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Harmonies, the Souvenirs of his beloved mother and of his dear "natal Milly"-with all the rich and varied colourings which belong to all his poetical compositions, and must follow De Lamartine into the busy arena of public and political life. And yet, though we part from him with regret, thus associated and thus endeared to the lovers of humanity and of rational and virtuous progress, we, at the same time, know we shall have no reason to be ashamed of him as we follow him into such different scenes as the Chamber of Deputies and the general councils of his department. There we shall find him good and useful, true and tasteful, faithful to his heart, but yet never forgetful of the great truth, that the law of progress is the law of nature. At the same time, we know beforehand that we shall find him patient, laborious, willing to wait for time, for prejudice, for education, for vested rights and interests, and for the workings, gradual and sometimes imperceptible as they are, of nature and of God. This feature of his character is so well delineated in the following extract from his first speech on the Abolition of the Penalty of Death, that we extract it with double pleasure.

posing, by degrees, an immense poem -a poem of nature, of life, of the history of man, "Babylone Inconnue et Mystérieuse;" and to this he devotes a portion of his leisure hours at Saint Point in Burgundy. He has detached from this poem, and published separately, Jocelyn, and La Chute d'un Ange. The object of the poet, in his great poem, of which these are but fragments, is to paint the developement of the human race; societies first formed by God; their existence; the reign of vice, and the triumph of matter over spirit; the vengeance of God at the deluge; the patriarchal era; the recomposed family of man; the history of the Jews; the history of the Bible; the change of the written for the unwritten law of God; the new world as opposed to the old; and the CROSS, the standard of a new civilization. Then the conflicts of Christianity and her triumphs. Then the establishment of Paganism as the religion of ruins. Then the fall of the Roman empire-the conquering Sicambrian, the Hun, the curse of God the Latin slave-the Greek sophist and then new societies based on ideas, not on facts, on opinions and experiments, and not on the laws of God. Then the history of the Romish Church (of course to be written with a friendly hand) and then the present state of human societies, with the combats of philosophy and infidelity. Twelve fragments will constitute the poem. We, as yet, have but two-Jocelyn, peut tuer une société à coups de principes

and La Chute d'un Ange.

With various defects of rhyme, measure, and even of language, the last of the two is a splendid poem; and the loves of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost, have, unquestionably, their rival in those of Daidha and of Cedar.

It is a very singular fact, that as on the day when De Lamartine lost his mother, he was named member of the French Academy — so on that on which he was deprived of his Julia, he was named deputy.

And here we must bid adieu to the schoolboy of Bellay, to the student of Italy, to the ardent lover in Savoy, to the father of Alphonse and of Julia, bereft of both his children; to the wanderer in Syria, the poet of the mountains, the painter of life, and rural and domestic scenery, to the author of the Meditations and the

"Long temps avant qu'une legislation puisse formuler en loi une conviction sociale, il est permis aux philosophes de la discuter. Le legislateur est patient parce qu'il ne doit pas se tromper: son erreur retombe sur la société tout entière. On

et de vérités comme on la sape avec l'er-
reur et le crime. Ne l'oublions jamais,
ne nous irritons pas contre les timides
lenteurs de l'application. Tenons compte
au temps de ses mœurs, de ses habitudes,
de ses préjugés même: songeons que la
société est une œuvre traditionnelle ou
tout se tient; qu'il n'y faut porter la main
qu'avec scruple et tremblement, que des
millions de vies, de propriétés, de droits,
reposent à l'ombre de ce vaste et secu-
laire édifice, et qu'une pierre detachée
avant l'heure, peut écraser des generations
dans sa chute. Notre devoir est d'eclairer
Celui qui
la société, non de la maudire.
La plus
la maudit ne la comprend pas.
à mépriser la loi et à se révolter contre
sublime théorie sociale que enseignerait

elle, serait moins profitable au monde que
le respect et l'obeissance, que le citoyen
doit même à ce que le philosophe con-
damne."

This is indeed true conservatism—

this is indeed true philosophy-and let those who admire De Lamartine as a poet and a writer, now accompany us in our examination of him as a politician and a statesman.

DE LAMARTINE the politician, is a royalist; attached to the old dynasty of the Bourbons; averse to the influence of the Jesuits, or ultra-priest party, in the affairs of the state; a friend to rational liberty; an admirer of the old English constitution as a wise political union of power and freedom, of submission and rule; and a lover of gradual progress, and wise and well-digested reforms. We do not think, however, that we can better introduce his political opinions to our readers than by his able and eloquent Profession of Faith. It was addressed to the electors of Bergues, on occa. sion of his re-election in that arrondissement.

