The Opelousas courier., 1871-01-14
Gambetta.

readable article:
1t is not easy for an observer
OF the Saxon race to appreciate
this Leon Gambetta. His lofty
contempt for truth is the salient
point which offends our Yankee
sense of propriety, as it offends
our British cousins. Punch, not
long ago, recognizetk his existence
in a cartoon; but it was a sketch
showing him insolently shutting
the door in the face of Truth, and
resenting her attempt to commu-
nlcate with France as she stood
fondly coming over a bulletin of
dtlusive victories. Thos. Carlyle
has Il sneer for him As a Minister
flying over the country in a bal
loon ballaSted with nothing but
outrages puclic lies. But this
view, just as it IS, is nevertheless
one-sided, and overlooks those
traits of temperament and race
which make variety in tue world.
The London Spectator, in an ar
ticle published a few weeks ago,
poipted out some Of the things
which this man has actually dGne,-
using an occasional tllschood to-
keep up the public courage, just
as he used a host of other tools;
just as the first Napoleon, who
constantly occurs as a suitable
comparison in treating Gambetta,
was accustomed to employ the
same instrument when it served
his purpose. He has leaped into
the position he holds with no more
authority than tne first lounger
one meets in Washington street
might assume to be Mayor of Bos-.
ton in case OF a riot. But he has
made armies~not only armies in
name, but armies capable of fight.
ing battles, and of winning partial.
victories, armies with artillery
and a commissariat. He has made
immense contracts, reaching all
over the world, for arms and am-
munition. He has put down local
instructions in various cities,
tllrusting such men as Train and
Cluserct into Jail, and shooting
Others without mercy. I
He has introduced discipline,
not only among soldiers, but am
eng Generals, neither Of whom i'm
France, for the past ten years,
have known the meaning of the
word. And he has done this with
out military training or expert
ence in public administration, q
young man whose one great gift,
that Of fervid eloquence, has'not
been generally deemed a sign Of
qualification tor the duties of prac-
teal craftsmanship. That a man
who has done all this has lied now
and then in doing so, seems no
more a suitable point for criticism
in the light Of accomplished re-
suits, than the fact that Sheridan
broke one of the commandments
many times in the torrents of
words with which he. rallied a
beaten army at Cedar Creek.
But we must wait for the end
before fully estimating the char
acter and the worth of this en-
thusiastic, laborious, 'thickset,
black-bearded lawyer of thirty
five, who flies over Bismarck and
Won Moltke in d balloon, dashes
up within rifle-shot Of the enemy
in a railway: train, rides rough
shod over the prejudices of venor-
able generals, snutfs out an empire
with one hand and crushes a So
cialist conspiracy with the other,
is in every part of France at once,
and keeps up the enthusiasm of %
great people and of his own heart
under the most discouraging cir
cumstances known to history. OF
all the conflicting rumors with
which our sole remaining cable
has perplexed us during the last
few days, none is more significant
than the story that Gambetta at
last contemplated an armistice.
From our last advices this appears
not to be true ; but of this we
may be sure: when Leon Gam
BETA takes a step toward stlrren-
der, France is indeed at the end
Of her struggle.
~ People sometimes object that they
cannot afford to assure. Such an argu-