Famous Men and Great Events of the Nineteenth Century
CHAPTER XVIII
Thiers, Gambetta and the Rise of the New French Republic
French Instability of Character--Modern Statesmen of France--Thiers--MacMahon--Gambetta--The New Republic--Leaders in Politics--Dangerous Powers of the Army--Moral and Religious Decline--Law and Justice--The Dreyfus Case as an Index to France's National Character and the Perils Which Beset the Republic 277