Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub
[graphic][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[graphic]

LETELLIER DE SAINT-JUST, LUC.

posed of the most eminent publicists, and belonged to many literary and scientific societies. In politics he was ever true to those principles which in youth he personally learned from Jefferson and Madison. His several residences in Europe, associating there with the leading scholars, statesmen, and diplomatists, and for more than sixty years enjoying the same privilege in his native land, gave to Governor Lawrence a courtly and classic dignity of manner not often met with among our public men. For thirty years, Governor Lawrence was noted for the generous hospitality dispensed at Ochre Point. Few persons of distinction, in any walk of life, visited Newport without being entertained by him at his beautiful mansion by the sea. Here he had collected probably the most valuable private library of its character in the land, numbering more than ten thousand volumes, and including everything of value relating to international law and political economy to be found in the English, French, Spanish, and Italian languages. Governor Lawrence left three sons and two daughters, Mrs. Lawrence having died in 1858, a short time previous to his third visit to Europe. The closing item of his will contains a valuable warning to testators: "Aware of the ruinous consequences of litigation to all concerned in the case of wills, I do hereby declare it to be my will that in case any child or descendant of a child, who may claim any share in my estate, shall oppose the probate of this, my last will and testament, or take any legal proceedings to impeach the validity of any of its provisions, the said child or other descendant shall be debarred from all participation in my property, real or personal, and the share of such child or descendant shall descend to and be possessed by the person or persons who would have been entitled thereto, had said child or descendant of child died in my life-time." At the annual meeting of the New York Historical Society, held January 3, 1882, General James Grant Wilson delivered an address on Governor Lawrence, and at the same time presented to the society a fine marble bust by Dunbar, the gift of his eldest son, Isaac Lawrence; and also presented, in behalf of his executors, an unfinished paper on "The Life, Character, and Public Services of Albert Gallatin," which had been prepared for the society, but was not quite completed at the time of his death. This very valuable paper, the last literary work of his long and laborious career, was read to the society by Edward F. De Lancey, February 8, 1882, and has since been published; while General Wilson's address, with a portrait of Lawrence, appeared in the April number of the "Genealogical and Biographical Record."

LETELLIER DE SAINT-JUST, Luo, a Canadian statesman and ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, died February 1st, at the age of sixtytwo. He was born at the seignory of River Quelle, which he always considered his home, and where he died of a lingering lung-disease.

LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1881. 485

He was by profession a notary public, but his active bent led him into political life. He was elected to represent Kamouraska in the Canadian Parliament, at the age of thirty-one, and in several subsequent elections was defeated in the same district. In 1860 he was chosen one of the Legislative Council as representative from Grenville Division. After the Confederation he was made a Senator of the Dominion. Although deprived by the circumstances of his career from taking the prominent part as a political leader which he might have done as a member of the popular Assembly, he was still an active and decided politician of the liberal persuasion. In the popular Assembly he held the position of Minister of Agriculture for a few months in the Macdonald-Dorion Government, and when Mr. Mackenzie was called upon to form an administration in 1875 he accepted the same portfolio, with the position of leader of the French Liberal contingent in the Senate. In 1876 he resigned both senatorship and portfolio on his appointment to the lieutenant-governorship of Quebec. During his tenure of this office occurred the famous conflict which resulted in his defeat and retirement to private life, while the political world of Canada was shaken to the foundations by the constitutional crisis which he precipitated. He came into collision with his advisers, the members of the De Boucherville Government; and the quarrel between him and them ended in their dismissal, the formation of the Joly Government, and an appeal to the people, which resulted in a majority of one for the new administration. Letellier was accused by his political opponents of a blind and reckless partisanship which led him to overstep the principles of the Constitution, while his fellow-Liberals, though piqued at the electoral defeat which his course entailed, and disposed to condemn that course as a mistake in policy, applauded the courage with which he asserted the authority of the Executive, and approved his position at the time as just and patriotic.

LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1881. There has been much more than the usual activity in American literature during the year. All departments of knowledge have received more or less attention, and the production of sound, healthful works has kept fair pace with the increasing mass of imaginative and fantastic publications in prose and verse. A considerable portion of American literary effort has been devoted to the translation of foreign books, the preparation and issue of new editions of all kinds of works that have met with favor, and the editing and making additions to English publications for the American market. A large amount of activity also, in American as in English literature, has found its outlet in reviews, magazines, journals, etc.

"The Publishers' Weekly," the organ of the American book-trade, gives as heretofore the lists of publications of the chief American houses, with a classified monthly synopsis of

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »