The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-07 00:00:00

211ONSIEUI? DE LAMARTINE.

The following is the reply of M. de Lamartine to some re-
marks upon the subscription recently made in this country
to relieve him from his pecuniary embarrassments :
" Sir,—l read your article in the French paper Univers.
It is.difficult to have to reason with an echo, for echoes can-
not be held responsible for what they repeat; you have
been made yourself involuntarily the echo of the animosity
of my enemies in France. Your article may be summed up
thus :
" 1. A national subscription is a dishonourable contribu-
tion imposed upon a nation in favour of one of her citizens.
" 2. M. de Lamartine is unworthy of such interest, be-
cause he was the author of the Revolution of ISIS.
" 3. Lastly, it is useless to subscribe., either in France or
in England, for a squanderer of fabulous fortunes inherited
from his ancestors or acquired by the sale of his works, and
thus to throw into the sieve of the Drinaides what the unli-
I mited extravagance of M. Lamartine demands.'
" Although you be but an echo, yet I consent to reason
with you. What is a national subscription in reality? It
is, you well know, neither alms nor a contribution, It is not
alms, for a great honour is attached to it. It is not a contri-
bution, because the gift is optional. It is a free, spontane-
ous testimonial of interest which a nation bestows on one of
her sons, whose undeserved reverses of fortane excite her
sympathy, whose talents honour her, or whose devotedness
appear worthy of remembrance.
" It is but a mite, yeu may say ; yes, but that mite be-
comes a medal, when it falls from a nation's hands.
" When a nation is called upon to come forward, as on
this occasion, if it does not subscribe 41. r the lit ing, it sub-
scribes for a tomb, for a widow, for a child, for a funeral.
The tardy subscription is then a token of srlf-reprcach, of
remorse—an set of reparation fir its insensibility or its in-
gratitude. It subscribes to amid being accused by.posterity
of killing her great men, like Jerusalem, and then sitnula-
tiug piety and tears on their ashes.
" These are the characteristics of a national subscription ;
it has never been reputed disgraceful but in my case. And
why ? Because people change the meaning of words as they
happen to be applied to men whom they wish to lower or to
exalt, according to their love or to their hatred. Yet if this
matter is disgraceful to me, how can you explain it being
•gnly lisrizs e.sp.,tears? Fpoerrsoninl
instance,
u
huo,w,,di,in te
coulda nneswhdonneosst
D
itself—Dupont de l'Eure—how could he accept the sub-
scription of his department to endow Lim with the estate of
Rouge Perrier? How could M. Lafitte have accepted, be-
sides the royal acquisition of the Foret de Bretuil at the
price of 6,000,000 f., the popular subscription of 1,000,000 f.
to preserve for him his hotel in Paris ? How could the
family of the illustrious General Foy accept 1,000,000 f.,
penny by penny, from the people? Finally, how could the
Comte Chambord himself have accepted from the French
nation the subscription destined to present him with the
estate and castle of Chambord ? lie who was then the pre-
sumptive heir of the Tuileries, of Versailles, of Fontaine-
bleau, of a civil list of 30,000,000 f.; and of a throne! Su h
names and such honourable examples should undeceive you
as to the pretended ignominy of a national co-operation to
liberate or to endow a citizen—or even a King!
• " Shall I say what is ignominious in this affair ? It is to
be discussed ; well, that disgrace I accept—l drink it like
water. And why? because its bitterness is for me alone, it
will be sweet to others. When sorrow is a sacrifice, it brings
ite own rewards. _ _

