a ready consent to the marriage, and even | remarkable at once, had not Gambetta at offered an allowance to the young couple the time been covering every one by his and one of his small farms to live in. shadow, and M. Clémenceau, willy-nilly, Miss Sabina allowed her old interest in had to resign himself to walk under that Nancy to revive, and sent her the material shade. He became the lieutenant under for her wedding dress, which Miss Michin this captain, and was at the beginning an announced her intention of making up obedient and submissive subordinate. herself every stitch. Nor was this all. Mrs. Dodd, the worthy post-mistress, with whom Nancy had always been a favorite, begged her acceptance of a prettily furnished work-basket which she had made a journey to Exboro' to buy.

And the half-sovereign?

It was never spent, but was always in sight under a wine-glass, to remind the Owner so she said "of how her temper nearly worried her." JEANIE GWYNNE BETTANY.

From The Leisure Hour.
STATESMEN OF EUROPE.

FRANCE.

PART II.

NEVER yet prime minister, but among the most conspicuous and influential of French statesmen, is Clémenceau. Georges Benjamin Clémenceau belongs to a Vendée family. He came to Paris as a medical student, but turned his attention at once chiefly to politics. After a rapid journey to America to study the institutions of that commonwealth, he came back to Paris, and took up his abode between Montmartre and Belleville, in order that he might live right in the very midst of revolutionary Paris. He soon gained a rapid popularity among his obstreperous neighbors, and found himself among the new men called to the front by the events of September 4. At that time he was twenty-nine, but was nevertheless elected to be mayor of his arrondissement, though he had neither services nor titles to show. His first move was in the direction of laicising the schools; his first misfortune, the assassination in his arrondissement of the generals Lecomte and Clément Thomas. He has often been accused of complicity, and has as often pleaded his innocence, or rather, his impotence.

In his appearance, M. Clémenceau has something of the character of a Puritan of Cromwell's court. He is a middle-sized man, thin, with a big, bony head, straight, thick eyebrows, and deep-set, twinkling eyes. To those who look closer at the face it bears traces of continual effort and premature fatigue, traces of a something which might be politely qualified as scepticism. When he speaks his voice is sharp and his words short, his gestures are decisive, and, even when his face is in movement, his delivery remains calm.

In the tribune he is a powerful antagonist. Just as in his exterior appearance there is an affectation of calm and austerity, so in his speeches there is an appearance of the most rigid precision — an appearance with which he deceives himself and others. He starts in his political conceptions from three or four à priori ideas which other men might account unproved, and which he pushes relentlessly to their logical conclusion. A Frenchman has said that Clémenceau's chain of reasoning, which looks so logical and strong, is tacked on to a rotten old stake; strike that, and the chain comes away in your hand. The criticism is characteristic, though not always applicable. He is the theologian of a theology without God, or, if we may coin the word, the demologian of democracy raised to the level of a dogma. Masterful and authoritative with his colleagues, he is all honey and flattery with his electors flattery of the grossest and vulgarist kind, calculated to catch the suffrages of the mob. According to him, the upper classes are corrupt, vile, grasping; the people alone is lofty, grand, pure, impeccable, the source of all light, and all right. According to him, all those who think with him are good and loyal Republicans; all others are traitors-he has no gentler word to bestow. Probably he is not singular in thus dividing the world of politics.

