mbition of his
rivals. He alone enjoyed some credit with the masses, though his
social position ranked with the first in the country, while, from the
peculiar bend of his mind, and the idealization of his principles, he
was deemed the most harmless aspirant to political power. The
practical genius of the opposition, everlastingly occupied with
unintellectual details of a venal class-legislature, saw in Lamartine
a useful co-operator: they never dreamt that the day would come when
they would be obliged to serve under him.

[Footnote 11: The Chamber is but a lie.]

And, in truth, it must be admitted that without the Revolution of
February, Lamartine must have been condemned to a comparative
political inactivity. With the exception of a few friends, personally
devoted to him, he had no party in the Chamber. The career which he
had entered, as the people's Tribune, placed him, in a measure, in
_opposition_ to all existing parties; but it was even this singular
position of parliamentary impotence, which confirmed and strengthened
his reputation as an honest man, in contradistinction to a notoriously
corrupt legislature. His eloquence in the Chamber had no particular
direction; but it was the sword of justice, and was, as such, dreaded
by all parties. As a statesman his views were tempered by humanity,
and so little specific as to be almost anti-national. In his views as
regards the foreign policy of France he was alike opposed to Guizot
and Thiers; and, perhaps, to a large portion of the French people. He
wished the external policy of France governed by a general principle,
as the internal politics of the country, and admitted openly the
solidarity of interests of the different states of Europe. He thus
created for himself allies in Germany, in Italy, in Spain; but he
lacked powerful supporters at home; and became the most impracticable
man to carry out the aggressive views of the fallen Dynasty. Thiers
never considered him a rival; for he considered him incapable of ever
becoming the exponent of a leading popular passion: neither the
present nor the future seemed to present a chance for Lamartine's
accession to power. _L'homme positive_, as Thiers was pleased to call
himself at the tribune of the Chamber, almost commiserated the poet
statesman and orator.

Lamartine never affected, in his manner or in his mode of living, that
"republican simplicity" which is so often nothing but the frontispiece
of demagoguism. He despi