The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-06 00:00:00

S Ny MARCH 6, 1848.

doubtful; but certainly, in a country where its citi-
zens are all politicians, for an individual to seek ele-
vation by opposing all parties is an experiment en-
tirely new. But we live in an age of novelties and
experi.nents.
—Times. A GENEVESE TRAVELLER.

SKETCHES OF THE FRENCH
REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS.

(From the Weekly Dispatch.)
L—M. DE LAMARTINE.
This eminent and enlightened man, whose private life
is as pure as his public career is destined to be glorious,
was born at Macon, in the year 1792. His father, who
died but recently, was Major of a cavalry regiment
under Louis XVI.; and his mother, who fell a victim to
a deplorable accident, was the daughter of Madame Des
Rois, under-governess of the Princess of Orleans—con-
sequently of the ex-King, Louis Philippe. In the
earliest phase of his existence, Alphonse De Lamartine
is described by Jules Janin as having been " a melan-
choly and dreaming child, playing at his mother's feet,
and gently expanding beneath the genial influence of
her maternal eye. Of his young years," adds the above-
mentioned writer, "he has retained very deep and
tender recollections; and never does he speak of them
without both pleasure and regret. What beautiful pages
are those in his works in which he tells how he read the
Bible on his mother's knee! The child grew quickly and
well—as do all the children of genius; and was soon
a fine young man of conspicuous height, handsome coun-
teaance • and pleasant look." Being descended from a
good and wealthy family, he had been educated in strictly
Royalist principles ; and soon after the Restoration
which gave the throne of France back to the elder Bour-
bons, De Lamartine entered the Body-Guard of Louis
the Eighteenth. It is declared by his intimate Friend
Jules Janin, the great critical reviewer and feuilleioniste
of the Journal des Debats, that it was while doing duty
one night beneath the windows of the King's apartment
in the palace of St. Cloud, De Lamartine first yielded
to the inspiration of poetry. As he paced up and down,
with helmet on head, sabre by his side, and musket on
his shoulder, he composed a number of verses ; and on
the following day, during a leisure hour, he committed
them to paper. Then he seriously thought of pursuing
his pleasing task ; and in due time he published his
Premieres Meditations Poitigues. The volume fell
almost still-born from the press; but one day, as Jules
Janin, then a young man himself, though already known
to fame, was passing &bookstall he happened to see a copy.
He took it up and read a page; he bought the work, and
carried it home. " Never shall I forget my rapture,"
says he, " as I perused this volume of a nameless poet !
For what were my surprise and admiration when, all
at once, my dazzled eyes and heart discovered this new
world of poesy I—when, at length, they found, com-
bined in one book, all the sentiments of the soul and all
the passions of the heart; all the joys of earth and all
the ecstacies of heaven; all the hopes of the present,
and all the doubts which shadow the future! Behold,
at length," I said to; myself, " a poet uniting in his
verses all the most opposite conditions of poetry—en-
thusiasm and calmness, devotion and love !" And in
more particular allusion to the contents of that volume
Janin says, " There is high matter for a poet's powers
in the crumbling of thrones, and the fall of men like
the ears in harvest; but it is a far loftier task to float,
in imagination, over all those battle-fields, and question
the emancipated spirits wandering above their unbu-
ried forms." So charmed, indeed, was Janin with the
Premieres Meditations, that he instantly penned a review
of the work in a popular and widely-circulated periodical
with which he was connected. The notice of literary
men was thereby drawn to the poems; other critics
praised them; a large demand was created for the
volume—and Alphonse do Lamartine was recognised as
&great poet. Janin then sought him out; and from that
moment (I.D. 1820) an unbroken friendship existed
between them. De Lamartine was always an enthusi-
astic admirer of Byron; and when the great English
bard died, leaving the biography of " Childe Harold"—
or rather, his own biography—incomplete, the French
poet undertook to add a canto. At the same time, he
guarded himself against a servile imitation—retaining
his own natural style, and not in any way copying the
satirical, melancholy, mournful irony of Byron. "In
fact," says Janin, "he would vainly try to imitate
any poet or any poem : his own nature carries him
too soon away—be is too powerfully governed by his
own fancy, and his native inspiration only presseson him
with a double force." The Vernier Chant du Pelerinage
&Harold was received with favour, not only in France,
but in every country where educated persons are ac-
quainted with the French language. In 1821 M. Lamar-
tine married an English lady of great beauty and
talents ; and soon after this union he was appointed
Secretary to the French Embassy at Naples. It was
there, under the cloudless Italian sky, and amidst his
daily labours, that he composed the Harmonies Poetiques.
In 1824 he was nominated Charge d'Affaires in Tus-
cany, and became an intimate friend of the Grand Duke.
During his residence at Florence, he overheard General
PCF6 utter some words deregatory to the honour of
France, and, ardently devoted to the land of his birth,
De Lamartine shallenged the vain-glorious Italian. A
duel ensued, in which the poet was dangerously
wounded; but even while his existence hung by a thread,
he wrote a letter to the Grand Duke, imploring that
