The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-04 00:00:00

GAMBETTA AND THE WAIL

The Times, in coinmenting on the speech delivered by
M. Gambetta at Bordeaux, says :—lrad the Emperor
Napoleon been able to chain fe.eane to his chariot, AL
Gambetta would never have had the chance of calling
him the " Man of Sedan." llc could never have said
that it was "because France, in expiation of her sins,
so- long submitted to the mast deceitful and corrupt
of Governments that she must now submit to
foreign invasion up to the walls of her glorious
c Lpital." It is not always jipt to estimate
men's deeds by their re3nits, or AT. Gambetta might have
ta answer whether France has had to endure greater
misery at her rulers' hands before or after Sedan. Unless
we are greatly mistaken, however, the destinies of Franco
will soon he beyond the control either of Imperial or of
Republican leaders. The necessity for a capitulation seems,
by all accounts, to be urgently felt by all parties in
Paris, and the only question is which party should
take upon itself the odium of the unavoidable measure.
After all the delusions with which the suffering population
have been entertained, after the high pitch of heroism to
which they have been wound np, it certainly is heart-
rending for them to be told that they must lay down their
arms and throw open the gates to the invader. For
Sedan and Metz scapegoats could be sought in the
.Emperor and in the Imperial Marshals. But who is
to be blamed for the fall of Paris ? To whose
charge are its unavailing defence .and devastation to be
laid? It will be well for France if these questions are
not pressed too far. It is the misfortune of that country
to find in her rulers only too complacent interpreters of
its fancies. The Emperor Napoleon, perhaps, gave in
too readily to the impulses of national ambition and
jealousy. The Provisional Government probably makes
too much of what it considers the claims of national hon-
our. The war was a mistake. It is, unfortunately, too
late to repair the error, but not too late to put an end to
it. France must live, and that she may live 'she must
have peace.
The 2dearaph, says Whether many people in
France will cry " Vive la Republique!" six months
hence is a question which time alone can answer ;
although an uneasy feeling prevails among those
who know the country and the people best,
that there are two things of which the sen-
sible Frenchman is most anxious to get rid—the
Prussians first, and the Republic afterwards. But,
as to the enthusiasm and the sincerity of the patriots
who cried " Vive la France !" " Vive la Republique 1"
" Vive Paris !" at the close of M. Gambetta's oration,
no doubt can be entertained. So long as the Republic
continues to represent the embodied idea of expelling the
Germans, so long will democratic vivats be plentiful,
and so long will the cry be as vigorously uttered
by the mob of Belleville as by the peasantry of La
Vendee. While an invader remains in France, no
very serious differences in political opinion can
exist among Frenchmen ; nor, at the present juncture,
could there be a statesman so eminently fitted to cheer the
flagging spirits of a much-suffering country as M. Gam-
betta. He has all the virtues, if not entirely with-
cut the weaknesses, of the Southerner—of the
hot-headed, picturesque, imaginative Somme du
Midi. His oratory is dressed, a /a provencaie,
with plenty of pepper. He speaks not in the cold
and rigid Langue d'Oil which generally contents
itself with maintaining that two and two make four, but
in the more elastic and poetical Langue d'Oc, in which it
is not unfrequently maintained that two and two make
ten. M. Gambetta must not be too rashly accepted
as a typical Frenchman ; but he is assuredly a
typical Marseillais. He is not an orator after
the manner of Thiers, of Guizot, of Lamartine,
or of Jules Favre ; he is one after the
fashion of Camille Desmoulins, of Foy, and of
Manuel ; and such orators are invaluable in times of great
public emergency. Logic is not wanted in war, war itself
being a horribly and absurdly illogical thing ; nor is strict
adherence to exactness always to be expected. When
the Medes and Persians are at the gates, it has
sometimes been thought expedient to assure the
subjects of Belshazzar that the enemy have been
repulsed with immense slaughter. All this M.
Gambetta can do, and do admirably. He has ennobled
the stump, and made " tall talk " sublime ; and to the
untiring loquacity of his rhetorie, no less than to his
wonderful energy as an organiser, we may ascribe much
of the tenacity in resistance evinced by the French deparb..
manta

(CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAMS.)
MARRIAGE OF MISS GARRET, M.D.
We are enabled to state that Miss Garret, M.D.,
member of the London School Board, will shortly be mar-
ried to Mr. G. S. Anderson, of London and Morpeth.
This gentleman took an active part in Miss Garret's
election.

MR. WATKIN WILLIAMS AND HIS
CONSTITUENTS.

Mr. Watkin Williams, M.P., addressing his constituents
at Wrexham last night, passed the chief events of last
session in review, and explained his personal action on the
various questions which had been brought forward. lie
announced his intention of merging his motion on the dis-
establishment of the Welsh Church in the more general
one in reference to Church Establishments, to be intro-
duced by Mr.