New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-01-15
LEON GAMBE1TA.
"REMINISCENCES OF A CRISIS AND A DE.
Rate

Gambetta was the one man or great position III
France who had in supreme degrees the saving
grace of common sense. Nothing is 50 rarc in o
country where politics are conducted on straight
lines. Now # ever is the moment 10 repeat tie
saying of one of the few Frenchmen who had IN
eye for tho essential faults OF his compatriots.
The greatest service" sail he, that could DO
done TO Franco would he to abolish of the Ian
guage two words-iogique and principe" The latter
word does not, or in bis mouth did not, signify
principle, but the formula. When Frenchman
talks of principe he means some neat phrase IN
which he has embodied for the moment his most
eager prejudice and his most damaging criticism on
his nearest foe. Then 10 serves him for q rule OF
conduct, usually with disastrous results. lie Is tho
slave OF It, and there is not much good IN being tho
slave Of anything. Gambetta was the one French
statesman who understood what Burke meant
when he ssid that the essence of politics is CON-
promise. In France, and in the master hand Of tho
great man who is dead, it became 0pportunism.
No word has broughi greater reproach on him. 1t
ought TO be inscribed Oh his tomb as an epitaph
aud eulogy.
In different words but in similar
sense | once heard Gambetta pronounce
his own eulogy and the summary OF his
character The memory of it carries me BACK 10
the days when Gambetta was perhaps at LIS great.
est. don't mean to 1870 and 1871. to the days or
his Dictatorship and his heroic resistance to what
he knew was inevitable defeat l mean the days
when he organized France against the Reachonist
conspiracy of the Seize Mai. In those memorable
months from May to November, 1877, IL was ne, as
| CARLYLE said not more truly of Mirabeau, who when
old France was shaken from its basis an IL with ais
single hand held it topping there. still unfallen.
Il was the one bcur of deadly peril through which
the French Republic has passed, and this one man
saved il from utter wreck. The elections of Octo-
her were his work. The majority was his majority,
the 363 Republicans of the Assembly were his men.
| So well did Messrs de BrOglie and Fourtou know
where their danger lay that they set even the crini
! nal law in motion against Gambetta. Long AFTER
ward the Due de Broglie was asked II he really
meant or expected to convict and imprison me ne
| publican chief for saying that Marshal MacMahoh
must either submit to the will of France or resign.
| "Certaiply.D answered the Due. But with what
obiectp 81 meant to fasten him the stigma OF
| legal guilt. and so discredit him that he shouio
| become thereafter homme impossible.
| As 1t turned out, it was not dahoe's pu'
| the Due de Broglie who became impossible Wnen
| tho Assemhv met in November the conspirators
knew that there remained TO them out one
| a ooap Fetat: and TO that Marshal MacMahon could
| ~. hs hopoht TO CONSENT The step resolved on by
| cambetta to turn out the Ministry. was a
] motion for n commission of inquiry into ths
| oots of Ministers On that motion a -FOUR
,lavs, debate took place, and on the fourth
| dow II was closed by speech from the quo
do Rro0lis and o reply from Gambetta- The As
.enhlv at that time sitting at Versaliies han
| poris streamed out to the portals OF the Palace
| THO streets of Versailles were filled with troops
| The doors of the Palace were guarded Depu'ies
had IN make their way between files OF SOLDIERS ana
A.. s,a;ara at that ti.s.s were believed to be ready
= !. nnlra Qadq
no found Gambetta himself was supposed to be Ia
dar,ar Of military arrest l don't doubt the pro-
iect Of seiziug him he'd been discussed and put
SIDE "a TOO fnIl of peril Even De Fourtou, reso-
Iute "a he WAS unscrupuious, did not care to have
| all Paris IN his HANDS.
Ibad met Gambetta day or two before In ~ao OK
tbs street cars which piled between tue ian~~S
station and the Palace. and Louls Blanc haa inuo.
duced me 10 him. | asked him about the ueoas'
80 be told ma if warted to hear him Ahounu
have to stay over the week-" -"supposihs ! a-i
oI,o,,,ad 70 speakr When the day came the thronk
az Versailles was great the difficulty OF appro"on
| inc the doors was extreme. hau pionii'' VI
Us. fron, ons of the Editors of tue RepaoNqae
Ero,c,ise but no ticket, and without tich''
nohodv was allowed to pass. On ordinary oay''
sA anri,o all preyious days of this debate tue
l,;c had been permitted to enter freely as iar as
,,o or+a.roo,n of the Chamber. Finally Depu'y
.o,- mo pnder his protection and bv dent OF some
| orioring with the officer in COMMAND We gut p"''
the bayoaets. ,,,, .;,ca
Tbor, had not been such day In France s.uce
the convention, or since the lStn brunaire' Au"'
davis vote was to decide whether the hep"o"o
sbould 20 10 pieces and some despotisn vi ''n0,
set nm ON its ruins That the vote wouid os agar n'
thc Ministry was known. but whether the Mihsry
and MacMaiion would submit, was no'
: | Lro,vn In the trlbunes not seat was 'soAuS'
H. ,''a corridors and bureaux of the Chamber tne
| excitement was at fever neat Dep"'','' 60.
i1,s Ministers great bankers, Ambassadors oene-
T' eana,ors wsre gathered in knots, and the DIN
-et,ii, ,yos tremendous Outsiders were onerins
400 f,r nlace TO hear 1t was by sheer goou iucH
and tbe unweared kindness of my editorai ,rienu
= I4I found n seat Just as the Preslueh.
k.I sang NJ Greyy now President oftne hepuo
Iic that day preserved to HIM By the man ne ha'
since bnt ill-requted, was the Presineh' VI YIN
Assembly.
, ,rho Drc de Broglis mounted the pulpit when tn'
| 1,,ob call n tribune as soon rs some formai oust
, | -, ,ros ov,r and spoke for an hour ana nai'
v canLstta was in his seat, never quiet for an III
: st,nt. Some colleague or other was 'vwaS9 0' 49,.
e mn to him. few words were exchahgeo' '"o
- rolad about In his char, gestured ge''lou
in,o1 avery movement fnll of intense energy
I IT, or thrice he interrupted the Ou'
de nroce, whose elocutioD, like his dictloh' "s'
o.nred. elaborate, every effect calculated ID al
5 vance Refined in manner. intellectual, cu'su nr..
colJ. malignant and treacherons the Dno was wo s
e c,sely the opponent to rouse GamDet,". a, i;,n
. descending the stairs on the r'en' u IN aI,ste
= cannho,t. shoulderlng his way through the cus'o
50 Danuties at the foot already mounting Vi
holeft Once in the tribune, he had Directly con
sront,nr hun in the hemicycle beneath ana OF
,ba 6rsr bench. the whole body Of Ministers whoa
5 be was about TO assail and overthrow
Tho Chamber echoed for some minutes wi'i
D ohoars The Right cheered the orator who had JUS
finished. The Left and Left-Centre' on .na' uA'
!, .;t.a IN, a common danger and perfectly az ac