Pepe might not be punished, a request with which the
Sovereign accorded. When the re) o'ution of 1830 broke
out De Lamartine was iu Paris, and had just
been named Minister Plenipotentiary to Greece.
But the bolt fell, shattering the throne; and before
Charles the Tenth departed into a well-deserved exile,
the poet-diplomatist paid his last respects and final
adieus to that House of Bourbon, which he and his father
both had served. De Lamartine now felt his position to
be a singular one. "By the family and services of my
father," said he, in writing to a friend, " I belong to
Charles the Tenth; by the family and services of my
mother, I belong to the House of Orleans." This punc-
tiliousness might be deemed affectation in a less sensi-
tive and delicate mind than Do Lamartino's; with him it
was sincerity's self. Louis Philippe offered to confirm
him in his Greek embassy; but he refused the proposal
and bade adieu to diplomacy. He now determined to
execute a project on which he had long pondered, and
which was nothing more nor less than undertaking a
voyage to the East. He purchased a ship, fitted her out
at Marseilles, and embarked with his family on that
poetical pilgrimage which engendered one of the finest
books that the human mind ever gave to the world.
Chateaubriand had pointed out the same path, then
came Byron, who died on the Athenian soil; and now
followed De Lamartine. At Beyrout he had the misfor-
tune to lose his eldest daughter, a child of great beauty
and promise, and whose nume was Julia. Her death
cast a damp upon the spirits of the pilgrim, but also eli-
cited some of the most touching and pathetic odes that
ever emanated from his pen. Leaving MadameDe Lamar-
tine at Beyrout, he travelled throughout Syria and the
Holy Land ; and he was at Jerusalem when he learnt
that he had been elected Deputy for the Department of
the North. These new dutiess recalled him to France ;
but it was not without serious apprehensions that his
friends beheld him enter the Chamber. They could not
conceive that his imaginative mind would narrow itself
to the matter-of-fact discussion of politics ; they were at
a loss to conjecture how his spirit could descend from its
elevation to the squabbles of factions. But they were
speedily re-assured, for the poet and the statesman
ascended the tribune together. " That fine language of
his," says Janin, " even in dealing with material inte-
rests, remained still a language apart. He won at once
the admiration of' men by his rapid glance over a sub-
ject, and his simple manner of going direct to the point
—but, more than all, by that sustained and natural tene
of eloquence which, born of the noblest emotions of the
heart, swept on, scattering around it, in its course, the
precious treasures of a vast and exalted understanding.
M. De Lamartine, from the high place of the rational
tribune, spoke of humanity, tolerance, and cha-
rity, and the fraternal bond which links men and
nations, with a heartfelt earnestness that conciliated
the sympathies of all who :listened." In fact, his was
the language of poetry applied to business; and, as a
critic once happily observed, " He flings over the Cham-
ber of Deputies some of the rays of his poetical crown."
De Lamartine soon made incredible progress as an orator
—taming himself down from his exaltation, and by the help
of his strong understanding, acquiring the faculty:of speak-
ing, when occasion demanded, as simply as the plainest
manufacturer or merchant in the Chambers. On entering
upon his functions as a Heputy, M. De Lamartine em-
braced the Conservative cause, and took his seat in the
ranks headed by M. Guizot. A dissolution of the Cham-
ber in course of time, rendering a new election neces-
sary, Mason, the place of his birth, gave its suffrage in
favour of the poet statesman; and he soon manifested
opinions of a more progressive character than those ad-
vocated by M. Guizot. In fact, in proportion as the
Conservatives became re-actionary, so did De Lamartine
advance; and this gradual transition on his part—a trans
sition tat was destined to bear him from the sphere of
royalism into that of republicanism—was produced
by the influence of great political truths developing
themselves to a mind perfectly honest and profoundly
sincere. He was no dastard turn-coat : such a man
is incapable of consulting selfish interests, or yielding
to personal motives. The longer he studied the poli-
tical world, the more deeply did be become imbued
with the idea that the King and his Ministers were the
enemies, and not the friends of the people. From the
tribune he warned the Government to exhibit a spirit of
concession ; but finding himself disregarded, he deter•
mined to withdraw his support from men whom he now
suspected, and whose policy alarmed him. It was a
grand day for the Opposition, when, three years ago,
De Lamartine proclaimed his adhesion to the Liberal
cause ; and never was the new champion of Freedom
more eloquent than on this occasion. Since that period,
De Lamartine has advocated the people's interests with
himselfshed,in established--he
hebnlie newspaper
rhas
just
zeal, ability, and fervour. With his voice in the tribune,
and with his pen in the columns of the Bien Public—a
Macon journal which heu
incessantly called upon King and Ministers to yield to
the national desire for reform—and not many months
have
mentionedelapse,dasPirnOcgeramhe bli tash
me of what he considered to be the
elements and principles of. true political freedom.
The noblest and most virtuous minds of the late Chamber
of Deputies are now associated with his own in develop-
ing those principles ; and, as the Minister of Foreign
AAffairs,BLDeLacusrtine will not sully the glorious repu-
p

