New-York tribune., 1878-01-02
THE FRENCH VICTORY.


PROM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBusEi
LONDON Dec. 1s.-The distrust with which the
news Of the Marsbals surrender was received at
first may be faid to have vanished. Perhaps 1t was
more hesitation than diStrust-a sort OF good-to-
be-true feeling; a certain slowncss to believe that
so long crisis was really over; peril so immense
really averted Whatever it was, II has fairly given
way to conviction that the Republic has
won O victory. the importance and solidity OF
which cannot be rated too highly. Liberal
England - nay, Tory England also - reJoiees
in the JOY of her neighbor and ally. heard an en-
inent Enplishman say yesterday that constitutional
liberalism had achieved no such triumph III Europe
since the Long Parliament IL is not too much to
saw The whole Continent breathes freer this week,
The awful shadow of priesty war no longer hangs
on the horizon. One more Ultramontane conspiracy
is bafled. Once great nation has affirmed
that of the people, by the people, and for
the people, shall not perish from the earth.
es'd last week that Nj. Gambctta and the Moder-
ate Republicans satisfied. suspect that M.
Gambetta is in his inmost soul, better satisfied than
II the victory had been, IN one sense. more cont
plete and the Cabinet more Radical. He can hardly
be anxious TO his Bcllevle friends too near the
throne or power placed in the hands OF men only
too ready to use it rccklessly. The Iueconciables
gr0w at VI. Dnfaure, and at the generally moderate
composition of tho Cabinet. Some Of them are men
who wonld growl at anything short of a new Com
mune, and would growl at that as soon as they had
got it--which, thank God. they never will get.
They minority, and they know II,
but they are men who would just as surely
impose their own will on France rs that
minority of clerical Legtimists whom they
deicst 80 heartily. They forget that the only true
Republican is he who is ready TO abide by the dcci-
1. 4. t,,ut
Unit! lately there has been no such Republican party
in France. There none in the first Revolution.
1--WE were not the Republicans to begin with" said
Camille Dcsmouns. Not France, but the clubs and
sections Of Paris are responsible for the September
massa,ros and the Terror. France made Its voice
heard first on the 9th Thermidor. In 1880, in lsIS,
in 1870 aud most disasrously of all in 1871 Paris
rcaSsertcd her divine right to rule France. The
leaders of the Republican party have been, almost
without exception, men who would have set mp
Republic on bayOnrts.
No; till NJ. Gambetta appeared on the scene has
the right of the people TO determine their own form
of government been affirmed with authority enough
Ia make il the creed of great party. or 10 apply
that creed consistently and honestly in practice. /
don't count the period Of NJ. Gambettas Dictator
ship any more than count the Dictatorship OF Pres
ident Lincoln from April to July 1861. Ii was not
the Republican priaciple which was then at stake IN
either case but the life of the Nation. That
period excepted NJ Gambctta has been the stcadfast
advocate of submission 10 the law and government
by the people is much part of his doctrine ms
government for the people. II is by him more than
by any other man. more even than Thicrs that this
doctrine has at last prevailed lt,is he who has
led the country in its last struggle against the
dcSpo.ism OF ininorties. IL is to his sagaciy his
ola, IL a.i. &.
political organization, his good sense, his
knowledge of his countrymen. his steady
courage. that this last victory of parla-
lncntary over Personal Government is in large
measure due. lie il is who has known how 10 weld
together the dlscordant sections Of the Republican
partv 10 check the mad zeal of its extremists; To
encom nge and lead forward the moderacs: 10 estab
lish discipline III It's ranks ! am no believer in the
theory that things do Themselves that an rTcssti-
bic current sweeps men 10 goal; that the hour pro-
duocs the man, and all the rest OF it. 1 be-
hcye. the contrary, making all allowance
for what is called the spirit of the age, that
the history Of France at this moment, aud for
= generation Ia come, might have taken
different turn If Gambetas leadership had been
wanting The fact that he lives and moves in such
close sympathy with the people does not lcssen-it
eniiances-the value of his guidance.
He has been rcpgoachcd with Opportunism. \
good many Of the men who rcproach him might be
i'm CAYENNE to-day but for II. | take opportunisn
10 mean q readiness to accept what you can get IN
poliics 10 acknowledge aud not 10 ignore or resist
the actual state of feeling and opinion IN the conn
trv; 10 make the best of things a. yOu find
Them and do to-day what your hand lindeth
To do instead Of refusing Ia do IT
because you cannot also do something else
which may be in itself desirable, but which Is, IN
fbr present teu.,cr of the country for whatever
reason impossible The word is easier Ia understand
than to define no doubt, and don't offer my com
ment on il as definition. Ganbct;a himself Illus
trated its meaning in his first exclamation when the
news 81 Thicrs' dcath-which he aud MI other Re-
pub, thought a dsasicr-was brought to him.
III nesi pas opporhniste, cciu-n." Opporirnlsn is,
however. no Other than form Of that Difference TO
III. will of the people which, III this aDdothcr forms
the great Tribune has proclaimed as the rule of po-
ltical life. ! don't think you can find any
where in his speeches an echo OF the
doctrine that universal suffrage is only 10 be obeyed
when it, voice is accord with certain theories :;
the doctrine of Rousseau, of Louis Blanr-of men
who have conferred great benefits on mankind, but
whose capacity for speculation is certainly greater
than their capacity for affairs Ganbetta has seen
that yoI cannot educate a nation INTO htnrss for
s.lf-goyernmcnt by teaching II that It's decisions
may be ovcrruled if they do not square with the
formulas of certain social philosophers. How much
~ there TO choose between that and the ns0ent
declaration of the Marshal last October. that if the
verdict of the people did not accord with his own
views, 1t would be treated AS null
There is not a peasant in France who does not
know to-day that the President of the Republic has
tried for two months TO cvade and defeat the popu
lar wil that he has failed and that r has al last
~ nntN Nnll rcnl In hisInrN