The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-06 00:00:00

v- tuning Pitnis

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEXIBER 6, 1848,

M. LAMA TINE has spoken. Silent for a consi-
derable period under accumulated calumnies, he has
at length condescended to reply to them. The mo-
tive and the manner of his reply are worthy of him-

self. He has not addressed an indignant, but merited

accusation against the public who have misunder-
stood and misrepresented him ; he has briefly endea-
voured to clear himself from those misrepresentations,
and to make the apparent enigmas of his conduct
understood. He has done this by a rapid detail of
facts, and this explanation he has addressed to the ten
departments who, in the general election, selected
him as their representative. " I have kept silence
long," he says, " and I should keep it always if it
only concerned myself, but you adopted me, under
grave circumstances, in sign of the conformity of our
opinions. I therefore belong to you. I therefore
owe you an account of myself. You shall not
have to blush when my name is mentioned in your
presence. You must be enabled to say with truth to
those who shall reproach you for having honoured my
name with two million votes, 'lf the banner which
we had chosen be lowered, it at least is not tarnished.
If it no longer leads us, it has in no wise humbled us.'
This is the reason, simply expressed and nobly con-
ceived, which has induced M. LAMARTINE to break
silence. how his address may be received by his
ungrateful countrymen remains to be seen. In Eng-
land it vrill meet with cordial greeting, but in England
it is not required. In England we shall welcome it
IlOt as an exposition of unknown facts, but only as a
corroboration of preconceived opinions. If the character
of LAMARTINE be misconstrued at home, abroad it
has been and it is appreciated. " Foreigners," said
3ladame DE STAEL, " are the posterity of our own
day." The remark is equally striking and truthful.
Contemplating the scene of action from a distance—
from a distance too great for prejudice and passion
and self-interest to blind the vision and warp the
judgment—the foreigner, like posterity, takes a
generally unbiassed and accurate estimate of men
and circumstances. This estimate has been favour-
able to LAMARTINE. Every country, save his own,
considers him worthy of all honour and admiration.
To Europe and the world LAMARTINE appears, as
he will hereafter appear to future generations, when
the mists of prejudice and misrepresentation shall
have cleared away, and individual jealousy and ani-
mosity shall be no more. Everywhere, save in France,
therefore, LAMARTINE'S defence is scarcely needed.
In publishing this address, the Patrie prefixes to it
the following somewhat extraordinary observation :
" Many of the noble thoughts expressed in this letter
make us feel once more how mournful for France
was the fall of that archangel of the barricades, who
after having been LAMARTINE, might have been
WASHINGTON, and he would not !" The term
" archangel of the barricades " is, we presume,
in allusion to M. LAMARTINE'S poem, " La
Chute (fun Ange," the expression is at all events
sufficiently complimentary. But what shall we say
of the concluding sentence—" who, after having been
LAMARTINE, might have been WASHINGTON, and he
would not ! " Stripped of its oratorical flourishes,
we take the meaning of this sentence to be, that LA-
14ARTINE might, like WASHINGTON, have become
President of the Republic had he so willed it. The
essential difference between the public career of
sraniozori and LAMARTINE is, that the one suc-
ceededand the other failed, and in the estimation of
men At is well known, " Success is virtue, and mis-
fortune crime." But what have we said ?—That
LAMARTINEfaiIed in
the object of his political career!
Had that object been personal aggrandisement, he
certainly has failed.
B
the peace of But his object was to maintain
Europe—and Europe is still at peace.
His object was to repress tumult and prevent anarchy
in France, and in the veryfi siehy
reur of the revolution,
tumult was repressed and anarchy was avoided. His
object was to prevent the cause of libertyfrom being
attained.
again defiled with blood as in 1793, and save for a
s mission
failed
d ShallN
brief unhappy interval that object was
we then say that LAMARTINE
so. That mission has succeeded—he alone is sacri-
fice.

The American Republican has been extolled for
his want of personal ambition. He has been hailed
as " the CINCINNATUS of the West," who
" bequeathed the name of Washington,
To make man blush there was but one."
But in this respect, in the contempt of personal
aggrandisement, to our thinking LAMARTINH has, if
possible, surpassed WASHINGTON. The American