The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

lViontalembert's Last Great Speech.

L'Eglise Libre .Vans L'Etat Libre. Discours pro-
nonees au Congres Catholique de Malines. Par
le Comte de Montalembert, l'un des Quarante de
l'Academie Frau clise. Pp. 188. Paris : Dauniol.
Within the last few days we had, in common
doubtless with a multitude of others alike in France
and in England, the anguish—for, unaffectedly, the
feeling was nothing less poignant than one of
anguish—of remarking the ventilation in the sittings
of the new Imperial Chamber of Representatives at
Paris of another name than the name of Montalem.
bert as the member for Daubs. A reperusal of these
most impressive arguments comes to us, since then,
as in some small degree a consolation. It is so far
a consolation, at least, that it places us au courant
with the views of the Count de Montalembert upon
one of those root-questions the most vitally affecting
the whole condition of the Christian dispensation in
its relations with Modern Civilisation. The opinions
of a man so profoundly and tenderly devoted to the
divine interests of Christianity, and of one who is
at the same time so warm and ardent a champion of
the infinitely subordinate, yet still sublime and even
sacred, interests of Civilisation, of Modern Civilisa-
tion—eannot but be all the more eagerly welcomed,
now that circumstances have unhappily hushed his
voice as that of one of the boldest political thinkers
and speakers in his native land. The discredit of the
circumstances thus hushing that voice, so long beloved
and honoured among the more enlightened body of
Frenchmen, does not, however, by any means, as it
appears to us, attach exclusively to the imperial
system now dominant in France. That system
has its share, and a lion's share to boot it
is, of that discredit. But the discredit re-
ferred to, we cannot but repeat this as our
conviction, does nut, in any way, as it sp-
ears to us, appertain to it exclusively. The People
must share it with the G.Nernment. The multitude
of electors have participated with the Napoleonic
institutions, in closing the door against the Count de
Montalembert as a candidate claiming admission as
freeman and (as the Count does not himself, of course,
affect to be, but simply is) as a great orator, as a
pure and philosophic legislator, as a world-renowned
champi in at once of R-ligion and Liberalism, honour-
ably seeking admission into that scene of his ancient
triumphs, the hall of the French Parliament, the
tribune of the Fren,:h Legislature. However brought
about, the exclusion of Montalembert from that hall,
from that tribune, was nothing less—our innermost
feelings aver this—was nothing, was absolutely
nothing less, than a heinous act of ingratitude. To
open his lips—meaning by that simple phrase, his
whole mind as well, his soul, his heart, his very
conscience—to open his lips frankly in regard to a
matter of such vital and momentous import as that
of " A Free Church in a Free State," of their
position relatively to each other, of their
being absolutely essential, each to each—the

Count: de Montalembert was constrained to
cross the northern frontiers of France, to
ascend the steps of a Belgian tribune, and to speak
then and there, not in France, not at Paris, as four
thousand people remember him to have spoken a
very few months, little more than a very few weeks
back, in the old Flemish city of Mechlin or Malines.
Breathing the pure atmosphere of that constitutional
country, tne Count de Montalembert spoke, it will
be remembered, with a boldness, and a precision, and
anunflinching determination to lay bare his own deli-
berate convictions in regard to everything constitut-
ing or relating to "A Free Church in a Free State,"
as to startle many of those who were most familiar
wita that boldness of thought and speech for which
the Great Orator during his whole life, his pure and
noble life, has been so pre-eminently remarkable.
For ourselves, in his regard, we can speak, and
think, and feel, perhaps, in a more peculiar man-
ner, dispassionately. It is the privilege, it is in one
sense the right of this true Champion or Religion
and of Liberalism—call him as a Politician and as
a Christian what you please—it is the Count de
Montalembert's privilege, it is his right,
to be regarded with peculiar and most
unprejudiced sympathy here in this Pro-
testant England. His views in regard to the
relations that ought to hold between the Church
and the State, are, for the most part, identical with
the views of freeborn Englishmen. His opinions, in
regard to the political forms of Government are
substantially and peculiarly those entertained by
the great mass of us Englishmen. Constitutional
Government—a Constitutional Government such as

that which has grown uy here in England during
many centuries—is what he cherishes the beliet may
yet come to be the possession of his fellow country-
men. Startling though his views and opinions
were to many of those who listened to his great
oration at Malines, to us they come quite naturally
and familiarly. They are the echoes of the thoughts
and convictions we have long cherished. Happily
we have had occasion, since the speech was first
delivered at the Congress, to note how the doubts
first of all excited amongst a certain proportion
of its hearers, and afterwards of its readers,
have been cleared away. At this moment they
have all but vanished altogether. The Count's
views are no longer looked at doubtingly,
wistfully, and 'askance. They are acc3pted for
what they are, for what he meant them to be. The
orator has himself taken the trouble to specify with
the utmost distinctness what in effect was the scope
of their inner meaning or general significance. He
did so originaiy in a recent number of Le Corres-
pondant, as a sort of supplement to the issue of
the two speeches, or rather of the two halves of
the great oration, given in successive numbers of
chat able and brilliant periodical. Here together with
the explanatory note, the speech itself appears in its
collective form. In that collective form, as a sepa-
rate and substantial publication,it comes to us cer-
tain of obtaining—what weyield it upon the instant,
with open hands and with open heart—a welcome.
The voice of the Great Orator will be found by those
who may here hearken to it again, will be found
by them to have lost, through lack of use, none of
its former resonance. It comes to :us, once more
like one of the dear familiar voices of old, melo-
diously, sonorously, but, by reason of more than
one sorrowful remembrance, with yet one additional
touch of beauty in its vibration—the sound as of
suppressed tears in it. As we listen, it is the friend
of Lacordaire (hushed, even in the pulpit, before
death) who is speaking to us—in a word, it is
MONTALEMBERT.

Les Institutions Representatives En Autriclie.
Par P. Da Haulleville. Pp. 175. Paris :

Guillaumin et Cie.

Having recently directed attention, in our lead.
ing columns, to these very happily -timed Papers
of M. de Haulleville, on the occasion of their
original appearance in the pages of Le Correapon-
dant, it now merely remains for us to notify the
fact, here, of their separate and collective republi-
cation, As such they can hardly fail to prove, where-
ever they may be met with, especially acceptable.
They aro certainly most acceptable to ourselves.
Acceptable for their owa intrinsic merits as a
cluster of brilliant magazine articles, and still more
than that, for the deep interest attaching to them
as the mostcomprehensive, searching, and perfectly
dispassionate exposition that has any where yet
appeared, of the extraordinary movement of rehabi-
litation, of general transformation, now visibly
and appreciably in process of development
in the whole form, substance, spirit, genius, of the
Imperial Austrian Government. Th-A movement
is now being watched with the liveliest interest
in this country. Nor can it be any wonder at all
that it should be so. For what, in simplest truth,
is the nature of that movement ? Nothing less, in
reality, than the substitution for a Despotic Go-
vernment, of a Government strictly and essentially
Constitutional. For inasmuch as M. de Haulle-
vine's pages, here, afford us a keen insight in the
riee,progress,gind general development of the changes
changes
now being effected throughout the administration
rf the vast Austrian empire, from the
central
reason
:sati point
Jf the imperial capital of Vienna, we
to feel indebted to him for his
upon able
chapters that have already won for themselves a
wide popularity through the mee um of Le Corre-