New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-07-29

his great ability and disinterested motives in
variably gave weight to his counsels He played
an important part i'm the abolition OF slavery IN
the French colonies and when. in FEBRUARY,
1S4S the monarchy was overthrown he sat I'm the
Constituent Assembly and helped to frame the
new and short lived constitution of the republic.
The following year he accepted the portfolio
of Foreign Affairs in the Barot Ministry. but he
was not the man to lend himself to the schemes
of Louis Napoleon. and at the end of five months
he resigned his post Thereafter from his seat
in the Assembly he was disgusted and sorrow
ing witness of the events which preceded the
fall of the republic. When that event occurred,
in December. 1851. he one of the two hun
dred deputies who We're seized and sent to Vim
cennes His political life ended with the death
of liberty in France
Tocquevle's remaining years were devoted to
the literary labors which were most congenial to
him. In 1887 he had come into possession of. the
family chateau in Normandy. few miles east
of Cherbourg and almost in sight of the Chan
mel and there in a retirement which might have
been happy save for the knowledge of the des-
potisn which weighed upon France he engaged
in the studies that bore fruit in his work on
The Old Regime and the Revolution Tocque-
villes methods author were wholly his
own. He learned man in the accepted
sense of the term, but he one OF the pro-
foundest political thinkers of his own or any
other age and to the clearness and precision of
thought which belong to the French mind he
added a capacity for collecting and digesting
facts that in its patient thoroughness was al
most German. He once wrote to a friend:
When 7 have q. subject to treat it is almost i'm
possible to read any books that have been written
by others on ii the contact of the ideas of other
hand. take incredible pains to find every
thing for myself in the original documents
Of he nfseh With uybjH I atinp
have gathered in this tosome harvest retire as
II were into myself; l examine with extreme care.
collate and connect the impressions have thus
acquired; and I then set to work draw and
within during this long effort. without giving
write
With the publication at the beginning of 1886
Of the first part Of 1.-THE Old Regime and the
Revolution Tocquevile reached the summit of
his fame an author. Dealing with the condi-
ton of France before the Revolution. this book
applied TO that condition the authors diagnosis
same time furnished key to the underlying
causes of one Of the most tremendous upheavals
in history, For the period it covers it will long
retain its place as historical study of the high
est value. The author, however. did not live to
complete this mastery work. His alsays deli
cate health grew more uncertain with the years.
and in the summer Of 1853 he had an alarming
attack of bleeding at the lungs. When able to
travel he journeyed to Cannes where he spent
the winter. But change of climate did not stay
the progress of his disease. He grew worse as
the spring advanced, and on April 16, 1859 with
her beside him without whom he said he could
not even feel the sunshine" he passed from life