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

Trip] WEDNRSDAY RE PTE MB ER O, /848,

DEFENCE OF EA-MARTINE
BY HIMSELF.

[Now that Lamartine has condescended to rebut the
calumnies by which his great acts of patriotism have
been repaid, we are resolved to enable our readers to
judge for themselves whether our estimation of biz,
character has been or has not been erroneous. To
this end we shall from day to day publish
fragments of the " Defence"— translating our-
selves from the original as we proceed—giving in
all their simplicity one of the slanders accompanied by
its particular refutation. It is a satisfaction to know
that the whole of the first edition of this important and
remarkable brochure was bought up within the space L f
a quarter of an hour. Such was the avidity evinced
by the Parisians to peruse it, that the pamphlet
su.ddenly became the rage' of the-French capital. All
the interest previously felt as to the probability of an
Italian invasion and a general war in Europe was for-
gotten—men spoke only, thought only, and talked only
about the last production of the pen of this wonderful
publicist., The pamphlet, it will be observed, appears
in the form of a letter addressed to the electors of the
ten departments, who chose Lamartine as their represen-
tative:—

1. Bouches-du-Rhone.
2. Cote-d'Or.
3. Dordogne.
4. Enlist are.
5. Gironde.
6. Ille•et-Vilaine.
7. Nord.
8. Soane-et-Loire.

9. Seine.
10. Seine-Inferieure.
Nevertheless it must not be forgotten that this " Letter"
is nothing more than an extract from a much larger
publication, by M. de Lamartine, called "Three Months
in Power"—a publication which will contain his Mani-
festo to the Departments, his Circular, and his Re-
ports, together with all his remarks and orations
delivered since the 24th of February, both in the Cham-
ber and at the Hotel de Ville. We may observe that
the introduction of the subject-matter in the corn"
mencement of the letter comprises, among
others, the following beautiful and significant pas-
sages:—" Citizens, the popularity which surrounded
me without cause has retired from me without motive.
. . . I have preserved silence for a long
while, and should have done so always had my own re-
putation been alone concerned ; but you adopted me i❑
a moment of extraordinary imminence in token of
the conformity of our opinions. I belong to you,
therefore. It is necessary that you should not have
reason to blush when they mention my name in your
presence." It is thus that the illustrious writer ad-
dresses himself to the electors of the departments
who proclaimed him the representative of the French
people with the voci:erations of two million voices.
Gold passing through the furnace is purified. Thus is
it with Lamartine now that he has passed through the
terrible furnace of calumnies—of those calumnies which
he has himself scornfully called " the ordinary salaries
of revolutions." The joy with which we
now witness the complete vindication of the
character of Alphonse de Lamartine is only
surpassed by the satisfaction we experience in
thinking that we have always (even in those moments
when every eye regarded him either with suspicion as
an administrator, or with abhorrence as a conspirator)
recognised the glorious and incorruptible honesty of the
hero-patriot and the poet-statesman.—ED, Sun.]

FIRST ACCUSATION :—That I have been ardent in
ambition, and feeble in the exercise of power
during the interregnum and the dictatorship.

