humanity, an integrity, a respect for private property and private
feelings that would have graced the noblest school of philosophers in
ancient times, or of christians in modern; finishing the whole stupendous
operation in three days, and then returning, quietly and peaceably to
their respective occupations, and committing the details of their
political arrangements to their more experienced friends!

In the stern decision, in the rapid and resistless execution, in the
thorough accomplishment of the purpose, and in the sudden and perfect
calm that succeeded, tyrants may read a lesson that may well make them
tremble on their thrones; for they see that it is only for the people
to resolve, and it is done.

Had this story been told to us by some writer of romance, as the
product of his own imagination, there is not a man among us who would
not have condemned it as unnatural, improbable, a mere extravagance
entirely out of keeping with the human character. And yet the thing
has actually taken place; the work has been done, and well and nobly
done.

The French have sometimes been spoken of as a light people, without
depth or stability of character. Let those who thus describe them,
open the annals of England (the Rome of modern times) and shew us
there, a movement, from the period of their invasion by Julius Caesar
to the present day, that can match this magnificent movement of the
common people of Paris. No. In the enlightened motive, in the station
of the actors, in the character of the action itself, and in its
beautiful consummation, there is nothing in the archives of history,
ancient or modern, nor even in the volumes of the boldest and wildest
imagination, that will bear a comparison. It was for liberty they
struck, and the blow was the bolt of heaven. The throne of the tyrant
fell before it. The work was done: and all was peace. Well may we be
proud to claim such a people as our friends and allies, and to unite
in this public demonstration of joy at their triumph.

To give us a still deeper interest in the transaction, whom do we see
mingling brilliantly in the conflict, partaking of the triumph, and
benevolently tempering and guiding its results? Lafayette, our own
Lafayette, the brave, the good, the friend of man. Well may we call
him _our own_: for he gave to us the flower of his youth! freely
sacrificed the splendors of a court, all the pleasures and enjoyments
natural to his age, nay his fortune and his blo