New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-01-02
GANBETy1S SECRET POWER.


described the clouds as assuming the form Of
the countries over which they pass, and human
genius in like manner as modelling itself upon
the epoch in which it lives and absorbing the
individuality of the nation to which it belongs
lie was referring to Mirabeau, who without
creating the Revolution was its characteristic
manifestation. SO, also, has Gambetta been
the embodiment of the Third Republic. Its
patriotic frenzy in the hour of foreign inva-
sion its retributlve justice, it's selfcOntrol and
patience during years of repression and disci-
pline, its morbid dread Of Clerical intrigue and
interference. its recuperative powers and prac-
teal instincts, its Overstrained energy in pO-
litical reconstruction, its hopes and its fears,
| its achievements and its failures, its versatility
and its vagueness of purpose, its progressive
| tendencies, its conservative prejudices and its
inherent lack of religious faith, have found q
more adequate expression in the man than in
the Assembly elected by universal suffrage, Oh
in the constitution and democratic institutions
of the France of to-day. If the populace
gathers in silence about the house where
he lies dead, Just rs it pressed around
the coffin of Mirabeau ninety years
ago, it is because he has been the personal
embodiment of the French democracy in n
momentous period of its history. If he had I'M
disciplined vices, even vulgar weaknesses, so
had the democracy, and no had also what his
political associates did not have, and what the
democracy in vague, uncertain way felt that
| in its best moments it also had-the inspira-
ton of genius.
Gambetta has been incomparably the greatest
| orator of the Third Republic. In 1869, when
he WAS only a lOquacious lawyer who had
made an audacious speech in press trial, he
| could command the admiration Of The Imper-
alists. During the Ieactonary intrigues his
| inveciyes were masterpieces of denuncati0n,
which impaired TO France q thrilling sense of
patriotic Indignation. At tho height of his
political authority he had only to step down
from the Presidents platform and ascend the
tribune In order to reverse the policy of the
Ministry of the day and to decree amnesty to
the Communstic cOnvicts. When q turbulent
faction at Bccvle wished to humiliate him
they had to silence him Ivy their tumut and
uproar, and the hostile Deputies, who con-
demnod his policy n year ago and dismissed
him from the Premiership by an Oyerwhem-
! ing majority, could not help applauding
his speech. BY birth a tribune of the
people and not patrician, the gestures
of command were natural TO him as
they were to Mirabeau, and his eloquence
| famed out from a soul ut white heat. If it
was the blood of Italy that added intensity of
passion to his clOquencc, it was France, and
France alone, that seemed 10 be speaking
| through him when he was in the tribune. His
| epigrammatic sentences. coined in the heat Of
debate or in his imprisoned appeals To Belle
| Vile, the Mount Aventine of the Republic,
were caught up and passed from mouth to
mouth as the standard phrases of political DIS
cussion. Until he became Premier, he ap-
peared in the tribune az representative Of
the Nation. Others stood for constituencies
and factions, but he was the only Deputy
who seemed TO have secret understanding
with the Nation at large, and to speak for it
in a tone of authority.
1t was because he was the tribune Of tho
people and was swaying powerfully The intel
lgcnco of the constituencies that the Deputies
were unwilling TO enlarge his political au-
thority by sanctioning tho Scrutin do Liste
His diplomatic policy caused uneasiness in
many quarters, and his political associates,
chosen often 10y caprice, and never with the
cool, calculating judgment of statesman, inn
paired his usefulness when he was In
Office; but the motive which induced
the Deputies To vote against him
was secret dread Of his personal
ascendancy. They woudkhave preferred to
keep him in Office and to diminish his prestige
precisely rs he himself had exhausted the rep
utatons Of previous PrmIers; but when he
refused to give up his chief measure and re-
tired with the dignity of a great Minister, they
combined to make tho majority against
him overwhelming, in order to convince
tho constituencies that his power had
been overestimatcd. To what extent they
were successful in their Interior purpose will
never be known; but it IL singular coinc-
dcnce that he whose lot it had been to pro-
claim the collapse of personal rule should not
have escaped the suspicion, vague and unjust
as it was, of founding new order of govern
ment with view TO administering it for per-
sonal and sOrdid ends.
There is no evidence that Gambelia cycraimed
mt establishing political dictatorship through a
species of plGbisciio in department elections
His enemies who unfeehngly accused him OF
plotting against the peace OF France will prob
ably pay tardy HOMAGE now that he is dead,
to his patriotism and political ability by
speedily adopting the scheme of electoral re-
form winch lac considered essential in ORDER
that the Government might DO made stable,
the Constitution logical and the Republican
party efficient and homogeneous. Yet unjust
rs were their oucrics against his ambition,
the Deputies were right in assuming that his
viii had acquired undue weight with the
Judgment Of the Nation at largo. He had what
his associates laclcd-original genius; and
this, with his oTatorical gifts, made him a
great parsonage. This was his secret power
for it must not be forgotten that while France