New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-05-09

| documents fail to prove tnat Dario" ""' ~
cent of any completely IN its INCEPTION OF III 'ne
glowing promises to cmigrants and capitalists
never fnl6lled.Y As for the alleged misrepresenta.
tons Of the prospectus of the sc1oto Company 'heS
were probably no worse than the usual exaggera'
tions Of land agents Mr.. McMaster declares that
| Borlov's accounts of the country were worthy OF
| the poses in which Sir John Vaudeville describes
| the tree that grew mutton"j and I'D
illustration of this he cites the mention OF males
tic trees out of whose sides ran sugar and bushes
whose berries yielded wax" Surely the professor
| must have heard of the sugar maple and the pay
| berry The truth is that the country to which
| these unfortunate Frenchmen were dispatched was
one of the richest and most beautiful regions or the
United States; the wrong was in selling land to
them when the company had not secured title
but only the right of presumption within certain
time.
Whatever Barlow's responsibility for the ca'as-
trophe may have been, 1t appears not 10 nave
affected his standing in Paris, where the favor OF
Jefferson and Lafayette, to both OF whom ne
brought letters. introduced him to the society OF
poiiticinns and men of letters. especially of the
moderate liberal school of republicans, which after
ward crystallized as the party Of the Grondists.
II there was ANYTHING left Of his old New-England
Characterization at this time, he quickly got rid
of it; and although Mr.. Todd says that he was
"hardlv an apostate" he probably became an adj
vanced freethinker. He threw himself with the
utmost ardor into the revolutionary cause, writing
pamphlets addresses verses. assaults on royal and
ecclesiastical privileges and making the reputation
of an able popular leader The faiureo of the land
scheme left him dependent principally upon his
pen for living. But apart from the necessity OF
writing there were reasons enough why he should
enroll himself among the revolutionary pamph-
letters Americans were in high fashion then
among the Republicans of Paris This country was
looked upon as the model for all liberylovers, and
visitors from the new free nation were applauded
as the heroes of victory which concerned all
mankind. On the other hand, the first incidents of
the French Revolution were followed by Americans
with the deepest sympathy, and so strong was
this feeling that the grossest atfronts and wrongs
to which we were afterward subjected by the
Government of the Republic hardly chilled the
Jacobincal fervors of a large portion OF our
citizens. Barlow moreover belonged TO class OF
political propagandists, much larger in those days
than IT is now. who are willing to let their own
country alone while they reform the constitutions
of the rest of the world. There was matter enough
for the employment of a good patriot at home
in those critical years of the close OF the
century when our country was trying
the new experiment of popular government under
hostility abroad could suggest; but Barlow's in
terest in American affairs at this time seems to
have been entirely subordinate to his concern for
the political enlightenment of France and England.
1t is for this reason probably, that the historian
Tldreth repeatedly refers to HIM as " the renegade
American" He renamed abroad seventeen years,
and in that time made considerable fortune,
partly by speculation in the French funds, and
partly by commercial operations, the nature of
which is not explained.
Mr.. Todd asserts that it was in consequence of
/" the enOrnities of the Jacobins that Barlow and
his wife left Paris in the spring of 1901 and re-
paired to London. The enormties of the Jacobins
however, did not begin until some time after this
date and during the Jacobin rule Barlow returned.
1t is probable that his removal was due to zeal for
the renovation of England. In England he
favoritc guest at the house of Copley, the artist.
and he was intimate terms likewise with the
painters Trumbul and Benjamin West Horne
Tookc. DR.. Priesty, DR.. Price, the political
economist; Hayley, the poet and biographer
of Cowper Thomas Paine and John Frost
were among his other associates; nearly
all of them were his allies in politics; and several
OF them were members with him of political club,
composed principally of Americans, and styled the
Society of Constitutional Information. He wrote
for this club an address the National Convention
of France advising the members upon equal rights,
self government, the need of simple constitution
the danger of national church, the stability of
laws, citizenship, naturalization, elections, magis-
terial and ministerial functions salaries ard per-
quisltes Of Office, the invioabity OF sena-
tors and representatives criminal law.
capital punishment, lotteries, colonies.
the abolition of standing armies. ETC.. ETC.; and
he was deputed with John Frost to present
the letter in person. The convention received the
delegates with marked favor, and conferred upon
Barlow the honor of French citizenship As this
incident took place after the imprisonment of the
king the September massacres and the fall of the
Girondists, it can hardly be pretended that Bar
low driven from Paris by Jacobn ex
cesses. The fact is, he lived unmolested
In Paris all Though the Reign of Terror,
and he seems to have gazed upon the massacres and
orgies of that dreadful time with philosophIc ntre-
pdity. He belonged to the red variety of republi-
can patriots, whom nothing could move from their
French sympathies, and who squared all their
judgments of American affairs and American
Paris. After the close of the Revolution he wrote
that whoever would weigh the difficulties and in
centives to passion which lay in the road of the
leaders of that movement " must indeed be shocked
at their follIes and their faults but he would find
more occasion TO ask why they had committed so
few than why they had committed so many"
When a commission dispatched by the
Convention to "liberate" Savoy by organizing
1t as French department. Barlow was taken along
as carpet-bag candidate for the convention, and
he writes his wife that the Commissioners intend
he shall be chosen" The Savoyards however
made unexpected objections to this arrangement
and Barlow was not chosen. On the execution of
Louis XVI. our countryman wrote a song to the
tune of God Save the King" which was after
ward cited to his dscrcdit at home. Mr.. Todd
does not mention it, but it has often been re-
printed
Fame, let thy trumpet sound,
Tel all the world around
How Capet fell;
And when great Georges poll
Shall in the basket roll.
Let mercy then control
The Guillotine.