When MacMahon formed the RocheIt was in October, 1876, that he first bouet ministry, the so-called ministry of became member of the Chamber. At the resistance which resisted three weeks Municipal Council of Paris, whence he-the Republicans leagued themselves issued, his influence had been preponderant. He had incarnated in his person Radical and Revolutionary Paris, and he entered the Chamber in the same quality. He would, no doubt, have made himself

together, and answered by appointing a committee of eighteen members, whose duty it was to watch MacMahon, and avert a monarchical reaction. Clémenceau was one of the eighteen. This committee be

son took his legal degree at the age of ence. But great moral courage is his twenty-two, but, despising the law, he salient trait. It is related that one day a became a railway contractor, a profession waiter at the Café de la Paix came to tell in which he ruined himself, despite his him that he had overheard Boulanger say: great activity and enterprise. At the age "If I don't kill Constans, he will kill me." of thirty-two he returned to his legal "Really," replied Constans, "that is the studies, and after four years the railway only sensible remark of Boulanger's I contractor became professor of Roman have ever heard." Certainly Constans is law at Toulouse, then national councillor, not the kind of man to kill any one. It finally deputy, minister, and governor of has been acutely remarked that there is Indian China. On returning to France much more of the fisherman than of the from his post of governor-general, a friend gunner in him. He perceives his prey, asked him, in June, 1888, what he thought throws in his line, gently plays with his of Boulangism, which at the time was at fish, draws him up and down stream, and its height. "I will tell you," replied then, just when he might land him and Constans, "when I have seen the man." finish him, he stops. He prefers making A fortnight later he had seen the man, his adversary disappear rather than kill and said to his friend: "Boulanger is him. In Boulanger's case it were hard to hollow; Boulangism is a big practical say whether Constans' cleverness or Boujoke." Nevertheless, at that moment the langer's stupidity were the chief instrupractical joke was taking alarming pro- ments that brought about success. But portions, and everybody in France, and certainly, Constans is a great tactician. many persons in Europe, were convinced He never drops a card unless it is a bad that it would prove successful. Even the one, and then in order that some one else government, influenced by the surround- may pick it up. His whole strength lies ing atmosphere, was wavering and break-in his psychological perceptions; he has ing up; resistance seemed useless, defeat a keen intuition of the human soul with certain. And yet Boulanger was con- which he has to deal. Gambetta used to quered, and it is to Constans in largest measure that this is due. He saved the republic, and saved France from a danger that would have been an ignominy. At the moment that Boulangism was at its apotheosis, Constans alone shrugged his shoulders, and said: "You will see the new Chamber will count three hundred and sixty-two or three hundred and sixtyfive Republicans." It counted three hundred and sixty-six.

Like many another eminent Frenchman, Constans is a Southerner, and has many of the Southerners' peculiar qualities. Unlike a Southerner, however, he is not much of a talker; Acta non verba is his device. He abhors long speeches, and never intoxicates himself with his own eloquence, as meridionals are so apt to do. He has, in a supreme degree, the gift of contempt, as he showed in his appreciation of Boulanger. Another and more important gift is his innate conception of duty. He is inflexible himself in this matter, and expects every one else to be so. When he returned from China, and found himself placed between triumphant Boulangism and the apparently ruined republic, he did not hesitate a moment to take side with the weaker party, but went straight ahead to face the danger, which was literally a mortal one, and which imperilled his own political, and perhaps also his own material, exist

attack situations, Constans attacks men. He acts on principle, although he is accused of having none. The professor of law is still strong in him; he proceeds by regular phrases, each beginning, "Seeing that," etc., and in his calculations he is scientific as well as calculating. "If this is equal to that, such-and-such a result must be brought about by such-and-such a combination." He never speaks or acts unless he is thoroughly convinced, and his conviction is so strong that it magnetizes others and convinces them too. Herein lies his main strength; his will is a magnet, and by it he has magnetized France. His great firmness in office, his cleverness in administration, has given him the supremacy which he undoubtedly holds at the present moment. Nevertheless, it must not be for one moment supposed that he is popular. Like Jules Ferry, he enjoys the hatred of the masses, and is accused of the most infamous and dishonorable crimes.