[PRICE SD.

tation which his honourable, upright, and liberal conduct

has acquired for his name.
lI.—M. °DILLON BARIIOT.
We include M. Odillon Barrot in this series of
sketches, because it was he who played the most con-
spicuous part in urging the Opposition to insist upon
reform, and to justify the right of French citizens to
assemble for the purpose of discussing political affairs.
This conduct on his side has proved to be one of the
main causes of the glorious revolution that has hurled a
tyrant from the throne; and, although M. Barrot has
been for the present thrust aside by those who were
prepared to go further than he, there can be no doubt
that he will speedily overtake them in the path of
Liberal opinions, when his usefulness, integrity, and
talents will be rendered available to the public service.
Odillon Barrot is now fifty-three years of age; and more
than the latter half of his life has been spent in the
arena of politics. He was a very young man when
he &st entered the Chamber of Deputies, in the
time of Louis the Eighteenth, having already ac-
quired a high reputation as one of the most
ey?quent pleaders at the French bar. He had every-

thhig in his favour,—the practice of forensic oratory-La
handsome countenance, with fine, searching eyes—a
commanding figure—a powerful voice—an impressive

gesture—and great tact United with uncommon energy.
He soon exercised a considerable amount of influence in

the Chamber, and was in time looked upon as the De-
mosthenes of the Liberal Opposition. Nothing could be
more formidable than the cool self-possession of Odillon
Barrot,—nothing more menacing than his manner and
language when he chose to thunder and denounce ; but
he could even polish his very wrath ; and speech with
him was as a keen sword wielded by a gentleman.
Often and often did the Ministers of Louis XVILL and
Charles X. endeavour to conciliate him : the latter even
offered him places and pensions ; but he preferred inde-
pendence, and never yielded to the hares held out nor to
the promptings of a selfish interest. M. de Villele, the
predecessor of Polignac, endeavoured to crush the Oppo-
position ; and itwas truly an exciting conflict—a single lox
opposed to 20 unchained lions, yet making head against
them. Charles the Tenth beheld nothing more in all
this than a battle between his Minister and his own sub-
jects of the Chamber of Deputies, just as Louis Philippe
looked upon the struggle between Guizot and the Oppo-
sitionists the other day. But Odillon Barrot worried
M. de Villale so unmercifully that he was compelled to
yield; and when he fell, his conqueror said to Benjamin
Constant and Laffitte, " Now we know what will
happen!" The enraged Charles endeavoured to silence
those eloquent voices which had overthrown his Mi-
nister; but the country, already in preparation for revolt,
sent back to the Palais Bourbon their proscribed cham-
pions —all the dearer to the French people for that very
proscription! On the 26th of July the ordinances—the
memorable ordinances—appeared in the Moniteur ; and
Odillon Barrot immediately repaired to the house
of M. Dupin, where several other Deputies were
already assembled, and where he proposed that
energetic protest which was to !put arms into
the hands of the citizens, and determine them to
resist oppression. On the following day, M. Barrot em-
phatically declared, at a meeting of Deputies, " that
every tie which attached France to the throne of the
Bourbons was broken, and that the nation must appeal to
insurrection against an authority that had tramped on
every law." At one time, during the Revolution of 1830,
matters wore so gloomy an aspect for the popular cause,
that the Deputies who countenanced and encouraged the
insurrection were reduced to eight in number. M. 0.
Barrot was one of those eight patriots. When the Re-
