leaving to talent ready access to power.

An ultra-federalist

in his own country, Morris would appear to most of us, to-day, to sustain ultra-monarchical principles; how then could he be otherwise than complained of when the Revolution boiled over; when one dreamed of no other social condition but Spartan equality!

He cannot get along with Lafayette; their friendship soon cools; and on Morris' side does not rekindle, until Lafayette, placed in a false position between the sovereign people and the overthrown king, unable to arrest one or to save the other, and crushed by the collision, falls, is cursed alike by the power he had weakened, and the democracy which he had served but not followed

SECTION VI.

M. DE LAFAYETTE-THE FRENCH ÉMIGRÉS.

This American Morris, accused of coldness for Utopias and indifference for enthusiastic systems, performs noiselessly several noble and very generous actions; devoted yet prudent hero, he saves the life of Madame de Lafayette, and becomes suspicious to the republicans, who send him away in 1793. His journal had ceased to be detailed; Morris, always circumspect, felt that it would be absurd to risk his head for the pleasure of making certain notes, and under date of January, 1790, you may read these words, the last written in his French journal :

"The situation of affairs is such, that I cannot continue my journal without compromising myself and many others

་

If I do not write useless and insignificant memoranda, I can write nothing. I prefer therefore to stop altogether."

Driven from France by the republicans, he travelled in England, Prussia, and Austria. There was then in Europe an interesting and scattered nation, a nation unfortunate, noble, brilliant, eccentric-the émigrés. We have no where a complete picture of their fortune, their absurdities, their strength of soul. Morris, who recommences his journal as soon as he is out of France, throws some light upon that curious subject. Without insulting any misfortune, without adding any derogatory or painful reflection to the observations of Morris, we will content ourselves with copying certain lines relative to the life of the émigrés abroad.

66 July 11th.-I call on the Count Woranzow, and show him the draft of a manifesto by the new King of France, which I gave to Lord Grenville last Wednesday, and which he has returned with his wish, that it may arrive in season. The Count Woranzow is well pleased with it, and thinks the Duc d'Harcourt should give money to the person who will carry it to the king. I tell him that is a matter to be settled among them. He gives me an account of the strange levity and wild negociations of the Count d' Artois, and the pitiful folly of M. Serrene to whom he gives his confidence. He fears that when arrived at Vendée, he will surround himself by such petit maîtres, and disgust the chiefs, who have acquired the confidence of the people in that quarter, viz. Puisaye, Labourdonnaye, Charette, Stoffet, and wishes me to caution some of his entours. I tell him that would have no other effect than to lead the person to whom I might givo such caution, into a communication of it to all those who are about the Prince, and by that means to produce the mischief we mean to avoid."

"Dresden, August 19th.-In the streets are many French

emigrants, who are travelling eastward to avoid their countrymen. They are allowed to stay only three days. Unhappy people! Yet they employ themselves in seeing everything curious which they can get at, are serene, and even gay. So great a calamity could never light on shoulders which could bear it so well. But alas! the weight is not diminished by the graceful manner of supporting it. The sense, however, is less, by all that spleen and ill-humor could add to torment the afflicted. Doubtless, there are many among them, who have a consciousness of rectitude to support them."

Three months afterwards, he returns to the chapter of the émigrés, again praises the elegance of their manners, and their courage under affliction, but he does not forget the reverse of the medal.

"Return home and write for the post. After dinner I visit Madame Audenarde who asks me if it be true that I am charged here with a mission from Congress to ask the liberty of Lafayette. I laugh at this a little, and then assuring her that there is no truth in that suggestion, say that it is a piece of folly to keep him prisoner. This brings her out violently against him, and to the same effect the Count Dietrichstein, who indeed is as much prompted to defend the Austrian administration, as to side with his friend. We examine the matter as coolly as their prejudices will admit; and, on the point of right, he takes the only tenable ground, viz., that the public safety being the supreme law of princes, the Emperor, conceiving it dangerous to leave Lafayette and his associates at large, had arrested them, and keeps them still prisoners for the same reason. Lavaupallière, who comes in during the conversation, shows still more ill-will to this unfortunate man than any one else. He seems to flatter himself that there is yet some chance of getting him hanged. He treats him not only as having been deficient in abilities,

but as having been most ungrateful to the king and queen, from which last charge I defend him, in order to see what may be the amount of the inculpation; and it resolves itself into two favors received from the court. First, pardon for having gone to America, notwithstanding an order given him to the contrary; and next, promotion to the rank of maréchal de camp over the heads of several who were, many of them, men of family. To crown all, he accuses him of the want of courage, and declares that he has seen him contumeliously treated without resenting it. To this I give as peremptory a negative as good-breeding will permit, and he feels it.

"Indeed, the conversation of these gentlemen, who have the virtue and good fortune of their grandfathers to reconmend them, leads me almost to forget the crimes of the French Revolution; and often, the unforgiving temper and sanguinary wishes which they exhibit, make me almost believe that the assertion of their enemies is true, viz., that it is the success alone which has determined on whose side should be the crimes, and on whose the misery."

While the émigrés, driven by democracy from their native soil, vowed hatred and vengeance against the prisoner of Olmutz, the French democrats had for him only the same malediction. His destiny, a truly frightful one, was to find pity from neither side.

In 1796, Madame de Staël, whose generous heart and noble enthusiasm are well known, wrote to Morris the following letter, never published even in America until the appearance of the Life of Morris, and which you will like to see here, as a new proof of respect due to this illustrious

woman.

"I have no right to take this step in addressing you. I esteem you most highly; but who would not esteem you? I admire your talents, for I have listened to you, and in this

I am not singular. But what I have to ask of you is so much in accordance with your own feelings, that my letter will only repeat to you their dictates in poorer expressions. You are travelling through Germany, and whether on a public mission or not, you have influence; for they are not so stupid as not to consult a man like you. Open the prison door of M. de Lafayette, you have already saved his wife from death; deliver the whole family. Pay the debt of your country. What greater service can any one render to his native land, than to discharge her obligations of gratitude! Is there any severer calamity than that which has befallen Lafayette? Does any more glaring injustice attract the attention of Europe; I speak to you of glory, yet I know a more elevated sentiment is the motive of your conduct.

"The unhappy wife of M. de Lafayette has sent a message, in which she begs her friends to apply to him who has already been her preserver. I had no difficulty in recognising you, under this veil. In this period of terror, there are a thousand virtues by which they, who fear to pronounce your name, may distinguish you. For myself, who am more afflicted, I believe, than any one, by the fate of M. de Lafayette, I shall not have the presumption to imagine that my solicitations can influence you in his favor. But you cannot prevent me from admiring you, nor from feeling as grateful to you, as if you had granted to myself alone that which humanity, your own glory, and both worlds expect of you.

"NECKER DE STAEL."

Morris replied very coldly to this earnest letter, and contented himself with acting prudently, without going too fast, without hazarding anything. He forwarded, to the Emperor of Austria, the letter by which Washington requested the enfranchisement of M. de Lafayette. Again Madame de Staël wrote to Morris.