I reply :
The revolution of February surprised me, as it did
the whole world. The Republican system, the
Government of pure reason, was, in my opinion, an
ideal more or less distant from the claims, from the
reign, from the progress of the people. It was
not a conjuration (the result of a conspiracy).
I had no immediate aversion to constitu-
tional monarchy, no personal antipathy to the
dynasty. I held myself apart from its favours—l
simply witnessed its administration—behold ! that
is all.
Had its supremacy—some of the principles of which
I held in estimation, such, for example, as its pre-
dilection in favour of peace—neither diminished nor
corrupted freedom, I should not have hesitated to
have afforded it my allegiance. When, however, the
monarchy and the dynasty were abandoned by the
People, by the National Guard, by the Chamber, and
by the army, both of them fell at once from their own
weakness in the course of a single moiety of a sitting.
The days of royalty had disappeared, and it became
only possible to pity it, and to fill up the place which
it had left vacant. The people themselves first dis-
played the tokens of this honourable commiseration.
They fought—they allowed royalty to escape—they
did not condescend to one act of insolence.
I remained isolated, pensive, silent, upon my bench
(in the Chamber of Deputies), contemplating that
abrupt catastrophe which did not leave one time
enough to measure its profundity. Moved even to
sadness by this calamity, and this new birth over-
helming a throne in a revolution, my heart strug-
gled within me against my reason.
Several of the people and of the Deputies—though
they may now have forgotten the circumstance—ap-
proached me, and, seizing my arm in order to rouse
me from my abstraction, summoned me energetically
to throw myself between anarchy and my mother-
land, calling me by name and impelling me to wards
the tribune. From that tribune M. Odillon Barrot
had just descended, from the exhaustion produced by
his efforts to save the monarchy from destruction. A
musket was levelled at my head from one of the gal-
leries, but an unknown hand struck up the muzzle.
In a few syllables I proclaimed myself to be in favour
of a Provisional Government—a Government which
should grasp the crisis on the instant, so as to bring
it under control. This Government gave augury,
it is true, of a Republic, but it reserved to the Na-
tional Assembly that which I had expressed in my
first words—that of which it could never be deprived,
whether by faction, by seduction, or by acclamation
—the full and sovereign sanction of the definitive form
of government, such as might be suitable for the
acceptance of the nation.
The voices of the people and of those Deputies
who still remained in the Chamber summoned me to
designate myself the members of the Provisional
Government. I refused. M. Dupont (de l'Eure),
the natural dictator of public esteem, was carried, in
spite of his modesty, to the chair of the presidency.
He read the names which a tumultuous sitting had
selected for the formation of the Government. We
could not recognise in this sitting any other authority
besides the authority of danger and devotion. This
danger and this devotion formed our only title. They
prevented us from resigning power, irregular though
it was, into the hands of anarchy. "I ac-
cept this power by reason of the blood which
flows, and which must be staunched at all
price., Those were my words : I find them recorded
in the Moniteur. We marched at once to the Hotel
de Ville, at the head of a procession of the people.
We were carried under the shelter of sabres, and
pikes, and bayonets, into the rooms stained with blood,
encumbered with the dead and the wounded, even to
the little table where the Government was organized.
Even at that hour the great struggle commenced
outside between the two republics; the one violent,
inexorable, dictatorial, terrorist—in word, in act, and
in colour ; the other, moderate, pacific, legal, unani-
mous, constitutional; between the Republic which
you wish, and that which you do not wish.
The first act of this terrorist republic, wrong both
in manner and in time, was to wish to hoist its
colours—the colours of blood. During two- days
and two nights some of the armed advocates of this
faction inundated from time to time the squares, the
courts, and the halls of the Hotel de -Ville. They
summoned us to give, on the instant, to the young
republic the character, the attitude, and the insignia
of the first revolution. My colleagues and myself
resisted then, though we were in danger of our
lives. Twenty times during those seventy-two
hours I was roused, dragged, and carried to the
doors, to the windows, to the railing of the stair-
cases, in the courts, upon the Place, to speak to those
men of another epoch who interpreted so badly the
wishes of the people, and to repulse those symbols of
terrorism with which they desired to dishonour the
Republic. You will call to mind those last words
which decided the victory of the tricoloured ban-
ner ; they were thoughts which were already
upon the lips of my colleagues, and in pro-
nouncing those words, I only gave to those
thoughts utterance—" Citizens, the red flag which
you offer to us has only made the tour of the Champs
de Mars, trailed in the blood of the people ; the tri-
coloured flag, the flag which we wish to preserve to
the Republic, has made the tour of the world with
our courage, with our glory, and with cur liberties !"
Is there in all this, I ask, anything like the premedi-
tated ambition of a past whose peril had thrown us
all (like the forlorn hope of the Revolution) into the
very breach of society ? Is there in all this a token
of feebleness ? Is there in it the evidence of a compli-
city with terrorism ? Answer me!

ASIITON.—The prompt and energetic measures
lately adopted by the authorities to suppress sedition in
this place have happily been most successful. All at-
tempts to carry on the Chartist agitation have been
abandoned; and even those who, immediately after the
late arrests, kept up the public alarm by meeting during
the night in the fields, through the unwearied vigilance
of the police have been completely put down. There
pro rumours that the nightly meetings are secretly held,
but they must he without foundation, as the fields and
moors are constantly watched, and no trace whatever has
been seen. We are sorry to learn that as yet no trace
has been obtained to the murderers of Bright, the police-
man,

John Hudson, Morpeth-bridge-eni, Northumberland,
farmer.
James Cornelius Houghton, Great Yarmouth, Norfo:k.
IVilliArn Stanly, Dark-lane, Shropshire, railway exca-
vator.
John \Vhicker, Southleigh, Devonshire, er-house
keeper.
Samuel Freeman, Lowestoft, Suffolk, tailor.
John Rice, Woolpit, Suffolk, labourer.
SCOTCH SEQUESTRATION.
J. Auckland,.Elgin, horse dealer, to meet within the
Gordon Arms Hotel, Elgin, Sept. 12 and Oct. 4, at two.

most disastrous. The dread of being removed to a
cholera hospital causes the majority of the poor to con-
ceal their illness till they are be end the reach of
cure. As the object of the Health Committee is to
save lire, and not to destroy it, I am sure they will
I meet the difficulties of the case in the way most effec-
tual for the former purpose, and doing least violence to
the feelings or even prejudices of the p0..,r. I have also
already stated, in my pamphlet, that the precautionary
measures to be adopted, and the necessary remedies and
appliances to be employed in the cure of cholera, must
be provided for, with a view to their applicability to
patients in their own houses. I have also given ample
directions to guide the mil authorities in this matter: The
preparations there recommended are absolutely necessary.
A malignant case of cholera could not, by possibility, be
cured without the external application of heat to the
bodies of the patients by solid substances such as I have
there recommended ; and in the majority of cases, there
would be no opportunity of procuring these in the
houses of the poor. The necessity, therefore, of being
plovided with such materials, ready prepared, at the
different dispensaries, is too obvious to require comment.
As it is admitted that the disease is not contagious, why
not be prepared to admit a casual vagrant, destitute
pauper into the ho,pitals already Cxisting i❑ towns., as
in the case of accidents?

