one member from each state, with instructions to take leave of him on behalf of the whole country, and to assure him, 'that these United States regard him with particular affection, and will not cease to feel an interest in whatever may concern his honor and prosperity, and that their best and kindest wishes will always attend him. It was at the same time resolved, that a letter be written to his most Christian Majesty, expressive of the high sense, which the United States in Congress assembled entertain of the zeal, talents, and meritorious services of the Marquis de Lafayette, and recommending him to the favor and patronage of his Majesty. We are not aware, that a more complete expression of dignified and respectful homage could have been offered to him.

During the year that followed the arrival of Lafayette in his own country, he found the minds of men more agitated on questions of political right, than they had ever been before. Into some of the grave and perilous discussions that were then going on, he entered at once; on others he waited; but, on all, his opinions were openly and freely known, and, on all, he preserved the most perfect consistency. He was for some time ineffectually employed with Malesherbes in endeavoring to relieve the Protestants of France from political disabilities, and place them on the same footing with other subjects. He was the first Frenchman, who raised his voice against the slave trade; and it is worth notice, that having devoted considerable sums of money to purchase slaves in one of the colonies, and educate them for emancipation, the faction, which in 1792 proscribed him, as an enemy to freedom, sold these very slaves back to their original servitude. And finally, at about the same time, he attempted to form a league of the European Powers against the Barbaresque Pirates, which, if it had succeeded, would have done more for their suppression, than has been done by Sir Sidney Smith's Association, or is likely to follow Lord Exmouth's victories.

But while he was busied in the interests, to which these dis cussions gave rise, the materials for great internal changes we re collecting together at Paris from all parts of France; and in February, 1787, the Assembly of the Notables was opened. Lafayette was, of course, a member, and the tone he held throughout its session contributed essentially to give a marked character to its deliberations. He proposed the suppression

of the odious lettres de cachet, of which Mirabeau declared in the National Assembly, that seventeen had been issued against him before he was thirty years old; he proposed the enfranchisement of the Protestants, who, from the time of the abolition of the Edict of Nantz, had been suffering under more degrading disabilities than the Catholics now are in Ireland; and he proposed by a formal motion,-which was the first time that word was ever used in France, and marks an important step towards a regular, deliberative assembly,— he made a motion for the convocation of Representatives of the people. What,' said the Count d' Artois, now Charles the Tenth, who presided in the Assembly of the Notables, 'do you ask for the States General?' 'Yes,' replied Lafayette, "and for something more and better;' an intimation, which, though it can be readily understood by all who have lived under a representative government, was hardly intelligible in France at that time.

Lafayette was, also, a prominent member of the States General, which met in 1789, and assumed the name of the National Assembly. He proposed in this body a Declaration of Rights not unlike our own, and it was under his influence and while he was, for this very purpose, in the chair, that a decree was passed on the night of the 13th and 14th of July, at the moment the Bastille was falling before the cannon of the populace, which provided for the responsibility of ministers, and thus furnished one of the most important elements of a representative monarchy. Two days afterwards, he was appointed Commander in Chief of the National Guards of Paris, and thus was placed at the head of what was intended to be made, when it should be carried into all the departments, the effective military power of the realm, and what, under his wise management, soon became such.

His great military command, and his still greater personal influence, now brought him constantly in contact with the court and the throne. His position, therefore, was extremely delicate and difficult, especially as the popular party in Paris. of which he was not so much the head, as the idol, was already in a state of perilous excitement, and atrocious violences were beginning to be committed. The abhorrence of the queen was almost universal, and was excessive to a degree of which we can now have no just idea. The circumstance

that the court lived at Versailles, sixteen miles from Paris, and that the session of the National Assembly was held there, was another source of jealousy, irritation, and hatred, on the part of the capital. The populace of Paris, therefore, as a sign of opposition, had adopted a cockade of blue and red, whose effects were already becoming alarming. Lafayette, who was anxious about the consequences of such a marked division, and who knew how important are small means of conciliation, added to it, on the 26th of July, the white of the Royal Arms, and as he placed it in his own hat, amidst the acclamations of the multitude, prophecied, that it would go round the world;' a prediction, which is already more than half accomplished, since the tricolored cockade has been used for the ensign of emancipation in Spain, in Naples, in some parts of South America, and in Greece.