•
" de Lamartine is unworthy of an honorary sub-
scription, unworthy, as the ancients used to say, of water
and salt, because he made the revolution of 1818?' Ito you
know who are the people who say that ? The authors of the
Revolution of 1830. I should like to know why those who
made the Revolution of 1830 should reproach rue with
having destroyed their revolutionary work by making ano-
ther revolution. But I do not accept unmerited honour;
no, I did net plot, nor make, nor desire to make a revolu-
tion in 1848. What brought on the Revolution of 1848
was the Parliamentary coalition of 1840, the banquet agita-
tion of 1847, and the accusation of the Ministry. I combated
the coalition; I refused to take part in the banquets; I turned
away with disgust from the proposal of accusing the Minis-
try. No; history will say, and the Moniteur will prove,
that I did not make the revolution. When the revolution
was accomplished I made the Republic. The Republic re-
strained, legi'imated, moderated the revolution. This is
the truth, and it is the glory of the Republic. It would be
dastardly in mt not to acknowledge it, now that the
Republic is in the dust, insulted by those whom she then
shielded with her name and her protection.
"Did I then, in'common with' others, render services in
preserving order, public and private property, society,
peace, and the security of citizens and nations? It is not
for me to answer. All I can vouch for is, that I had the
desire of serving all classes without exception by reconciling
them to each o•her. I was not sparing of the sweat of my
lirow, nor my responsibility, nor my blood, for those who
now haggle over their hateful centimes.
"Lastly, there are enemies who, under a hypocritical mask,
and with the honeyed language of false friendship, go
spreading about from house to house, from one newspaper
to another, from Paris to Lodon, the most effective calum-
nies against my real friends at Marlon, in Paris, and in
London ; they whisper literally what you repeat in your
douhle-faced manifesto—' You are Lamartine's friends, so
are we; and precisely because we are his friends we recom-
mend you to close your hand, your ears, and your heart to
the appeal of his friends in France and in England. This
man has squandered sums inherited from his ancestors or
acquired by his labour. Do not throw into the sieve of the
Danaides the sums which his unlimited extravagance de-
mands! 'What has not France given him? What has he
not squandered sway ? Beware of supplying means fer his
prodigious prodigality. Let him perish, let him sell at a
Luittuus price, at rimed sales, till estate:, Las twatc—wortu
much more than his debts, but which wilt be thus reduced
to little or nothing; let his honour, his creditors, his tenants,
his family perish with him. Drown him in 1838, in order to
rescue him in 1860. That is real kindness, that is the real
subscription ; it costs you nothing, and gives to indifference
the appearance of friendship.'
" You may think that I invent this language. No, sir, I
do not invent—l repeat. A certain number of persons ho
are deceived, and many deceivers, spread these insinuations
as avowed truths. You, yourself, sir, credit them, since you
repeat them in:your article. You even add that M. de Chateau-
briand—a man of far greater genius, and who was at least a
man of honour (which implies that I am not)—M. de Cha-
teaubriand would have preferred submitting to the severest
privations, rather than have debased himself to mendicancy;
this implies that I am a mendicant, with Foy, Lafitte,
Dupont de I'Eure, and others, and with Chateaubriand

