simultaneously discovered chloroform in 1831, and Lawrence of London and Simpson of Edinburgh, who first employed it in our hospitals, have been almost forgotten by the many. [Illustration: _C. J. Staniland, R.I._} THE LIFEBOAT OF 1837. The form of Lifeboat introduced by Henry Greathead in 1789, having a curved keel, and rendered additionally buoyant by means of cork, was still the recognised form in 1837, and boats built by him have been in use until quite recently. The Lifeboat crews on the north and east coasts still prefer, and use, a boat of very similar shape.] [Illustration: _From a Photo by_} {_Bennetto, Newquay._ THE LIFEBOAT OF 1897. This is the standard self-righting boat of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and is the outcome of innumerable experiments. The Institution has a fleet of 298 Lifeboats, and has been the means of saving, since 1824, no fewer than 39,815 lives. The Illustration shews the Newquay boat entering the water by means of the slip way.] [Illustration: THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851, IN HYDE PARK.]