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We shall imitate Lamartine in passing rapidly over the rest of his political life. The confidence which he had inspired at the meeting of the Assembly, already much diminished by his alliance with Ledru Rollin, was further shaken, by the 15th of May, and utterly destroyed by the 23d of June. By that time, indeed, the people of France had become tired of a collective executive: And they restored the monarchical element-first in General Cavaignac, and afterwards, more effectually, in Louis Napoleon.

Ôn the whole, we do not believe that the Histoire de la Révolution de 1848' will raise M. de Lamartine's reputation. It shows his conduct to have been weaker, and his principles of action to be more absurd, than we had thought possible. But this circumstance adds to its interest, by adding to its credibility. Neither the actions nor the motives which he avows are such as a man would ascribe to himself falsely. And we must add, that when we have had an opportunity of testing the truth of his narrative, by comparing it with that of other witnesses, we have generally found it correct. We have seen, for instance, an account drawn up by Marshal Bugeaud, in his own handwriting, of the events of the 24th of February, so far as he took part in them. The story, as told by Lamartine, agrees with this paper in its minutest details; and probably was taken from the Marshal's own lips.

As a literary work it has striking merits, and glaring defects. The narrative is clear and interesting, and is interspersed with scenes full of picturesque details: often, however, so minute and so highly coloured, that the reader is inclined to suspect that they are the result rather of fancy than of recollection. Many of them look like pieces of a poem inserted by mistake in a history. Such, for instance, is his picture of his own fortunes before the barricades on the 22d of June: 6 Trois fois il 's'élança de son cheval pour aller au pied de la barricade, trois fois les gardes de l'assemblée l'entourèrent de leurs bras, et le retinrent par la violence.'*

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'I excused his shrinking from it. He had been nearer to the ' revolutionary army than I had been; and if he exaggerated its terrors, perhaps I undervalued them. Now I am inclined to think that the interval between the meeting of the Assembly, and the great civil war, was more profitable to us than to the enemy. Every one saw that the questions at issue could be decided only by 'force. Each party employed these five weeks in preparation; and 'I think that we employed them best. I am not sure that those who 'conquered in June might not have been beaten in May.'

* Vol. ii. p. 184.

1850.

Lamartine, as an Author.

Τρὶς μὲν ἐπ' ἀγκῶνος βῆ τείχεος ὑψηλοῖο,

.... τρὶς δ' αὐτὸν ἀπεστυφέλιξεν ̓Απόλλων.

297

Such too is his description of his ride that evening among the insurgents, and of the flowers which they strewed in his path, and showered over his horse. A more graceful exit from a scene of rebellion and bloodshed can scarcely be imagined. But he lets himself out, we fear, from the civil war, as the Sibyl let out Æneas from the Shades- by the Ivory Gate.

'Quâ falsa ad cœlum mittunt insomnia manes.'

The style is vivid and forcible; but, as the reader must have perceived in our extracts, often vague and forced, and deformed by broken metaphors and by almost ludicrous exaggerations. Exaggeration, indeed, is the prevailing fault both of his thoughts and of the language in which he clothes them. All those with whom he comes in contact are angels or demons. They are either endowed with perfect beauty, eloquence, and virtue, or are deformed by 'le vertige du désordre, la volupté du chaos, la 'soif du sang.' Under his pencil a riot becomes an insurrection, a street row a battle. A great source of the defects of the book probably is, that it was composed far too rapidly. M. de Lamartine has lately been writing at the rate of more than half a dozen octavos per year. It is impossible that works so hastily put together can do justice to their author. A man with powers like his ought to write for posterity.

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ART. I.1. Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in the Year 1847. Under the Direction of GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY, Esq., M. A, Astronomer Royal.

2. Magnetical and Meteorological Observations made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in the Year 1847. Under the Direction of GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY, Esq., M. A., Astronomer Royal.

3. Reduction of Observations of the Planets made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, from 1750 to 1830. Computed by Order of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, under the Superintendence of GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY, Esq., M. A., Astronomer Royal. 4to. 1845.

4. Reduction of Observations of the Moon, from 1750 to 1830. By G. B. AIRY, Esq. 2 vols. 4to. 1848.

5. Description de l'Observatoire Central de Poulkova. F. G. W. STRUVE. St. Petersbourg, 1845. Fol.

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6. A Cycle of Celestial Objects observed, reduced, and discussed. By Captain WM. HENRY SMYTH, R. N., &c. 2 vols. 8vo.

1844.

7. Six Lectures on Astronomy, delivered at Meetings of the Friends of the Ipswich Museum. By GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY, Esq., M. Á., Astronomer Royal. 8vo. 1849.

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[o one has ever sailed down or up the Thames, and surveyed the stately domes and colonnades of Greenwich Hospital, without admiring the background which the wooded heights of

VOL. XCI. NO. CLXXXIV.

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Greenwich Park give to the landscape, and the contrasting architecture of the brick towers and minarets of the Royal Observatory, placed on a commanding height in the prolongation of the middle area of the Hospital, and thus terminating the vista. But few of these voyagers, we suspect, take time to consider that the British Navy owes an important part of its efficiency not less to the Observatory than to the Hospital,that Humanity is interested in the former as well as in the latter, that the sovereign who foresaw the ultimate consequence to certain and safe Navigation of a good system of Astronomical observations, was in this instance as wise and patriotic as he who provided a magnificent asylum for the helpless old age of those who had already often owed the preservation of life to the patient vigils of the astronomer.

*

The fortunes of Greenwich Park have been as varied as those of most places the property of the crown in the vicinity of a capital. The manor of East Greenwich was an unenclosed waste until the reign of Henry VI., when a charter conveying 200 acres of it was given to Humphry, Duke of Gloster, the king's uncle, and to Eleanor, his wife.

This curious charter (of which a copy is now before us) is dated 26th March, 1437. † Perhaps the foundations of Duke Humphry's tower still exist; at all events, it is certain that the Observatory is built on the same site, being a position of no inconsiderable strength. It is a kind of peninsula jutting out towards the Thames from the general level of Blackheath and the southern district of the Park, with which it is connected by a tolerably narrow isthmus, whilst the ground slopes rapidly in every other direction from the little table-land occupied by the Observatory. The natural strength of the situation has evidently been increased by lofty retaining walls on the north, south, and west sides-sustaining both the building and a part of the

* Deptford was West Greenwich.

† Rot. Patent,, 15 Hen. 6., M. 7. As a specimen of the quaint latinity, we quote the following permission: Muris petra et calce 'includere et firmare, et muros illos kernellare1, batellare, et turrellare, ' ac quandam Turrim infra Parcum prædictum similiter petra et calce 'de novo2 construere, edificare, et tam turrim illam sic de novo constructam et edificatam quam dictum manerium sive mansionem ut 'præmittitur inclusum, firmatum, kernellatum, imbattelatum, et turrellatum, tenere possint sibi et hæredibus suis prædictis in perpe'tuum,' &c. Copied from the original in the Tower.

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1 Kernellare, from créneaux (Fr.), to make battlements for defence. ? Hence it appears that there had been some still older structure.

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