The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-04-27
The Man of his Country and of the Age |.

LAMARTINE has been called emphatcally the
man of the new French revolution, as Napoleon was
of the old. A Paris correspondent of the Boston
Atlas relates an incident which we have not before
seen recorded, illustrative of the nerve and frmness
OF this hero Shortly after the flight of Louis Phi
hppe, a council was held of the revolutionary
Leaders, to dictate to the Provisional Government.
The government, though aware of the principles of
Lagrange (who seems to have been a sort of Marat
III his blood thirstlness) felt compelled to make him
Governor of the Hotel de Vile. He held it two
days, and was replaced by another. His resent
ment was SO wild and terrible, that fear came upon
several of them.
Lamartine, as we learn from the Atlas correspond
dent, alone, blenched not. He kept his self-pos-
session; and when Lagrange, in the wild fury of
his rage, drew pistol from his pocket and pointed
it at him, excaming, g thou art no true patriot
What hinders me from taking thy life on the in
slant - "4our own conscience coolly replied
Lamartine, "and the utter uselessness of such an
outrage for should fall there will still remain my
colleagues, who all, to man, have resolved to die
rather than to submit to violence or to return to the
senseless anarchy of 49," Lagrange shook with
fear, turned pale death, dropped the pistol, and
sank into seat. His eye quailed before the steady
glance of Lamartne, while the baffled ruffian NUT
tered between his teeth. g thou art not true re-
publican, nor yet true patriot, but verify believe
thou art an honest man"
The scene where Lamartine addressed the popu-
lace from the balcony of the hotel de Vile, when
they demanded the substitution of the red flag for
the tri-color is another proof of the greatness of
soul, with which he meets the emergencies of the
times =" For my part, citizens" he said, will
never adopt it, and in few words | will tell you
why oppose it with all the energy of my patriot
ism. 1t is that the u-color, citizens, has hoated in
every quarter of the world, over the republic and
the empire, our liberties and our glory and
that the red flag has but traversed the Camp de
Mars, dragged throug rivers of the peoples blood
AT this spirit-stirring address," says La Presse,
80 the astounding Of hours durafi0n
in the midst of an ungovernabe mob, every man
was in a moment subdued they clapped their
hands, shed tears, and finished by embracing him,
clasPing his hands, and carrying him in triumph -
But his trials were not yet ended. New bodies of
the people advanced. They knocked tumultously
at the doors, and crowded the rooms of the Hotel
de Vile. The cry was heard, that all was lost.
The anarchy of 1913 seemed to have come, in truth
After every one else had failed in appeasng the
multitude, Lamartine came forward and took his
place on the steps of the broad staircase. Half an
hour passed without his being able to obtain hear
ing. Weapons of every kind were shaken over his
head by the reckless, ungovernable multitude. He
stood with folded arms, perfectly COOL until he OBJ
tanned hearing. At length he spoke. As he pro-
ceeded the people became pacifed. They were
softened. Tears took the place of frowns and oaths
Lamartine carried his point, and succeeded so far
in subduing the people as to induce them to become
themselves the safeguard of the Provisional Govern
ment. And yet this man is sneered at as a man of
the closet and not of action as poet and phlloso-
pher Could your practical men, have done bet
ter in the crisis
The greatest of Lamartine's triumphs, thus far,
however, is in the humane and generous principles
which he has made dominant in the new revolu-
ton. "The Provisional Government he says,
has so firm conviction of the truth, that it pro-
claims, in the name of the French people, that if
the guilty men who have just caused the blood OF
France to flow were in the hands of the people, it
would, in their opinion, be more exemplary chas
tisement to degrade them, than to strike them" A
man, who in the very heat and turmoil Of a revolu-
tion can proclaim such sentiments in the of an
exasperated multitude, on whose forbearance and
good will his very life depends requires no farther
eulogy.