330 



FRANCE. 



FRIENDS. 



"When news arrived of the surrender at 

 Sedan, Favre moved the deposition of the Em- 

 peror and his dynasty. He was appointed 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional 

 Government. In a circular to the diplomatic 

 agents, he charged the responsibility for the 

 war upon the Imperial Government, and de- 

 clared that France would yield no territory. 

 In a second circular, he admitted the right of 

 Prussia to demand an indemnity, hut protested 

 against "unacceptable conditions." He held 

 two interviews with Bismarck, in September, 

 1870, regarding the terms on which the war 

 could be closed. But they were without re- 

 sult. His position till the conclusion of peace 

 under the authority of a newly-elected Nation- 

 al Assembly was extremely difficult and em- 

 barrassing. But he succeeded in retaining the 

 confidence of his countrymen, and in com- 

 manding the respect of the world. When 

 Thiers was elected chief of the executive 

 power, Favre was again appointed Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs, and as such took a prominent 

 part in the government of the country. A full 

 account of his labors during the year 1871 is 

 given in the historical part of this article. 



Gambetta, Leon, was born at Oahors, Octo- 

 ber 30, 1838. He studied law, went to Paris 

 in 1859, and was enrolled there as an advo- 

 cate. His first appearance in politics was in 

 1863, when he took a prominent part in the 

 electoral discussions, distinguishing himself by 

 the nervousness and keenness of his speeches. 

 He supported the party of which Jules Favre, 

 Cre'mieux, Pelletan, and others, were the dis- 

 tinguished leaders. He attained no especial 

 prominence, however, either as an advocate or 

 as a partisan till 1868, when a single event 

 gave him a world- wide notoriety. This was 

 his defence of Delecluze, the editor and pub- 

 lisher of Le Reveil, for the part he had taken 

 in assisting the subscription for the erection to 

 Baudin of a monument. Baudin was one of 

 the leaders in forcible resistance to the execu- 

 tion of the coup d'etat on December 3, 1851, 

 and was killed during the fight. The move- 

 ment of the Democratic party in honor of his 

 memory, of which the subscription for a monu- 

 ment was a part, was provoked by the politi- 

 cal discussions of the later years of the Third 

 Empire, and was intended in part to signify 

 disapprobation of the imperial policy. The 

 first demonstration occurred on November 2, 

 1868 ; a few days afterward the lists of sub- 

 scriptions began to appear regularly in Le 

 Reveil, La Tribune, and La Revue Politique. 

 A number of those participating in this move- 

 ment, together with the editors of these jour- 

 nals, were arrested and brought to trial for ex- 

 citing sedition. Gambetta distinguished him- 

 self above all his associate counsel in the 

 defence Cre'mieux, Arago, and Laurier by 

 the power and incisiveness of his speech. He 

 reviewed the course of the Imperial Govern- 

 ment from the coup d'etat down, dwelling es- 

 pecially upon the crimes of the days of De- 



cember, and uttered denunciations of Napo- 

 leon of startling boldnesss. His title to fame 

 rests principally on this defence. Gambetta 

 took a prominent part in the elections of 1869, 

 made several speeches of an extremely radical 

 character, and was chosen deputy as the can- 

 didate of the " irreconcilables " from both 

 Paris and Marseilles. In the same year he 

 appeared at Toulouse, to defend the journal 

 I? Emancipation before the correctional tribu- 

 nal, and received there a brilliant ovation from 

 the students of the law-school. A disease of 

 his eyes prevented his taking his seat as a 

 deputy until a short time before the surrender 

 at Sedan. Upon receiving news of this event, 

 he promptly offered a decree of decheance in 

 the Chambers ; then proclaimed the republic 

 from the steps of the legislative chamber, and 

 with his republican associates adjourned to the 

 Ho-tel-de-Ville, where the Provisional Gov- 

 ernment was formed. In this Government he 

 was assigned the Department of the Interior. 

 For a short time after the Government was di- 

 vided by the removal of a part of its members 

 to Tours, he remained in Paris, but alter the 

 city became completely invested he escaped in 

 a balloon, and joined his colleagues, Cremieux 

 and Glais-Bizoin, at Tours. He exerted him- 

 self actively to arouse the French people to a 

 desperate defence, hurried the organization of 

 armies for the relief of Paris, and assumed the 

 general direction of movements outside of the 

 capital. He was the author of the boastful 

 and mendacious bulletins which the Tours 

 Government issued almost daily to keep up the 

 spirits of the people. 



FRENCH, Rev. JOHN W., D. D., an Epis- 

 copal clergyman and Professor of Ethics, born 

 in Connecticut, about 1810; died at West 

 Point, N. Y., July 8, 1871. He was educated 

 at Washington (now Trinity) College, Hart- 

 ford, Conn., graduating in 1831; studied the- 

 ology at the General Protestant Episcopal 

 Theological Seminary, New York City; was 

 admitted to holy orders in 1835, and the next 

 year chosen a professor in Bristol College, 

 Pennsylvania. After the failure of this institu- 

 tion he was called to be rector of a church in 

 Portland, Me., and in 1848 he became rector 

 of the Church of the Epiphany, Washington, 

 D. C. In August, 1856, he was appointed Chap- 

 lain of the Military Academy at West Point, 

 and Professor of Geography, History, and 

 Ethics, and entered upon his duties in the 

 following autumn. Constitutional and inter- 

 national law were subsequently added to his 

 professorship. This position he held till a 

 short time before his death, when he resigned 

 in consequence of impaired health. He re- 

 ceived the degree of D. D. from Trinity College 

 during his residence in Washington. He had 

 a good reputation as an instructor, and was 

 popular with the cadets as chaplain. 



FRIENDS. No formal presentation of the 

 statistics of the Society of Friends has been 

 made until recently. It has only been within 



