General Boulanger.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 13 December 1890, Page 2

General Boulanger.

r'rom the character sketch in the Rn'irii' of lie virus we extract the following particulars of one who was lor a short time the foremost figure of the French Republic : — The Boulangist conspiracy would never have had a chance of success : if the French had not been j ust a little bored with their dour Republic, which produced nothing hut jobs and taxes and worthless wars, which persecuted the Church and harried the nuns. Boulangism was to all intents and purposes a conspiracy against the Republic, financed by Royalists, while the Republican contingent, Messrs Rochfort, Naquet, and the rest were mere dupes (be the Royallist conspirators. The heroine of the conspiracy is the Duchess PTzes. the lady who supplied the Boulangist cause with £120,000. She was a Royalist, the first peeress of France, and she was wealthy. And the more revolting the revelation as to the nature of the Boulangist conspiracy the more dishonourable and dishonouring does the episode appear to the fair fame of I* 1 ranee. A great nation that once led the van of civilization should not a second time have allowed herself to be within the grasp of a gang of sharpers and bullies, with professions as false' as dicers' oaths, and with absolutely no ideal but with that of self aggrandizement by the aid of universal fraud. The Republic, however, has been avenged. Boulangism has recoiled like a boomerang upon the Orleanists. It is the Monarchy which it has stifled, not the Republic. The story of Boulangism behind the scenes has been told at great length by M. Mermeix, in the columns of the Figaro. It is a most unedifying chronicle. Mr Mermeix, a young Deputy of very curious antecedents, who attached himself for a time to the Boulangist party, has deemed it consistent with the role of a disillusionized dupe to expose before the gaze of the whole world all | the skeletons in the Boulangist cupboard. That which first startled the public

beyond the frontiers of France about these unsavoury revelations was the confirmation of M. Naquet of what seemed the most incredible part of the disclosures, viz : that General Boulanger 1 s supporters!, M. Kaquet himself being among the chief, had urged him, immediately after his election by Paris, to march upon the Elysee and possess himself of the j supreme executive power. Naquet's advice was not taken. General Boulanger refused to play the bold game, and from that time, say his reproachful adherents, his star began to wane. General Boulanger's own account of the matter is very simple. He saw, knowing somewhat both of the history of the coup d'etat and of the obstacles which stand in the way of the sudden seizure of the Executive power, that the proposal to march on the Elysee was the suggestion of a madman, and he refused to move. According to other authorities, his inaction was not due to either his own perspicacity or to his scruples, but to the fact that the Royalist committee decided that such a step would be objectionable. General Boulanger, once established in supreme power, might not be indisposed to dismount in order to establish the C'ompte de Paris in his place. There they thought it better to wait until the General Election, when they hoped to be able to treat with General Boulanger. But whatever the exact truth may be, it is a reminder that France is much move like a Spanish-American Republic than the law abiding Republic of the United States. In a country where the winning of a bye-election seems to Republican senators sufficient justification for an attempt to seize tho Executive power by a march to the Elysee, anything may happen. These two episodes are quite sufficient to explain why Englishmen never feel the leafft confidence in the maintenance of a good understanding with the French, and what is more with Paris. They afford the strongest confirmation of the Tsar's determination to rely on Germany — if by any honourable means an arrangement can be arrived at — rather than upon a people capable of entertaining the proposals of '' historic nights." You can never depend upon the stability of anything in a country where a bye-election may be the signal for a revolution, and the anger of Belleville may overturn an administration. This readiness to revert to revolutionary methods reminds one of the Red Indian. Take a young squaw, educate her in your best boarding schools, dress her in the latest fashion, and still you can never be sure but that she will some day let down her back hair, wrap herself in a blanket in the drawing-room, and howl. The significance of Boulangism depended little or nothing on tho character of General Boulanger. It was his fate to distinguish himself sufficiently above the dead level of modiocrity which pievails in France, and as a penalty for this distinction, he was at once exploited by the various intriguers who were dissatisfied with the existing regime. Genera) Boulanger is not a Saint. Austerity has never been attractive in his eyes, and from early youth he has lived as men of easy morals live in all countries. The one notorious and palpable rock upon which Boulangism was wrecked is visible to all men— -Madame X being but one of an indefinite series. It is obvious, however, that even if Madame X and all her lethal sisterhood had bt>en drummed out of the camp, the elements of success were not in Boulangisin. Boulangism was a thing with the General's figure-head, which moved fitfully towards a certain goal on two legs — one Republican and tho other Monarchal. When General Boulanger left France, he lost his only chance. But it was such a poor chance that it was not worth risking liberty to retain it. So he chose the safer part, and sought shelter beneath the British tiag. He enjoys life in Jersey, and with the wealth and the. charms of the lady who is somewhat absurdly styled Madame X — her real name is Madame Bonnemain, the brave General contrives to support existence with equanimity. General Boulanger was complaisant, and is so still. He has the good temper of a man who has a good digestion, an equable temperament, and an easy conscience. The more you look at the man the more you marvel how ever so easy going a man of pleasure came to be a menace to the Republic. The revelations of M. Menneix supply, no doubt, some explanation of the mystery. But it is an extraordinary story this of the way in which the rival factions developed General Boulanger into a Pretender. Needs must when the devil drives, and necessity is a stern task-master; but .surely there wag seldom so difficult a task imposed upon the political conspirator as that of evolving out of this political nonentity an instrument with which to threaten the existence of the Republic.