The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-08 00:00:00

GAMIIE'rTA'S RESIGNATION.

The Times thinks that M. Gambetta's resignation is a.
hopeful indication of peace and unanimity in France..
He has done whatever could be done for war
and distinioW, and he has failed. His retire•
opens better protpeets for his distracted country.
We see, indeed, nothing Stirprising in this auspi-
cious announcement. Notwitlietaittlinfr occasional flashes
of that fiery eloquence to which he had accustomed the
French public, it was evident the War IVlinister was
shrinking from the responsibility of a foreign and civil
war at the same time The truth is M. Gambetta did
not know what length the country, or any party in
" it, would go with him. He was aware that his power
had -hitherto been grounded on delusions which the
surrender of Paris and the re-establishment of free inter-
course betWeett the Capital and the provinces would
promptly dispel. ()Pen War with his former colleagues
was more than he Could Venture upouf and when he pub-
lished his obnoxiOna decree upon the elections, exclud-
ing all men except those of Repnblican convictions, he
did not actually impugn, but affected simply to ignore,
the previous act of the Paris Government: He could not
help perceiving that the extreme Democratic faction, on
which alone he could reckon, was formidable at Bordeaux
rather by its noise than by its actual strength. Gam-
betta being gone, there is no reason why France
should not be herself again. His discomfiture gives
the nation a chance of re-asserting its sovereign rights.
In the Universal levelling of all institutions, the result of
a desolating War, a fair field will be opened for common
co-operation in the reconstruction of the social edifice.
Alsace and a partof tontine are a grievous loss ; but, with-
out it France Would perhays have continued to belong to a
Napoleon, to a Gainbetta--to any one rather than to her-
self. All the information which reaches us from
France, and especially from Paris, points to that
revulsion of feelings to the longing for Peace
almost at any price, for which men with any
political foresight were prepared. The people, we
are told. are sick of the old refrain, " Mourir pour la
Pattie." They are content to live for their country, and
they will try to make it such a country as it may be
possible for a happy orderly, and pro receive people to
live in.

In the opinion of the Standard, the resignation of M.
Gambetta, dictated by the most patriotic and praise-
worthy motives, has come not a moment too early. His
recent proceedings must have convinced even
the most fanatical admirers of that energetic person
of his unfitness to be charged with the destinies
Of France at this crisis. He issued his edicts in
as sublime contempt of the liberty he professes as though
he were despot of France. He assumed to have the right
of dictating to the electors whom they shall choose for
their representatives, and he had already anticipated
their decision. As if he had not been irre-
gular enough before, he effected a revolution
within a revolution. He set up a Govern-
ment of his own at Bordeaux, and defied the
orders of the Central Comn.ittee of the National
Defence. This is surely the crown of all the calamities
which have fallen upon France in these her evil days. As
though it were not enough that she has a foreign war
upon her hands, here is a civil war at once, into which she
is thrust if M. Gambetta continues to be backed up in his
disloyalty by the southern cities. The double prospect
of humilation at the hands of the enemy and of
internal discord is enough to drive all patristic Frenchmen
to despair. What prospect can be more dismal for a nation
than that which France had before her eyes twenty-four
hours ago ? Between the two Governments of Paris and
Bordeaux what chance was there of her emerging with
anything like honour out of the hands of her ruthless
enemy ? What hope of saving even what is left by the
German conquerors? This new confusion into which she
had fallen through the ill-starred Republican zeal of M.
Gambetta is precisely the very opportunity for which the
soul of Bismarck must have longed. Here we have, at
last, not only Paris, but all France, getting ready to
" fry in their own fat "—one section of the Government
denouncing another—the official decrees of M. Favre
and his colleagues suppressed in the official journal of the
Gambetta triumvirate—and M. Jules Simon engaged in a
fruitless attempt to stick his bills on the walls of Bor-
deaux. What could be the end of this mad, perverse
conflict but more loss and humiliation to France, more
spoil and profit to Germany ?