BOULANGISM RAMPANT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 283, 6 April 1889, Page 2

BOULANGISM RAMPANT.

PROSECUTION OF MEMBERS OF THE PATRIOTIC LEAGUE. BOULANGER’S MANIFESTO. GOVERNMENT PROPOSE TO EXECUTE HIM. PROBABLE EXPULSION FROM BELGIUM. STIGMATISED AS A COWARD. Parts, April 3. 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 Messrs Laguerre, Troumet, and Da Roulde (President of the Patriotic League) were called upon to answer the charges made against them. The Chamber was crowded, and there was a great sensation when the charges were read. Precautions were taken by the military authorities to prevent disorder during the proceedings, M. Leffls, a member of the Senate against whom similar proceedings are to be taken, protested against the course adopted, on the ground that the tribunal was a hostile and unnatural one, but he was, he said, prepared to appear before the ordinary judges, on the charges preferred against him. April 4.

General Boulanger, in his recently issued manifesto, says the Government attempted to coerco the prosecution. They sought to indict him before an unique tribunal under an unique law. He refuses to submit to the jurisdiction ot the Senate, which he says ia consciously unpopular, and he considers it a duty under the suffrage for Frenchmen to object to the suppression of their liberties or the tampering of the laws of their nation.

The present parties, he says, are corrupting and ruining the interests of the country. M. Laguerre announces that the Government proposed to execute Boulanger. The Government do not intend to take heed of the absence of General Boulanger in Brussels They will proceed in the ordinary course, wHh ths object of securing a conviotion that will render him ineligible tor a seat in Parliament.

It is believed that Boulanger will ba expelled trom Belgium. The flight is causing sensations amongst the followers of General Boulanger. The Royalists allege that he Is a coward for doing what bo has done, while the Press largely revile him tor seeking safety in flight. La Lanterns says his departure was like unto that of a defaulting cashier. In the course of an interview, Boulanger stated he was advised to seek safety in flight, by his principal supporters. He met M. Henri Rochefort at Mona (Hamault) when Rochefort imputed to the Government intention ot murdering him. It is announced that the National Committee, with four dissentients, urged the flight of Boulanger,

The revoking the decree of exile against the Duo d'Aumale reminds an English paper of a story told of the relations between the Duo and Boulanger when he was a subaltern, A decade ago Boulanger rose in his profession by fawning upon the powerful and highplaced, and on one occasion assured the Duo ot his '■ unchangeable devoutness," To the Duo d'Aumale he owed his promotion to the rank of general, and Boulanger, who had previously served under him, wrote in his gratitude : “ Blessed would be the day which would recall me under your command.” But when it became evident that no member of the House of Orleans wns likely to become an immediate controller of the destinies o! France in general, and French soldiers in particular, Boulanger joined the Red Republican party, and, through M. Cidmenoeau, in time secured the portfolio of the Minister for War, “ One ot Boulanger's first acta on taking office," says a writer in an old Murray, “ was to eend for the army reports ot the Duo d’Aumale to see what had besn said of his own important se'f The Due d’Aumale’s note against his name was simply : ' A good officer, active, very intelligent, but ill-bred (mat " It did not take long after this discovery to draw up a decree of expulsion, and the man whom the Duo d’Aumale had promoted to commanding positions was the man to whom he owed his expulsion. Puff says Freyoinet and Guyot are opposing the prosecuting of the Patriotic League ! Yes, and quite right 1 Freyoinet ia one of the best men the French have got! He was a civil engineer originally, and was in the Government years ago in Gamfietta s time 1 But what is the Patriotic League 1 Oh, originally, it was a sort of private volunteer movement I The idea was to instruct the young men in the carriage and use of arms partly as an athletic exercise and partly to train them into fitness for the army I Aud how did they get into trouble ? Well I Paul de RouMe was at the head of the movement 1 He’s a poet and au enthusiast, and goes in for eccentricity in dress and conduct I Likes attracting public attention . A sort of Whifijerona serious scale 1 Well and the Whiff . . . No, I mean Paul de Roulfede did what? He introduced politics into the League, and ended by taking up and the League split in two and the biggest half left him and he was President over the Boulangist small half 1 And so the Government prosecuted him and a number of others eh? Yes! If you remember there was Raspail and Leguerre and Laisant and some other fellows I Who were they ? Oh 1 Raspail is nobody at all except the son of his father 1 The father was a doctor who made a great stir by his alleged discovery that various diseases were caused by minute worms floating in the atmosphere.. He was a pure empiric and had no scientific knowledge I And what came of it? A good deal 1 Pasteur caught at the idea and set to work as a patient painstaking man of science, and established the existence of microbes, to the knowledge and study of which the modern physician owes so much 1 And what about Laguerre ? Laguerre is a young rising advocate of considerable power I He ia the voice of Boulangism, and has an ambition quite uncontrolled by inconvenient principles I Laisant is an old army man of no importance 1 And now the Government are going to let them alone] No! Only Freyoinet and Guyot want to let them alone I The rest of the Government “ insist that Boulangism must be crushed 1” Ah I And if they don’t take care they’ll crush themselves instead of Boulanger 1 Just so 1 Unless Floquet’s little lunge settles the matter |