The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-26 00:00:00

DEFENCE OF LAMARTINE.

(Continued from The Sun of the 16th of Sept.)
SIXTLI ACCUSATION.
After the inauguration of the National Assembly,
I refused, say they, through feebleness, to assume
ALONE the direction of the Government, for which so
many suffrages seemed to have pointed me out to the
choice of the Assembly. I thus induced the National
Assembly to form a Commission of Government with•
out unity.
I reply to this reproach by a candid analysis of the
deliberate and deeply reflected sentiments v4hich
caused me to come to this determination.
At the moment when the National Assembly—tlat
Assembly so long yearned for by myself—at last
arrived at Paris, and when the spontaneous and ill-
deserved favour of the country, signalised by two
millions of suffrages, appeared to entitle me to become
a candidate for Government, three separate courses
lay open for my adoption.
Either I could demand that consolidated power
which men seemed disposed to offer me, and exercise
the sole anthority in the name of the Assembly—
precisely as General Cavaignac does to-day, but
without having, like that General, the mournful
excuse of necessity consequent upon the recent sup-
pression of civil war, without the well-merited pres-
tige of military command, and without the strength
derived from the maintenance of the state of siege and
the military force constituted in the army of Paris.
Or, I could isolate myself simultaneously from the
old and the new Government, withdraw my name
from all responsibility, and await patiently upon my
bench, enveloped with popularity, with regrets, and
with aspirations, the choice of the country to the
great magistracy of the Republic.
Or, again, I could sacrifice myself, lose myself,
annihilate myself in the waves of difficulty and of
inevitable unpopularity, by consenting to become a
member of an Executive Commission, a power at
once necessary and impossible, good to use and to
abuse ! All this I knew.
Let us examine together each of these three parts,
not in reference to my ambition, but in regard to the
foundation of the Republic.
To accept the sole direction of the Government, and
consequently to exclude from all participation in it
my republican colleagues of the 24th of February,—
was to create at one and the same time a majority
and a minority leagued one against the other in the
bosom of the National Assembly,—it was to form
even in the first days two distinct parties, when I
wished above all things to found, at least during the
preliminary epoch of initiation, one patriotic and re-
publican party possessing unity of action,—it was to
give chiefs to those parties, and to give arms to those
chiefs. Intestine wars in the head of the Republic
could not fail to produce convulsions in its extremi-
ties. When once this majority and minority shou'd
have become strongly developed in the As-
sembly,!each discussion would become a tempest,
each storm would have its rebound and its reverbe-
ration without; to divide the Assembly was to divide
the Republic ; to divide the Republic at a time when
it could scarcely be said to exist was either to doom
it to destruction or to incarnadine it with the blood
of the citizens. In fine, between this majority and
this minority, my Government would have been
compelled by necessity to make a selection. I—but
newly emerged from February would have found
myself bound to place my support exclusively in the
party of the morrow, in preference to the exas-
perated party of the yesterday. Thereupon
the Republic, held together in my hands, would
become suspected by the Republicans of Feb-
ruary. They would forthwith have marshalled them-
selves in opposition to me ; they already pos-
sessed, for the accomplishment of their plans, the
tribune, the press, the clubs, the half-licensed dele-
gates of the Luxembourg—the army of the hundred
thousand men of the Ateliers Nationaux—the Bona-
partists, the Terrorists, the Socialists, whose chief
aim was universal subversion;—all these would have
been united, accumulated, aggregated, and bound
together, by their hands, into one strong fasces of
Opposition. The National Assembly would have
found itself compelled to combat, single-handed,
against these formidable forces of disciplined disorder.
This is true. But, vanquished, the Assembly would
have been dissolved, and replaced by an anarchical
despotism. Victorious, she would have been com-
pelled to become violent and conventional against
her own inclination. Thus, in two svays, that
Republic which we had hoped to be pacific, constitu-
tional, and even unanimous, would have been lost
beyond redemption, and my inconsiderate ambition
would have been the cause of its doom ! History
would, with reason, have accused and convicted me of
having calculated neither my own strength nor that of
the Assembly, which was barely raised above its foun-
dations. That which so many men, who were without
reflection, or who viewed things from a distance,
presented to me as the happy audacity of a states-
man, was to my own intimate knowledge nothing less
than the blunder of an ambitious adventurer without
a morrow ! My place was marked out to me among
those men of opprobrium and misfortune who had lost
both monarchies and republic from the impatience
and the presumption of dreaming themselves capable
of saving their country alone and without assistance.
SEVENTH ACCUSATION.
But, say they to me in reply, you could, at least,
refrain yourself from entering into the Executive
Commission, and thereby remain free and invulnerable
in your isolation.
It is true ; egotism sufficiently prompted me to
that resolution. I could only increase by such a
withdrawal; I could reserve a popularity untouched
to the Republic ; I could, with ease, render myself a
candidate for the suffrages and enthusiasm of all. But
what, let me ask, would have imported this candidate-
ship when there would no longer have remained a re-
public ? Besides, it was evident to me that if I had
withdrawn my name, at that time significative and, as
it were, the ligature of parties, from all participation
in the Executive Commission, the National Assembly
would have formed a Government of a single colour,
chosen exclusively from amongst men who were
unjustly suspected of entertaining a resentment
against the Republic ! It is, therefore, evident that
this Government would have created forthwith in the
Assembly the same antagonism and distraction which,
according to my opinion, would have caused either the
' destruction or the exasperation of the Republic. I
would not consent to listen to egotism—behold my
crime! I consented. thomstrige,
vavaLio, w4lllllUnate myseis P"urpt— --
ose-.Wpreser;-
leg to the Government every possible guarantee of
conciliation between the practicable and political
men who represent the different great parties of the

