The Rhode Island Republican

Miscellany.

GENERAL LA FAYETTE.

It cannot be uninteresting to any American to hear of the felicity enjoyed by La Fayette, in the shades of retirement. Among all the interesting scenes presented to us by the lively pen of Lady Morgan (formerly Miss Owenson) in her account of a late visit to France, none has more attraction for us than the following notice of the distinguished friend of Liberty and of America. N. Intelligencer.

From Lady Morgan's "France."

General La Fayette has not appeared in Paris since the return of the Bourbon dynasty to France. And I should have left that country without having seen one of its greatest ornaments, had not a flattering invitation from the Chateau La Grange enabled me to gratify a wish, long and devoutly cherished, of knowing, or at least beholding, its illustrious master. Introduced by proxy to the family of La Fayette, by the young and amiable Princess Charlotte de Bourbon, we undertook our journey to La Grange with the same pleasure as the pilgrim his first unwearied steps to the shrine of sainted excellence.

In the midst of a fertile and luxuriant wilderness, rising above prolific orchards and antiquated woods, appeared the five towered castle of La Grange Blessneau, tinged with the golden rays of the setting sun. Through the holes of the trees, appeared the pretty village of Aubepierre, once, perhaps the dependency of the castle, and clustering near the protection of its walls. A romantic view of the village of D'Hiere, with its gleaming river and romantic valley, was caught and lost alternately, in the serpentine maze of this rugged road; which accommodated to the grouping of the trees, wound amidst branches laden with ripening fruit, till its rudeness sullenly subsided in the velvet lawn that immediately surrounded the castle. The deep moat, the draw-bridge, the ivied tower, and arched portale, opening into the square court, had a feudal and picturesque character; and, combined with the reserved tints and fine repose of evening, associated with that exultation of feeling which belonged to the moment preceding a first interview with those, on whom the mind has long dwelt with admiration or interest.

We found General La Fayette surrounded by his patriarchal family: his excellent son and daughter-in-law, his two daughters (the sharers of his dungeon in Olmutz) and their husbands; eleven grand-children and a venerable grand uncle, the ex-grand prior of Malta, with hair as white as snow, and his cross and his order, worn as proudly as when he had issued forth at the head of his pious troops, against the "paynim foe," or Christian enemy. Such was the group that received us in the salon of La Grange; such was the close knit circle that made our breakfast and our dinner party: accompanied us in our delightful ramble through the grounds and woods of La Grange, and constantly presented the most perfect unity of family interests, habits, taste, and affections.

We naturally expect to find strong traces of time in the form of those, with whose name and deeds we have been long acquainted; of those who had obtained the suffrage of the world almost before he had entered it. But, on the person of La Fayette, time has left no impression; not a wrinkle furrows the ample brow: and his unbent and noble figure is still as upright, bold and vigorous, as the mind that informs it. Grace, strength and dignity still distinguish the fine person of this extraordinary man; who though more than sixty years before the world engage in scenes of strange and eventful conflict, does not yet appear to have reached his climacteric. Bustling and active in his farm, graceful and elegant in his salon, it is difficult to trace, in one of the most successful agriculturists, and one of the most perfect fine gentlemen that France has produced, warrior and a legislator. The patriot, however, is always discernible.

In the full possession of every faculty and talent he ever possessed, the memory of M. La Fayette has all the tenacity of unworn youthful recollection; and besides these high views of all that is most elevated in the mind's conception. His conversation is brilliantly enriched with anecdotes of all that is celebrated in character and event, or the last fifty years. He still talks with unwearied delight of his short visit to England, to his friend Mr. Fox, and dwelt on the witchery of the late Duchess of Devonshire, with almost boyish enthusiasm. He speaks and writes English with the same elegance he does his native tongue. He has made himself master of all that is best worth knowing, in English literature and philosophy. I observed that his library contained many of our most eminent authors upon all subjects.

His elegant and well chosen collection of books, occupies the highest apartments in one of the towers of the chateau; and, like the study of Montaigne, hangs over the farm yard of the philosophical agriculturist. "It frequently happens," said M. La Fayette, as we were looking out of the window at some flocks which were moving beneath, "it frequently happens that my Merinoes, and my hay carts, dispute my attention with your Hume, or our own Voltaire."

He spoke with great pleasure on the visit paid him at La Grange some years ago, by Mr. Fox and General Fitzpatrick. He took me out, the morning after my arrival, to show me a tower richly covered with ivy!-'It was Fox,' he said, who 'planted that ivy! I have taught my grand children to venerate it.'

The chateau La Grange does not, however, want other points of interest. Founded by Louis Le Gros, and occupied by the Princess of Lorraine, the mark of a cannon ball is still visible in one of its towers, which penetrated the masonry, when attacked by Marshal Turenne. Here in the plain, but spacious salon altogether, the peasantry of the neighborhood and the domestics of the castle, assembled every Sunday evening in winter, to dance to the violin of the concierge, and are regaled with cakes and eau-sucre. The General is usually, and his family are always, present, at these rustic balls. The young people occasionally dance among the tenantry, and set the examples of new steps, freshly imported by their Paris dancing master.

In the summer, this patriarchal re-union takes place in the park, where a space is cleared for the purpose, shaded by the lofty trees which encircles it. 'A thousand times, in contemplating La Fayette, in the midst of his charming family, the last years of the life of the Chancellor de l'Hopital occurred to me —he whom the naive Battoni likens to Cato; and who, loving liberty as he hated faction, retired from a court unworthy of his virtues, to his little domain of Vignay, which he cultivated himself &c.