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.

212 HISTORY OF THE
him as a hero. But his fame was too much for him to sustain; and happy had it been if he had prudently submitted
to sink under it. Rather than this, however, he chose the
fatal honour of introducing into a nation long corrupted,
long monarchical, long luxurious, the notions he had imbibed, with little comprehension, among a people newly
created, agricultural, laborious, and thinly dispersed over a
wide territory. In America, he might still have been respected as the pupil of a great and good man. In Europe,
he appeared only as the awkward imitator of a patriotism
which he did not understand. The justness of his political
views may be appreciated by the perseverance with which
he endeavoured to introduce Pennsylvanian simplicity under
the arcades of the Palais-Royal. He was most happily
named by Mirabeau, a Grandison-Cromwell. Lafayette
could never have aspired to the crown-neither would he
have consented to assist the duke of Orleans in his project
of usurpation. Visions of popularity still more abstract than
those of Necker, tormented him; and he became a steady
opponent of the court, without enrolling himself under the
same banners with Mirabeau and Sieyes. Hence it was that,
although the Orleanists, as well as Lafayette; were great
agents on these days, their motives were unlike; and while
both tended to one object, the destruction of the power
of the sovereign, both laboured' with different views and
hopes."' To the truth of this tirade of abuse, we oppose
the whole life and character of Lafayette, drawn as it is,
from authentic and creditable sources. Bare assertions from
such a quarter do not particularly demand refutation; but
we expose their fallacy the more willingly, as it affords the
opportunity of placing new laurels in the chaplet of his fame
-To proceed with our extracts: a historian remarks that
" from the reputation he had hitherto enjoyed, vigilance and
activity were at least to be expected; and from the military
power vested in his hands, and from the confidence which
* Quarterly Review, vol. xxviii p 285-7.