revolution.
It is that which has caused all our calamities! they
cry out against me. It is that, too, which has caused
all the good which has occurred ! I cry out to you.
It is that which has led, not to the destruction of the
factions, but to their decapitation and dispersion, and
hich has enabled you, instead' of having to fight
against them in a solid mass before your force was in
any degree consolidated, to annihilate them in their
piecemeal and powerless adventures—a circumstance
which has rendered the Republic ultimately tri-
umphant ! It is that which has still preserved unani-
mity to the National Assembly in regard to all the
vital questions connected with the preservation of
society, of property, and of the nation ! It is that
which will enable us to maintain this position for a
yet longer period ; which will reconcile still further,
and confirm us more and more, in all the days of
danger, in a common spirit of patriotism, and which
will enable us, with one accord, to vanquish those
lures to dissension which are being perpetually cast
in to us from without, but which we will never be in-
duced to accept.

DEATH OF THE QUEEN DOWAGER OF NAPLES.—
Accounts were received in town last evening, from Na-
ples, which confirm the demise of the Dowager Queen of
the Two Sicilies as having taken phwe in the Neapolitan
capital on the 11th inst., after a gradual declining illness
of several months. Her deceased Majesty, Isabella
Mary, was only daughter of Charles IV. of Spain, and
conscqucntly sister of the late King Ferdinand VII.,
Don Carlos, and Don Francisco de Pvula. She was born
July 6, 1789, and married Oct. 6, 1802, Francis f., King
of the Two Sicilies (then Duke of Calabria), within 12
months of the decease of his first wife, the mother of the
Duchess de Berri. By her marriage she had a family of
ten children, namely, Maria Christina, the Queen
Mother of Spain; Ferdinandll., King of Naples; Charles,
the Prince of Cnpua; Leopold, the Count de Syracuse;
Antoinette, the Grand Duchess of Tuscany; Amelia,
married to Don Sebastian of Spain; the Princess Caro-
line; Theresa, Empress of Brazil; Louis, Count d'Aquila;
and Francis, Count de Trapani,

TO M. DE LAMARTINE.
AFTER READING HIS POEN OF " JOCELYN."

