The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1888. French Affairs

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 151, 21 July 1888, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1888. French Affairs

If at this distance, and with the sparse information we have to guide us by the Press Association, we are able to form any opinion, we should Bay political affairs in France are in a somewhat incongruous condition. We are 1 informed that a committee appointed by the gentlemen holding position^ as Mayors of the Parisian Municipalities have issued a manifesto in favor of a Monarchical Government, as against the present Republican form. To us this appears anomalous, because the impression among English people has been that the middle, or bourgeon classes, are opposed to a change of any kind, and especially to one which would bring about a restoration of the Monarchy, and that only the lower orders which number among their ranks revolutionaries and communists, and certain of the higher military officers and professional politicians who hope to make their several profits in turbulent times, would move in this direction. The police have added materially to the popularity of the manifesto by seizing it. Then comes the amusing news that M. Floqttet, aged 60 years, Speaker of the French Chamber of Deputies, had challenged General Boulanger, aged 52, for calling him a liar in debate. A duel, with swords, followed between these two old men, who at their time of life should have knowa better. They attacked each other with great fury, we are told, and Bottlakqer was slightly wounded in the thigh, and rather seriously in the throat, while the lawyer Floquet was only slightly wounded in the hand, foot, and breast, thus showing he was rather a better man than the braggart soldier, eren with his own weapans. It is a puzzle to us how Floquet managed to be wounded in the foot, unless he waß caught in the ac*, of performing a pas de fascination for the edification of the numerous friends of the principals who assist at these little affairs in France, and the soldier pricked him when his pedal extremity waß in the air. The whole thing is ridiculous, and quite unworthy of men to whom the nation has entrusted the management of its affairs. In order to bring the matter nearer home, and show its utter absurdity, lot our readera picture to tTaerriselv&s the Minister

for Education (Mr Fisher) " going outside" with Vincent Pyke for a "couple of rounds" to satisfy his wounded honor, or Dick Seddon trying a fall with Sir Harry Atkinson because the Premier bad called the valiant Dick an ass ! There is really no difference between the cases. What will be the outcome of nil this no man can tell, and we can only surmise that trouble is nearer at hand | in Paris than is generally expected.