The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-27 00:00:00

THE S 1 N, LONDON, WEDNESDAY

EAST INDIA HOUSE.-(THIS DAY.)
A quarterly general Court of the Proprietors of East
India Stock took place to-day at the East India Com-
pany's House.
Sir J. L. Lushiegton took the chair at twelve o'clock.
MAJOR EDWARDES.
Mr. SULLIVAN. before the regular business of the
Court was gone into, proceeded to call the attention
of the Court of Directors to the unprecedented con-
duct in India of Brevet-Major Edwardes, and ventured
to express a hope that the Court would mark in some
signal manner its sense of the high estimation in which
they held the intrepidity, valour, and determination
the Gallant Lieutenant—now, he was happy to say, a
Brevet-Major.
The CHAIRMAN said that by a resolution of the Court
of Directors, on the 13th of the present month, it was
unanimously agreed that Brevet-Major Edwardes should
be presented with a gold medal—(Hear, hear)—and
that resolution had been most cordially approved of by.
the Board of Control.—(Hear, hear.)
HISTORY OF INDIA.
Mr. Sergeant STORKS wished to know whether it was
the intention of the Court of Directors to purchase th'
work of Professor Wilson and others, which was a con-
tinuation of Mr. Mills's History of India ?
The CHAIRMAN said the work was a most expensive
one, and it would be for the proprietors to say whether,
in the present state of the Company's finances, which he
was sorry to say were not very flourishing, they ought
to incur such an expense.

LITERATURE.

THE QU.EENS OF ENGLAND. By Agnes
Strickland. Vol. XII. and last.
Cordially do we congratulate Miss Strickland upon
the accomplishment of her arduous and ambitious
undertaking—the " Lives of the Queens of England."
The volume now before us completes a work as in-

structive as history, and as interesting as romance.
The biographies of the Queens of England, while.
they are fraught with that- individual interest which
is inseparable from biography, have an additional and
almost a peculiar value in an historical point of view.
The history of the royal ladies who have worn the
English crown constitutes a not unimportant chapter
in the history of England. In unravelling the mys-
teries of their domestic lives, we, at the same time,
unravel many political knots which have baffled the
ingenuity of many philosophers. But, apart
from the political interest of the history of
the Queens of England, there is another and
a higher attraction in the perusal of such a work. A
Noble Lord (Lord Palmerston, if we mistake not)
once observed at a scientific meeting that by an ac
quaintance with astronomy men are at once rendered
proud and humble,—proud to find that it is given to
man to discover the mysterious secrets of nature, and
humble by a sense of their insignificance when con-
trasted with the immensity of the universe. A feel-
ing very similar to this is called forth by a minute
acquaintance with the private history of the great
ones of the world. In perusing these royal biogra-
phies, for example, the commonest among us may hold
his head a little higher on discovering that, despite
the jewelled diadem and the ermine robe, kings and
queens feel and think as he does, while, at the same
time, the proudest may for a moment be staggered
by such a revelation of the instability of human
hopes and the worthlessness of human grandeur,
as is afforded by such a history. Morally, his-
torically, and politically, therefore, such a work as
that just completed by Miss Strickland is valuable
and interesting. The biography of Queen Anne,
which fills the twelfth volume, completes the series ;
that of Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror,
commenced it. Between these two royal ladies a
group of very various but for the most part attractive
characters intervene, some celebrated for political
glory and some fur domestic virtues ; some ccn-
spicuous for their personal charms and others for
their mental and moral qualities. Many incidents
connected with the Queens of England have been
familiar to most of us from our youth upwards—inci-
dents, perhaps, partly traditional and partly imaginary,
but for that very reason more attractive—" beloved
as fable and believed as truth." Who, for instance,
is not familiar with the picture of Eleanor sucking
the poison from her husband's wound, or of
Philippa of Hainault interceding for the burgesses of
Calais? Who is not acquainted with the infamy of
Isabella abandoning Edward 11. to the tortures of
Berkeley Castle, and then endeavouring to shield
from the just vengeance of her son " her gentle Mor-
timer ?" Who is not familiar with the broken
French of the bashful Katherine, when she responded
to the wooing of the royal soldier, as set forth by the
faithful pen of Shakspere ? Who cannot conjure
before him a glimpse of Margaret of Anjou and the
robber in the wood ? Who is not familiar with the
memorable words of Elisabeth Woodville, when
before her marriage with Edward IV. she told
him " she was not good enough to be his
wife, but too good to be his mistress ?"
Who is unacquainted with the seraglio of the English
Bluebeard, or the regal glories of the great Elivabett.?
Who has not been interested in the romantic court•
ship of Prince Charles and Henrietta Maria, and who,
again, that ever once perused the narrative has not
been haunted with the remembrance of Mary of Mo-
dena escaping by night with her infant in her arms ?
By the agency of incidents such as these the Queens
of England are more or less familiar to us all, but this
familiariaty, so far from diminishing, only enhances
the attractions of an accurate and elaborate history of
those Queens such as has been penned by Miss
Strickland. But not only .is the theme
interesting and important in itself, the in-
dustry and ability of the fair authoress have
considerably increased and developed its interest and
importance. With a most unwearying and praise-
worthy patience and perseverance, Miss Strickland
has delved into the hidden stores of antiquity, and
brought to light whatever served to illustrate her
work. Her patience in collecting materials fully
equals her taste and discrimination in making use of
them. That patience, that taste, and that discrimina-
tion, added to Miss trickland's known eloquence of
style, have combined to render her work a most
valuable addition to modern history, and a most in-
valuable acquisition to that innumerable class
of persons who love to be amused as well as
instructed. In bidding (for the present only, let
us hope,) farewell to Miss Strickland, we have one
question to ask her. Why has she concluded
the " Queens of England" with Queen Anne ? We
are well aware of the delicacy and difficulty which
must have been attendant upon any delineation of
the royal ladies of recent times, even the Queen of
the third George, is perhaps too proximate for his-
tory, and the wife of George 1., the unhappy Sophia
of Zell, cannot rank as a Queen of England—of that
England in which she never set foot. But what does
Miss Strickland say to Caroline, the consort of George
H
. ? Her history is not too recent for investigation,
and most assuredly it is a history well worthy of
Miss Strickland's searching analysis. Caroline was,
perhaps, as politically powerful as even Elizabeth
herself. Caroline's name is as much associated with
the records of the time in which she lived as is that
of her coadjutor Walpole. It is, moreover, almost
necessary that a faithful history should be written of
this Queen, because different contemporary accounts
render her character most incomprehensible. Her
great ability and her great political influence are
unquestioned, but there are two opinions as to her
individual disposition. For instance, there is a well-
known anecdote told in evidence of her never refusing
any of the King's requests. It is said, that when he
would ask her to walk out with him, when ill-health
rendered her incapable of such an exertion, she would
bathe her feet in cold water, in order to acquire a
little temporary strength, by which she was enabled
to accompany him in his promenade. Some com-
mentators cite this occurrence as an evidence of her
deep sense of her conjugal duties, while others de-
clare it was only an instance of her continual habit of
stooping to conquer. It is to clear up such points as
these, and to furnish us with a correct portrait of this
really remarkable woman, that we call upon Miss
Strickland not to pause in her historical labours until
she has added Caroline to her gallery of regal portraits.

