FRENCH AFFAIRS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1875, 6 April 1889, Page 1

FRENCH AFFAIRS.

Paris, April 2

The Senate has been constituted a court for the purpose of trying the deputies arrested on a charge of complicity in the acts of the recently suppressed Patriotic League. The trial of those charged with complicity in the acts of the Patriotic League commenced to-day, when M. Naquet, a member of the Senate, and M. Laguerre Turnet Deroulade (president of the Patriotic League), leaders of the league, were called upon to answer the charges made against them. The Chamber was crowded, and a great sensation was manifested when the charges were read. Precautions were taken by the military authorities to prevent disorder during the proceedings. M, Duffus, a member of the Senate against whom similar proceedings are about to be taken, protested against the course adopted, on the ground that the tribunal was a hostile and unnatural one, although he was prepared to appear before ordinary judges on charges preferred against him.

In the Chamber of Deputies, a Bill providing for the prosecution of persons accused of libeliing public officials, was rejected, April 3, Figaro, the Boulangist organ, states that General Boulanger and Henri Rochefort are at Brussels. The General has telegraphed a manifesto to the effect that he will never consent to be judged by the Senate, which is blinded with personal passions; that he is ready to answer any accusations that may be brought against him before a magistrate or a jury ; otherwise he will wait in a free country till a general election has resulted in the return of men who will make the Republic habitable for honest, free, and honorable men, April 4.

The action of General Boulanger, in leaving France, has caused several of his principal followers to accuse him of cowardice.