"I am not," said De Lamartine, "a party man-neither out and out Ministerial on the one hand, nor a systematic member of the Opposition on the other. Parties die-Ministers commit faultssystematic oppositions become useless, or petrified. I endeavour to act on higher principles-I seek to rise to the elevation of religion, of truth, of impartiality, of political morality. I do all I can to be a social man.

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"But men of violent party feelings and passions will say to you, What is a social man? What matters it to us that he be a social man? What help will such a man afford to this or to that party in the Chamber? Will he vote with the left or with the right? with the tiers-parti or with the centre? Is he popular with such and such a coterie, and has he the patronage of this or of that journal? Is he devoted to one of the three or four Parliamentary men, whose names serve as symbols of doctrines, or as the rallying words for intrigues, and who make France look small and con. temptible by their sterile and merely personal rivalry?'

"No:-a man of the social party-a social man in politics, has nothing to do with any thing of this sort.

He appre

ciates parties too well to serve them. He will not degrade either his mind or his country to a level with their contemptible trivialities. He leaves to ambitious men this arena. He will not consent to be a man of the mere day-but he will be a man of his epoch.

"A social man, or man of the social party, is he who takes for the basis of his policy, not the moveable and uncertain soil of prejudices, passions, hatreds, or

dynastic affections, but justice, truth, and the permanent interests of the country. He is a man who does not attach more importance to forms of government than they really merit, who believes that the human race is progressing by various roads, and under divers banners, towards that improvement and moralization to which the hand of God is leading it. A man of the social party is one who believes that liberty can be enjoyed under monarchies, and

order under republics; that no one should devote himself exclusively to any government, because all governments may fail; and who considers governments as instruments of civilisation, of which it is necessary to make use, in order to advance the happiness of society. He thinks that it is better to bend governments than to break them; he loves liberty because it is the moral dignity of man; he loves equality, because it is justice; he loves and respects social power, because social power is the most powerful lever that God has given to human societies to act on themselves, and to raise them to him.

"Such a man, when the suffrages of his fellow-citizens send him to be a member of the legislative corps, does not examine by what hand a projected law is presented to him, but he examines the projected law itself, and if he regards it as good, he does not call it bad; and if he finds it just, he does not say it is iniquitous, he votes for it.

"Such a man does not accept power or place, because he is, on the contrary, the judge of those who do. He keeps himself separated from factions—because he combats them.

"Such a man does not aspire to play a part in the fugitive drama of those who renounce all to gratify their ambition of the palace or of the tribune. In public life he acts on the conscientious principles which guide him in his private career. He approves or he condemns in the name of his constituents.

"When a man thus acts alone, he is the only independent man; for he is not only independent of governments, but he is also independent of the opposition itself. Thus it is that governments suspect him, and that all men of the opposition calumniate him. This might be expected.

"And, nevertheless, such a man, whatever may be his impatience to see governments abandon the prejudices and old beaten route of centuries-to quit their egotism and devote themselves more frankly to the regeneration of public affairs, to political charity towards the people, to a rational reform of real oppression, and to the repression of social iniquities still never does he encourage

the overthrow of governments, for no man of sense, much more a good man, will do that which tends to anarchy. He knows that governments are to people what discipline is to armies. Without discipline it is possible to vanquish, but quite impossible to organize. Such a man, then, is at once sincerely progressive, whilst he is energetically conservative.”

This is very beautiful, philosophical, statesmanlike, and conservative, whilst it is truly liberal and largely generous. De Lamartine has well understood the moral and political situation of his own country; and the decision he has come to as to the line of conduct he shall pursue, demonstrates that he has felt that conservatism in France is not priesteraft.

Of the "social party" in France, of which De Lamartine is the elegant and accomplished chief, it is now necessary for us to speak. We are far from adopting all their opinions, far from approving all their measures, and far from enlisting with all who belong to that party, as we think that some of them are too prominent in what they term "liberalism," heartily to associate with such men as De Lamartine. But still it must be admitted that there are great and powerful men in the party, and above all, that they have effected real good.

