ROYAL HONORS TO BOULANGER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2129, 8 May 1889, Page 2

ROYAL HONORS TO BOULANGER

(" Oivlo" m " Otago Wltnesr.") It undoubtedly seems strange at first glanoe to read that Boulanger was reoolved In London with all the honors of royalty, bnt it Is, after all, as likely as not to be true. The general has been treated m that way m Franoe for some time past, and must be getting used to It now. When Ihe expressed himself, as we are told, " satisfied with his reoeptlon la England, It must mean that the populaoe did indeed treat blm as a potentate whom but to see was to be most blest. A glanoe at the Parisian gossip of a London newspaper shows that Boulanger before hla flight waa oanolderably more of an unorowned king In France than Parnell Is m Ireland. The correspondent I qnote gives an aoconnt of a reoeptlon io the general's honor attended by scores of persons with whose hamei grand masters of ceremonies at Verialllea were familiar :—

When the general entered, the band played a few bars of "En revenant de la revue." He had bis usual body guardto wit, Deroulede, Lsguerre, and, behind him, Le Herlise. Naqnet was In the group, Tbe whole assembly stood ai he advanced after he had saluted boss and hostess, whom he feigned not to have seen In the course of the evening. He waa then taken round by the host. All the De Talleyrands, the Clermont Tonnerret, the De Gramroonts, and so forth, had jast tbe same demeanour lv bis presence aa If he were a crowned king. BouUnger kept his head level. If elated, he did not show It. After he had walked around, he took his stand near a fireplace on a hearth rug, and there was a file put and a presentation of those with whom he was unacquainted. Is It possible, 1 asked myself, that he wai not a page-of- honor of the Queen when she used to hold levees at St J times ? How else oould he have learned to plsy the first part ln a throne room oeremony is If to the manner born ?

Happy Boulanger I- It Is evidently more easy to dlsoharge this part of a monaroh'i role than haa been popularly supposed. Now, at this present juncture, Is he In the very lap of fortnne — King at a handsome salary, without a crown to ofaafa hla brows ; loaded with honor yet untroubled by responsibility. If ever the General be called to a more serious " billet " he will look btok regretfully to these halcyon days and long again to be politely " chivied " from country to oountry by foreign Premiers and oheerad meanwhile by the masses. The maßS.es are so pre verblally fickle, Boulanger feted to-day for doing nothing, may to-morrow be shaved by the national razir for doing too muoh. *