" I suppose you are ignorant of the fact that M. de
Chateaukiand opened a subscription in 1818 to .sell at a
fancy price by a lottery his estate and residence in the
Varee aux Loups. Of this lottery only three tickets were
taken, and, be it said to the honbur of that day, by three
political enemies. You have perhaps forgotten that the.
Restoration paid his debts twice, and that I have never
allowed any Government to pay mine; you also forget that
M. de Chateaubriand was four times Ambassador and once
Minister, with salaries amounting to 300,000 f. per annum in
his principal embassies, besides expenses paid at each mission
to the amount of half as much again. You also forget that
M. de Chateaubriand was named Peer of France by.the Re-
storation, and that with that title he received the pension of
a Peer, which is an income in itself. Finally, you omit that
Chateaulniand opened, very honourably, a subscription fur
the purchase of his posthumous memoirs,price at the of
500,000 f., to pay his last debts, and make him an annuity of
20,000 f., of which 12,000 f. were to revert to his widow.
Thus his country, by the hands of Royalty or of friendship,
amply rewarded the great writer for his services, and the
great man did not blush to receive that reward. .1 ou must
give up the ill-chosen example of M. de Chateaubriandif you
hone to crush me by the comparison with his stoicism. .
and" Ffrroolinn pridem ode slt y
canl repel
acceptall
none
w
comparison
poverty. Neither the Restoration, nor the Government of
h
July, nor the Republic have paid my debts or cast their
th e withr.e o uhriis s ng eo f n tis
ll
i'
millions into my fortune, and there are statesmen living who
can testify that I have refused offers made to me. Leave me
my debts, but leave me my character. I have served with-
out hire.
"As to the pretended dillpidr'ion of my suprosei
fortune, inherited from my farbers or acquired by my intel-
lectual labours'—and as to the ' unlimited extravagance' of
my private life, I have only one word to say—come and see
my home. When one has painfully consented to have one's
life discussed publicly even as to its most donrs'ic details,
one must throw open the doors which are usually closed
on private life. I inhabit in Paris a small retired house
in a court in an obscure quarter of the town, a house
which one of those who censure me would think too
humble for his steward or his porlee. 1 lead there the life
of a lab mrer of the brain, who lives by his earnings, between
his family and his trade. I there receive some tew friends,
the constant and faithful attendants on bad fortune. I
shorten.the evening conversation to lengthen the morrow.
I gain upon sleep a few hours of study; I have given
up from economy my horses, which. I loved as companions
of my youth and of my travels ;• I have kept a few dogs,
who repay by love a morsel of bread, and whose tender
fidelity seems as a protest against the faithlessness of men.
Such has been my life for these last ten years. Send spies
to examine my extravagant awl unlimited prodigality.'
My home will give the lie to the explorers of my luxury.
" In the country I lead the same life in a more roomy
house; a man of study by night, by day a peasant; well-to-
do, or, if you will, opulent patriarch, surrounded by a
numerous class of honest labourers, who are as a second
family, the care of whose comfort is confided to me—rich
when I am rich, in years of abundance ; poor from my
poverty, when crops fail in bad seasons. Add to this a few
faithful servants, born, bred, and now growing old in my
house, serving even wit hout wages when necessary—another
adoptive finally which I can never discard until the roof
which shrlters all falls on them and me. This is my luxury
it is a luxury of the heart ; is it for the people to condemn
me?

" Whence, then, may you say, can these enormous debts
have arisen, the amount of which startles and canfounds
even the all-powerful affection of a nation ?
" In the first place, sir, these debts are not so enormous
by a million at lea,t as they are represented to be, in order to
increase my guilt by iccreasing my distress. In the second,
they are not the result of dilapidation nor of unlimited
extravagance, of which you have seen the inanity. These
debts spring from two causes—the first is, that the family
estates which I inherited were burdened with legacies, to
pay which I was obliged to mortgage the estates to the same
large amount. I hove net added a farthing to their burden.
I confess that I ought then to have sold my property.
Filial piety misled me. I was wrcng in the eyes of good
calculators in retaining, ameliorating, and adding to the
lands, the fields, the vineyards of my fathers.
"As for the second cause, it is not for rue to speak of it.
When, alter my death, my administration may be examined,
I maybe blamed with reason for having been led away by
feeling, but my memory will not be insulted. Is there not a
madness which has been called holy; this folly of the hearr,
I own, woull be culpable if it endangered the interests of
my creditors, honest and lawful every one of tlelm. But I
have always bees careful to keep, in lend or in literary pro-
perty, a pledge which, well sold, would be far more than
equivalent to my debts; no risk is incurred by any one but
myself. The only thing necessary is to find with time fair
purchasers for my ema'es, to prevent them being cut up
and sold for ro hing to a set of dealers in furrows, who,
like vultures, scent a corpse beforehand in the midst of
the ruins of a fortune.
" If the subscription opened by my genero:zs friends at
Mr.can, in Paris, and in London is filled up, even slowly
and imperfectly, and if my literary labours continue to
second their efforts, all may yet be well:,
" If the subscription should. fail, -thanks to indifference
and calumny, and if my friends reap odly a harvest of in-
sult for mg in g laud where they hoped to gAther Ark

ing of the heart, then I will shake from my feet, not in
anger, but in sorrow, the dust of my land and of my pater-
nal home, and say to you, Sir, and to those who have in-
spired you, ' Rejoice in peace at the success of your malig-
nity, breathe freely your native air in the land where you
were bam and where you will die. Ino longer breathe the
same air, be satisfied.' " LAMA RTI N E.
"Paris, July 6, 1838."