Alphonse de LAMARTINE (1790-1869, Poet, novelist,... Lot 9

Alphonse de LAMARTINE (1790-1869, Poet, novelist, playwright, and political figure) / Autograph letter signed, 2 p in-8 plus address page with postage, letterhead with his initials and dry count crown, Paris, March 11, 1842, to Joannés-Erhard Valentin-Smith de Riom (1796-1891, Magistrate and scholar, member of numerous learned societies): "I thank you, Sir, for having kindly taken up the defense of my investigation of the Foundlings. Before receiving your letter I had already read the gazette or rather the review of Riom and I intended to write to you to congratulate you on the talent with which you treated the question [...] We will triumph because the truth is on our side, it is a question of time and that is all. I have read with great interest all the debates of the Clermont affair and I thank you for all the details you are willing to give me [N.B.: Valentin-Smith had just published his "Observations in favor of the Chemin de Fer du Centre from Paris to Clermont" with Perol in Clermont-Ferrand]. The railroad commission is working hard on this so diverse and complex question, it is an immense work and sometimes too tedious because of the repetitions that we are told every day as new things. We walk slowly but finally we walk" [Here are two themes dear to Lamartine: that of the Foundlings of the Public Assistance and that of the development of the Railroad: deputy, Lamartine devoted to them numerous speeches in the House] - Enclosed: portrait of the period