DEFENCE OF LAMARTINE.

(Continued from 7he Sun of yesterday.)
EIUHTIi ACCUSATION.

It is not, however, in these explanations that cam
be recognised the true motives for the system of non-
exclusion recommended to the National Assembly
by M. de Lamartine, in regard to the formation of the
Executive Commission. Those motives, otherwise
inexplicable, arc discernible in the mysterious fact of
the complicity existing between two men.
Let us throw aside all feelings of modesty, and dare
to copy the words which have been actually printed.
" The Minister of the Interior found among the
papers of his Administration written proofs of the
venality of his colleague under the Government of
Louis Philippe. M. de Lamartine was a stipendiary
of M. Duchatel. During the last year alone he re-
ceived no less than forty thousand francs. The re-
ceipt is still preserved. Threatened, no doubt, with
the disclosure of such a transaction, one can readily
understand that M. de Lamartine had only the
alternative of alliance or infamy. This is not all.
M. de Lamartine has dilapidated the public fortune.
On the very morrow of the 24th of February he
abstracted twelve hundred thousand francs, or two
millions of money, from the Treasury. With the
fruits of this exaction he has managed to liquidate
his debts after the manner of Caesar or Cataline. He
has purchased lands in France and houses in London."
I condescend to reply to this accusation, not on my
own account, but for the sake of the Republic. The
whole secret of the existence of the enemies of states-
men is, the dark determination sometimes formed to
destroy the men in order to render the institutions
impossible.
Let us at once throw sense light upon the first cir-
cumstance. I was a writer. Oppressed with re-
sponsibilities, I earned my subsistence by my la-
bours. In 1844 I wrote a tragedy in the furtherance
of a cause which has always been a subject of sacred
interest to myself—the emancipation of the black
slaves in our colonies. I ,pished, through the me-
dium of sentiment, to gain over, before public
opinion, a cause which had so often failed before the

