The present owner has preserved the library and study, where
the "Essay on Liberty" was written, much as it was in Mill's days.
To the peasants who met the tall, bent, spare figure, musing and
botanizing along the country lanes and fields, he was known as "Monsieur
Emile." Before he left the city on his periodical visits to England, Mill
was wont to leave 300 francs with M. Rey, pastor of the Protestant Church
in Avignon: two hundred for expenses of public worship; one hundred for
the poor, always charging M. Rey to write to England if any further need
arose.
Mill, a great Englishman of European fame, to the amazement of his French
friends, was followed to his last resting-place by no more than five
mourners. As we write news comes that the civic authorities have decided
to recall to posterity the association of the great thinker with Avignon
by giving the name of Stuart Mill to a new boulevard, and that a bust has
been unveiled to his memory near the pleasant city he loved so well. Mill
was much gratified that his pamphlet on "The Subjection of Women"
converted Mistral to the movement for their enfranchisement, and their
legal equality with men.
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