their prosperity; in their security, public as well as private ;-in their habits of good order, the genuine consequence of liberty;-in that national good sense, the sovereign arbiter of all differences, I beheld with pride the result of those republican principles for which we have fought, and the glorious proof, which must carry conviction even to the most timid and prejudiced, of the superiority of popular institutions, founded on the true rights of man, and guaranteeing by constitutional pledges, the privileges of each portion of the confederation, over the degrading system of aristocracy and despotism. This union between all the states was the dearest wish of our great and paternal Washington, and its continuance must be the most fervent prayer of every American patriot. It has already become the sacred pledge of the emancipation of the world, that emancipation in which I am happy to see the people of America interest themselves more and more, whilst they afford to Europe the encouraging example of the success of free institutions, in exchange for the evils which have been upon her by inheritance, and, over which, liberal and enlightened sentiments are daily gaining the mastery.*

"And now, gentlemen, how can I possibly express the feelings which have been excited in my mind by the valuable assurances of your esteem and friendship, by the allusions you have made to times past, to my brave companions in arms, and to the vicissitudes of my life,-by the benedictions showered by many generations of the American people, upon the last days of a veteran soldier,-by your affectionate remarks, at the said moment of our separation, on my native land, which, I can assure you, teems with attachment to the American people, and on the hope so naturally cherished by me, of revisiting this country, which for half a century has treated me as one of her sons! Avoiding all superfluous repetition I will now merely confirm these sentiments, which I had occasion to express in public daily, from the period when your venerable predecessor, my old friend and brother-in-arms, transmitted me the honorable invitation of congress, to this moment, when you, sir, whose friendship for me is dated from early youth, are about to consign me to the safeguard of the heroic national flag which waves upon this fine vessel,-whose very name is not the least of the many flattering compliments I have received in this country. "May heaven shower down blessings on you, sir, on the American people, upon every state in the union, and upon the whole federal government! Accept this patriotic farewell, of a heart full of gratitude; a heart which will be animated with the same feelings, till the last moment it shall continue to beat."‡

Such was the language of a great mind, conscious of its real deserts, but too proud to boast of them, too modest to dwell on them. He left our shores with the regrets and the increased admiration of all who knew him, or had heard of him, and once more retired to the retreat at Lagrange.

It was not consistent, however, with his notions of duty, to remain in indolent seclusion, whilst there was anything in which he could be serviceable to his country. He again offered himself as a candidate for the septennial

*The traffic in slaves, forcibly imposed upon the English colonies, and now gradually being abolished throughout a great part of the union.

The Brandywine, the place where he received his first wound.

Sarran's Lafayette, i. 132.

chamber, and was successful in his election. It would be but repetition to detail the line of conduct pursued by him ;-as before, liberty, without license, the rights of the people, without derogation to authorised power,→ were always his leading objects, and which he never ceased to vindicate whenever he ascended the tribune.

It has been remarked above, that the nation at large were not inimical to Lafayette, and the truth of this was manifested when the wretched ministry was formed, the last that the infatuated Charles X. was destined to appoint. Such was the general feeling of dread and dislike of those men, that a rallying point was immediately sought, and that point was-Lafayette. On him all eyes were turned,―on him,-whose return to his native land they had, not long before, hailed with satisfaction, as a tried and valued citizen of the community,—were the hopes of the nation placed, when public liberty was again placed in jeopardy. That such was the case, let his reception at Grenoble, and above all, at Lyons, bear witness, where the whole population, unanimously came forth to meet him and do him honor, where splendor and refinement mingled with popular clamor, all striving who most could manifest the presence of the great, the good, the general champion of public rights. Yet could not all this induce him to swerve from the moderation and firmness which ever pervaded his conduct, he retired to his Lagrange to wait coming events which now began to manifest them selves.

At length the fatal ordinances of the 26th July, 1830, appeared; Lafayette with the alacrity of a young man, flew to Paris, and instantly threw in his lot with the insurgent patriots of the day. His name was a host. Once more he was appointed to the command of the National Guard, that bulwark of the national liberties. Once more was he with that guard, to achieve the liberties of the French, through blood and carnage, in which neither sex nor age was spared by the outrageous fury of the soldiers of despotism;-for it is remarkable that the violence of civil war is always, in a tenfold degree, more cruel than that between foreign parts ;-once more the hallowed cause, the public cause was victorious, under the conduct of the veteran of liberty.