In the year 1848, a month anterior to the Revolu-
tion of February, M. Buloz, the manager of the
French Theatre, offered to purchase my work for the
purpose of displaying it in the most brilliant light
possible, first in his capacity as manager of the French
Theatre, and secondly as editor of the Revue des
Deux Mondes. The full amount verbally decided
upon between ourselves was forty thousand francs.
When we were on the very point of writing out
the agreement, M. Buloz said to me, " I will write
immediately to M. Duchatel ; for the funds of the
Theatre Francais are derived from two sources—the
proceeds of the theatre itself, and the pecuniary aid
given to the establishment by the Chamber of Depu-
ties. This allowance from the Chamber obliges me
to obtain the approval of the Minister of the Interior
ai to the employment of these funds in regard to all
my theatrical engagements." I was until then igno-
rant of this very natural connexion of compatibility,
existing between the Minister of the Interior and the
Director of the French Theatre. But, fearing lest this
might gm rise even to so much as the appearance of
a relation, of a monetary kind (remote though it un-
doubtedly was), between me (a Deputy of the People)
and 'the Government, I refused, on the instant, to con-
clude any agreement in which the funds of the Go-
vernment and the authority of the Minister seemed

to have a participation. The contract between us was
consequently at an end. lf, therefore, there is the
testimony which Calumny declares she can produce
in proof of my venality, let her make her disclosure !
She can only convict me of an excess of scruple, of
delicacy, and of susceptibility. M. Buloz is here to
speak.

NINTH ACCUSATION.
Let us pass on to my next crime :—I have abstracted
'welve hundred thousand francs, or two millions of

money, from the public treasury. I have paid my
debts ; I have purchased lands in France, and houses

7n England.
Here I must acknowledge, at once, that I am very

much embarrassed, for Ido not even know, at this

moment, whereabouts the public treasury is situate

if it is not at the official residence of the Minister of
Finance, a Minister with whom I have never had any

communication whatever, and all whose operations
are submitted to ordonnances and verifications without

number, besides being supervised, figure by figure,
under the Court of Accounts which the Republic
allowed to continue in vigorous operation—in
such a manner that a single centime could
not be taken from the chests, without their

being able to trace it back to its source, or
without their following its vestiges to the hands of
its possessor through the whole labyrinth of the for-
malities and regulations of the Exchequer. My ac-
cusers may therefore remain in perfect tranquillity.
If I hare really discovered these chests of the public
treasure, and if I have despoiled them of their con-
tents in the presence of the innumerable responsibili-
ties by which they are guarded and encompassed, and
in the presence of the innumerable officials who have
audited the accounts for their registration and verifi-
cation, I shall not long continue quietly in the enjoy-
ment of my millions
Is it necessary for me to add thatl will give all the
fruits of my peculations, snore than that, that I will
give all my fortune, and all my honour into the bar-
gain, to whomsoever will point out to me that banker
in London, of whom the Morning Chronicle has made
mention, and who will, moreover, point out to me
these houses purchased, these lands acquired, these
debts liquidated.
The truth is, that I had no other moneys at my dis-
posal beyond two hundred and ninety-three thousand
francs of secret funds for the ordinary diplomatic
purposes, to expend in missions, in informations and
in useful influences of all kinds, at
A moment, too,
when it was necessary to see everything with the
eyes of the Republic, to supply the suspended action
of the agents of the monarchy, recently
overturned,
and when, moreover, I was at one and the same time
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Member of a Dicta-
torial Government. I shall hare to give a full and
explicit explanation in order to justify the propriety
of the distributions and the reality of the employment
of this sum, appropriated under the responsibility
of my administration in this particular department
of the public service. Vet this is the only portion of
the funds of the Republic from which I have had the
power to deduct these imaginary sums dispatched by
me to foreign countries, or devoted to the payMent of
my personal debts l If my accusers cannot perceive
the moral impossibility of my pretended peculations,
they must at least recognise its arithmetical im-
possibility.
I will proceed further, I will afford a still clearer
explanation to those honest but credulous' men, who
are incapable of inventing these whisperings of
hatred, but who allow them to be buzzed into their
ears without knowing how to reject them or how to
dispute their veracity. A decree of the Convention
commanded all representatives of the people, retiring
from power, or returning from any mission, to render
an account, at the tribune, of their private fortunes,
for the purpose of convincing the nation that they
had not increased their own possessions by robberies
frum the public fortune. I love that decree. I will
suppose it to be still in force ; and I will now give an
account of my private fortune, such as the most in-
quisitive might desire, to my friends and to my

enemies.
On the first of last January, fifty-three days before
the Republic, my general fortunes consisted of about
two millions, five hundred thousand francs, in lands,
in houses, and in moveables such as were derived
from offices and from my literary productions. My
debts amounted to six hundred and sixty thousand
francs. Nothing is more easily verified than these
two calculations, by lands, by contracts, and by mort-

gages.
But, they say to me, you had in 1847 debts to the
amount of eleven hundred thousand francs, and your
liabilities are now little more than six hundred thou-
sand. You have therefore disbursed five hundred
thousand francs? You have therefore paid your
creditors out of the public treasury ?—Citizens ! Th
is in all this only one small difficulty. It is tha
these five hundred thousand francs of debts
were disbursed by me six months before the Revo
tion. And from what funds was I enabled to make
this disbursement of five hundred thousand francs in
1847 ? From three hundred thousand francs paid
into my hands by the publisher of the History of the
' Girondists, And from four lituidred and fifty thousand