government as to introduce a republic as he had promised me. In this I would have no part. I was a citizen of the United States a republican. I knew that my name was associated with the cause of liberty and republicanism, wherever that cause was cherished. I never intended to seek or hold office merely for the sake of office, under any government, but had accepted my post merely to advance the general cause. I could not, therefore, retain it without giving the sanction of my name, whatever might be its worth, to the principles of the new dynasty; and that would have been to violate the great general principles of government which I entertained, and to discourage the friends of republican government throughout Europe. I therefore resigned. Louis Philippe has since said that he made no engagement with me, preparatory to his being created king, concerning the principles of his government. As soon as I learned this from a source sufficiently authentic to rely upon, I sent word to him that I should not any longer go to the Tuilleries, and thus the breach was completed."

After some reminiscences of his tour in the United States, and the renewal of his pressing invitation to visit La Grange, the general permitted us to take leave. I have thus, my dear friend, given you the details of our first and very interesting interview, I am sure that it is substantially correct, as I transcribe it from notes made immediately after my return to our lodgings. Every word sank deep in my memory, for I listened to the venerable man's narrative with an interest hardly less intense than that with which mortal ears listen to the communication of the messenger of Heaven. I have but one reflection to add. Does not this simple relation show that Lafayette has acted, throughout the late revolution in France, in the closest keeping with his former principles? Regarding as his highest character that of being an American citizen, the scholar and associate of Washington, and the representative of republicanism in Europe, he guarded his conduct with reference to the obligations resting upon him in that character, and with a view, not to personal advantage, nor even to the temporary security of the French nation, but to the ultimate triumph of free principles and the establishment of republican governments. None can censure him for his abandonment of Louis Philippe, unless he be prepared to adopt the principle of Louis Philippe's government, that republican

governments can never be established in Europe-a principle at war with Lafayette's principles through his whole life, and which he could not adopt without inconsistency so gross as to forfeit his entire claim to the homage of mankind-a principle which would deprive him of all the respect and affection of the American people.

LETTER XIV.

LAFAYETTE AT LA GRANGE.

LA GRANGE, September 11, 1833.

I KNOW you will be gratified by the date of this letter. How rich is the enjoyment of such a visit as this to the venerable patriarch and his family. The reproach of tourists is that they are vain and coxcombical. I am proud of this achievement, and I will be vain of it as long as I live, and I will inflict not only long letters upon you about La Grange, but I will dwell upon it when I return and ever afterward.

Yesterday morning, "in pursuance of previous arrangement," we left Paris in the coupe of a diligence at eight o'clock. We passed Vincennes, its prisons and its forests, and followed some distance the route of the Seine. About six miles of our journey were completed, when we found it necessary to descend and walk up the long hill, so as to relieve the horses. We were richly repaid for our muddy walk up the hill, by a fine view of the windings of the Seine for six miles, ending with the towers of Nôtre Dame and the Pantheon. The sun deigned to smile upon us, and we found the appearance of the country delightful after our long residence in Paris. We passed through several mean villages, among which were La Queene, which exhibits the remains of a chateau.

A solitary tower broken off at the top, but still seventy feet high, is all that remains. The villagers raise fruit and vegetables in what were the court-yard and drawing-room. A tattered tri-colored flag waves from the highest turret, and has probably weathered all the storms since the revolution of 1830. Tournau and Fontenay, two market-towns, lay on our road. At two o'clock we arrived at Rosoit, a village of about two thousand

inhabitants, and distant thirty miles from Paris. It is meanly built, like most of the French provincial towns. The annual fête had collected several thousand people in the streets. The auberge was crowded with peasantry devouring the simple meal of brown-bread with abundance of wine. Crowds of men, women, and children, thronged the streets. In this confusion we were met by a servant of General Lafayette's, who waited with a plain, neat coach, to carry us to La Grange. We entered the domain as soon as we left the village, and a ride of something more than half a mile brought us to a grove so rich and dense as to exclude the chateau from view. A winding of the road now discovered to us a venerable castle, built of stone, on the three sides of a square with an open court in the centre. The chateau is three stories in height, and at each angle is flanked by a circular tower. It is surrounded by a moat or canal filled with water and traversed by bridges. An ivy clusters upon its front wall which was planted by Charles James Fox. The coach stopped in the paved court at the entrance of the chateau. We entered a large hall containing the grand staircase in the centre. At the foot of the stairs were two small brass cannon, mounted and facing each entrance. The cannon bore inscriptions, stating that they were captured from the royal troops by the people of Paris, in the revolution of the three days, and presented to General Lafayette. Over them and in front of the ascent of the stairs is a triumphal ornament, composed of flags taken from the royal troops in the same revolution. At the top of the staircase is an ornament not less appropriate and characteristic: it is formed of the graceful foldings of our own standard with its stars and stripes. We were received by Madame Maubourg, the general's oldest daughter, and by two of his grandsons. This lady spoke to us in English, but, being unaccustomed to the language in ordinary conversation, she found it so difficult that she gave me to understand we must use my bad French instead of her difficult English. She is a middle-aged woman, plainly dressed, exceedingly well informed, vivacious, and agreeable. In half an hour the general appeared, well, cheerful, and animated, and we passed an hour in conversation upon French and English politics. The apartment which is the common parlor is still more plainly furnished than the rooms in the general's house in town. The floor is of polished oak. The room contains a bust of Washington at the age of fifty-eight,

