Alphonse de Lamartine, finally elected as a…

Alphonse de Lamartine, finally elected as a deputy upon his return from an extensive tour of eastern Mediterranean countries, had begun composing long narrative poems.

Having published the first of these, Jocelyn, in 1836, and his second, La Chute d'un ange, in 1838, he publishes his last volume of verse, Les Recueillements poetiques in 1839, in which he expresses his compassion for the mass of humanity and regret for his own former isolation and egotism.

Increasingly involved in politics, Lamartine has cast himself as a champion of the people and of the cause of republican liberty.

A distinguished orator, Lamartine’s many fine speeches of the past decade have included discourses on political liberty and apologies for Napoleon—now a symbol of all that is heroically French.

Fugitive Canadian MP Louis Joseph Papineau, having in early 1839 left New York City for Paris where he hopes to get France involved in the rebellion, in May publishes the Histoire de l'insurrection du Canada (History of the insurrection in Canada) in the magazine Progrès.

Despite meeting with influential politicians such as Lamartine and Felicité de Lamennais, the France of Louis-Philippe also remains neutral.