I may here explain, for the information of the ge-
neral reader, that the advantagee derived from the
external heat applied to the body of a patient in
cholera, is not merely its effect in exciting perspira-
tion, but it has the effect of restoring the electro-
producing functions of the body in a remarkable de-
gree. The instantaneous relief and improvement
of strength experienced by the patient on the heat
being applied, even before any perspiration has
flowed, the electric effect (if I may eo speak) could not
Le satisfactorily- accounted for on any other principle.
I again repeat it, and I beg the medical profession to
bear it in mind, that a malignant case of cholera could
not, by possibility, be cured without the external applica-
tion of such hot substances as I have described. This
fact I have proved, in the presence of medical witnesses,
in above a hundred instances. This, then, is the grand
distinguishing feature of my mode of treatment. This
leads me to remark, that the editor of the Economist is in
error when he alleges that my mode of treatment differs
from others only in the larger dose of opium, for, says he,
others recommend the horizontal posture and perspiration
too. Had the editor of the Economist been a medical
man he would not have said so. I wish the editor to
understand that the ordinary sudorific medicines which
are prescribed with a view to produce perspiration in
other diseases, when their use appears to be indicated,
would be altogether inadmissible in cholera; and they
have never been employed in the early stages of cholera
by any sensible or skilful practitioner. Neither has
perspiration itself been ever, as such, recommended as
a meane of cure in cholera. The fact is, spontaueous
profuse perspiration is one of the characteristic features
of a malignant case of the disease. On the first watery
diEcharge from the bowels, a profuse perspiration breaks
out over the body ; it is not, therefore, likely that the
profession, unacquainted with the true nature of the
disease, would recommend perspiration as a means of
cure. Now, the peculiar feature of my mode of treat-
ment is the immediate application of hot substances round
different parts of the body, and one of its e fli.cts is a
warm perspiration; another of its effects, of equal, if not
of greater importance, is the restoration of the electro-
, producing functions of the body. This latter effect is
indicated and proved by the suddenness of its action, by
the instantaneous relief from the painful sense of weakness
and sinking felt about the heart and stomach, and from the
suddenness with which the feelings of horror and despair
give place to those of the most cheeringconfidence. Ano-
ther distinguishing feature of my mode of cure is, that I
order these hot applications in the earliest stage of the
disease—the moment the first symptoms matsifest them-
selves, no matter, as I have stated in my pamphl-t, in
what state the practitioner may find his patient.
If the temperature of the body be higher than natural,
the perspiration will equalise it ; if lower than
natural, the hot applications will raise it to that
point ; and if the body be covered with a cold,
clammy perspiration, the heat will change it to a
warm one. True, in the collapse stage, when the body
becomes as cold as a mass of ice, all practitioners, more
or less, instinctively order heat, in various ways to be ap-
plied to their cold patients; but this is altogether another
affair; it is not applied, even hero, by them as a cure,
but merely as a means of alleviating painful 5) mptoms.
From a work on cholera before me, I quote an extract,
from which the reader will be able to form au opinion of
the extent of the views with which medical writers on
cholera have recommended the application of heat to
patients in the collapse stage. Atter having described
the icy coldness of patients in that stage, the writer
recommends the spirit vapour apparatus to be placed
over the patient's body in that cold stage, and then pro-
ceeds to give his reasons for doing so. " Every one
knows that without a certain degree of heat we must
surely die; the absence of this alone then would prove
the certain cause of death in cholera. No other reason
need be urk!ed for employing it."
The editor of the Economist is also greatly in error if
he supposes that I published my pamphlet with a view
to encourage the people to quack themselves. The
observations in my pamphlet were primarily intended
For the medical profession; but, in addressing myself
to the profession, I took special care, as every one
in writing on such a subject should do, to express
myself in such language as should make my views
and reasoning intelligible to the lowest capacity. How
could this encourage "self-quackery ?" it should have
directly an opposite effect. I did not conceal the danger
from the patient, neither did I exaggerate it, for this I
could not do. If I told him that an attack might be
so malignant as; to prove fatal in half an hour, was
this calculated to encourage him to dispense with
medical attendance ? %Then I pledged my professional
character on the infallibility of the mods of treat-
ment I have described, I did so only on the condition
that the mode of cure should be sufficiently early,
actively, vigorously, and skilfully carried into opera-
tion. This could be accomplished only by a skilful
medical practitioner. I need scarcely soy, for mysel',
that there is no man living more opposed to " self-
quackery" than I am, and am sure that no medical
man doubts me on that score. I feel confident, how-
ever, that the editor of the Economist will agree with me,
that every family in the kingdom should be possessed of
a copy of my pamphlet; that they should read it over,
medical
even
va
el
n advice,wn sent
eunt t
fort will i
sannaysoelpscnoeoeoanstikesnbii instruct ri:lultote
bhfht
eoetmri hlneoyee.fsm:t
and study it, till they make themselves perfectly ac-
quainted with all the symptoms and characters of the
disease, so that they may become able to detect even the
first symptoms of it, when they should then instantly send
for their medical attendant; and, also, that they may be
able to know what to take in the meantime, to check
the progress of the symptoms till the medical at-
tendant arrives. The fact is, the safety of the lives
of the people depends on their, without one week's
delay, possessing themselves of a copy of my pamphlet,
so that they may have time to become thoroughly ac-
quainted with the nature and character of the dis-
ease before it arrives. The pamphlet will not only
inform them when it will be necessary to send for
ownwwetwi
hdnh
of
oaapf tnrmbtohoaec
udnuecogrs.
till their medical attendant arrives. The medical attend-
may elapse be!bre he come; the patient may be dead in
the interval, it he know not what steps he should take
tb
and,r h
ai
withms ownawGa
aware
ead
thates tyb•
blessing,
e s
nsTi
trhi
hgeu,
timely instructed by the pamphlet requires no argu-
ment. Using this precaution not one life need be lost,
himself' master of, and vigorously adopts, the directions
I
Itiohna,vel shall,given 'with the illiberal and narrow-minded, expose
myself to the imputation of being actuated solely by
a desire to puff and sell it. lam content to be so accused,
having a heartfelt consciousness that I have no such
motive, and a thorough conviction, on which I am willing
to pledge reputation and life itself, that by the general
adoption of the measures and treatment I have recom-
mended, this terrible disease will be divested of half its
horrors, and thousands of lives will be saved.
Should the editors of the public press believe that the
public interest would be served while the country is
menaced with such a calumny, by copying this letter
from your columns and republishing it, I feel confident
they will do so.—l have the honour to be, gentlemen,
your obedient and obliged servant,
s tcliAa
nWo Tf
e 0
BelfastßNE, M.D.,
General Hospital.
GEOlratEe
SeniorA PRhTy
61, St. Anne-street, Liverpool, Aug. 14, 1848.