The results of the THREE DAYS are too well known to need a place here. Lafayette at length saw in his country, what he had wished throughout a long life," a popular throne, surrounded by public institutions ;"-yet did he constantly find himself under the necessity of watching this throne, and these institutions, until they should be finally settled, and become the law, and the custom of the land. He lent himself to no private schemes, he involved himself in no private party. His eye constantly fixed on that liberty which was the darling principle of his existence, he had neither eyes, ears, nor thought for anything else, and, as might be expected, his popularity ceased among parties when his services were no longer required.

His advice was ostentatiously asked by the king, and as it was always given freely and candidly, and not unfrequently was opposed to the royal opinion, it naturally engendered coldness on that side; he was invited to participate in various projects of policy, which he could not approve, by ministers and public characters in regenerated France, and as he never hesitated to give his opinions, and to oppose projects which he considered

opposed to the public weal, he drew upon himself the enmity and disgust of projectors on that side.

Assailed on all sides, by private pique and manœuvre, and by public obstacles, Lafayette at length retired from the National Guard, the corps of his own formation, the body of public defence, of which he was the political father, and once more sunk into a private station, save only as the duty of a deputy called him to the expression of his sentiments.

No sooner had he divested himself of office, than the old practice was resorted to against him. Accusations and insinuations flowed in on all sides, precisely as they had done forty years before, precisely as they have done in all nations, and at all times, from time immemorial. It is in fact the test, the proof of a patriot, that he shall be the rallying point in danger, the rejected and reviled in peace. But little they knew of the man who was now the subject of their persecution, if they imagined they could make him swerve from his principles, or step aside from his duty. Petty and perpetual as was their malice, it was rare that they could even draw down upon themselves the expression of his anger. His lofty soul was too far exalted to condescend to such expression on his own account ;—but, let the sacred precincts of his home, his honor, his pledges be invaded, whether by individuals or by collective bodies ;—then, came the storm of eloquence;—then, the thunder of invective and just reproach, from which the myrmidons of court influence have more than once shrunk with apprehension;—then, the indignant tones of the honest man dismayed the dastard spirits of factious courtiers, and of the pusillanimous sovereign, who was screened behind them. It was indeed more than a mere saying in the court circles, that "there were three troubles to be got rid of,—Lafayette, Lafitte, and Dupont de l'Eure." There were three men too uncompromising, too firm in their integrity, and as powerful out of office as in it, and it seems to have been the last despicable policy, as they could not get rid of them by law, to sting them to death. Happily for the French nation, the darts of the miscreants are harmless.-Lafayette has a soul impervious to such attacks.

At the advanced age of seventy-six, we still see the venerable Lafayette the uncompromising advocate of civil and religious liberty. He fought for it in the Northern, he was its successful advocate in the Southern America. He bled for it at home.-For liberty, true national liberty, he had suffered in himself, and in all he held dear on earth, it was the first desire of his existence, and doubtless will be the last mortal expression of his heart. Ever regardless of self, the happiness and rights of a whole world are not too large for his capacious soul, and he still finds, and will find, to the latest moment of his protracted and valuable career, the most glorious recompence within his own soul, which cannot but hail him as the universal friend of liberty and of mankind.

May his remaining years be crowned with that peace which a feverish and vacillating world have hitherto denied him ;—and may he live to see the institutions for which he has so ably contended, shedding its blessings and happiness on the people for whom he has fought!-And may that people, be they of the new or of the old world, never forget, nor suffer their children to forget, that whatever captious snarlers, or selfish politicians may say, as to the non-existence of pure and disinterested patriotism, there is triumphant refutation of the calumny in the very names of WASHINGTON and LAFAYETTE.

A. D. P.

UNIVERSAL FAME,

BY J. K. PAULDING.

It is amazing to observe how little mankind know of each other, although the vanity of human nature whispers every distinguished person, that his fame is, or will one day be universal. The myriads of Asia and Africa, with a few solitary exceptions, never heard of the illustrious heroes, statesmen, poets, and philosophers of Europe; and a vast portion of the inhabitants of the latter, are ignorant of the very names of the great men of the east. But instead of an essay, we will give our readers a story to illustrate our meaning.

It happened once on a time, that an Israelite, an Egyptian, a Greek, a Turk, a Persian, a Chinese, a Frenchman, an Englishman, a German, an Italian, and an American, met by chance at a caravansary, somewhere in the east, and being all great travellers, speaking many languages, entered into conversation with each other. As usual, they all differed in their estimate of human happiness; the comparative value of the various enjoyments of life, and, above all, in their own individual importance, in the scale of nations. Each one held up his own country as the acme of perfection; and the utmost he would allow the others, was a degree of merit exactly corresponding with their approach towards the infallible standard of his own self-importance.