Still, however, the tendency of everything was to confusion and violence. The troubles of the times, too, rather than a positive want of the means of subsistence, had brought on a famine in the capital; and the populace of the Fauxbourgs, the most degraded certainly in France, having assembled and armed themselves, determined to go to Versailles ; the greater part with a blind desire for vengeance on the royal family, but others only with the purpose of bringing the king from Versailles, and forcing him to reside in the more ancient but scarcely habitable palace of the Thuilleries, in the midst of Paris. The National Guards clamored to accompany this savage multitude; Lafayette opposed their inclination; the municipality of Paris hesitated, but supported it; he resisted nearly the whole of the 5th of October, while the road to Versailles was already thronged with an exasperated mob of above an hundred thousand ferocious men and women, until, at last, having received an order to march, from the competent authority, he set off at four o'clock in the afternoon, as one going to a post of imminent danger, which it had clearly become his duty to occupy.

He arrived at Versailles at ten o'clock at night, after having been on horseback from before daylight in the morning, and having made, during the whole interval, both at Paris, and on the road, incredible exertions to control the multitude and calm the soldiers. The Marquis de Lafayette at last entered the Château,' says Madame de Staël, and passing

through the apartment where we were, went to the king. We all pressed round him, as if he were the master of events, and yet the popular party was already more powerful than its chief, and principles were yielding to factions, or rather were beginning to serve only as their pretext. M. de Lafayette's manner was perfectly calm; nobody ever saw it otherwise; but his delicacy suffered from the importance of the part he was called to act. He asked for the interior posts of the château, in order that he might ensure their safety. Only the outer posts were granted to him.' This refusal was not disrespectful to him who made the request. It was given, simply because the etiquette of the court reserved the guard of the royal person and family to another body of men. Lafayette, therefore, answered for the National Guards, and for the posts committed to them; but he could answer for no more ;* and his pledge was faithfully and desperately redeemed.

Between two and three o'clock, the queen and the royal family went to bed. Lafayette, too, slept after the great fatigues of this fearful day. At half past four, a portion of the populace made their way into the palace by an obscure, interior passage, which had been overlooked, and which was not in that part of the château entrusted to Lafayette. They were evidently led by persons who well knew the secret avenues. Mirabeau's name was afterwards strangely compromised in it, and the form of the infamous Duke of Orleans was repeatedly recognised on the great staircase, pointing the assassins the way to the queen's chamber. They easily found it. Two of her guards were cut down in an instant; and she made her escape almost naked. fayette immediately rushed in with the national troops, protected the Swiss guards from the brutal populace, and saved the lives of the royal family, which had so nearly been sacrificed to the etiquette of the monarchy.

La

The day dawned as this fearful scene of guilt and bloodshed was passing in the magnificent palace, whose construction had exhausted the revenues of Louis Fourteenth, and which,

* So completely were all persons unsuspicious of any immediate danger, that the guards of the interior posts were nowhere increased; and not the slightest change was made in the customary arrangements, except what was made at the solicitation of Lafayette.

for a century, had been the most splendid residence in Europe. As soon as it was light, the same furious multitude filled the vast space, which, from the rich materials of which it is formed, passes under the name of the court of marble. They called upon the king, in tones not to be mistaken, to go to Paris; and they called for the queen, who had but just escaped from their daggers, to come out upon the balcony. The king, after a short consultation with his ministers, announced his intention to set out for the capital; but Lafayette was afraid to trust the queen in the midst of the bloodthirsty multitude. He went to her, therefore, with respectful hesitation, and asked her if it were her purpose to accompany the king to Paris. 'Yes,' she replied, although I am aware of the danger.' 'Are you positively determined?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Condescend, then, to go out upon the balcony, and suffer me to attend you.' Without the king?'-she replied, hesitating—' Have you observed the threats?' 'Yes, Madame, I have; but dare to trust me.' He led her out upon the balcony. It was a moment of great responsibility and great delicacy; but nothing, he felt assured, could be so dangerous as to permit her to set out for Paris, surrounded by that multitude, unless its feelings could be changed. The agitation, the tumult, the cries of the crowd, rendered it impossible that his voice should be heard. It was necessary, therefore, to address himself to the eye, and turning towards the queen, with that admirable presence of mind, which never yet forsook him, and with that mingled grace and dignity, which were the peculiar inheritance of the ancient court of France, he simply kissed her hand before the vast multitude. An instant of silent astonishment followed, but the whole was immediately interpreted, and the air was rent with cries of 'Long live the queen! Long live the general!' from the same fickle and cruel populace, that only two hours before had embrued their hands in the blood of the guards, who defended the life of this same queen.

The same day, that this scene was passing, the first meeting of the Jacobin club was held. Against this club and its projects Lafayette at once declared himself. With Bailly, the Mayor of Paris, he organised an opposing club, and the victory between the two parties was doubtful for above a year and a half. The contest, however, which was pro