Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-01-03
GAMBETTA
Aier's Policy DisspprOved, His
Genius Praised.
The Belief Expressed that the Republic
Cannot be Oyerthrown-6ambe
Wonderful Influence.
e.ll Mall Gazette. December 18Th.

Dia, an independent Liberal newspaper, a
long review of the position and prospects Of
the new French ministry, which has attracted
considerable attention both in Spain and
France. We translate the most important
paragraphs from it below, condensing here
and there where the matter allowed. Few
persons who have watched the growth Of
Senior Castelar's conservatism during the
eight years which haze elapsed since his
short t;,t terrible term of office in 1873 will
be surprised to find that the article expresses
a view highly unfavorable to the progr anime
and composition Of the Gambetta ministry.
The appeal which it makes TO moderate
men," and the denunciation in it OF the
French tendency to constituent periods"
have found brilliant support during the past
week in the publication of NJ. Scherer's
pamphlet on Rtrisioa. Perhaps the most
Interesting thing in Castelar's study is the
position assigned to NJ de Freycinet. 1t
must not, however, be forgotten that
Spanish statesman discussing French
politics writes under the constant conviction
OF the enormous influence exercised by
France en- the other Latin nations. In de-
nouncing the doctrinaire tendenciesof French
radicalism, Senior CASTELAR, is also rating the
federalists and ultra-progressionists of his
own country, and in his prophecy OF victory
to conservative republican party in France
turks note of encouragement to those po-
litical elements which may before long com
bine into such party in Spain.
Senior CASTELAR, begins by expressing his
conviction that the French republic is now
finally established upon foundations which
1t liz beyond the power OF its enemies to
overthrow. He reviews the republican con-
quests in the direction of political lib; rty
since 1870, compares the "improvised" re-
public of 1913 with the republic, born of ne
cessity and circumstance, of 1870 and glori-
fies the last electoral manifesto of NJ. Theirs.
for whom the Spanish orator has always
had sincere admiration. Theirs in his
eyes was the man of compromise and expert
ence, whereas the present regime is based
upon crude political dogmatism which ig-
nores experience.
81 have always thought the standpoint of
the RepubIique Francaise narrow for news
paper, but how infinitely narrower does it
, appear now that it has become the stand
point of government! Look at the minis
try is at present constituted, at its three or
| four principal departments of finance, instruc-
! ton, commerce, and you will perceive at first
sight that it is the whole reduction of tine
Republigte which has been raised to power,
and that the Jacobin and positivist campaign
opened long ago in the columns of a journal
is now to be continued on the nights OF
the state. Nobody in the secret imagined
that the president of the chamber, when
called upon to form ministry, would sur
round himself with the emihent persons
whom public opinion had long marked out
for Office His infexibility of character and
his force of will alike impelled Gambetta to-
ward ministry of disciples, and dissuaded
him from a ministry of rivals. Few men in
the world have exercised such an influence
az NJ. Gambetta now yields in France.
Whatever mistakes he may make, the coun-
try will never forget that he carried
on the war when every body Else resigned
themselves to defeat, and that he be-
lieved the republic when all others were
convinced that upon the bleeding and smok-
ing ruins nothing could be reared but
restoration. 1t was his great merit, also,
in the latter days of conflict and under the
fear OF eoup' fetdt and military conspiracies,
to set his face against all revolutionary &C
ton, and to put his ia tn in France and in
the popular will. At the present moment he
is reaping the reward OF consummate politi-
cal foresight, while his party enjoys the
recompense of excellent discipline and I'M
changing obedience.
most exclusively a politician. er-Col-
lard, Guizot. Theirs, Lamartine, Ledru
Rollin, had all of them interest apart from
politics. Gambetta has none An Italian
and ProvencaI, he has certain taste for
art, but it is the mere distraction of mind
possessed ofpolItics alone. 1t is a habit of his
to think aloud, and to spend a good deal of
the day in talking to those about him, en-
ploying for the most trifling subjects the
grave accentuation and the contagious fire of
eloquence. As politician before all and
above all, no one studies his cotempo-
raries as he studies them, and no
one knows better how to make use
OF those who are necessary to him,
and how to abandon the superhuous ones to
their fate in whatever quagmire OF the road
No one so attractive for those he wishes to
win, or so repulsive for those he wishes to get
rid of. No one so affectionate to his friends
or so implacable toward his adyersaries. He
knows Paris as If it were engraved upon his
brain. In 1866, when no one knew him be-
yond Cremieux's clerks and the editors of
the Temps, the friends who met at his Sun
day breakfasts in ffth-foor room on the
Rue Bonaparte learned from him all there
was TO be learned about Paris and its life,
whether in the Tuilleries, in the senate, in
the chamber, in the council of ministers, in
the imperial family, in the academies, or in
the barracks. AT the present day he can run
through list, from memory, of all the in
fuential electors of France as though he
were reading off their names. He will never
get to the bottom of any question, but he will
know something of all, and he will speak
well upon all. The scientific ideas acquired
in his youth, in opposition to the seminary,
will accompany him to his grave, and he
Will seek to embody them in reality by
means of the God State to which he
renders fervent and idolatrous homage. And
holding, as he does, rigid political creed
and a still more rigid scientific creed, he will
hate all opposing creeds with the ardor and
enthusiasm proper to sectaries, as the Cath
olic clergy and conservative Senate will soon
have reason to know. A 'grande ministere,'
therefore, with Gambetta at the head, is an
impossibility"
In the Gambetta Ministry Senior CASTELAR,
believes that radicalism has attained it's eli
max, and is enjoying its period of greatest
exuberance and brilliapce. Beyond Gam
beta is nothing but the Extreme Left and a
Socialist creed more or less defined. Glenn
enceau, Barodet, Naquet, Boisset, Roche, are
the mouthpieces of demands of which one is
scarcely more impracticable than another.
at would seem, then, that the time has
come, in the midst of so much perilous ex-
travagance, to found face to face with the
radical parties, Liberal-Republican party,
synthetic in ideas and conciliatory in pro-
cedure, which may give the Right room to
move without depriving authority of any OF
its prestige or the State of any of its essential
attributes. Nothing, indeed, is wanting to
such party but vigor on the part of its
leaders. 1t has even a chief of recognized
VI uhuioDutcd ecffICccY VI lhcO-
retical and practical wisdom, of private and
civic virtue, and of unb!emished honor
a man energetic without violence, hex-
ible without self-surrender, conciliatory
without Weakness possessing elo-
quence persuasive if not passion
ate and liberal opinions which, though not
extreme, are lasting and Interchangeable. We
know him to have drank deeply of the mod
ern spirit, while at the same time he is de-
void of superstitious hostility to the church.
Republican, Democrat, Liberal of the Lib
erals, he is yet convinced of the respect due
to all religious beliefs; of the frmness re-
quired to remake and rediscipline the army,
and of the compromise which life perpet-
ually requires between reality and the ideal.
Such man is now summoned by all disin-
terested and patriotic motives to lead
group from which in the end may rise gov
eminent beloved and obeyed by France,
without any danger to democracy and the
republic. The party of Freycinet ought TO
organize itself without delay, that it may be
prepared to assume power whenever it be-
comes necessary to replace the Gambetta
Ministry. Thus, ii the present state OF
French politics had no other advantage, it
would have at least the indisputable advan-
tage of founding conservative party sprung
from the bosom OF democracy, and necessary