New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-01-03
1nsS AND GAININ ERANCE.

LOSS AND GAM IN FRANCE
The worlds working stock of genius is not so
large that the death of 80 original and so power
full man rs Gambetta can be anything less
than serious loss to the cause of Liberalism IN
and out OF France. The event, however, has
been so we'll timed that it is in no sense a catas-
tropbe. The ReactOnary factions have been
dispersed the higher eccesiastics and the
main body of the clergy have practically nc
cepted the new order of things little AS they liked
1t at the outset and tie Republic is not only
founded, but securely and permanently es'ab-
lished. The death of Gambetta, far from being
a menace to existing institutions, will cause less
apprehension in French politics than was Gre
ated by the disappearance of Theirs Mt mo-
mentous crisis when the Reactionary groups
had made their last desperate onslaught upon
the Republic. Fundamental issues OF constitu-
tional development remain unsolved, but it
NAV be that they will be disposed of more read
iiy now that the Deputies can no longer be en-
yious OF Gambetta's personal asceDdancy. IL
has already ceased to be question whether the
Premiership or the Presidency will be the
greater Office in the State. The decline In the
political authority of the Premiership has been
positive, and Gambelta himself, even with the
Scrutin de Liste, could not have permanently
restored its influence. 1t remains an open qnes-
ton whether the Deputies will be able to de-
grade and discipline the President as they
have the Premier and the Ministers, or whether
with tlo aid of the Senate the President may
not eventually release himself from his present
state of dependence upon the popular Chamber
IN executive administration, assuming toward
the Ministry the relations of an American Pres
ident to his Cabinet The solution of that prob
lem will not be retarded by Gambetta's death.
Indeed, it may be directly facilitated, for he
was toe powerful political parsonage to be an
American President himself, or TO allow any
one else to be one.
The death of Gambetta at this timo is loss
to idealism rather than to practical politics.
France is deprived OF the only statesman OF
the first rank whom the Republic has produced.
His work had virtually ended and his enemies
were pursuing him with malignant spite, but he
remained unique figure, towering above his
associates He alone caught the eye of that pa
triotic idealsm which demanded great men aud
great things, and was harssscd and disap-
pointed by small men and small things. Now
that lie is dead, the heroic period becomes
itself with minor figures and practical details in
politics, and he prepared to tolerate an era OF
the commonplace. 1t was only few weeks ago
that Renan, expressing the disappointment of
Liberals of tIanscendental type with the ten
denotes of French politics, exclaimed with Bit
terness There are times when the world
" gives men of mind aud culture broad hint
. that it has no occasion for their services, and
" that on the whole it gets Oh much better with
"out them" His instinct was right Frame
needs to-day more than anything else the tran
uul and normal exercise of talents of Il pIosaic
and commonplace order.
Italy, which lost year ago the Last of the great
fgures of its heroic age, has done little that
was conspicuous since II was liberated and
united. There have been no diplomatic sue
cesses, no victories in war, no commercial en-
terprises Of tie first magnitude. It's politicians
have been occupied with their own wranglng
and with complex questions Of finance tax
alton, suffrage and electoral reform, and this
practical work of political ana industrial reOr-
ganzatiOn has been virtually disposed OF, after
years of dull debate and faction politics, by a
Premier Of ordinary ability. In like manner,
France now requires practical ability rather
than creative genius. Gambetta's death may be
an iIretIievable loss TO national idealisn, which
is always exactng in its demands after rad
zeal Change i'll the form of government has given
a new direction to the energies of the people
but ii may prove in the end a substantial gain
to practical legislation and constitutional
development.