The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-15 00:00:00

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review the preceding 20 years in order to trace his
progre,s as a statesman. After the revolution of
July M. de Lamartine had gone to travel in he
East, and it was during his absence that he was
elected deputy for the Department du Nord. On the
intelligence reaching him at Jerusalem he immediately
set out for France to fulfil his duties in the Chamber,
and soon afterwards he published an account of his
travels, a work which has been universally read
and admired. Family traditions appear to have
moulded his earlier political views. He gave his
support to M. G-uizot, but his proclivities seemed
to develops rapidly in a more liberal direction.
Though he found time for the production of two
more poems, "Jocelyn " and " La Chute d'Ange,"
published between 1834 and and 1839, he seems to
have been chiefly devoting his leisure during this
period to the composition of one of the most famous
political and historical books which has appeared--
namely the " llistoire des Giroudins," published in
1847, the year before the last revolution, and per-
haps in some respects the precursor of it. Not
that we mean that, according to the vulgar notion,
such a book and such an event stand in the relation
of cause and effect. What we mean is that this
book may be looked upon as a sort of exposition of
the feelings and opinions then prevalent in the
minds of the people. The work just named was the
work at once of a poet, an historian, a statesman,
an orator ; and it only required such circumstances
as those which subsequently occurred to bring its
author conspicuously to the front of affairs as the
ruling spirit of the hour. But these circumstances
were transitory and evanescent, and it was but
for an hour that Lamartine was the ruling
spirit.
During that brief but terrible crisis, however, lie
certainly did the State some good service. After
his " three months in power," which he has him-
self described, explained, and defended, his political
career may be said to have closed ; not so, however
his literary career. His " History of Turkey,
his " Biographies of Celebrated Characters," his
" History of the Restoration," and his " History of
the Constituent Assembly," have been given to the
world since his retirement from public life. M. de
Lamartine has certainly enriched the literature of
his country by many standardworks which will live,
and, in the character of author alone, deserves well
of the French nation. The services of a statesman
are not always to be estimated by their length. any
more than those of any author, and while M. du
Lamartine's works, both in poetry and prose, are
of considerable magnitude, and their excellence is.
equal to their voluminousness, his services as real
chief of the State, at a scrisis of almost unex-
ampled difficulty and danger, were, on the other
hand, as vital and important as they were brief.
It is hardly too much to say that at that critical
juncture everything depended on one man, and It
his nerves had faltered, or his patriotism been less
firm and noble, untold disasters might have been
precipitated that would have entailed social dissol
borne
tion and political chaos for long years to come. -11-0
parliamentary grant of £16,000 to such a man, orn
down with age and infirmity and domestic afflictio,
is what the moral sense of the world will app
It is, as the bill which makes this grant recites,
wrathy of France to honour the celebrity of 1g..,"
Lamartine by such an act of munificence. The CTO-
veernment, says the bill, desires to intervene dull
his lifetime, to give him striking testimony in respec._
of his services to his country, whose best interei v
5r st
he has defended with courage and success. Thets
of Aug. 22, 1790, says that every citizen who na
served, defended, illustrated, or enlightened France,
or who has given a great example of devotedness,
to the public good, has a right to the gratitude of
the nation ; and, under either of the definitions ecl
this ordinance, or all of them taken together,
ut a g e°, r
title to a national benefaction must be made oA°
M. de Lamartine.