The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATTURDAY

DEFENCE OF LAMARTINE.

[ln compliance with requests which have been
made to us, we this evening give a literal trans-
lation of the introductory paragraphs to M. de
Lamartine's "Letter to the Ten Departments." It
will be remembered by our readers that from the
continued delay of the arrival of the Trois Mois au
Pouvoir, we were prevented at the commencement
from giving more than a rapid synopsis of the open -
ing passages of the address. Without this addition,.l
fragment, our version would have been incomplete.
With it we conclude a full and entire translation of
the masterly pamphlet of Latnartine.—En. Sun.]
CITIZENS !
The popularity which surrounded me without
cause, has retired from me without motive. At a
sign from the National Assembly I have retired from
any participation in the direction of affairs, satisfied
in my conscience with some services humbly rendered
to my country in one of the great crises of her his-
tory; without any regret for the accidental rank
from which I have descended ; without any ambi-
tion of ever aspiring to its re-attainment; without
any sensation of bitterness against the aspersions and
calumnies which are the ordinary salaries of revolu-
tions; .
without wishing in any manner whatever to
solicit the revival of the public favour. I have pre-
served silence a long while, and should have continued
to do so always if my taciturnity had only influenced
myself individually. But you have adopted me
under very grave circumstances as a sign of the con-
formity of our opinions. I therefore belong in a par-
ticular manner to you. For this reason I owe you some
account of myself. It is necessary that you should not
have cause to blush when my name shall be mentioned
in your presence. It is necessary that you shall be
able to say with truth to those who may reproach
you with having sheltered my name under two
million suffrages : "If this banner which we have
chosen is lowered, it is not at least tarnished. It
precedes us no longer it is true, but, at any rate, it
has not conduced to our humiliation."

They spread abroad, they say, they print (I make
allusion even to the merest whisperings in order that
I may not leave anything without a reply); they say,
then—

That I have been ardent in ambition, and feeble in
the exercise of power during the three months in
which I participated in the dictatorship of the Pro-
visional Government;

That I have had transactions with Terrorism;

That I have leagued with Communism, and intoxi-
cated the people by consenting to promise them the
organization of labour;
That I have plotted with the leaders of the princi-
pal factions who have wished to dishonour and dege
nerate the Republic ;
That I have conspired with the prisoners detained
at Vincennes, and have furnished arms to Sobrier
with a perverse and illegal intention ;
That I have joined in adventures of armed Propa-
gandism upon the frontiers of the very Governments
to whom I have promised loyalty and peace ;
That I have compromised the security of the Re-
public by not all at once launching our_ forces be-
yond the Rhine and the Alps ;
That I have retarded the elections in order to pro
long the dictatorship of the Government of which I
was a member ;

That I was an accomplice of the manifestation of
the two hundred thousand men on the 17th of March;
That I evinced hesitation, and neglected to take pre-
cautionary measures on the 16th of April ;

That, after the arrival of the National Assembly,
I refused, through pusillanimity, to accept the sole
power which the National Assembly is said to have
been disposed to offer to me, and to which power two
million suffrages had pointed me out for their ac-

ceptance;
That, by this refusal, I have induced the National
Assembly to form a Commission of Government with
out unity of will, and without firmness of action in
the difficulties of the moment ;

That I have, in this Commission, allied myself with
men of contrary opinions to my opinions, and to those
entertained by the Moderate Republic ;
That the motive of my otherwise inconceivable
alliance with these political adversaries is discoverable
in the shameful and absurd rumours of my porsor_al
and pecuniary interests being bound up together with
theirs; in our common peculations in the public
treasures ; as well as in my infamous venality under
the last Government ;

That these pretended adversaries had in their hands
the proofs of this venality, and that I have been com-
pelled to purchase their silence by certain concessions
of opinion ;
That I have paid my debts with the money of the
Republic ;
That I have caused the fruits of these transactions
to be transmitted for safety into England ;

That I have maintained the Ateliers Nationaux in
order to intimidate the National Assembly, and in
order to employ the workmen as a disposable army
of insurrection ;
That, on the 15th of May, I voluntarily be-
trayed the National Assembly, and witnessed with
signs of joy the precincts of the national representa-
tion invaded with impunity by the bands of sedition ;
That I have neither foreseen nor wished to foresee
the events of the 23d of June ;
That at the moment of the dissolution of the
Ateliers Nationaux, neither I nor my colleagues bad
prepared the necessary military forces for the pur-
pose of preserving order and of combating the sedi-
tious ;
_.

That more troops were wanting through our negli-
gence ;
That the struggle was prolonged in consequence of
this wilful neglect of preparation ;
That the blood of the civil war is upon our hands.

Behold the accusations. I take them one by one.
In place of refuting them, I recount them. There is
not one of the circumstances of this narrative which
has not for its attestation either a number of different
witnesses, or authentic documents, or the voice of a
whole people. I demand the exercise neither of faith
nor of trust in regard to one single particular. I
undertake to prove everthing by testimony.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

NEWMARKET SECOND OCTOBER MEETING.
(Horses masked thus * are already at Newmarket.)
MONDAY.

Fifty Sovs.; three yrs old, 7st 71b; four, Bst 71b; five,
six, and aged, Bst 121 b; entrance 2 boys. A.F.

Fifty Suvs.; for two yrs old; colts, Sst 71b; fillies, 8A
Mb. T.Y.C.

A Handicap Sweepstakes of 20 sow. each, and only 5 ft
if declared by ten o'clock the evening before running,

to go to the second; for three yrs old and upward-s.
T.Y.C.
A Sweepstakes of 10 sovs. each; two yrs old, Est 71b;

three:Bst 41b; four, Bst 121 b; five and upwards, 9st
21b; the winner to be sold for 200 sous. T.Y.C.
First Year of a Produce Match (for three yrs) of 300
sovs. each; one to the post; colts, Bst 71b; fillies, Bst
41b. T.Y.C.

*Colonel Peel's c Little Frank—*Colonel's c Indus—
*Colonel Peel's c Tadnaor—*Colonel Peel's f lone
Colonel Peel's c Cracow—Colonel Peel's f by Caesar, out
of lon—Colonel Peel's f by Icn, out of Seakale—Colonel
Peel's f by lon, dam by Sir. Hercules—Lord Glasgow's
b f by me Provost, out of Miss Whip—Lord Glasgow's
fby Lanercost, out of Canada—Lord Glasgow's b c by
a Jerry horse or Inheritor, out of Deeralayer's dam—
Lord Glasgow's f by The Provost, out of Impertinence
—Lord Glasgow's f by The Provost, out of his Comus
mare—Lord Glasgow's I by The Provost, dam by Actaeon.
A Sweepstakes of 50 sous. each, 30 ft; for three yrs old
fillies, Bst 71b; 3lb and 51b allowed. D.M. (10 Subs.

Sir k W. Bulkeley's Miss Orbell—*Mr. COmbe's br f
by The Nob, out of Rasalind (51b)—"Lord Exeter's f
by Giovanni, out of Galatea—Lord Glasgow's b f by
Don John, dam by St. Patrick—'Sir J. Uawley's Vexa-
tion—*Lord Orford's b f Jest—Colonel Peel's f Lola
Montez—Colonel Peel's f Jenny Lind—Duke of Rich
mond's b f Helier Skelter (31b)—Colonel Anson's Sugar
Plum (dead).