Constans is a successful man in society, and much beloved of his convivial friends. He is a member of the club called La Luscrambo (a provincial word meaning glow-worm), much frequented by meridional artists. Billiards, however, are more in honor at this club than politics. In appearance Constans shows no great charac ter; his face is not remarkable, it is only his eyes that betray his power fine, grey,

Southern eyes, of which it is difficult to
read the hidden meaning. They con-
stantly convey an impression of being shut
and seeming tired, and they avoid meeting
a direct gaze.
His general aspect is that
of a bonhomme, as the French would say.
His enemies declare that he looks like a
grocer. He has a most marvellous mem-
ory and can repeat books that he has read
from cover to cover. He has also an as-
tonishing memory for music; but with
regard to this it is jokingly said that his
memory is Italian
- he can recall all the
words and music of an Italian opera, but
he cannot remember a single French air.
Like many men of the South, he is very
superstitious; he is afraid of sitting down
thirteen at table, and always, they say, puts
a piece of old iron under his chair to keep
away evil influences. Since he came into
office there has certainly been a notable
change in the direction of French politics.
His clear-sighted determination has been
of immense value to the tranquillity of the
State, and, so long as he holds the author-
ity of government, it is likely that the
third republic will be able to continue its
existence.

With M. Constans we close the list of the leading statesman of modern France; but there remain a large number of minor men who are also making their mark upon the course of events. We will mention a few of the most prominent.

second time is for the fools, and these are in the majority outside the Chamber — and even inside." M. Floquet has not much regard for fools; he does not repeat his epigrams. His enemies say that he has ticketed himself as "incorruptible like Robespierre, and handsome like Saint Just”—at least, his enemies declare that he has so labelled himself; and they go on to add that from that moment he has been the captive of the Revolution, and has walked all his political life, like a sandwich-man, between two boards, on one of which was painted Robespierre, and on the other Saint Just, his own head only appearing vaguely above the boards, and presenting a forced resemblance to a rather artificial Danton. His dominant hobbies are a revision of the constitution, in order to give more power to universal suffrage, and a new system of taxation which should bring about a fairer distribution of imposts. The men whom he managed to group around him were moved much more by a suspicion of Boulanger than any sympathy with Floquet; and now that Boulanger is dead, it is possible that Floquet, too, may subside into oblivion.

Another man whom the disappearance from the scene of Boulanger has also largely deprived of his political raison d'être is M. Alfred Naquet, the man who was the brain of the gallant general, who In 1888 Charles Thomas Floquet was wrote his speeches for him, and who president of the council. He, like so pulled the wires of that good looking pupmany of his compeers, began his career as pet, who was occupied, meanwhile, with a lawyer, passing from jurisprudence to red carnations, fine ladies, and dainty supjournalism. He is to this day a contrib- pers. By profession a scientific chemist, utor to the Temps and the Siècle. His by birth an Israelite, he entered into podistinguishing feature when in office was litical life in 1878, opening up a campaign that he was willing to let everything go, in favor of a union of all the Republicans. and to insist on nothing the very con- He wrote in the Revue Bleue and the Estrary of M. Constans, who knows what he tafette, and he spoke in the Chamber in means and intends to do it. Like so many favor of a constitution modelled on that of of his countrymen, also, he is enamoured of the United States. It was this hobby which words, and, above all things, of epigrams, led him to take up Boulanger, whom he by which he is ever seeking to make thought might be utilized for carrying out effects. A few of these will always remain his ideas; while, on the other hand, the attached to his name, as, for example, his Monarchical party were utilizing this same address to Boulanger: "At your age, M. Boulanger in order to support their aspile Général Boulanger, Napoleon was al-rations. He will be remembered as the ready dead, and you will be nothing but the Sièyes of a stillborn constitution;" or his apostrophe to Monsignor Freppel: "You bishops are the prefects of the pope." M. Thiers was in the habit of saying, in order to excuse his redundancies of speech: "It is not too much to repeat the same thing twice; the first time that one says it, it is for intelligent people, the

man who gave the Divorce Law to France.