volution was triumphant, and Charles, having quitted
St. Cloud, had resolved to make a stand at Rambouillet,
Odillon Barrot, Schonen, and Maison, were the three
Commissioners appointed by the Provisional Government
to intimate that the crown-jewels would be restored to
the Royal Family on condition of an immediate departure
for Cherbourg. The proposal was accepted, and Odillon
Barrot accomponied the King to the ship riding in that
same path of the sea which bad been traversed, under
circumstances so varied, by Henrietta of England !
Louis Philippe had not long been seated on the
French throne, when it became apparent that he treated
the Charter as so much wastepaper, and the oaths, which
he had so solemnly taken, as mere idle verbiage of no
particular import. Odillon Barrot was amongst the first
to raise his voice in the Chamber of Deputies against a
reactionary policy; and, as year after year passed, the
King's perfidy becoming the more glaring, the attitude
taken by the subject of this sketch became the more bold
and serious. In 1839 he visited this country, and
pushed his tour into Scotland; and, during his sojourn
in Great Britain, he frequently expressed his desire that
a permanent alliance should subsist between England and
France. But when the Thiers' Administration was
formed in 1840, M. Odillon Barrot gave it -his
cordial support, and joined in the war cry 'of
"La perfide Albion !" (Perfidious England). Ile even
suffered himself to be so deluded—so blinded by the ar-
guments used at that time to blacken the English policy, as
to give his vote in favour Of the fortifications of Paris;
but no sooner had the Thiers' Cabinet fallen than
Barrot's eyes were opened to the immense duplicity of
the King, towards whom, from that instant, he became
bitterly hostile. During his residence in Great Britain,
Barrot frequently enunciated his opinions relative to the
English aristocracy, the approaching downfal of which
he emphatically predicted. Happening to be in Scot-
land at the time that the Eglinton tournament took
place, he undisguisedly expressed his disgust at the
abominable nonsense, adding, " It is surprising how the
aristocracy of this country can indulge in such fool's
play, when it stands upon the very brink of a precipice!"
But Odillon Barrot is by no means the only Frenchman
who believes the days of the English aristocracy to be
numbered; the same impression is pretty general on the
continent—aye, and even amongst ourselves, too, for
that matter! Every one of our readers must remem-
ber the storm of indignation which burst from the
French Opposition when M. Guizot proposed the in-
demnification to Pritchard in the Otaheito affair; but
no Liberal Deputy denounced that measure in
stronger terms than Odillon Barrot. Ho was
likewise foremost in getting up the agita-
tion last year in favour of Reform, and he attended
several of the provincial banquets. His conduct in the
proceedings, which led to the revolution of the other day,
has been too fully detailed to require more than passing
mention in this sketch. We may, however, observe that
he did not forsee the glorious results to which the agi-
tation, aroused by himself, was inevitably to lead, for he
stopped short in the middle, and accepted the task of
forming a Cabinet in company with Thiers ; then he
supported the rights of the Count of Paris to the throne,
and those of the Duchess of Orleans, to the Regency ;
and thus, by neglecting to keep peace with De Lamar-
tine, Cremieux, and the other Liberals, he found himsa
left completely behind, on the progressive path, in the
course of a very few hours. Odillon Barrot is not, however
the man to advocate a finality doctrine; and we dare aver
that the Republic has, at this moment, no supporter
more staunch, nor admirer more sincere than he.

