292 



FRANCE. 



training, and made liable to serve as reservists. 

 The one-year volunteer system was to be abol- 

 ished, and a universal obligatory three-year 

 service established, instead of the period of 

 five years. All the Republicans voted in favor 

 of abolishing the exemption of seminarists. 

 The one-year volunteer system, which was 

 adopted after the war of 1870 as a mitigation 

 of the abolition of substitution and in imita- 

 tion of Germany, permits young men of the 

 upper and middle classes to serve only twelve 

 months, during which they enjoy a privileged 

 position in the army on passing a literary ex- 

 amination and paying 1.000 francs. Under the 

 proposed conscription law, young men, who 

 are liable from the age of twenty, may have 

 the date of their entrance into the army post- 

 poned for a year, and the postponement re- 

 newed for another year, on proving that their 

 studies, or apprenticeship, or agricultural or 

 commercial occupations would be interrupted 

 to their prejudice. The period may be ex- 

 tended to three or four years in the case of 

 students of the universities and certain techni- 

 cal schools and seminarists. The same privi- 

 lege was extended to the Catholic colleges that 

 were established in 1875 in opposition to the 

 University. These exceptions, which were 

 adopted during the discussion in spite of the 

 objections of the Radicals, were the only com- 

 promise that the upholders of a democratic 

 army system would offer to the advocates of 

 volunteering. 



It was originally intended to furlough a 

 considerable part of the conscripts at the end 

 of two years, but the general three-years' serv- 

 ice was agreed to at the request of Gen. 

 Perron, who showed that the aggregate force 

 under the colors would then be 480,000, or 

 only 66,000 more than under the old law, and 

 the extra expense of keeping the whole yearly 

 contingent with the colors only 8,000,000 

 francs per annum. At this point M. Laisant, 

 the originator of the measure, resigned his 

 post as reporter of the committee, and the bill 

 was abandoned by its friends, who thus put 

 off a reform for which the democracy of 

 France have been clamoring for twelve years, 

 rather than sacrifice a part of the relief from 

 the blood-tax that the working-people would 

 gain. The Chambers authorized the creation 

 of four new cavalry regiments and eighteen in- 

 fantry regiments, and voted 7,000,000 francs 

 for the experimental mobilization of an army 

 corps, and adjourned on July 23, after a ses- 

 sion almost barren of legislative results. 



Bonlangist Demonstrations. During the minis- 

 terial crisis the Radical populace of Paris be- 

 came excited over the prospective exclusion of 

 Gen. Boulanger, and when the list of the new 

 ministry was published, it was decried in the 

 Radical journals as a " German Cabinet." On 

 taking leave of office, Boulanger thought it fit, 

 contrary to all precedent, to issue a farewell 

 order of the day to the troops, closing with 

 the words : " I shall be the first to set you the 



example of that twofold discipline, at once 

 military and republican." The evening of 

 the day on which the ministers appeared be- 

 fore the Chamber, May 31, was the occasion of a 

 grand military festival that had been arranged 

 by the departing Minister of War. He refrained 

 from attending. During the festivities crowds 

 gathered around the Op6ra cheering Boulanger 

 and marched to the Ministry of War, shouting 

 for his return. Finally troops appeared, and 

 drove from the Opera square the clamoring 

 and singing mob. 



Gen. Boulanger was assigned to the com- 

 mand of the Clermont-Ferrand Army Corps. 

 His departure for his post was the occasion of 

 noisy demonstrations in the streets of Paris, 

 at the Lyons railroad-station, and in the towns 

 along the route. This was followed on July 

 11 by a Radical attempt to upset the Govern- 

 ment on an interpellation of Tony Revillon, 

 who charged it with an alliance with the Right 

 and an indifference to Royalist intrigues. M. 

 C16menceau, by whose influence Gen. Bou- 

 langer had first been elevated to the ministry, 

 while asserting that the general's popularity 

 was due to his being attacked by the German 

 press and the Right, declared that Gen. Bou- 

 langer was now in his right place, and ought 

 to remain in it. M. Laisant, who had just re- 

 signed from the army bill committee on the 

 rejection of the two-year service, followed 

 with a defense of Boulanger, declaring that 

 the Rouvier Cabinet had been constituted under 

 foreign pressure. The uproar caused by this 

 remark was such that M. Floquet tendered his 

 resignation as speaker, but it was not accepted. 

 M. Rouvier declared that in case a clear ma- 

 jority of all the Republicans voted against the 

 ministry it would resign. The Right joined 

 their votes to those of the Opportunists in sup- 

 port of the Government, securing a majority of 

 382 against 120. 



The imposing demonstrations that attended 

 Gen. Boulanger's return to the routine of his 

 profession did not occur without some encour- 

 agement or connivance on his part. Not long 

 afterward he seized on another opportunity to 

 keep his personality before the public. M. 

 Ferry, in a speech at fipinal, alluded to him in 

 sarcastic terms as a " St. Arnaud of the music- 

 halls," comparing him with the general who 

 carried out Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat. Gen. 

 Boulanger thereupon sent a challenge to the 

 statesman, which was accepted. Yet when 

 the former, claiming " a serious satisfaction, 

 justified by the gravity of the offense," insisted 

 that the parties should continue firing until one 

 should be struck, or should shoot with deliber- 

 ate aim at twenty paces, M. Ferry's seconds 

 would not accede to such an encounter, deem- 

 ing sufficient the customary exchange of shots 

 at twenty-five paces, as in the duel fought a 

 year before between Boulanger and M. de 

 Lareinty, a Royalist senator who had branded 

 as " cowardly " a reference to the exiled Due 

 d'Aumale, The result of the disagreement of 



