294 



FRANCE. 



trammeled by the fear that their efforts may be inter- 

 rupted by a simple parliamentary accident. They 

 will feel themselves set free from such a fear when 

 they find themselves responsible not to one omnipo- 

 tent chamber only, but to the three estates invested 

 with legislative power. Thus the deputies, being no 

 longer able to raise to power or to overthrow minis- 

 tries, will not exercise that disastrous influence which 

 is as fatal to the Assembly as to the Administration. 



The Royalist pretender promised to guaran- 

 tee to the clergy the respect that is necessary 

 to insure the adequate pursuit of their calling, 

 and to restore to the districts independence in 

 educational matters and to France freedom of 

 religious education. The army would have a 

 single and immovable head, and thus be shel- 

 tered from the fluctuations of politics. The 

 monarchy would satisfy at once the conserva- 

 tive needs of France and her passion for equal- 

 ity. The stability of a monarchical govern- 

 ment would enable it to study the problem of 

 industrial conditions and work for the ameli- 

 oration of the lot of the working-people. Uni- 

 versal suffrage would be preserved for the 

 election of deputies in parliament and for the 

 appointment of mayors by the municipal coun- 

 cils in the rural communes. 



The Sate of Decorations. A disclosure of guilt 

 and dishonor in high places startled the coun- 

 try before the Chambers met again. A wom- 

 an named Limouzin, who had access to per- 

 sons of influential position in military and 

 political circles, had offered to procure the 

 cross of the Legion of Honor for certain peo- 

 ple in mercantile life, who informed the po- 

 lice. A detective, representing himself to be 

 a silk-merchant who conducted a model estab- 

 lishment at St. Etienne, went first to one of 

 the woman's agents, Baron Kreitmayer, a Ba- 

 varian nobleman who had been convicted in 

 Germany of selling military secrets, and was 

 taken by him to Mme. Limouzin, who in- 

 troduced him to Brig-Gen. Caffarel, sub- 

 chief of the General Staff at the Ministry of 

 "War. This officer had been appointed by Gen. 

 Boulanger as a pliable man in the place of 

 Gen. Peaucellier, who criticised some of the 

 plans of the minister. He was retained with 

 the rest of the staff by Gen. Ferron, but had 

 fallen into disgrace by incurring debts on the 

 merit of his official position. Caffarel told the 

 supposed silk-merchant, who agreed to pay 

 Mme. Limouzin 25,000 francs, that he was de- 

 serving, and should have the red ribbon of a 

 chevalier that he solicited. Mme. Limouzin 

 and Gen. Caffarel were arrested and the papers 

 in their houses were seized. Mme. Ratazzi, also 

 known as Mme. de la Motte du Portail, Mme. 

 V6ron, who called herself Mme. de Courteuil, 

 and a man named Bayle, were arrested as ac- 

 complices of the Limouzin woman. On in- 

 formation given by a jeweler, who was ap- 

 proached by Mme. du Courteuil and Bayle, 

 the police proceeded to the house of another 

 general, the Comte d'Andlau, a senator and a 

 man of considerable military and literary repu- 

 tation. The senator had fled, and in his house 



were found partly burned letters and account- 

 books with incriminating contents. The Com- 

 tesse Despr6aux de Saint-Sauveur was also ar- 

 rested. Gen. Caffarel was brought before a 

 military court of honor, which on October 13 

 found unanimously that he had been guilty of 

 dishonorable conduct and should be placed on 

 the retired list with half-pay. 



Gen. Boulanger, in a newspaper interview, 

 accused the Minister of War of pursuing the 

 Caffarel investigation with a view of entan- 

 gling him in the scandal. Gen. Ferron de- 

 manded an explanation, and, on securing an 

 admission that he had asserted that the Caffa- 

 rel prosecution was directed solely against him- 

 self, ordered Gen. Boulanger to hold himself 

 under an arret de rigueur, or close confinement 

 to his house, for thirty days. 



The persons accused of traffic in decorations, 

 who, besides those already mentioned, included 

 Paul Lorentz and a man named Bary, who 

 committed suicide, were arraigned before the 

 Correctional Tribunal on November 7. There 

 was no evidence that Gen. Caffarel had before 

 procured or engaged to procure decorations for 

 money. It was shown that Gen. d'Andlau had 

 received bribes from different persons on the 

 promise of getting them decorated. The pris- 

 oners were condemned to suffer various terms 

 of imprisonment, and some of them to pay 

 fines, on the charge of obtaining money on 

 false pretenses, which was all that could be 

 proved. Senator d'Andlau, who had abscond- 

 ed, was sentenced in contumaciam. 



The Wilson Scandal. The two generals were 

 the only persons of official station implicated 

 in the transactions of the decoration agency. 

 Some asserted that the authorities would not 

 have made so much of a simple case of swin- 

 dling if they had not desired to divert attention 

 from a scandal affecting the detective bureau, 

 two of the chiefs of which had ordered card- 

 cases made from the skin of Pranzini, an exe- 

 cuted murderer, whose trial had been the sen- 

 sation of Paris in an earlier part of the year. 

 Many, however, believed that the chief cul- 

 prits had escaped detection, if they were not, 

 indeed, shielded by the authorities. This sup- 

 position was based on a remark of Mme. Li- 

 mouzin, who, when arrested, said that the 

 police would find at her house letters from 

 Gen. Thibaudin, MM. Wilson, Delattre, Mac- 

 kau, and others. M. Wilson, the son-in-law of 

 President Grevy, has for years been subjected 

 to journalistic attacks and popular suspicion. 

 He had been accused of making use of his ex- 

 ceptional sources of political information to 

 gain millions on the bourse. His last stock 

 operations, conducted at the time of the 

 Schnaebele incident, when he speculated for 

 a fall in prices, and spoke of war as imminent, 

 resulted in heavy losses for him, because the 

 affair was arranged more speedily than he had 

 expected ; still, he incurred obloquy by his 

 conduct, and popular suspicion began from 

 that time to extend to his father-in-law, with 