ATTEMPTED MURDER AND HIGHWAY ROBBERY
NEAR CHELTENHAM.—A daring attempt at murder and
highway robbery was made near Cheltenham, on the
night of Wednesday last, by a deserter from the East
India Company's service. The police were immediately
apprised of the outrage, and the following day succeeded
in apprehending the offender, who was brought before
the magistrates on Saturday. From the evidence pro-
duced against him it appears that on the night before-
, named he stopped an elderly woman, named Ann Far-
ley, on the road between Cheltenham and Tewkesbury,
about half-way between those towns, and, pulling a
loaded pistol from his pocket, demanded her money or
her life. She denied having any money, whereupon the
ruffian discharged the contents of the pistol at her heod.
Fortunately, he missed his aim, although some portion
of the charge tore the skin off the side of her face. He
was then proceeding to rifle her pockets, when approach.
ing footsteps were heard, and the villain made off. The
old woman was conveyed to her home in a state of in-
sensibility. When the daring scoundrel was taken a
brace of loaded pistols were found in his possession,
besides a quantity of powder, ball, and percussion caps.
It was then discovered that ho was a deserter, named
William Smith, having been regularly advertised is the
Police Gazette. Numerous witnesses identified him as
having been seen near the scene of the outrage shortly
before its occurrence. The prosecutrix also swore posi-
tively to him. He denied the charge in the most
impudent manner. He was committed for trial at the
forthcoming assizes. Two other charges were then
brought against him for stopping two different females
on the same road, on Tuesday evening last, with. intent
to rob, &c. It appears be sv,s unsuccessful. in both
attempts. Ho was fully committed to take his trial on
both these charges also. An. affair of so unusual a
character has caused a considerable sensation in the
neighbourhood.
FREE ADMISSION TO PUBLIC MONUMENTS.--
Your readers will be glad to learn that they or any one
else, may, at all hours of the day, enter Manchester Ca-
thedral (the old church as we still love to call it, so won-
derfully hushed in the midst of such noisy industry),
and there may meditate and afterwards pass out without
being dunned for fees either directly or indirectly. The
parish have done what every parish should do—asserted
their right to unrestricted access to their parish church,
and the churchwardens' care is but to see that no da-
mago be done. Extra attendance, and the following no-
tice, makes the plan work admirably: —' Walking or
talking in the church during the time of Divine service
is strictly forbidden. No fee is required for the door-
keeper or apparitors, who aro paid by the churchwar-
dens."—Builder.
ABERDEEN.—ELECTION OF LORD RECTOR FOR
MARISCHAL COLLEGE.—More than the ordinary excite-
ment exhibited on such occasions has been manifested
among the students for some days, regarding the ap-
pointment of a rector to their University for the current
year. At twelve o'clock on Wednesday last the election
took place in the College, and the result given by the
Procurators in the Senatus was that Lord Robertson had
a majority of votes in the four nations. The other can-
didate brought forward was B. Disraeli, Esq., M.P.
The students who were favourable to Lord Robertson
were so elated with their success, that they formed them-
selves into a procession and marched through the prin-
cipal streets of the city, headed by the military band of
the regiment at present lying in the barracks. It is
understood that Lord Robertson will give his inaugural
address to the students before the expiry of the present
session.—Edinburgh Advertiser.