The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-05-22
Emilio Castelar's Portraits Of ROchefOrt
and Gambetta.


The promised series of papers by Emilio
CASTELAR,, the Spanish Republican leader, is
commenced in the June number of Harper's
Magazine, and will be continued through the
year, Senior CASTELAR, begins with review of
the work of the eighteenth century, proceeds
to an exposition of the Democratic tenden-
cies of Europe, and draws striking portraits
of Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Lamennais, Ras-
pail, Rochefort, ,and Gambetta. We copy
below his sketches of the two latter:
RoCHEFoRT
Rochefort represented the ardent and ex-
treme wing of the Republican Party His
popularity, like his writings, had more bril-
liancy than solidity. A child of Paris, nurs-
ling Of the Boulevards, employed on light and
sparkling newspapers, gifted with the Paris
ian faculty with converts intn readable arti-
cles the whispers of the cafe, with an irony
now trihing, now savage, he was the first
who in France, in the heart of the capital,
dared to attack the omnipotent Caesar, and
to threw in his face all the gall collected in
twenty years of humiliation and slavery.
Satire is powerful corrosive. Its bitterness
does not reach the lips without being filtered
drop by drop through the conscience, forcing
it to compare its ideals of perfection with
vices of the reality. And when that satire
burst forth, and after the satire a universal
Homeric laughter, and after the laughter the
anger of the irritated victims, which aug
mented the merriment of their amused and
avenged enemies, it was plain that the death
OF the empire was near. This satire had not
the Attic salt Of Rousseau, nor the tragic in
dignation of Juvenal, nor the refiued and Bit
ter wit of Voltaire, but it was the satire
which suited the Empire, vulgar as the enc
my which it struck-an enemy wallowing in
the mire. Satire, if it be eagerly read or list
ened to, is the form of literature which an
nounces the death of decaying religions, the
agony of sick empires. The first to strike
the idol was Rochefort, and the people repaid
his audacity with an election to the Chamber.
This immense service OF Rochefort will never
be forgotten, let the faults of his character
and the vicissitudes of his fortune be what
they may. 1t would have been fortunate If
he had adopted. as the sole vocation OF his
life, the destruction by satire of Cesarism in
the public conscience, for then his name, at
terward attacked and overwhelmed in the
wave of opposing passions. would have suf-
fered no injury, and would have been always
united with one of the most glorious works of
our time. But Rochefort, in default of speech
in the Chamber and of action in the streets,
could not hold, either over his companions in
the Assembly or over the mass of the people,
more than fugitive and disputed influence,
GAMBETTA.
The man destined to the most powerful in
fiuence in the Republican party was Gambet-
ia. 1t is customary to criticise him severely
because he remained standing when others
fell, because he retained his faith when
France lost faith-in herself, because he dicta-
torially prolonged war which had become
impossible at the surrender of Sedan and the
treason at Metz, losing the campaign but saw
ing the honor of his 0untry. ! have never
belonged to the worshippers of success. do
not consider misfortune q crime. Gambetta
saw himself abandoned by fortune, by victo-
ry. What should he have done? He did not
seek the fate of Brutus after the battle of
Philippi, when, seeing that liberty was expir-
ing, the country was lost, and his heart was
broken, while over him the stars shone calm
ly in the azure sky of Greece, he doubted in
the last hour of supreme anguish of the exis-
tcnce of virtue. Gambetta is man of his
time, and knows that liberty is sometimes
eclipsed, but never extinguished; that the
country falls, but does not die; and in spite
of his misfortunes, which were the fault of
his time, and not of his intelligence or of his
character, believe Gambetta TO be among
the first of the Republicans of Europe, and /
number him among those who have contrib
uted most to the diffusion of our IDEAS
q Ihave studied often his intelligence and his
character. In that enormous head; In that
broad forehead; in the concentrated bril-
liancy Of the eye which remains to him; in
the mouth, wreathed by smile of benevo-
lence; in his face, ruddy with a sanguine
temperament; in his form, which is hercu-
lean in spite of his low stature; in his whole
bearing-you can see at once the happy min
Cling OF intelligence with force, of high ideas
with energetic resolution.
Nature believes in division of labor, and
variously groups the vocations of men. Usu-
ally when she creates a man of action she
takes away the aptness of the man of ideas.
The latter is fond of spiritual investigation,
and the former of material labors. The one
loves retirement, and the other the world;
the one peace of mind, and the other the
combat; the one great books, and the other
great passions. Doubtless Plato never could
have been Pisistratus, nor Montesquieu have
been Colbert. To unite thought with action,
as in Caesar, is a prodigy. To unite energy
of speech with energy of will, as in Danton,
is a miracle. Great qualities result from
great defects. To balance in one person the
idea with the act, energy of intelligence with
activity of life, is a gift which Nature has
allowed in high degree to Gambetta,