The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-03 00:00:00

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THIS EYENING. at 8, THE ROYAL ORIGINAL CHRISTY'S
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io 7
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.11.3
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:Yr"-
_
44-31,

LONDON, [VED' ESDAY, MARCH 3, 1869,

--4.

Twenty years ago the announcement of the death
of ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE would have created a
profound sensation throughout Christendom. It is
significant of the extent to which he had outlived his
at one time immense popularity, that the news of his
demise, coming to us simultaneously with the news
of the demise of M. TROPLONG, the latter circum-
stance was at once accorded precedence—M. TROP-
LONG being nothing more than a conspicuous medio-
crity, M. DE LAMARTINE nothing less than a man of
resplendent genius, Poet, Orator, Historian, Novelist,
Hero ! Although the popularity of the latter had
long since vanished, his reputation will not so readily
pass away, or, for that matter, be even diminished.
His name is inscribed is imperishable characters in
the history of his country. His individual and per-
sonal heroism is among the most glorious recollec-
tions of France. His triumph as an Orator upon one
memorable day in the midst of her third and we
would willingly believe, if we could, her last Revolu-
tion was as brilliant and dazzling as any ever won in
the lists at the point of a lance, or on the battlefield
at the edge of the sword. Unarmed save with the
magical weapon of speech, he gave to view upon that
wonderful occasion the extraordinary spectacle of
one man subduing the passions, in rapid sequence,
of five infuriated multitudes. The incident is, hap-
pily, one that can never be disproved. Other
renowned incidents related in history, both ancient
and modern, and long believed to have been per-

Messrs

'ectly well authenticat, d, have been swept away as
utterly apocryphal. We are told, in regard to two
of the most spirit-stirring, once related and long
credited as having illustrated, in a remarkable
manner, the heroism, here of the French, there
of the English, on the field of Waterloo
we are told that, neither in the one nor
in the other was there any vestige whatever of truth
—that WELLINGTON, before the final charge, did
not cry out, " Up Guards and at 'em !"—that CAM-
BRONNE did not exclaim, " The old Guard dies but
never surrenders !" But, at any rate, in regard to
the incident of February, 1848, when I AMARTINE
saved France from the imminent hazard, from the other-
wise all but dead certainty of a RAgn of Terror, by
disdainfully rejecting the Red Flag as the symbol of
Terrorism, while holding aloft the Tricolour as the
banner of Civilization—in regard to that incident, at
any rate, there is happily no room for any doubt
whatever. It is an incident as to the reality of
which there were a hundred thousand witnesses.
Ile was weak as a statesman afterwards. He was a
dreamer in the place of an adminis:.rat or. He was a
Part suddenly invested for three months with a Poli-
tical Dictators?iip. Granted all this. But on that
day—the day by which his 7 roil .Bois were inaugu-
rated—he won and deserved the whole civilized
world's admiration. Is the agonies of a Revolu-
tion he saved France from Terrorism. And he did
so without causing the loss of one single life, without
shedding one drop of human blood. Twice since
then France has been saved from the risk of
Anarchy—but Order upon each of those occa-
sions has been restored at the mouth of the
cannon and at the point of the bayonet. Upon
the three days of June in that same year, 1848, the
Red Republicans were shot down by wholesale far
and wide throughout the barricaded streets of Paris
by the soldiers of CAVAIGNAC. Upon the occasion of
the coup d'etat a comparatively very small number
indeed were shot down by the soldiers of Louis
NAPOLEON. The cause of Order was maintained,
quite as signally, was vindicated yet more strikingly
in the February of 1848 by LA3IARTINE. Alone in
themidst of the mob, alone in the midst of five suc-
cessive mobs—without a sword being drawn, without
a shot being fired. The spectacle presented to view
there had seemingly nothing whatever heroic about it.
It had nothing whatever of the " pride, pomp, and
circumstance" of glorious war. Outside the Hotel
de Vile there was a tumultuous assembly, and in the
midst of it, standing upon a chair, a civilian el id in
the unpicturesque costume of nowadays. Seen through
the lurid glare of the revolutionary crisis in which
he was placed thus conspicuously, that simple and
seemingly unheroic figure assumed to itself a dignity
of the most chivalrous proportions. Never knight in
armour achieved more glory in the shock of
battle, than that one man standing upon a
chair in the Paris street and addressing mob
after mob of the Red Republicans. LAMARTINE
won fame for himself, as a Hero, on that memor-
able day, and the record of it will not very easily
be erased from the annals of his country. As a
Poet his fame is equally secure, by right of
his Meditations Poetiques, and by right, also,
of his exquisite idyll of Jocelyn. As a
Historian, his reputation is assured by a
single masterpiece, that Histoire des Girondins,
which led to the downfall of the ORLEANS Dynasty.
His charm, his fascination as a Rotnancist, any one
may find attested among other enthralling works of
imagination by his love-story of Raphael. journalist,
statesman, legislator, diplomatist, lyrist, a debater in

the tribune, a laborioua man of letters—for one brief
interval virtually the Presiding Genius of the French
Government—M. DE LA3IARTINE has left behind him
the reputation of a man of unsullied honour, the

fame of a brilliant orator, of a true poet, of an elo-
quent historian, of a brave, loyal, noble-hearted
gentleman of Franco,.

SIMPLICITY and thoroughness are the most promi-
nent characteristics of Mr. GLADSTONE'S Irish Church
measure. All the rumours which had been so
industriously circulated as to postponethent and
incompleteness prove to have been the very idlest
tales. Whatever may be thought of the PnEmiEn's
policy, however bitterly and: sincerely his opponents
may denounce what they deem a policy of spoliation
and confiscation, they cannot charge him with having
evaded any portion of the difficulties which that policy
has brought upon him. There is no putting off till
to-morrow what should be done to-day, no waiting
to
see how events turn up. The measure may be
reckless, may be wicl,ed, but it is complete and final.
Briefly summarised, this is what the measure pro- ,
poses to accomplish. The Irish Church is to be dis-