"The Israelites," said the Jew, were the chosen people; therefore they must be the most true and virtuous of mankind."

"The Greeks," exclaimed the Athenian, "were the brightest race that ever adorned the world. Look at their laws, their literature, and their arts."

"Pooh !" cried the Egyptian, "you had nothing but what you stole from us. You were ignorant barbarians, and so would have remained, if your wise men, as you call them, had not come to Egypt to learn their A B C."

"By your leave," said the Persian, "the natives of Irak being the most ancient people of the earth, must have been the parents of all human knowledge."

"Hi Yah!" quoth the Chinese, "every body knows my nation is the most ancient by at least forty thousand years, and that the foreign barbarians derived all their knowledge from them."

"Mashallah!" said the Turk, taking his pipe from his mouth,-" Mashallah! there is no religion but that of Mahomet, and no knowledge but that of the Koran. The Israelites are tchoufouts, the Christians are dogs, and there is no truth but among the followers of the Prophet."

Peste!" cried the Frenchman,-" there is nobody knows the true art of living but the French."

There is no nation whose music is not intolerable, but the Italian," said the Neapolitan.

"The Germans are all philosophers," quoth the native of Weimar. "Yes, but England, old England," cried John Bull, "is the country for roast beef and freedom, nobody can deny that."

"I do," exclaimed the Yankee.-"The Americans are the only free

people in the world."

"Mashallah! whence did you come ?" asked the Turk.

"From the New World."

"I never heard of it before," said the Turk.

"Nor I," said the Persian.

"Nor I," said the Egyptian.

"Nor I," said the Chinese. "I don't believe there is any such place." "Nor I," said the Turk.-"There is but one world, one God, and Mahomet is his prophet."

"What a parcel of ignoramuses!" exclaimed the Yankee.

As it is impossible to settle the claims of nations by these loose generalities, the company proceeded to particulars, each bringing forward the greatest men and great achievements of his countrymen, in battle array, to support his pretensions to superiority.

"Was there ever so wise a man as Solomon, so great a poet as David, so brave a warrior as Joshua, who made the sun stand still, or such a prodigy of learning as Rabbi Ben Hammeskend, who wrote beyond the comprehension of all his readers ?" asked the Israelite.

"Did the world ever produce such a hero as Napoleon, such a poet as Voltaire, such tragic writers as Corneille and Racine, such a comic one as Moliere, or such a dancer as Vestris ?" cried the Frenchman.

"Bah!" exclaimed the Englishman. "What do you think of Wellington, Nelson, Shakspeare, Bacon, Locke, Newton, and all that sort of thing?" "They can't hold a candle to Armenius, or Kant, or Gall, or Schiller, or Goethe ?" said the German.

"Nor to Julius Cæsar, nor Scipio, nor Virgil, nor Cicero, nor a thousand others, who were all my countrymen, though they called themselves Romans," cried the Italian.

"Pshaw!" said the Yankee,-" all your heroes and philosophers put together, would not make one Franklin, or half a Washington!"

"Gentlemen," said the Greek, "you may boast as much as you will, but had it not been for Greek warriors, philosophers, poets, and sages, you would all have remained barbarians to this day. What think you of Homer, and Æschylus, and Sophocles, and Euripides, and Demosthenes, and Miltiades, and Themistocles, and ten thousand others, whose fame extends to the uttermost ends of the earth ?"

"Who are these blockheads talking about?" asked the Egyptian, the Chinese, the Persian, and the Turk, of each other.

"Talking of!" cried the rest, with one voice,-" Of the lights of the world, the children of immortality, THE HEIRS OF UNIVERSAL FAME !”

"We never heard their names before, and therefore they must have been rather obscure persons," was the reply.

"But if you come to the Heirs of Universal Fame," cried the Persian,"What are all these to the great hero Rustand, and the great poet Ferdousi, who wrote a poetical history of Irak, in twenty thousand couplets ?" "Did any body ever read it?" asked the Turk gravely. "We never heard of either," answered all the rest.

"What ignorant wretches!" muttered the Persian.

"Hi Yah!" exclaimed the Chinese.-"Hi Yah! Your elder brother Loo VOL. I.

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