How far, indeed, it be possible for a public man, and, above all, for a French deputy, to abstain from voting and acting, on many occasions, with a party as a party, and yet to preserve his influence-and yet to secure the triumph of right-and yet to act on the one hand independently, and on the other hand influentially, so that his vote may not be sterile, and his voice may not be lost, we confess we doubt; unless, indeed, the social party shall become numerous enough to form a party by itself, or at least a section in the Chambers. In that the social party might, if it thought fit, examine all questions brought before it, solely with reference to certain established rules and principles laid down by itself, with which, as a sort of test, it would try whether such and such a measure ought or ought not to be supported, because it had or had not a civilizing or social tendency. But whatever might be done in such a case, it is undoubtedly a fact now, that the social party in France belongs to various political parties in the Cham

case,

ber, whilst its able and accomplished chief is a member of the Legitimist circles. If M. De Lamartine should ultimately succeed in forming a powerful party in the Chamber of Deputies, composed of men belonging to all factions in the House, of course being men all loving order as well as liberty, and moderation and peace as well as improvement-we think that party would, in time, necessarily become a political party too-and must, in order to help forward as much as possible their own social theories and systems, declare themselves a political body, and aspire to power, not for the love of office, but expressly to lend the additional weight and authority they would thereby obtain to the extension of that which they believe to be right. Isolation is rarely ever beneficial and though party has been defined to be "the madness of many, for the gain of a few"-yet all truly great measures under constitutional governments, must necessarily be carried by parties.

The social party in France (for after all, it is a party) is composed of men of education and of unquestionable talent. Some of them belong to the old families of France-others date their ancestry no further back than to the period of the First Revolution. Most of them are men of fortune and

leisure, and who have the disposition, as well as the time, to attend to the moral improvement of their species. Most of them belong to a society which has now existed several years, and which bears the honoured title of "La Société de la Morale Chrétienne." The avowed object of this institution is, if not to regenerate, at least to ameliorate, by the influence of Christian morals, the human race; and to repair or diminish the evils which result from the constitution of modern society. This institution is organized into committees, the titles of which will alone show the character of the association, and the objects proposed to be accomplished. Indigence, deserted children, prisons, capital punishments, slavery

these are some of the sad subjects of their consideration and study-and there are permanent committees who regularly attend to these most important matters. After having contributed, by its multiplied solicitations, to the suppression of gambling-houses and lotteries, the society is to-day engaged in attacking that spirit of " Agiotage,"

or gambling in commercial shares, stocks, and Government securities, which is, in France, extending itself to every species of commercial operation, and threatens to render that country one vast gaming-house. It has offered a prize of 600 francs to the author of the best treatise on this subject, especially as to the most efficacious means to be adopted for the supres sion of this spirit; and it has made an appeal to all heads of families, and to the chiefs of all great establishments, to aid it in this praiseworthy effort. This society also maintains eighty-three orphans, who are taught useful trades, and receive an education suited to their probable future situations in life. De Lamartine is an active member of this society, and has frequently aided, by his manly and persuasive eloquence, in the attainment of those objects which the institution has most at heart. The abolition of the penalty of death, except in cases of murder, is one of the favourite subjects of this society. So is the gradual abolition of slavery in the French colonies. The questions of duelling, suicide, infanticide, child desertion, and the increase of illegitimate children in France, also, one after the other, receive the attention of the conductors of this admirable society; and, although it must be admitted that hitherto their efforts to diminish these crimes have not been attended with all the success which might have been desired, yet, the very fact that an enlightened body of French gentlemen occupy their time and attention with these subjects, is of itself a source of consolation and hope.

The question of "FOUNDLINGS" is one of immense importance to France -especially to Paris, and to other large cities and towns in that country. Although in our own country the crime of child desertion is not rare, in France it is ten times, at least, more frequent. There the mother of an illegitimate child has no legal claim whatever on its father; and, as in twenty-nine out of thirty cases, as soon as she becomes enceinte, her seducer deserts her, she is tempted to relieve herself from the charge on her future means of subsistence, by causing the new-born infant to be taken to the door, or to the box, of those foundling institutions which exist in the cities and large towns of France. The increase, the alarming increase, of found

