The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-25
HOPING AGAINST HOPE.

From the N. Y. Times
M. Gambettas speeches at Lille on Satur-
day and Sunday last will doubtless elicit from
host of complacent critics, outside of
France, such expressions as "brsinless en-
thusiast," ''demagogue, and "charlatan.
Chimerical as we believe to be his dream of
the final triumph of the French arms, and
suicidal as we consider his doctrine Of an
eternal war being preferable to the surrender
of any territory, it would be the shallowest
kind of criticism to imagine that we have
satisfactorily disposed of the man who is at
present the Every head and front" of French
resistance, by bestowing on him a few con-
temptuous epithets. To people regarding
the struggle from a safe distance it is
exceedingly difficult to understand the feel
ings which at present animate the people
of France. And this difficulty exists not
SO much because we do not keep in mind
the vitality of the sentiment of ma
tional honor among all but the lowest
class of Frenchmen, but because we are con-
stantly forgetting that the data by which we
judge of the progress of the contest are far
more complete and convincing than anything
to which a citizen of France can possibly
have access. At this moment, the inhabi-
tants of Lille, for example, are probably hear
ing for the first time the sound of Prussian
cannon. Standing face to face with an i'm
minent siege, they begin to realize the
horrors of a struggle against fate, which they
have already but partially felt in the prostra-
ton of trade and the dearness of provisions
But they cannot possibly know that Paris
begins to show signs of internal dissen-
sion, that Bourbaki is being hopelessly
hemmed in away in the Vosges, that
Chanzy is being slowly but surely driven
among the mountains of Brittany, beyond
the possibility of extrication, and that the
still untouched provinces of the South are
mastering no great host that shall break
through two armies and raise the siege of the
capital. Hence Lille thrills with patriotic
enthusiasm when called on to bear her share
in the common danger, and hurls defiance at
the invincible foe that is rudely knocking at
her gates. Take any other section or city of
France, and, with necessary EXCEPTIONS the
same thing may be said of them. They know
little beyond the danger that is nearest to
them, and because they have no means of
fully ascertaining how hopeless all organized
resistance is being proved to be all over
France, they count submission as baseness
and the talk of peace as concealed treachery.
The very perfection with which the Prussians
have isolated France into half dozen sepa-
rate sections helps to defeat the object of the
campaign by keeping hope alive when sue
cess is past hoping for.
1t may be said that M. Gambetta and his
associates in the Provisional Government
have at least tolerably complete information
as to the course of events throughout France.
While this is true enough, it must also be
remembered that they know better than any
body else how much unexpended energy there
is still existing among their countrymen.
Were every man capable of bearing arms in
the country to rally to the STANFORD of the
Republic, they could still oppose three
Frenchmen to every German at present on
the soil. Every dispassionate observer
knows that even then the odds would be on
the side of the invaders, and it is impossible
to deny that the head of the Provisional Gov
ernment would deserve we'll of his country
by frankly recognizing the fact. Yet, re-
membering his position as a mere represen-
tative of the popular will, and as the custo-
dian of everything that France holds dear, in
a moment of supreme peril, we can easily un-
derstand how he may hesitate between two
vast responsibilities, and maintain hopeful
tone and answering determination to the
very last. History will doubtless condemn
his stubborn refusal to accept the inevitable,
but history cannot fail to concede that his
rashness was not altogether without excuse.
PRESIDENTIAL PROSPECTS,