M. Gambetta took advantage of the funeral of Edgar Quinet,
the Guizot of the Democrats, to deliver a speech which is denounced in Conservative quarters as ultra-revolutionary, but which might have been made by Mr. Stansfeld. Its single object is to declare that he, like Edgar Quinet, held lay education to be one of the most necessary of objects, and an alliance between the bourgeoisie and proletariat one of the most expedient of methods. He stated, indeed, that he was one of the servants of the demo- cracy, but "of a democracy wise and laborious, tenacious and patient," which seta to itself the task of compelling those who would govern as'an oligarchy to instruct the people conformably to its genius. Democracy has become sovereign, but not as despots are sovereign, but to perform great duties and encounter great difficulties. He finished by the cry, " Par la Republique, pour la Patrie ! " The word oligarchs" seems to have given great offence, but Englishmen old enough to remember the Reform Bill agitations, and the use then made of the word " Borough- mongers," will hardly see in it any very dangerous attack upon society. It is, we suppose, their horror of lay instruction which so moves the Orleanists and the exponents of their opinions.
