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Untitled Article
portunity had presented itself of doing and suffering for the right , and who was ready to repeat the same course of doing and suffering , or a severer one , whenever called upon by duty . ' Such an example , in so conspicuous a station , is ever most valuable , seldom more needful than now . If a life made up of the most extraordinary vicissitudes , and a soul
on which prosperity and adversity vainly exerted all their most corruptin g influences , be the materials of an inspiring biography , the life of Lafayette would be one of the noblest subjects for a writer of genius . Even in the simplest narrative , it is in itself a heroic poem . The different epochs of his existence would afford the finest scope to a biographer . There would be , first , the opening period , when , at twenty years of age , he left the attractive and brilliant life of the French Court , to serve as a
Volunteer in the apparently desperate cause of the revolted colonies of America ; and when , having seen the efforts of the noble constellation of patriots , with whom he had associated himself , successful , almost against all hope , and not without having materially contributed to that success , he returned , and we see him first the idol of the people , heading the enfranchisement of his own countrymen , but strenuously , and at all
personal hazard , opposing himself to every excess ; and three years later deliberately staking life , liberty , fortune , and the love of his countrymen , and losing all except the first , to arrest the precipitate course of the revolution . We next follow him to the dungeon of Olmutz , where for five years the vengeance of an infuriated despot retained him in secret captivity , without communication by word or writing with any who
loved him , or tidings from that external world where so tremendous a drama was then enacting . Here he remained , and remained with spirit unbroken , until , by the treaty of Leoben , his release was made by his country part of the price of her mercy to his unrelenting oppressor . But his country then fell upon evil days : he could in nothing serve her , and he retired into the obscurest private life . He reappeared at the
restoration , stood once more at the head of the friend 3 of liberty , and was revered as their patriarch . He saw America once more , on the fiftieth Anniversary of her liberation , and his presence was , from one end of the Union to the other , a national jubilee . He saw the infant people which he had nursed in the cradle , grown into one of the mightiest empires of the earth : he lived to taste all the enjoyment which the heartfelt gratitude and love of ten millions of human beings could bestow .
He returned to preside at another revolution ; gave a king to his own country ; withdrew from that king when he abandoned the principles which nad raised him to the throne ; bore up , even against the bitterness of disappointment ; and died with his hopes deferred , but not extinguished . Honour be to his name , while the records of human worth shall he preserved among us ! It will be long ere we Bee his equal , long erfc there shall arise such a union of character and circumstances as
shall enable any other human being to live such a life . 23 rd May . Lord Althorp and the Taxes on Knowledge . — -Lord Althort ^ s defence for voting against his re corded opinien on the subj ect of thfe Newspaper stamps , is truly characteristic , both of the man and of the ministry . Mr . Bulwer and Mr . Roebuck , the proposer and seconder of tfee motion , introduced it to the House as a question of the highest public policy , or rather above all |> olicy , since it concerns the ends to which go-
Untitled Article
4 $ 0 Notes on the Newspapers .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 450, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/68/
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