Les Droits de l’homme, Le Cri du peuple, Le Socialiste, but his best-known organ was the weekly Égalité. He had been in close association with Paul Lafargue, and through him with Karl Marx, whose daughter he married. It was in conjunction with Marx and Lafargue that he drew up the programme accepted by the national congress of the Labour party at Havre in 1880, which laid stress on the formation of an international labour party working by revolutionary methods. Next year at the Reims congress the orthodox Marxian programme of Guesde was opposed by the “possibilists,” who rejected the intransigeant attitude of Guesde for the opportunist policy of Benoît Malon. At the congress of St-Étienne the difference developed into separation, those who refused all compromise with a capitalist government following Guesde, while the opportunists formed several groups. Guesde took his full share in the consequent discussion between the Guesdists, the Blanquists, the possibilists, &c. In 1893 he was returned to the Chamber of Deputies for Lille (7th circonscription) with a large majority over the Christian Socialist and Radical candidates. He brought forward various proposals in social legislation forming the programme of the Labour party, without reference to the divisions among the Socialists, and on the 20th of November 1894 succeeded in raising a two days’ discussion of the collectivist principle in the Chamber. In 1902 he was not re-elected, but resumed his seat in 1906. In 1903 there was a formal reconciliation at the Reims congress of the sections of the party, which then took the name of the Socialist party of France. Guesde, nevertheless, continued to oppose the opportunist policy of Jaurès, whom he denounced for supporting one bourgeois party against another. His defence of the principle of freedom of association led him, incongruously enough, to support the religious Congregations against Émile Combes. Besides his numerous political and socialist pamphlets he published in 1901 two volumes of his speeches in the Chamber of Deputies entitled Quatre ans de lutte de classe 1893–1898.
GUEST, EDWIN (1800–1880), English antiquary, was born in
1800. He was educated at King Edward’s school, Birmingham,
and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated as eleventh
wrangler, subsequently becoming a fellow of his college. Called
to the bar in 1828, he devoted himself, after some years of legal
practice, to antiquarian and literary research. In 1838 he
published his exhaustive History of English Rhythms. He also
wrote a very large number of papers on Roman-British history,
which, together with a mass of fresh material for a history of
early Britain, were published posthumously under the editorship
of Dr Stubbs under the title Origines Celticae (1883). In 1852
Guest was elected master of Caius College, becoming LL.D. in
the following year, and in 1854–1855 he was vice-chancellor of
Cambridge University. Guest was a fellow of the Royal Society,
and an honorary member of the Society of Antiquaries. He
died on the 23rd of November 1880.
GUEST (a word common to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger.
Gast, and Swed. gäst; cognate with Lat. hostis, originally a
stranger, hence enemy; cf. “host”), one who receives hospitality
in the house of another, his “host”; hence applied to
a parasite.
GUETTARD, JEAN ÉTIENNE (1715–1786), French naturalist
and mineralogist, was born at Étampes, on the 22nd of September
1715. In boyhood he gained a knowledge of plants from his
grandfather, who was an apothecary, and later he qualified as a
doctor in medicine. Pursuing the study of botany in various
parts of France and other countries, he began to take notice of
the relation between the distribution of plants and the soils and
subsoils. In this way his attention came to be directed to
minerals and rocks. In 1746 he communicated to the Academy
of Sciences in Paris a memoir on the distribution of minerals and
rocks, and this was accompanied by a map on which he had
recorded his observations. He thus, as remarked by W. D.
Conybeare, “first carried into execution the idea, proposed by
[Martin] Lister years before, of geological maps.” In the course
of his journeys he made a large collection of fossils and figured
many of them, but he had no clear ideas about the sequence
of strata. He made observations also on the degradation of
mountains by rain, rivers and sea; and he was the first to
ascertain the existence of former volcanoes in the district of
Auvergne. He died in Paris on the 7th of January 1786.
His publications include: Observations sur les plantes (2 vols., 1747); Histoire de la découverte faite en France de matières semblables à celles dont la porcelaine de la Chine est composée (1765); Mémoires sur différentes parties des sciences et arts (5 vols., 1768–1783); Mémoire sur la minéralogie du Dauphiné (2 vols., 1779). See The Founders of Geology, by Sir A. Geikie (1897).
GUEUX, LES, or “The Beggars,” a name assumed by the
confederacy of nobles and other malcontents, who in 1566
opposed Spanish tyranny in the Netherlands. The leaders of
the nobles, who signed a solemn league known as “the Compromise,”
by which they bound themselves to assist in defending
the rights and liberties of the Netherlands against the civil and
religious despotism of Philip II., were Louis, count of Nassau,
and Henry, count of Brederode. On the 5th of April 1566
permission was obtained for the confederates to present a petition
of grievances, called “the Request,” to the regent, Margaret,
duchess of Parma. About 250 nobles marched to the palace
accompanied by Louis of Nassau and Brederode. The regent
was at first alarmed at the appearance of so large a body, but
one of her councillors, Berlaymont by name, was heard to
exclaim, “What, madam, is your highness afraid of these
beggars (ces gueux)?” The appellation was not forgotten. At
a great feast held by some 300 confederates at the Hôtel Culemburg
three days later, Brederode in a speech declared that if need
be they were all ready to become “beggars” in their country’s
cause. The words caught on, and the hall resounded with loud
cries of “Vivent les gueux!” The name became henceforward a
party appellation. The patriot party adopted the emblems of
beggarhood, the wallet and the bowl, as trinkets to be worn on
their hats or their girdles, and a medal was struck having on one
side the head of Philip II., on the other two clasped hands with
the motto “Fidèle au roy, jusques à porter la besace.” The
original league of “Beggars” was short-lived, crushed by the
iron hand of Alva, but its principles survived and were to be
ultimately triumphant.
In the year 1569 the prince of Orange, who had now openly placed himself at the head of the party of revolt, granted letters of marque to a number of vessels manned by crews of desperadoes drawn from all nationalities. These fierce corsairs under the command of a succession of daring and reckless leaders—the best-known of whom is William de la Marek, lord of Lumey—were called “Gueux de mer,” or “Sea Beggars.” At first they were content with plundering both by sea and land and carrying their booty to the English ports where they were able to refit and replenish their stores. This went on till 1572, when Queen Elizabeth suddenly refused to admit them to her harbours. Having no longer any refuge, the Sea Beggars in desperation made an attack upon Brill, which they seized by surprise in the absence of the Spanish garrison on the 1st of April 1572. Encouraged by their unhoped-for success, they now sailed to Flushing, which was also taken by a coup de main. The capture of these two towns gave the signal for a general revolt of the northern Netherlands, and is regarded as the real beginning of the War of Dutch Independence.
GUEVARA, ANTONIO DE (c. 1490–1544), Spanish chronicler
and moralist, was a native of the province of Alava, and passed
some of his earlier years at the court of Isabella, queen of Castile.
In 1528 he entered the Franciscan order, and afterwards accompanied
the emperor Charles V. during his journeys to Italy and
other parts of Europe. After having held successively the offices
of court preacher, court historiographer, bishop of Guadix and
bishop of Mondoñedo, he died in 1544. His earliest work,
entitled Reloj de principes, published at Valladolid in 1529, and,
according to its author, the fruit of eleven years’ labour, is a
didactic novel, designed, after the manner of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia,
to delineate, in a somewhat ideal way for the benefit
of modern sovereigns, the life and character of an ancient prince,
Marcus Aurelius, distinguished for wisdom and virtue. It was
often reprinted in Spanish; and before the close of the century
had also been translated into Latin, Italian, French and English,