M. Hennr Rocuzrorr gives an account of the Boulangist movement in France in the July number of the Fortnightly Reciew. He is not a politician whose views or manner of supporting them recommend either him or them to quiet-going English people, but such different accounts have been given of General Boulanger and the Boulangist movement, that M. Rochefort's account the latter has considerable interest. We do not take M. Rochefort as a witness whose evidence is to be accepted either wholly or in part, any more than we would believe all that the Paris Correspondent of The Times says in disparage. ment of Boulangism. But M. Rochefort, has knowledge of the circumstances which brought General Boulanger to the front in French politics, and when he tells us about these we must draw our own conclusions both as to their weight in public affairs and the deductions he draws from them. He writes as a Bou-longist of the Boulangists, a man of extreme political opinions, and therefore the representative of a great many: people in France, but he does not represent General Boulanger as an Extremist. General Boulanger, as explained by himself and by M. Rochefort, has one great political aim, to get rid of the monarchical constitution of 1875 and, thereby thoroughly democratise French, institutions. And he has but one' patriotic aim, to arm France so that she may be prepared for all eventualitics. He is not for immediate war to recover Alsace and Lorraine; it is a calumny to say he is—"a calumny borrowed from the German prints, which Prince Bismarck keeps alive out of his Reptile Fund." Even when he was Mi sr of War, General Bou-Jonger said: "If I wished for war I should be a fool; if I did not pre-pate for war I should be a currish traitor." And M. Rochefort says that when the General was in office he did prepare for war with a well directed energy of which none of his predecessors had set the example, and of which his successors seem to have lost the secret. An instance of this energy is given in the adoption and manufacture of the Lebel rifle "that sas revolutionized the armament of infantry throughout Europe." When General Boulanger was in office the factory at Tulle alone manufactured a thousand rifles a day one month later, under the Rouvier Ministry, the total production was reduced to three hundred daily. This jedoeet energy for the defence of rance has, it is contended, made him pular with all classes, except politi 1S.
General Boulanger and his following demand the revision of the constitution elected for the purpose. Those oppose him, the Radicals, who Opportunists and followers of M. Ferry, were the first to start the ery for revision Three years ago almost any Radical or Opportunist would have agreed with M. Rochefort and General Boulanger in assertin;
on this essential reform. According to that the safety of the Republic depend Republicans the constitution of. 1875, having been formed and elaborated by Monarchists, was the stone of stumbling set in the way of all possible projects of amelioration and progress. 'The Radical objection to the Senate is that it is based on restricted suffrage and invested with powers equal to those of the Chamber of Deputies, hi with, indeed, greater powers than an; other second' Chamber in Europe. For instance, the House of Lords cannot change money bills, but.the Senate can do so. According to M. Rochefort those Republicans who formerly cried out for a revision of the constitution now oppose it because in the last ten years they have acquired a taste for office; they know that General Boulanger is earnest in his demand, and "they are content now with the abuses of an institution which they have learnt how to turn to their own personal profit." What France was saying when M. Rochefort wrote, some two months ago, and what, if General Boulanger is a failure she will we fancy soon begin to say of some one else, is that it would be well to sweep away, once for all, the politicians who have regularly sate in the same place for seventeen years and put a true, patriotic pay in their place.
The opposition of the various sections: into which the Republicans are split They only agree in hatred and opposi-events a revision of the constitution.
tion to General Boulanger. The Floquet Ministry "is only tolerated from read of the imaginary dictatorship of General Boulanger." It lives by the tolerance of those deputies who follow M. Ferry. The author of the expedition to Tongking is the most unpopular man in France, he "cannot shew himself at a window without immediately hearing the cry, @ has Ferry he "is almost obliged to disguise himself when he leaves his house in order to escape personal insult and injury." For what reason, asks M. Rochefort, should the men who benefit by this nameless system alter a constitution, thanks to which the position of Deputy has become a trade just like that of a mason or a whitesmith. As for M. Clémen-coan, it is jealousy which has made him an opponent of Boulangism. M. Clémenceau_introduced M. Rochefort to General Boulanger pledging himself at the same time for the latter's pa-triorism and devotion to the Republic. In June 1887, General Boulanger was with M. Clemenceau in the office of the Justice when a crowd of demonstrators larg The leader of the Left rose to look at them when the crowd gave all at once a tremendous cheer, Vive Bou-longer, on which M. Clemenceau drew the window curtains, saying with ill disguised irritation "They ought not to see you." Two or three days afterwards M. Clemenceau used the significant
larity of the Assembly has been stolen brose in the Chamber—' the Papa from it." What has happened since M. Rochefort wrote has shaken the belief of many in the leader of the Boulangist movement, for between the General and whatever amount of public opinion he represented there is a great difference.
leader may disappear but the movement which his name covered will go on. M. Rochefort is not a guide or councillor in political matters in whom we should put trust, but this article of is agrees with much that other observers have said. France is suffering from the deliberate exclusion from dependence by the cliques of third or ublic life of men of abilities and_in-
fourth rate men who have formed the art of the Ministries in late years. While such a state of affairs continues there will be "movements more or less powerful or dangerous and it is by no means certain that the one in favour of General Boulanger has collapsed,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.