THE HARVEST.
With the drawback of a few showers, the weather
during the week has been favourable for the work of the
reaper, and the cheering work of harvest ie now going
on vigorously around Inverness. Barley and oats are
falling all round about, and the harvest will now go on
uninterruptedly to its close, should the weather continue
favourable.— Inverness Cout ier.
From all that we can learn from others, and deter-
mine by personal observations, says the Perth Advertiser,
the potato disease upon the whole is making little or no
progress. In some places, where a month or six
weeks ago, the " spot on the leaf" and partial black-
ening of the haulm, pointed out, as was thought,
the certainty of the murrain, a renovation of the
crop has succeeded, and dissipated or moderated
every fear as to an uufavourable result. We frequently
hear that matters this year, as regards the potatoes, are
worse than in 1847. We have no reason to think so, as
regards this part of the country. The same paper thus
notices the progress of the harvest in the Highlands :
In bulk, the crops will be an average, especially oats,
peas, and beans.
The fine weather which has prevailed for the last few
days has done much to benefit the crops in the upland
parts of the country. Harvest in the neighbourhood of
Kelso is fast coming to a termination, and much of the
grain brought under the sickle has been caned to tho
barn-yards in excellent condition, Although the yield
cannot as yet be correctly ascertained, it is generally ad-
mitted that the white crops will be under an average.
The potatoes in this locality are strong and healthy, and
of first rate quality.—Kelso Chronicle.
BERWICKSIIIRE.—The work of the harvest is now
general in this district. The report of the crops almost
universally is, that in quantity they are fair, nei-
ther to be complained nor boasted of, while in qua-
lity they aro faultless. Barley is decidedly the best
crop ; oats ere generally good, and in some cases
are decidedly a great crop; while respecting wheat it
is still reported to be light, and short in produce, though
in some parts of Berwickshire the crop is in every
spect good. The turnips, for which the weather has
been very favourable, are a splendid crop. The disease
in the potatoes, which we announced. a few weeks ago
as then observed, has not made any serious pr
ogress,
ne
does the alarm appear to be general in this glabour-
r
hood.— Be 7 wick Advei tiser.
Since our last the weather, to which s) much conse
quence is now attached, has been exceedingly broken till
yesterday, when there was an excellent harvest day.
Little progress hes consequently been made, but there is