lings, however, has compelled the Government to look to the question of "what is to be done to diminish this growing charge on the resources of the state?" It has accordingly been decided that in order to induce in the mothers of illegitimate children a greater degree of anxiety as to the fate of their offspring-and, in order thus to lead them not to expose their new-born babes to premature death, by leaving them, for hour after hour, at the doors of the foundling institutions before they can be taken in, that the chiefs of those institutions shall much less frequently than before, examine the boxes into which new-born children are deposited, thus rendering it possible that they should there perish for want of care and attention. This experiment was intended as a moral appeal to maternal affections and maternal solicitude. Has it succeeded? No! It has produced but two results; 1st, That infanticide has increased; and, 2d, That the infants, when received into the foundling asylum, have died in the proportion of 70 and 80 out of 100, including those found dead in the boxes of the asylums, at the doors, and who perished from cold or from hunger. De Lamartine foresaw this. He protested against expecting that this sort of moral appeal to the mothers of illegitimate children in France would have any effect upon them. He maintained that in but a very few cases would the mothers of illegitimate children, at any rate, be deterred from carrying their infants to the gates of these asylums, from the circumstance of their not being opened so frequently as before. He said " Nothe only consequences will be that the children will be left in solitary streets, to the mercy of the casual passer-by -or that the mothers will commit infanticide-or, finally, that they will not seek to hide their shame and disgrace, and will become flagrant and public prostitutes." The experiment which has been made, has confirmed fully the opinion of De Lamartine. Not only illegitimate, but legitimate children also, abandoned as foundlings, have increased, instead of diminishing

and, though fewer infants have lived than before, when received into the Hospice, yet is it not a sort of legal as well as practical infanticide, on the part of the Government as well as of the mother, thus to allow helpless and

innocent infants of a span long to die at the very gates of the institutions?

But what is to be done? asks the man whose moral impatience does him credit, and who cannot believe but that there is some remedy for all the evils which afflict humanity. We answer, that the one great remedy for all such evils is moral and religious education. This remedy does not exist in France, and until it shall do so, all other plans will be of a temporizing and inefficacious character. The abolition of Foundling Hospitals altogether, has sometimes been suggested in France; but then what would be the consequence? Why, that infanticide would increase to a most awful extent. Others have proposed that the mothers of illegitimate children should have a legal claim on the fathers of those children for the support of their offspring. This would lead to an extent of perjury on the part of the mothers, who would take false oaths against individuals of fortune and family, merely for the purpose of obtaining ample means of living, or of satisfying their vengeance or animosity, which cannot be contemplated without apprehension and horror. Others have gone further than this, and have proposed to make the abandonment of children a crime, and as great a crime as infanticide; but no French legislature could now be found to pass such a law. And, finally, others have insisted, that the mothers and fathers of illegitimate children should be treated as offenders against society, and be punished by fine and imprisonment. This would not, however, have any other effect, even could such a law receive the sanction of a French legislature, than that of increasing infanticide, as the effectual means of getting rid of the only physical evil which the state would have to apprehend from promiscuous intercourse, viz. the having to support the offspring of those illegitimate unions. None of these, nor all of these plans together, would then suffice.

And, besides this, it must not be lost sight of, that although, undoubtedly, a great proportion of French foundlings are illegitimate children, a vast number are not so, but are the offspring of legal marriages. A mother of a large family in France will not only think it no crime, but will scarcely conceal the fact, of sending her new-born infant to the doors of the Foundling Hospital.

Its signs are noted and copied down : a name is affixed to it: its clothes are even marked with its initials-and once a month, or oftener, the mother will go to the "Hospice" and see her publicly fed and nourished offspring. At length, however, it is removed into the Departments, and placed with one of the country nurses of the Foundling Hospital. But what does its mother do? She corresponds occasionally with the nurse-sees the child when it is brought up periodically to Paris, and remunerates in some degree, the hospital nurse, if she has been particularly attentive to the health and wants of that child. This state of things has led to another evil. Parents of poor but large families, (and sometimes of small ones too). aware that they could thus get rid of supporting their offspring, without difficulty, and even without much anxiety or reproach, now make it a common practice in large cities and towns of thus disposing, for some years, of, at any rate, some of their children, and the state is thus burdened with the support of a vast number of human beings, the support of whom ought really not to fall upon it. Independent of this crying evil, parental feelings become less acute, filial affection less lively, domestic attachments more rare, and the heads of poor families, instead of finding their greatest earthly sources of consolation and happiness in their offspring, only view them as the unfortunate results of marriage and of legal cohabitation. Thus, the kindest and tenderest feelings and ties of life are blunted; thus, the institution of marriage is degraded, instead of being raised; and thus the social bonds of so. ciety are torn asunder, and the purest and best alliances of our nature deprived of a large portion of their charm and their interest.

To meet this state of things, it has been said, "Let us remove the children from their nurses, and place them in other hands more frequently. Let no notice be taken of the signs and names, initials and marks, affixed to the infant's clothes, &c., when left at the door of the Foundling Hospital. Let no facilities be afforded to the parents to see their children. Let it be rendered next to impossible for the nurse to take any interest in the child, or the child to begin to love the nurse, from those frequent changes. Let the child be one year in the department of

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