Under the French Third Republic it was customary for candidates for the presidency to make no statement concerning their aspirations to high office. It would have destroyed all chances had they revealed a cherished conviction on any vital public question. Now and then exceptions occurred. So firmly established, however, did the custom become, that a politician's silence on problems of the commonwealth spoke eloquently of his intentions. If he attended the opening of schools and hospitals, the conferring of official honors, and like occasions and indulged in harmless specimens of rhetoric, his aspirations were undeniable. He stood above the noise and confusion of everyday political strife, thus showing his outstanding qualifications for an office that, theoretically at least, existed in a non-partisan world of its own.