a good deal of corn ready for the sickle. We are glad to
state that, upon the whole the potatoes are standing out
better than was anticipated. This time laA year, every
field almost was blackened, but at present few indeed
show much of it, and if the potatees continue as they are,
there will be no dearth of this valuable esculent. In
Inverness-shire harvest operations are proceeding, and
were it not for the broken weather this week, would have
been general.—Ross-shire
Towards the close of the present week the weather has
improved considerably, so that harvest operations, which
were greatly retarded by the heavy rains that prevailed
for some time, are now being prosecuted with vigour.
Thursday, Friday, and to-day, we have had excellent
harvest weather, and a great deal of reaping has conse-
quently been going on. In the low-lands the crops are
tally one half cut, and in the west country, of both wheat
and oats, there will be an average yield as compared with
previous years. Wheat, however, is likely to be a little
inferior in quality, from the b ngth of time it has been in
ear before becoming fully ripe, but the quantity, it is
expected, will be consider able. Of beans there is a fair
crop, and a considerable breadth grown. With respect
to the potato, we may state that the latest accounts from
different quarters of the country confirm the remarks we
have elsewhere inserted, as to the partial nature of the
disease. One geotletran in this neighbourhood has in-
formed us that, having lifted nine bags of early potatoes,
he had only from two to three pecks of diseased in addi-
tion, and in these the disease was so slight that it would
not injure the tubers for the use of cattle. Itidepe ndent
of the disease, he remarked the crop of ,ound tubers was
more than an average for the breadth of ground they
were lifted from. This, we believe, has been the general
result of the examinations of farce, rs around this quarter
of the country. In travelling over a large prtion of
:Scotland lately, we remarked that there is not such a
breadth of the potato planted anywhere else as in the
west country. The farmers in other districts seem not
to have entered into potato growing with the same spirit
as those in this neighbourhood.—Glasgow Saturday Post.
Wednesday was alternately wet and dry, some of the
showers being very heavy, and, we believe, accompanied
by thunder. Thursday was fine, but yesterday was dull
and lowering. As the barometer, however, is rather
tending upward, we would hope harvest operations will
not be impeded. The recent rains have done no in-
jury beyond retarding the progress of cutting ; while
turnips and pastures have been greatly benefited by the
moisture. The grain crop generally is not so buikly
as anticipated, the general opinion being that it will
prove below an average. In some particular districts
we are informed the produce will be greatly beyond an
average, while in others it will be as much below, both
in quantity and quality. The potato disease is not in-
creasing in this quarter. In fact, there is so little of it
that had not the failure in 1846 naturally made growers
anxious and easily excited by the slightest indication of
a return of that visitation, all that has appeared this
season in this quarter would in other circumstances
have been treated as unworthy of notice.—Seoisnian.
Since Monday last we have been favoured with unin-
terrupted fine weather, which has had a most beneficial
, effect upon the wheat crops. The harvest is in a forward
state in this district ; a considerable quantity of wheat
has been cut, some has been housed, and all is fit or
nearly so for the sickle. We repeat what we formerly
stated respecting the potato crop. The plant every-
where appears healthy and vigorous, and we greatly
doubt whether there has been in this country any in-
stance of disease to cause the slightest anxiety.—Dur-
ham Chronicle.
It is with no little satisfaction that we have to an-
nounce the all but completion of the harvest in this dis-
trict, and, upon the whole, we may add, as propitious as
we could have reasonably desired. The crops generally
have cut up well, and we have now secured the benefit
of a good and cheap loaf for the ensuing year.—Derby-
shire Courier.

Though a good deal of rain has fallen in the course of
the present week, chiefly at night, the weather, on the
whole, has not been very unfavourable to the cutting of
corn, and fully one-half of the crops, in the best parts
of the county, have fallen before the sickle. There are
signs of improvement, and a fortnight's tine warm dry
weather would place the crops of all sorts of grain out
of the reach of danger. We are still able to report fa-
vourably as regards the potato crop in this part of Cum-
berland.—Carlisle Patriot.
We have to be thankful fcr a wctk of remarkably fine
weather, and it is gratifying to find that it has been
nearly general throughout the country, and has also ex-
tended to Ireland. Reaping is now quite general, and
in some parts considerable quantities bave been secured
in good condition, and if the present weather continue,
of w hick there is every prospect, in another week the
bulk of the fields in this neighbourhood will be cleared.
—Newcastle Chronicle.
It is with extreme reluctance and regret that we state,
from personal examination, that a considerable portion
of the wheat crop has been irretrievably damaged in this
part of the kingdom. Up to Tuesday, many tanners in
this part of the country had been unable to carry a
single sheaf; but there it stood, on such a wet warm day
as Sunday, exposed to the constant rain. Others have
got in large quantities of corn, and set the threshing-
machines at work as hard and as rapidly as possible.
The grain is released without much difficulty from the
chaff; but it is so full and wet thA it has been found
necessary to kiln-dry all that has been threshed.—Brigh-
, ton Herald.

The wtnther has been this week gloriously fine and
genial, with the exception of the afternoon and night of
Thursday, when the air was cold, and several rather
heavy showers fell. The process of housing the wheat
has gone on vigorously throughout the district. Save in
the high and bleak localities border lug Breconshire
and Radnorshire, where the harvest is just beginning,
there is very little wheat now in the field. The other
groin crops arc in excellent condition, barley especially.
' The rotat,a crop continues to decay slowly. Turnips
look exceedingly well. The hop does not make much
progress, notwithstanding the fine weather of the pre-
sent week. The previous cold rain, and the storm of
last week, seem to have effectually checked the burr.
However fine the weather may be now, the burr is al-
most certain to be small. The duty for the district
has not advanced beyond 14,0001., to which it tell last
week from 20,0001., the sum previously named.-11cre-
Aril limes.