A complete history of the Marquis de Lafayette, major-general in the American army in the war of the revolution. Embracing an account of his tour through the United States, to the time of his departure, September, 1825. By an officer in the late army.

MARQUIS DE LAF'AYE'TTE. 211
quality but truth, to make it very decisive: but other writers
will not even allow him the credit of being able to conceive
it. "The duke of Orleans," say the quarterly reviewers,
" was unquestionably the principal mover, of the insurrection; but how far another agent, Lafayette, was concerned
in it, though none can doubt the wicked part he played, is
more difficult to determine. That the duke of Orleans aspired at being appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom,
and eventually at the crown, is what cannot now be doubted."
"Of a different character was Lafayette, both in disposition
and intention. This nobleman, descended from an ancient
family of Auvergne, exhibited a lamentable disproportion between his faculties and his ambition. All the errors of his
life are derived from an overrated apprehension of his own
abilities. With unbounded desires and contracted views, an
imagination always exaggerated, yet always barren; ajudgment always unsound, yet always confident; he thought that
great ends could be attained by petty means, and that political perfection could be'accomplished by such agents as
himself. Of all the men of the revolution, the duke of
Orleans not excepted, he possessed the least understanding;
and, with the exception of Necker perhaps, he attributed.to
himself the greatest talents. The same defect was in his
heart, as in his mind, and the same misconception of its powers; for, with the utmost chilliness of soul, he conceived him
self to be enthusiastic, and almost imagined that he felt. In
the war for American independence, he had shown himself
the knight-errant of republicanism; and the necessity which
he thought incumbent upon him, to maintain the reputation
he had acquired there, imposed upon him duties which he
had not the faculty to support. He had been the friend of
Washington; indeed the first foreign friend which the cause
of liberty had given him. He had reaped some reputation,
and the renown of his exploits, which certainly did not stirpass the average of those performed by any gallant officer,
outstripping his return to France, unfortunately represented