Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/618

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606 GAMBIA GAMBIER capital, taking charge of the interior, war, and finance departments. He made desperate ef- forts to organize new armies, issuing unfounded reports of victories, and understating the im- portance of the defeats, which he generally ascribed to treason, especially the surrender of Metz by Bazaine. When all his efforts to raise the siege of Paris had failed, and his col- leagues in that capital had concluded the ar- mistice, and convoked all electors without re- gard to political parties to elect a constituent assembly, he issued a decree at Bordeaux, Jan. 31, 1871, disfranchising all functionaries and official candidates of the second empire, and all members of royal dynasties, and announced his determination to continue the war to the last. Though his decree was declared null and void by his colleagues in Paris, of whom Jules Simon went to Bordeaux to put an end to his ar- bitrary proceedings, he persevered in active opposition, but finally tendered his resigna- tion, which only increased his popularity with the masses of the people. On Feb. 8 he was elected to the national assembly by ten de- partments, including those destined to be partly annexed to Germany. He gave the preference to that of Bas-Rhin, though it was certain that he would lose his seat by the detachment of Alsace from France. On July 2 he was reflected in the departments of the Seine, Var, and Bouches-du-Rh6ne, and took his seat for the last named department, which he had formerly represented. In No- vember, 1871, the Republique Fran^aise ap- peared as his special organ in the press, and he was generally recognized as the leader of the radicals. During the political excitement in the early part of 1872 he visited southern France, stirring up the populace everywhere, and his appearance at Marseilles was the occa- sion of disturbances which were put down by the police. In the latter part of the year he agitated the public mind in S. E. France, espe- cially by his speech at Grenoble (Sept. 26), in which he attacked Thiers, and denounced the Bonapartists and the national assembly, and insisted upon the removal of the govern- ment from Versailles to Paris. A number of officers who had attended the banquet at Gre- noble in honor of Gambetta were sentenced to 60 days' arrest, and then transferred to another regiment. In 1873 he promoted the election of Barodet and Ranc to the national assembly, in opposition to the candidates supported by Thiers, whom he afterward vainly strove to uphold in his presidency, when the majority in the assembly had determined on his over- throw. His opposition to the prolongation of the powers of Marshal MacMahon, the new president, proved equally futile. GAMBIA, a British colony of W. Africa, occu- pying both banks of the river whence it derives its name, and consisting of the island of St. Mary, the ceded mile on the Barra Shere, and McCarthy's island, 180 m. up the river ; area, 21 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 14,190, of whom 56 were white, 136 colored, and the remainder black. The chief settlements are .Bathurst, Fort James, and Fort George. Bathurst and Fort James are situated in St. Mary's island ; Fort George on McCarthy's island. The cli- mate is generally considered unhealthy. In summer the heat is excessive, the thermometer frequently rising to 106 and 108 in the shade. The soil is rich and alluvial, and liable to peri- odical inundation. The principal exports are beeswax, ground nuts, and hides, and the im- ports cotton goods, tobacco, amber, rum, &c. The revenue of the colony in 1870 was 18,- 969, and the expenditures 21,937. The value of imports was 91,997, of exports 142,518. The total tonnage of vessels entered and cleared in 1870 was 113,914. GAMBIA, a large river of W. Africa, rising in the interior of the continent, and, after a course of more than 600 m., discharging itself into the Atlantic ocean at Bathurst, in lat. 13 30' 1ST., Ion. 16 40' W. It is 9 m. broad at its mouth, and is navigable for vessels of 300 tons for 90 m. inland. GAMBIER, a village of Knox co., Ohio, on the Cleveland, Mt. Vernon, and Columbus railroad, 50m. N.E. of Columbus; pop. in 1870, 581. It occupies a beautiful site on a high ridge nearly surrounded by Kokosing river, and is the seat of two Episcopal institutions, Kenyon college and the theological seminary of the diocese of Ohio. They were established in 1826, under the auspices of Bishop Chase, with funds col- lected in England, and are richly endowed. The largest contributor was Lord Gambier, from whom the village is named. The cor- poration owns 14 buildings. On the college grounds are Ascension hall and Rosse hall, of stone, the church, a fine piece of architecture, and six dwellings ; about a mile 1ST. of the col- lege is Bexley hall, in the Elizabethan style, occupied by the theological seminary ; and in other parts of the village, Milnor hall, for the preparatory school, and three residences for the professors. The college has a preparatory and a collegiate department. The course in the theological seminary is three years. The num- ber of volumes in the libraries is about 18,800, viz.: theological, 7,000; college, 2,300; college societies, 9,500. In 1871 there were 6 gradu- ates in the theological seminary and 10 in the college. In 187l-'2 the number of theological students was 9; collegiate, 50; preparatory, 32 ; professors in the theological seminary, 5 ; in the college, 10. GAMBIER, James, baron, a British admiral, born in the Bahama islands, Oct. 13, 1756, died at Iver, near "Oxbridge, April 19, 1833. He was of a French Protestant family, expatriated by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Early entering the naval service, he obtained in 1778 the rank of post captain, and as commander of the frigate Raleigh was engaged in the re- duction of Charleston in 1780, and in repel- ling the French attempt upon Jersey in 1781. In 1793 he was appointed to the command