PARATHILVED FROM THE FRENCH Or K. JULES DE

RESSEGUIER.
BY W. C. M. K.
In the brightness of eve, in the silence of night,
0 Poet! my heart drank the joys of thy song;
And, when through the lattice the day dawned in light,
I read yot again as the hours rolled along—
That Ilene of devotion, those pure lays of love,
Those chaunts of emotion, hope, agony, life,
And I named thee, thou bard of the accents that move,
O Genius! 0 Hero of song and of strife!
And, my heart thrilling up at the sound of thy numbers,
My sighs long-repressed, and my tears often shed,
Awoke the high passions which Earth only cumbers,
And lifted my soul to the realms of the dead.
Bright images passed o'er the disc of my mind,
Bright images such as the dreamer bewails,
And sorrows unknown, like the anguish men find
When the voice of the loved on the dying lip fails.
And fragments of melody torn from thy lyre,
Remember'd with rapture, repeated with joy,
Illuaun'd my soul, like the fragments of fire—
The gold clouds that sunset has strewn o'er the sky.
The beings thy genius had render'd immortal,
Jocelyn, Laurence, and Martha, nay more,
The deg whose intelligence lavell'd the portal
Which instict and reason had sunder'd before.
Those beings created like beams by thy glory,
The charms of my household, the tares of home,
Who were born but to-day in the womb of thy story,
And yet have already like old friends become.
That drama composed hell of love, half of weeping,
That death whose recital appals but to soothe;
Tho man, made a slave when in ignorance sleeping,
And only aweken'd to freedom by Truth ;
The combat of earth and the triumph of heaven,
Recounted and shrined in the pomp of thy lay,
Gave nay life a new vigour, a fragrance, a leaven ;
It revived the crushed blooms of my youth's early day.
Behold the emotions thy song has cngender'd,
Emotions whose sense is a rapture divine
Behold the sweet thoughts which thy glory has render'd I
Like gems gleaming up in a goblet of wine.
To Byron, ;he exile and bard, they compare
Thy Mille and thy metre, thou lyrist of France !
As the gladness of hope and the gloom of despair
Are mingled together in ancient romance.
Nor, wild though the contrast may seem, on reflection
The fact of resemblance steals out to the light,
And the sympathies felt betwixt joy and dejection
Are Went, like the moonbeams end shadows of night.
Thy poetry shines with perpetual lustre,
'Tis radiant like sunlight, a flame like a star,
And oft in the woof of thy rhythm a cluster
Of mysteries glow from the depths of the Far.
The brerth of thy Muse is the sweet breath of Nature,
The wind of the mornings, the breeze of the eves,
It scatters delight over corn-field and pasture,
It burgeons the bough, and it goldens the sheaves.
It resembles the clouds of rare perfumes uplifted,
And curled o'er the lips of the censers of gold,
The flowers and foliage wherewith Spring has gifted
The bars of the dungeon where crime groweth old ;
It is lucent like pearls on the sands of the ocean ;
Its sheen has the whiteness of swans on the lake ;
And it soars like the wings of the eagle in motion
Above the: high rocks where the hurricanes break.
The dear thoughts that live in the core of our breast,
That live and are loved like the pulse of our life,
Thy verses have often in music express'd,
In music with passion and ecstasy rife.
Thy voice in its accents is varied like ages,
Like ages of pleasure, and ages of pain;
Sometimes it has utter'd the wisdom of sages,
And sometimes has sung in a symbolic strain.
Where'or inspiration has tended to lure,
Where'er thy ambition has taught thee to rove,
The shame of the base and the fame of the pure
Have symbolized life in the language of love.

Tho chords of humanity, strung upon sadness,
Require• the soft touch of an
,influence divine
To give their vibrations the true tone of gladness,
And theee tones rebound from an influence like thine.
We need a soft balm for the wounds which are fated.
To rankle and burn in the bosom of age,
A balm to refresh the poor soul when 'tis sated,
That balm, Lamartine, I derive from thy page.
Lamartine! that dear name, that name lovely and glorious,
That name which inspires my sad heart to rejoice,
That name which has often proved great and victorious,
That name filled with sweetness of soul and of voice.
Boulogne-sur•mer, Sept. 22, 1848.

(THE ORIGINAL.)
Pendant le soir bruyant, pendant la nuit muette,
Mon (Tour a devor6 ton saint livre, o paite!
Et lorsqu'il ma fendtre a reparu le jour
Je rclisais ces chants de prier° et d'amour,
Ces chants de deuil, d'espoir, do vie, of d'agonie,
Et psis je to nommais en disant: o genie!