Among the most important measures passed in France within the last ten years is M. Goblet's loi des maires. M. Goblet, who was a barrister, entered public life as secretary of state in the ministry of justice in 1879. He had practised at the bar at Amiens with considerable success, and in

66

factions of the Republican party; a programme which it was of course impossible to realize, as every one of the factions desired that its dominant ideas should become those adopted by the whole party. Since his resignation he has played no prominent part.

that city founded at the close of the empire a democratic newspaper. From the beginning of his career he distinguished himself by pronounced republican sentiments and hostilities to all reactionaries. He is a Liberal in the Jacobin sense Liberal, that is to say, as the first revolution was Liberal, with the guillotine for a corrective. Liberty or Death" is the M. Ribot, the present French minister watchword of this fiery enthusiast and of foreign affairs, officially untried as yet, of the party he represents. The compa- possesses the gift of practical parliamentriot of Robespierre, he possesses some tary eloquence to a high degree; and, as of Robespierre's qualities. Worthy of he belongs to no pronounced school, it is Robespierre was the amendment he intro- possible that he will make himself popular duced in the press laws, authorizing the among the various elements with whom he government to suppress any newspaper has to deal. His aspirations are to see they chose by the mere decision of the France a species of Swiss republic, paministers in Council. In the Ferry Cab-cific, laborious, and keeping outside of all inet Goblet was chosen minister of public European agitation. instruction and worship, and in this post he showed great energy. It was he who prompted the deconsecration of the Panthéon, and who replied so sternly to the protests made by the Archbishop of Paris. Before the elections of 1885 he addressed a circular to all the bishops, recommending them to enjoin on the clergy a policy of non-intervention in politics. When his orders were disobeyed he stopped the pay of certain priests, claiming for the government the right to act thus, as being the only check it has upon ecclesiastics. He does not, for the present, however, think it possible to separate the Church from the State, as he admits that, up to date, this would be contrary to the wishes of the majority. Twice called upon to form a Cabinet, he failed to bring together a working ministry; but under Floquet he was appointed minister of foreign affairs, and showed himself very successful in treating several delicate matters, as, for example, the Suez Convention, and the question of schools in Tunis raised by Signor Crispi. He is, perhaps, one of the ablest men now acting together with Carnot, but he will never take a leading position.

M. Brisson, who has also held the post of president of the council, is among the most characteristic leaders of the Republican party. He, too, is a lawyer by profession. At the age of eighteen, together with Vacherot, Pelletan, and others, he founded, in 1854, the first republican paper issued in the Quartier Latin. He afterwards passed on to the staff of Le Temps, but found it too moderately republican for him. When he became the head of the Cabinet, in 1885, his programme was inspired by the desire to reestablish concord between the various

M. Rouvier has proved his mettle, and is a finance minister who may stand worthily beside M. Léon Say. His determined action with regard to the scandals of the Copper Ring, and the able way in which he saved the Paris market from a financial disaster which might have been tremendous, have given the test of his capacity. The victory achieved by him was as great as that of M. Constans in crushing Boulanger. The French finances are not in a flourishing state just now; the war burdens are heavier than even that rich country can bear; and France has the unenviable distinction of being to-day the most heavily taxed country in Europe. Whether the policy of strenuous protection which seems to be becoming the keynote of French financial affairs will be found to answer in the end, and whether the people will be able or willing to bear additional burdens, is a question the future can alone decide. To us English this protection policy appears a suicidal one, and as yet there has been no appearance of increased prosperity in France to justify those who hold this doctrine.

Of M. Spuller, M. Léon Say, M. Tony Révillon, M. Deroulède, M. Turquet, and M. Tirard, the limits of our space will not allow us to speak. They are men who all, in their turn, have had an influence upon parliamentary affairs, and are all Republicans.

The Imperialist party has but one man of note to show, and he is rather notorious than noted. We refer to the hot-headed M. Paul de Cassagnac, journalist, politician, and swordsman. He has, perhaps, fought more political duels in his time than any other man in contemporary Eu