and portraits of all the presidents of the United States except the present incumbent. The general informed us that one of the latter had been forwarded by his friends in America, but had been lost on the way: he had written for another, but it was not yet received. In the course of the morning (afternoon) the several members of the family appeared and warmly welcomed us to La Grange. The conversation was redundant in incidents of the Revolution. The general alluded to the difficulty he encountered in learning the English language so as to pronounce it well, saying that, soon after he joined the American army, he was requested to name the watchword for the day. He gave "Paris." He was himself challenged by an American sentinel and pronounced a spy, because he pronounced the pass-word Pà-rè. He alluded to Colonel Burr's visit to France: said he did not visit the colonel at Paris; he could not-he had recently killed one of his friends (Hamilton), and conspired against another (Jefferson). I mention this as an evidence of the catholicism of the general's attachment to America, which embraced these two rival politicians and widely opposed statesmen, without marking by a single expression his consciousness of their mutual opposition to each other. After sitting two hours, the general called a domestic and proceeded to show us to our rooms. The one prepared for S—————was in the first story, comfortably warmed in consideration of his ill health. He conducted me through long, winding corridors with brick pavement, to the tower in the angle of the chateau in the third story, saying: "You see, sir, that this is a very old house." But, although it was old, it was, in all that concerned the comfort of guests, perfectly au fait. "We dine," said the general, "at half-past six. Here is paper and materials for writing. My library is on this floor: if you want anything, you will ring for a servant." I wanted no books: I was reading the choicest history and character from the lips of Lafayette himself, and husbanded my time so as to lose nothing of the precious treasure. He spoke again in our interview this afternoon, and very freely, of Louis Philippe; said that he distinctly engaged to him that the new monarchy should be surrounded by republican institutions, to be of temporary duration, and to prepare the way for a republic; but he had chosen to build up a dynasty and had made a bad choice. "Had he fulfilled his engagements," said Lafayette, "he might have been

king twenty-five years; but, to secure the support promised him by the other powers of Europe, he preferred building up his own dynasty, to make it perpetual. In the former case, the great revolution of France would have ended in four acts; now it would be five. The people would be educated and prepared for a republic in twenty years. When that time should come, France would not be content to be governed by kings. Louis Philippe and his family were sure to come down some time, and that not distant; he (Lafayette) did not think they had twenty years to reign.

One can not be an hour at La Grange without discovering that Lafayette and his family are all American in their attachments and feelings. The conversation is animated beyond measure, when it turns upon American affairs, reminiscences, anticipations, and hopes. The drawing-room is adorned with pictures of the American presidents; the grand staircase with the American flag, the antechamber with busts of Washington, and Franklin, and American maps; the library contains a choice collection of American books, and the sleeping-rooms have no pictures but those of the American battle-fields, naval victories, landscapes, Mount Vernon, Hancock's house, Quincy, &c. Would there were among American statesmen such lofty and exclusive devotion to the republic. Oh, for the return of the days when such patriotism that knows no party could return to our public councils and our firesides! At the dinner-hour we met the entire family, consisting of twenty-two persons. The dining-room was a large and plain apartment on the ground floor. The general occupied the centre, on his right Madame Maubourg at the upper end of the table, and Madame Perier at the other end of the table. The dinner was served with a degree of republican simplicity which would shame our dinners in our cities. The viands were good, and the wine abundant, all, with the exception of a bottle of Champagne and a bottle of Madeira, the produce of La Grange. The general told many anecdotes of his tour in the United States, and expatiated upon the different parts of the Union. That spot of all others which he most admired was Goat island, at Niagara Falls. He described its beauties to his family, and said that he never thought of it without feeling a desire to purchase it, and make it his residence. Madame Maubourg, by whose side I had the honor to be seated, interested me exceedingly. She described