The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

IMAGINARY CONVERSATION.

BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.
M. THIERS AND M. LAMARTINE.

look somewhat shy at me, M. Lamartine,
now you are in power, and I am out.
Lumartine—M. Thiers! we neither of us ever were
out of power since we came to years of discretion,
if indeed the poet and the public man may be said at any
times of their lives to have come to them: for in poetry
imagination leads us astray, in politics ambition.
Thiers—l never was ambitious.

- .
Dynarttne.—l always was. The love of fame, in other
words, of approbation, drew me forward not unwillingly.
Reflection comes down to us in the deep recesses where
imagination rests, and higher and more substantial forms
rise around us and come nearer. The mind, after war-
dering in distant and in unknown regions, returns home
at last and reposes on the bosom of- our country. Her
agitations render her only the more inviting and the
dearer to us. We love her in her tranquillity, we adore
her in her pangs. Ido not rejoice, nor do I repent, that
the voice of the people has called me to the station I now
hold.

Thiers—lt is an elevated and a glorious, bet it is also
an uncertain and a dangerous one ; take my word for it.
Lamartine—Pardon my frankness ; I would rather
take your word than your example.
Tlgiers—My example in what ?
Lamargne—May I without offence to you speak my
mind at large ?
Tlgiers—Speak it unreservedly, as becomes a repub-
lican in all his freshness.

Lamartine—First, then, I should be sorry to grow rich
among the spoliations of my country. Secondly, I scorn
to countenance the passions of the vulgar, and more
especially in their madness for war.
Thiers—We may put method into this madness. Be
sure, M. Lamartine, that no earthly power can withhold
for a twelvemonth an agitated army of three hundred
thousand mea, smarting under past disgraces. We
must, whether we will or no, send forty thousand from
Algiers to Triest, and seventy thousand from our
southern departments to the Gulphs of Genoa and
Spezzia. lam a moderate man; I would leave the duchy
of Austria to its ancient duke ; Bohemia to whomsoever
the nation shall elect as king. Hungary was already
free and independent from the moment that Metternich
in the frenzy of his dotage consented to accept the in-
tervention of Russia. She rises both against the hungry
and wolfish pack of Russia, and the somnolent and
swinish herd that rubs her into intolerable soreness from
over-gorged Vienna.* Whatsoever was once Poland
must be Poland again. She must extend from the Baltic
to the Black Sea; from Dantzic to Odessa, and inclusive.
Anything short of this will only cause fresh struggles.
Men can never be quiet in the cramp: they will cry out
and kick until the paroxysm is over.
Lamartine—l am afraid you are too precipitate.
Thiers—There are many good men who are afraid of
hearing or even of thinking the truth. They may lie in
a ditch with their hats over their faces, nevertheless the
light will come in upon them somewhere.
Lamartine—Probably the King of Sardinia will de-
mand our aid against Austria, and insist on the evacua
ation of Modena and Parma: we may then, with policy
and justice, interfere. Why do you smile?
Thiers—l was thinking at the moment that some
laurels grow best on loose soil, M. Lamartine, but nei-
ther that laurel which crowns the warrior, nor that oak
which crowns the saviour of a citizen. It is our duty
not to wait for danger, but to meet it : not to parley
with insolent and stupid despots, but to bind them hands
and feet with their own indigenous plants.
Lamartine—And yet, M. Thiers, you are a royalist I
niers—ls any man a royalist when he knows he can
be greater ? I had other means of serving my country,
or (let me speak it frankly) myself. Kings have worn
down their high-heeled shoes by their incessant
strut and swagger. People would have only laughed at
them if they had merely told common lies and practised
only ordinary deceptions. But when the sleights-of-
hand emptied every man's pocket, the whole crowd
became vociferous ; up flew the benches, and the con-
juror took to his heels. At first we were tickled, at last
we were triturated.

Lamar:jaw—Not quite into dust, nor into mud, but
only into a state, I trust, in which, with some new
elements and combinations, we may attain greater
solidity and consistency. Democracy is always the
work of kings. Ashes, which in themselves are sterile,
fertilize the land they are cast on.
Thiers—You remind me of what happened in England
at the commencement of oar first revolution. The
beautiful Duchess de Pienne was solicited too amorously
by the Prince of Wales. " Sir," replied she, "it is
Princes like you who make democrats." lie never for-
gave her ; indeed he never pardoned any offence, espe-
cially when it came from the intelligent and the
virtuous.

Lantartine—Having lived all his life among cheats
and swindlers, he would probably have received with
courtesy and amity Louis Philippe; and having broken
his word until there was not enough of it to be broken
again, and having deceived his friends until there was
no friend to deceive, perhaps he would have naturalized
the good Protestant Guiaot, and have given him a seat
in the Cabinet. At the present day there is a
Guiaot Administration in England. The same
reckless expenditure, the same deafness to the popu-
lar reclamations, the same stupid, self-sufficient,
subservient, and secure, majority in Parliament. It is
well for England that in the most vulnerab!e and unquiet
part of her dominions there is a chief magistrate of con-
summate wisdom, temperate and firm, energetic and
humane. Such a functionary is sadly wanted to preside
over the counsels of Great Britain.

niers—lie is best where he is. Tile English are
so accustomed to a shuffling trot, that they would grow
impatient at a steady amble. They think that the
roadster must be wanting in spirit and action unless
they see plenty of troth upon the bit.—Examiner.

* It is due to Mr. Lando!. (some of whose opinions in
this paper the reader will find not a little at variance
with our own) to state that we had received and printed
this fjonvereation before the intelligence of the revolu-
tion in Vienna had reached England.—ED. Ex.