Et demon cceur soudain les battements presses,
sties soupirs retenus longtemps, mes pleurs verses,
L'interieur (den quivers Dieu nous Cere,
Des images pr.:Kant devant moi comme un rove,
Des troubles inconnus dans tous mes sens restes,
Quelques mots de tes vers au basard rapetes,
Et Marthe, et Jocelyn, et sa mere, et Laurence,
Et ce chien dont I'instinct d'une ame a l'apparenco,
Etres cre63 par to;. dans ma famine admis,
Nei d'bier seulement, et deja vieux amis ;
Ce drame, qu9 d'amour et de pleura se compose,
La mort, dont Is penfe 4?ouvante et repose.
L'homme esclave du corps, l'etro inamateriel,
Le combat sur la terre, et le triompbe au die],
Et partout taut d'eelat, qua des jeunes annees.
On emit voir reverdir toutes les fleurs fare's:
Voila lea sentiments qui me vient do toi,
Voila cc quo ton Here a fait passer en moi.
A Byron, barde anglais, toi, pci3te de France,
Ou to compare, ainsi quo la belle esperance
Au sombre desespeir; et c'est avec raison
Que l'universe a faite cotta comparaison.
Ta pcSsie eat tout, rayon, flamme, mystbire,
Ce qui pare, colore ou parfume la terre;
C'est to vente de l'aurore, et la brise des soirs,
Les nuages montaut de l'or des encensoirs,
La flour entre lea noirs barreaux de l'esclavage,
Les perks que la mar roule sur son rivage,
Le cynge sur le lac, l'aigle au-dessus des moots,
Ce quo nous dit tout bas le emu, quand nous aimons.
Tantat la le itf, tantOt la parabole,
Et toujours do la vie un eclatant symbole.
Il faut l'accord celeste a nos claviers bumains,
Et lea notes du ciel bondissent sous tes mains.
Il faut un baume au mal que le sort nous destine,
Et ce baume cat pour moi dans tes vers, Lamartinei
Cher nom, beau nom, grand noml qui resume it la fois
Tout ce qu'ont de plus dour les ames et les voix.

MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE.—We understand that
great
the union announced to take place between Miss Hudson,
th o only daughter of __G2ol-g9.lljß(3§ojix ti at
siplien'elour st -Christmas. The bride has not yet com-
pleted her eigtcenth year, and the gentleman is in his
twenty•eighth. Rumour speaks strongly of the beauty,
amialnlity, and highly cultivated mind of Miss Hudson.
Mr. George Dundas, who has represented Linlithgow-
shire in Parliament since 1847, is a deputy lieutenant
for that county, and has seen considerable service abroad
in the Rifle Brigade ; ho is the eldest son of James
Dundas, Esq., his mother being the daughter of the
celebrated Admiral Viscount Duncan. The principal
seat. of the family consists of the fine old baronial man-
sion known as Dundas Castle, in Linlithgowshire, and,
with the surrounding domain, has been in the amily
since the twelfth century.
Andrew Govan, M.D., who has been well known
for years as one of the " characters of Greenock," died
yesterday afternoon; and those who knew him only by
his appearance on the streets will be surprised to learn
that he has left behind him upwards of 2,000 t He was
a sober, civil, and intelligent man; but had a most tho-
rough contempt for personal adornment, and, in truth,
for cleanliness. He was not a professed beggar, but
many of our townsmen who had known him in what they
thought better circumstances were in the regular habit
of giving him shillings in charity, which he always ac-
cepted with thanks. He had no miserly disregard of the
comforts of life, but always enjoyed himself moderately
and decently. Ile has left a large family. Some of his
acquaintances occasionally repeated to him stories of his
wealth, but Andrew's invariable reply was " Whaur wad
I get it ?"_Greenock Advertiser.
A NECDOTE OF BISHOP BARRINGTON.—A young
relative apprised the Bishop of his intuition of taking
holy orders; not that he liked the Church as a profes-
sion, but because from the Bishop (as his near relative,
and having much plea did preferment at his disposal) he
might naturally expect a benefice. "In truth," returned
the Prelate, in reply to this frank avowal, "the expecta-
tion is not unreasonable. We are closely connected, and
I have much in my gift. What would content you ?"
From you, my Lord," rejoined the young Oxonian,
frankly, nothing under a living of six hundred a year."
"You shalt have that provision for life, out of the
Church, not in it. That income shall be assigned you
from my private resources. God forbid that I should
be accessory to any man's taking holy orders from
sonlid motives ! The stipulated provision is yours ;
but, mark me, on this condition, that you remain a
layman."
DEPARTURE OF PRINCE LOUIS NAFOLEON.—Yes-
terday morning, Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte,
attended by his secretary and suite, left his residence,
No. 3A, King-street, St. James's-square. No authentic
information could be obtained relative to the Prince's
destination, but it is generally supposed that he has pro-
ceeded direct to Patio.