GAMBETTA.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4011, 5 November 1881, Page 1

GAMBETTA.

The following ia M. Charles de Mwtde's sketch of M. Gambetta, which appeared in the Revue dcs Deux Monit's :—" M. Gambetta is.tertainly an important per- , ■onage in the .Republic; courtiers and flatterers are not wanting to him; foreign writers of history are anxious to ch?cais!« his conversations ; his opinions on every subject are soight for, and an oppbr^ tunity prbTided by hiil friends that they may be given. Had he, earned the scrutin de lute he would have had an OTerwhelming part in the elections; but.

nevertheless, he is the irian of the period; the most brilliant representative of that phase of the Republic which we have now reached. Still, however, M. Ganibetta is an enigma for those who carefully consider him. He has certainly had a fortunate career, nothing has failed him. He Was for a moment, in the middle of the terrible crisis of the nation, au improvised Dictator of France. He has since been an able tactician, a strategist full of resources, knowing in turn how to meet ill-disguised hostility, or to discipline the action of the Eepublican party., No one denies in this brilliant athlete his superiority to all that surrounds him ; but still the enigma is not solved, for although M. Ganibetta has succeeded ia becoming one of the iirst amongst public personages, although he is far from being; an ordinary man, he visibly fails in that which constitutes real power. In spite of evident progress in a few years, he is not fully matured, and to tell the truth, his fortune is not explained by what has hitherto been called his genuine eloquence, nor by Ms qualities as a true statesman. Let them say what they will, M. Gambetta is not of the royal race of orators, or, at least, has only a portion of their gifts, and of this we have as a proof his public career of twelve yeass, from the cause he,pleaded at the Palais de Justice to his last harangue at Tours. He doubtless has force, warmth and animation, but he has neither measure nor precision, and his eloquence is almost always declamation. With a keen, and lively intellect, he clearly lacks general knowledge, and those higher lights that a politician kaows how to find in the study of history. He speaks as a man of action for the occasion, in* the interests of party, and amongst all his speeches there is not one 1 gravely dealing with a grave question of nay kind. But flattery dares all things and what have they not said of him. They have almost made him equal to Mirabeau, and for many he is at least on the level of the great orators of the century-— Berryer, Tbiers, Guizot, Lamartine. He is, they say, the orator of the new times, of the democracy. So be it, but it is certain this orator begins by taking strange liberties with the French language. His Bpeech is full of inaccuracies and doubtful phrases that cannot pass unquestioned as the flowers of the new eloquence. He has certainly originality and power, but he is obscure and confused, so that his audience are sometimes left in doubt as to what it was he meant to say. And this obscurity is not without its meaning; it reveals a train of thought that is far from being clear and precise. Here is the secret; the speech hardly disguises the emptiness, the incoherence, and the contradictions of the thought. M. Gambetta, on the whole, has hitherto been only almost a politician, as he has been almost an orator. He has, nevertheless, leanings, instincts, ambitions, above all, the good will to accommodate himself to the great parts that tempt him, and for which he believes himself made. Unfortunately in this rich organisation there are elements that do not combine, strange dissonances, faults of education which resist everything, which the experience of life has not corrected. We continually perceive in this nature green spots which have not ripened, qualities which reflection and work have not made fruitful. M. Gambetta's weakness is that he has not been able to get rid of the old man—that he remains a party man, even a man of a sect, with more passions than ideas, and more devices than seriously political views. With, him all is a jumble, everything contradicts. itself from day to day. . Such happy impulses as he may, have are frequently followed by eccentricities which destroy the growing confidence, and make us sure of nothing in connection with him. He is a Government man, or a man of the Opposition according to circumstances, according to the whim or interest of the moment. The fact is that,'whether as leader of a party, President of a Chamber or aspirant to power, he has not for a moment ceased to be a politician who promises the country more agitations than serious reforms, and, perhaps, more risks than guarantees." It is evident that from a man like this dangerous speeches may be expected, and all that distinguishes the ambitious -charlatan.