New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-05-09
A STALE AGITATOR.


One of the worst disasters that befell France
in that long chain which began with Weissem
bourg, and is not yet ended, was the escape
of Mr.. Gambetta in a balloon from the be-
leaguered city of Paris. 1t is probable that if
that lucky air-ship had only landed within the
Prussian lines, the absence of the fiery GascOn
would have done better things for France than
ever his presence could. The conduct of the
army suffered materially from his fussy inca
pacity, and his verbose and untruthful prOcla-
nations blinded the struggling nation at the
moment when it most needed a clear and ac-
curate view of the situation of affairs When
the siege and the war ended together, instead
of recognizing the existence of the actual
state of things, he sought AN unnatural excite
ment in defiance, and, losing his head com
pletely, revolted at once from the dictates of
common sense and the authority of the Gov
eminent of the Republic. Deprived of his
functions for this outbreak of lunatic enthu-
siasm, he has been biding his time to catch
another opportunity of riding the whirlwind.
He seems To have imagined that his chance
was come in the present anarchy of Paris and
the terrible embarrassment of the Govern
ment. SEEING the pretext of Mr. Thiers's APP
parent understanding with the Prussians,
he issues circular to the projects of France,
ordering, under an authority as vague as that
by which Ethan Allen demanded the Fort of
TicOnderoga, the election of delegates to a
new Assembly to convene at Bordeaux for the
purpose of overruling the National Leg1sla-
tive Body at Versailles. He followed up this
absurd act of unsupported revolution by going
about canvassing in favor of his circular, and
the Government thus insulted and deted could
do no less than order his arrest on the charge
of seditious conduct. They will hardly know
what to do with him when they have caught
him. He has not even yet, after all his esca-
pades, entirely lost that enthusiastic following
which made him the popular idol during the
early days of the last year, and it may be found
almost equally dangerous to punish or to neg
lect him. His recent performances are all the
more unaccOuntable, because of the singular
discretion and prOpriety of his short legislative
service under the Empire. He had gained his
election by Outspoken radicalism, and people
naturally expected violent scene in the Legis-
lative Body on his first appearance there. But
equally to the surprise of enemies and adj
herents, he made a close, logical temperate,
and thoroughly courteous arraignment of the
ELHplIty WHICH Was du Iue InOTe clcCJlNe Ill
its substance from the moderation of its form.
He harangued the students of the Latin Quar-
ter who were clamOring for immediate ac-
ton, counseing agitation by peaceable and
legal ways as infinitely better than insurrec-
ton. Yet while gaining the suffrages of the
party of order, he did not lose the hearts of
the turbulent masses. His popularity grew with
all classes, until, when the gilt and pasteboard
show Of imperial rule fell to pieces with the
shock of Sedan, there was no man in France
more generally esteemed and regarded than
Leon Gambetta. But when he sailed out of
Paris in his balloon, one might almost con-
clude that in the hurry of departure he had
left his character behind him. For the same
man never reappears in the history of the times
but in his stead O creature of bOmbast and
vanity and reckless rhodomontade, who
touches nothing without marring it, and never
says useful or practical word.
All times of revolution are expensive in men
and in regulations, but this last troubled year
of France has been especially filed with easily
broken tools. The statesmen of the gutter,
who rise and fall in day, are not worthy of
enumeration but of the solid and substantial
names, to which both sides looked for good
work, very few are ever called to-day but in
derision. Many people thought MacMahon
better soldier than Won Moltke before they
were brought face to face-and now he is not
named even III comparison with the brood vi