French Political Leaders Author:Edward King General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1878 Original Publisher: G.P. Putnam's sons Subjects: Statesmen France Statesmen, French Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you g... more »et free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: Louis Adolphe Thiers. jN the 16th of February, 1871, at a late hour of the afternoon, the National Assembly of France, which had then been three days in session in the theater at Bordeaux, was startled by a singular incident. The previous meetings had been stormy ; the seven hundred and fifty deputies had wasted much time in wrangling and recrimination ; and all parties seemed -- so great was their zeal in tormenting each other -- to have forgotten that they were called together to decide upon definite peace or farther war with Prussia. France was prostrate ; Alsace and Lorraine were in the hands of the conquerors ; the country was without definite government, a formidable insurrection was threatened in Paris, and a spirit of unrest and distrust was manifest everywhere in the provinces. The time was ripe for action ; without it France seemed on the brink of complete ruin ; yet the members of the Assembly made little, if any, progress. The theater was crowded with celebrities from all countries. The members of the Assembly occupied the parquette. Behind the tribune, in the President's desk, sat the statuesque and imposing M. Grevy, who had presided over the Assembly of 1848. On the right were the Conservatives, with Thiers and other prominent statesmen on the front seats ; on the left were the Republicans and Radicals, among whom were Gambetta, Hugo, Rochefort, Louis Blanc, and a host of other literary and political notables. "Incidents" were numerous. The slightest covert allusion of a satirical character to the pol...« less