Leon Gambetta French statesman A Republican politician Gambetta was an opponent of the French Second Empire In he proclaimed the Third Republic after Napoleon III was captured by the Prussians after the Battle of Sedan Gambetta himself famously escaped from Paris in a hot air balloon when the city was besieged by the Prussians rallying support for resistance to the invaders in the provinces He was influential as the real leader of the republicans in politics in the first decade of the Third Republic but did not actually hold office until a brief and unsuccessful period as premier in From Men of Mark a gallery of contemporary portraits of men distinguished in the Senate the Church in science literature and art the army navy law medicine etc Photographed from life by Lock and Whitfield with brief biographical notices by Thompson Cooper Conducted by G C Whitfield London