. LA FAYETTE (Gilbert Du Motier de). Autograph... - Lot 23 - Osenat

. LA FAYETTE (Gilbert Du Motier de). Autograph letter signed to William Roscoe. Château de La Grange-Bléneau [on the actual commune of Courpalay in Seine-et-Marne], September 14, 1821. 1 p. 1/4 in-4, address on the back, marginal lack to the address leaf due to the opening without affecting the text. You will judge very badly the feeling with which I received your honorable letter if I do not explain to you the contretems which delayed the expression of my gratitude. My excellent friend M. Masclet [Amé-Thérèse-Joseph Masclet, French consul in Liverpool, who had, during his emigration to England, campaigned for the liberation of the Marquis de La Fayette, then a prisoner in the Austrian jails] had to come to La Grange before returning to Liverpool. He has since told me that his visit, much desired by our family, would not take place this time, and has indicated to me the time of his passage to Paris. But by a misunderstanding, I thought I still had a letter from this city. Thus, waiting for this good opportunity and then missing it, I suffered very annoying delays. At least now I receive my warm and affectionate thanks for the testimonies of an approval which no one can feel more than I do. Thanked also, I pray you, your worthy son for the trouble he has taken for the translation of MY SPEECH OF JUNE 4. ITS VALUE IN MY EYES IS COMPOSED OF SUFFRAGES WHICH THE FRIENDS OF LIBERTY HAVE DEIGNED TO GRANT IT. The benevolence which influenced their judgment is still dearer to me, and on this double account I could not but be particularly touched and flattered by the opinion of Messrs Roscoe. THE LATEST EVENTS IN EASTERN EUROPE [the uprisings of the spring of 1821 against the Ottomans in Greece, Moldavia, and Wallachia] FORM AN INATTENDED EPISODE IN THE GREAT MOVEMENT OF CIVILIZATION WHICH MAY BE TROUBLED BUT WILL NOT BE DESTROYED BY THE COMBINED EFFORTS OF DESPOTISM AND MISCELLANEOUS ARISTOCRATIES. We do not yet know the final determination of Russia and the effect it will have on the other powers. If the Holy Alliance, of which your Government is the occult portion, resists this occasion of temptations and jealousies, we shall have one more proof of an indissoluble attachment to the fixed idea which dominates all Courts. The peoples will know even better what they should expect from it. But perhaps the national hatreds, and the religious passions of the Turks and Russians will drag their respective masters. May the children of the old grace at least obtain the territory and the independence necessary for the development of all that their memories, their climate, their organization, the present state of the Enlightenment and of political science seem to promise them! This is unfortunately what the august arbiters of affairs care least about..." In his speech of June 4, 1821 before the Chamber of Deputies, devoted to the budget of expenditures, the Marquis de La Fayette had drawn up a comprehensive indictment against the policy of the Duke of Richelieu in matters of civil liberties, justice, foreign policy, etc., and denounced the ongoing counter-revolution, not without making frequent allusions to past history, the American War of Independence, the Revolution and the Empire. Famous for his abolitionist positions, William Roscoe (1753-1831) was a lawyer, banker, politician, man of letters, bibliophile, collector and patron.