—A Stormy Petiel.—

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 70

— A Stormy Petiel. —

Young, ardent, fearless, extreme, ha was just the kind of man that would be tli* darling of the Parisians in that, epoch •when Radicalism once more raised its head ; and when the long slumber of 20 years of despotism had been broken, and Liberty was alive, enthusiastic, and even a. little frenzied. M. Cl-emenceau before loti<> -was the darling of that part of Paris which is always more or le?s in revolt against the rest; the region, or artists. Bohemians, and Ultras, which is covered by the name of Montmartre. He soon became ibe maire of Montmartre and its chief popular figure. During the siege Montmartro was one of the districts where popular discontent was strongest, and whore there were the dangerous elements of the Communistic feeling that broke into open flame after the close of the war, and when the Germans had finally imposed their term? oa pro«trat-c Fiance. If I ic-

member rigfatly, the outbreak o£ the Commune began in an incident in Montmartre :- there were some cannon left there which the central Government, under M. Thiers, tried to remove from the custody of the National Guards into that of the regular army. M. Clemenceau appealed to M. Thiers not to insist on this surrender ; his xdvice was neglected ; two generals engaged in removing the cannon were murdered by the mob amid circumstances of great cruelty and. horror. I remember reading in a private letter at the time the unspeakable brutalities of the scene, and thus the Coinnfune was started- To this day, I believe^ M. Clemenceau declares that the folly and obstinacy of Thiers were the cause of the disaster; and that a little more patience and a little more tact would have prevented the explosion. However, the Commune passed by ; l and M. Clemenceau, as a figure in the new Chamber of Deputies, was to rule France. He was not long there until he had proved himself a formidable being, who had all the varied and strangely assorted qualities that are required" by the militant politician in the present epoch of French politics, and perhaps were more required 2ft, or 30 years ago". than they are -to-day.' Of, 'these qualities, perhaps the very first is' cold and reckless courage. Whoevei entered into the struggles of politics in -the -cruel and terrible' conflicts of French politics- as they were in the seventies and portion of the eighties and even nineties had to 'Ho so carrying his life in hi<? hands. The political' duel was stil' common if not universal in the life of the fighting politician, especially if he were a member of che Extreme Parties. The Empire had been defended in both the newspapers and in Parliament by a number of men who were as ready with the sword and the pistol as with the pen, and whoever dared to raise his voice against the Empire was certain to find himself in conflict with some one of these daring swordsmen or dead shots. — Contrasts. — By his upbringing, by his own convictions, M. Clemenceau was a member of the Extreme Left ; by his temperament all the opinions he holds he holds vehemently and even violently ; and, in short, he was just the man to confront from one end of the political world- the swashbucklers who represented the other end. He was as skilful with the sword and the pistol as the best duellist of the Imperial or Conservative ranks, and he was their equal in the ferocity and mercilessness of his attacks on those whom he regarded as the enemies of the nation. But these were but a few cf his gifts. Intellectually he had the same courage as he had temperamen- ' tally. No man. had such extraordinary and captivating power in analysing a situation, in destroj-ing a policy, in slaying an adversary. Iliis inilit-ant politician curiously enough represented the policy of the humanitarian, made war upon' war, hated "Imperialism as much as the late John Bright, and; preached peace in a voice of thunder and at the point of the sword, or at the mouth of a pistol. This accounted for one of the most extraordinary epochs of his career. The man who most faithfully represented in France the tendencies which we describe as Jingoism in England during our generation was M. Jules Ferry. It was he who invented the idea of a great French Colonial Empire ; and who brought about the absorption of Tonquin in French dominions. To this policy M. Olemenceau was always opposed ; he fought it for three long years — apparently "without hops — until in the end there was a great military disaster in Tonquin, and then M. Ferry was driven from power for ever in one of tho?e cyclones of popular aversion which rage through France in days of defeat. M. - Clemenceau was at last vindicated. — President Maker. — But M. Jules Ferry was but one of the great men whom M. Clemenceau was credited with bringing down. He and Gambett.i were great personal friends. When Gambetta fought his only duel, M. Clemenceau was his second, but Gambetta had hscoine a Conservative in his later years, and he was accordingly separated politically and was also defeated politically by M. Clemenceau. who remained a stout and irreclaimable Radical. Never taking office himself, feared by opponents, loved by his own associates, regarded as too impulsive and passionate in temperament and too extreme in views for office, M. Clemen- j ceau occupied the strange -and anomalous | position for more than 10 or even 20 'years ' of being able to destroy every other Minis- , ter and yet not to become Minister himself. He was the Warwick who could give otheis laurels and none to himself. | But all the same, he had his own enjoyment in life. It was something by a single speech to be able to dominate a tumultuous assembly, and to raise or throw down a Government. It was something to be the editor of a powerful paper, and at the same time to be in addition to all this a darling of society. This extreme Radical was elegant in all his tastes; dressed with great care, came yearly to the annoyance of the straight sect of French Pharisees to see the Derby run, in short, was a man of the theatre, of the racecourse, and of society, as well as of the Forum. His mordant wit made him a delightful companion everywhere; he shone in all the glory of immense political and social jjifts and position. , When the time came for election of President he was one of the two or three men who had the decision of the different candidates in their hands. When Ferry and Freycinet were i-lie cKief rivals foi tlxe succession to Grevy, it was Clemenceau that brought in Carnot — that dark horse — at the last moment, and had him elected to the vacant chair. —In Defeat.— One fine day there came a sudden end to all this .greatness, and he was thrown from the pinnacle of power into the dust. The secret history of the • transactions which produced this result is not entirely j known, to me. French politics often contain examples of men destroyed by a sudden outbreak of panic and of unjust suspicion. Theie were some scandals^ At

