Opportunists, in French politics, are those who, like Gambetta, Ferry, and others like-minded, oppose doctrinaire as well as extreme views, accommodate themselves in great measure to the circumstances of the hour, and aim only at what can obviously be carried through.
Opportunists
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 7: Maltebrun to Pearson, p. 616
Source scan(s): p. 0629