The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-05-27

MT E0RGET THE OLD FOLKS.
eaNisgenaneons.
GAMBETTA AND The FRENCH RE-
PUBLIC

rest of the world can afford 10 dlNerV llS
attention for while from the, palavering
Of potentates to the really serious and
wonderful work of political o oscillation
which is going on in France. After max
inc the calculations ofEer enemies ridicu-
lous in respect to her material interests,
by the opulence Of her resources and the
financial skill with which she has availed
herself of them, this extraordinary coun-
try is now astounding herbest friends by
the practical good sense with which she
is,working out her political salvation.
-Four years ago it was question how
long the phantom of French Republic
could be decently kept moving above
ground in the light of day. To-day that
phantom has becomes substantial reality;
While all the dynastic parties which four
wears ago regarded it only as useful
scare-crow for their own behoof and
profit, are themselves fast fading into
thin air. How this seeming miracle has
been accomplished, 10y what silent steps,
almost unmarked Of the outer world, the
Democracy of France have gradually
passed from the "Left' of opposition,
camor and disorganization into the
"Right" of authority, patience, and dis
tcpline, we cannot to-day undertake to
I S t forth. No more interesting chapter,
nevertheless, has vet been written in the
changeful and eventful story of our CEN
tury. and fifty told it will be found to be
H full of lessons for others than the dwell
ers on the Seine.
( What we desire at this moment to put
clearly before the minds of our readers is
the central fact that this seeming miracle
has ceased to seem, and begun to be,
X The long travail of three generations at
last is visibly coming to fruit. The Re-
public exists to-day in France no longer
as an expedient adopted in a truce OF
parties and under the pressure OF com
mon peril, bur as the necessity OF tne
most conservative classes and the sole
alternative of an imperial restoration
which can now be accomplished only III
the form of a revolution. Many things
have conspired since the present Consll
tuition of France was adopted by coall-
tion of the tolerate royalists with the
Republicans on The 2jth of February last,
to show that this must he the outcome OF
the political situation then created. For
eign observers and wel-wishers of the
Republic coul1 hardly, however, permit
themselves to believe that the French
Republicans would suffer this natural
drift to bear them on to victory. The
world gave the Republicans OF France
credit for many good points, for earnest
ness, for devotion to their ideas, for
courage. for patriotism. 1t did not give
them credit for the one great gift with
out which in most human affairs all other
gifts are vain, and for the lack of which
the noblest efforts which have been made
since the States General of Louis ANl'
were assembled fourscOre years and Ten
ago, to constitute France into an orderly
self-governing State, have been so often
and so miserably brought to naught
"All things come right to the wise man
who can wait" says an old French prov
erb. The world did not believe that the
Republicans of France could wait.
In the most portant speech which ne
has ever delivered, the most important
speech, indeed, from many points OF
view, which has been delivered by any
public man in any part of the world ior
many years past, the great tribune OF the
Wrench Republicans, M. Gambeta, has
Just triumphantly demonstrated the in
Justice of this disbelief We say that NJ
Gambetta has demonstrated this.
would be more exact, perhaps, to say that
NJ. Gambetta has afforded the Republi-
cans of France the opportunity to demon
strate it. On the 23d of April Nj. Gam
beta. to whom, as everybody knows
more than to any other one man the sue
cess of the great political coalition o.
February 25 in the Assembly was due
assembled the extreme Radical and Re
publican leaders of Paris, in the mos
Radical and Republican quarter OF the
metropolis, and made them a speech fol
the purpose of explaining, vindicatlng
and confirming that coalition, and the
Constitution which it gave to France
This speech fills fifteen columns Of the
leading Radical journal, La RepuJHqn
Fjdncdise, but it is richly worth reading
from the first line to the last b. every
man who desires to understand the ac
tual state of France and the intiuencI
France must henceforth exert on the
prospects of Europe. No man, indeed
who fails to grasp its copeand the mean
ing of the reception which 1t met witt
from the men to whom it was delivered
at BelleviIe can have any adequate no
tion of the gravity and the Significance
of the work which was done. not alon'
for France, but for civilization, when tn
head ofthe Government OF National De
fense," the impacable antagonist OF al
forms and notifications of hereditar!
rule, openly and cordially joined hand
with the ablest and most honest of tn,
supporters of monarchy in France, 70
the avowed purpose Of saving liberty b.
the use of universal suffrage itself from
the ignorance and the extrayagances o
universal suffrage. 1t required a loft.
patriotism and keen political inSigl
on the part of all the men who brOugh
about this result to make it practicable
at all. 1t required an astonishing com
mand of the highest forms OF oratorlca
power on the part of the most cons leu
ous of these men to make this resul
after it had been achieved in ,he onl.
possible way, by an open compiromllis.
with their EXTREMIST antagonists, intelll
gible by and acceptable to the grea
masses of his own followers. That N
Gambetta did this latter thing, and dl
it with overwhelming success in hi
speech of April %, at Belleyille, is ad
mitted on all hands. How did he do it
NJ. Gambetta is a very remarkable ora
for. He is more than this. He is
statesman, as his course during the las
twelyemonth has irrefragably proved, {
a very high order NJ. Gambetta pos
sesses and deserves to possess the III
bounded confidence of those very classe
in France, the seething Democratic my
riads of the great French cities, whic
have made all previous attempts at fount
inc the republic futile and disastrous, i
part through their own passionate ines
pacity of political justice and forbeal
rt 4brntttrb tho Onpprs