GAMBETTA, Leon Michel, French statesman: b. Cahors, France, 3 April 1838; d. Sevres, France, 31 Dec. 1882. He was of Genoese extraction; was educated for the Church; but finally decided in favor of the law; and going to Paris became a member of the metropolitan bar in 1859. In November 1868 he gained the leadership of the Republican party by his defense of Delescluze, a noted Re publican. In 1869, having been elected by both Paris and Marseilles, he chose to represent the latter city; and in the Chamber of Deputies showed himself an irreconcilable opponent of the empire and its measures, especially of the policy which led to the war with Prussia. On the downfall of the empire, after the surrender of Sedan in 1870, a government for national de fense was formed, in which Gambetta was nominated Minister of the Interior. The Ger mans having encircled Paris, he left that city in a balloon, and set up his headquarters at Tours, from which, with all the powers of a dictator, he for a short time organized a fierce but vain resistance against the invaders. In the
capitulation of Paris, he resigned. After the close of the war he held office in several short lived ministries, was president of the Cham ber under Grevy, and the director of its policy; and in November 1881 accepted the premiership. The sweeping changes proposed by him and his colleagues speedily brought a majority against him, and after a six weeks' tenure of office he had to resign. The accidental discharge of a pistol led to his death, which was deeply mourned in France. He had remarkable ora torical gifts, the faculty of command and showed consummate tact in uniting the extrem ists of the Republican party with the centre, in opposition to all the reactionary elements in France. He founded La republique francaise in 1871. Consult Reinach, 'Lion Gambetta' (1884); Harrison, Gambetta, a Posi tivist) (1892); Tournier, (1893); Gheusi, Life and Letters' (Eng lish trans. 1910).