i once there came a violent outburst, result* • ing in the Panama- and other disclosures, s and every public man was attacked by calumny and all the enemies he had made • in his political career. The French public ! lose their heads in such moments, and inno- • cent and guilty are struck down with heedless violence and indiscriminate slaughter. j In that dreadful time of trial weak men ■ died of broken hearts, weaker men -died by : their own hands. M. Clemenceau held- his • head high,, fought this man and that,, this > • one with pistols, that with swords ; .away i in the law courts one day pleading his : own cause with his own splendid rhetoric, i the next- be was writing in a newspaper, • the third he was among his- cbnstitnerifes.- - ' But even this dauntless courage* and >inex- ■ , haustible resource failed to fight, against ! the high tide of panic and misrepresentai tion; and people in the rural districts of his constituency actually believed the crea1 tures who spread the idiotic story that Eugland had bought Clemenceau," and. that -. M. Clemenceau had. willingly sold himi self. IsTemenaher still reading the Tidicnl* ; ous scenes "when, he stood up to address a. meeting ; he Teas' interrupted with- eries *of" .• "0, yes! Q, yesT'^fiichl-^ere intended to ■convey fße^fact that he had gonsoveir to la nerfide Albion, and that. tMs^is countiy- ! men were not .gbinjr to forgive him. '! ~v' " s^After "Ten Y-eSrs.— <•/£- \ * So he was rejected by the constituency he had represented so long, and for a -wb.il© he was in' the trough of the sea — hunted, calumniated, tracked down,_ apparently \ ruined past all recovery. It was-^the Dreyfus case, curiously enough, which brought him back to life and some restoration of his old power. But, again, this was -a." fight in which he had to take his life in his hands. There were plenty of honest but prejudiced men who thought every friend of Dreyfus a traitor suborned by foreign gold ; and there were- plenty of gentlemen like the lamented Henry who > were prepared to patriotically forge andf ; perhaps even kill in the supposed /protection of the country against treason. demsneeau was in his element in fighting 6uch a battle; he threw himself into the struggle with his old impetuosity, wrote a leading article every ctay, went again into the law courts, faced .mobs and Huellists, and, in short, went through all the horrors ,' and terrors of that passionate, frenzied, ! appalling epoch with the same, daring cour-: i age as he had shown in olden times. And* then, after 10 years at least of proscrip : tion, he came back to^a part of liis owi again; he was elevated io the Senate. For some years pasV \u& has been- a.* journalist rather than an .orator. -Jjlvery day he has written one of those articles,' clear as crystal, biting -as -"acid,- sharp a*, a Damascus blade — and,all directed againW the forces political, religious, " and social which he detests. But he .fyeeined, up to "' a few days ago, as far off as 'ever 'from ' the portfolio which he had given to and % taken from so many inferior men. By one of the curious and sudden turns of the wheel of fortune which are possible only in France his day has at last come. Forty years after he entered political combat 1 he is Minister, and he has chosen for his ■• place the Home Office — the most difficult of all positions at a- moment when a general election is pending and when there is something like Civil War between the Government and the Catholics over the taking the inventory in the church buildings. .Any man but M. Clemenceau would have shrunk from 6uch a task. ,It is it 3 perils probably which attracted him. i —The Future.— M. Clemenceau is fairly well known in some Radical circles in London ; he used i to be a great friend of the late Admiral ' Maxse, and, if I am not mistaken, is a friend of Mr John Morley. I spent three pleasant weeks in his society once at a Continental resort, and I had an oppor- { tunity of studying his intensely interesting i and striking personality. He looks what he is. Rather below than above the middle height, with an intensely French face, round, and sallow-skinned, with close-cropped . hair,, already, .when I knew him turning from its raven black to white, with coaF-black eyes of almost dazzling and? burning fire, with a short-set, strong, but elastic ficure ; altogether a edition of John Burns. Such is-the physical man,. And now he is the driver of the driver. Where sic and his chief may land it is difficult to say. .To us in England there is the consoling fact that he, is one of th. most cordial friends of the entente cordiale between the two countries, and that to any attempt to break or weaken it he would be a formidable enemy. — T. P.