[Footnote 68:  De Mazade, Thiers, p. 467.  For a sharp criticism of Thiers, see Samuel Denis’ Histoire Contemperaine (written from the royalist standpoint).]

But, as we have seen, there came a time when the last hard bargains with Bismarck as to the payment of the war debt neared their end; and the rapier-play between the Liberator of the Territory and the parties of the Assembly also drew to a close.  In one matter he had given them just cause for complaint.  As far back as November 13, 1872 (that is, before the financial problem was solved), he suddenly and without provocation declared from the tribune of the National Assembly that it was time to establish the Republic.  The proposal was adjourned, but Thiers had damaged his influence.  He had broken the “Compact of Bordeaux” and had shown his hand.  The Assembly now knew that he was a Republican.  Finally, he made a dignified speech to the Assembly, justifying his conduct in the past, appealing from the verdict of parties to the impartial tribunal of History, and prophesying that the welfare of France was bound up with the maintenance of the Conservative Republic.  The Assembly by a majority of fourteen decided on a course of action that he disapproved, and he therefore resigned (May 24, 1873).

It seems that History will justify his appeal to her tribunal.  Looking, not at the occasional shifts that he used in order to disunite his opponents, but rather at the underlying motives that prompted his resolve to maintain that form of government which least divided his countrymen, posterity has praised his conduct as evincing keen insight into the situation, a glowing love for France before which all his earliest predilections vanished, and a masterly skill in guiding her from the abyss of anarchy, civil war, and bankruptcy that had but recently yawned at her feet.  Having set her upon the path of safety, he now betook himself once more to those historical and artistic studies which he loved better than power and office.  It is given to few men not only to write history but also to make history; yet in both spheres Thiers achieved signal success.  Some one has dubbed him “the greatest little man known to history.”  Granting even that the paradox is tenable, we may still assert that his influence on the life of France exceeded that of many of her so-called heroes.

In fact, it would be difficult to point out in any country during the Nineteenth Century, since the time of Bonaparte’s Consulate, a work of political, economic, and social renovation greater than that which went on in the two years during which Thiers held the reins of power.  Apart from the unparalleled feat of paying off the Germans, the Chief of the Executive breathed new vigour into the public service, revived national spirit in so noteworthy a way as to bring down threats of war from German military circles in 1872 (to be repeated more seriously in 1875), and placed on the Statute Book two measures of paramount importance.  These were the reform of Local Government and the Army Bill.