Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

82 HISTORY OF THE WAR. |

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changed violently many times in his career. He | had been a revolutionary, and he had crushed the great railway strike. He had been a bitter antiClerical, and he had been also the peacemaker between Church and State. But his very adaptability inspired confidence in a crisis. He was a “ swallower of formulas,” with an eye for facts rather than a memory for dogmas, and the situation needed a man who could bring to the instant need of things an alert and unshackled mind. He took the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, with the assistance of M. Jules Cambon, formerly French Ambassador at Berlin, and the diplomatist who of all others had emerged with distinction from the stormy negotiations preceding the war. General Galliéni succeeded M. Millerand at the War Office, and Admiral Lacaze went to the Ministry of Marine. Some of the representatives of extreme groups which had been included in the former Cabinet retained their positions. Such was M. Jules Guesde, the revolutionary Socialist, and M. Denys Cochin, the leader of the Right, was also included. M. Painlevé, the President of the Army Committee of the Chamber, and famous as a mathematician, had a seat, as had M. Albert Thomas, who had done brilliant work in the Munition Department. But apart from the experts like M. Jules Cambon, General Galliéni, and Admiral Lacaze, the most remarkable feature of the new Ministry was its strength in that deliberative talent which comes from ripe experience. There were no fewer than eight men who had already held the office of PremierM. Briand himself, M. Viviani, and M. Doumergue among the younger men, and among the elder M. Combes, M. Ribot, M. Méline, M. Léon Bourgeois,