"I wish to speak of Gambetta" (the whole House rises with prolonged cheering) "--of him who, defending the territory under circumstances which rendered victory impossible, never despaired. With him and with Chanzy I voted for the continuation of the war, and in truth, when I think of what has happened in these fifty years, I ask myself whether the war has not continued all the time. May our thoughts go back to them; and when these terrible iron doors that Germany has closed against us shall be opened, let us say to them: 'Pass in first. You showed us the way.'" The French Premier went on to speak of the problems of peace, which could only be solved, like the problems of war, by national unity for the common cause, "for the Republic which we made in peace, which we have upheld in war, the Republic which has saved us during the war." He appealed "First for solidarity with the Allies, and then for solidarity among the French." This was needful for the maintenance of peace and the future of their common humanity. Humanity's great crusade was inspired not by the thought of God but of France. "_Ce n'est pas Dieu, c'est la France qui le veut._" The Deputies rose again and again. It would have been strange if they had not. But fine though these speeches were, and impressive as was the Prime Minister's adjuration that, since the problems of peace were harder than those of war, they must prove their worth in both fields--it was Clemenceau's personal influence that gave them their special value. Undoubtedly the splendid fighting of the French and British and American troops and the admirable skill of their commanders had produced that dramatic change from the days of depression from March to July to the period of continuous triumph from July to November. This Clemenceau never allows us for one moment to forget. But he it was who had breathed new life into the whole combination, military and civilian, at the front and in the factories. No man of his time of life, perhaps no man of any age, ever carried on continuously such exhausting toil, physical and mental, as that which this marvellous old statesman of seventy-seven undertook and carried though from November 1917 to November 1918.