New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-12-23
A GLOOMY EMPRESS.
sEAMY SIDE OF THE PURPLE-BoULANGER


is perhaps tho saddest woman alive She loved her
husband, she loved power because she has In high
degree tho political faculty and is endowed with
mind which secs things wholesale rather than VII
detail, and she is very proud woman In the oeSt
sense Of the word Her husband and the throhc'
for which she had carefully educated herself, have
been taken from her. The misery OF worldly great
ness impressed upon her the most cruel object
lessons with which Providence ever pleased to
teach a human being Her pride received sore ruos
during the greater part OF her married lfe' But
1t was bufeted with during her short and unhappy
occupancy Of the Imperial throne, and was Tampied
upon in tho early days Of her wdowhood She
only was esteemed her husbands wife. AS
woman, she held Of account because her
are despsed In Prussia This was a great
aiiicion to the eldest daughter OF Queen victoria,
who when the Empress Fl ederick was a child, hucd
perhaps the greatest position that there was IN tho
world. None OF her daughters have her mind They
kindly and well disposed and dutful toward their
mother, but not In touch with her. Being obliged
to quit the palace IN which she lived at Posdam with
her husband during thirty years was cruel blow
to her. She has become deeply pous. Religion
alone fills her heart. The paint brush and palette
have been laid aside. 1t is her intention to devote
herself great deal to schools and hospitals, and to
addict herself to what is known Christian social
ism. Neither she nor her husband liked polticai
socialism They felt that the State could never save
a people and that salvation should come OF INDIVIDUAL
effort working from within outward
Tho Legislative Chamber, the period when 1t must
die approaches, grows feverish and coDvulsve Inc
political syndicatcs enjoying In 1t the greatest lhnu-
ence are busy connecting plans for prolongng their
existence NJ. Floquets constitutional scheme is ono
of them but some how 1t does not seem to mako Its
way It aims at giving two-thirds Of the deputies an
extension by thirds OF three and six years and 10 send
one-third only before the electorate next year. An
other syndicate formed Of Radicals and opportunsts
for getting up sensational trial for high treason
before the Senate, in which General Boulanger and
some Of HIS friends would be the accused parties The
Senate would sentence the General to the uttarmost
penalty 1t could inhic-perhaps TO be shetland the
Bonapartss and Royalists who act with him. TO less
punishment but still severe enough TO fghten
the parties TO which they belong. The promoters Of
this plan think that the next elections might De car
rcd by them they hurried through before the I'M
preston Of the State trials had died out believe
that establishing the procedure to DO followed IN
trial before the for high treason is this mo-
ment being discussed by the Cabinet NJ floquet
know does not Like 10 drive General Boulanger to bay
He trusts the Generals creditors and the action OF
time A protested bill is thought highly dlsgraceiul
in France and don't know how Boulanger can pos
sibly meet a number of bills on which he has raised
| money There is talk of a wealthy widow Offering to
place her millions his disposal, on the condition that
he gets divorced from his wife (who has left him To
STAY in a convent) and marres her. But the divorce
cannot be got through al once anu "ondn 10 0na"s"
able.
Madame Boulanger is snguarly oretempered ana
dlsagreeable lady Her motheriniaw has been one Oh
| her standing grievances. Not that the poor Old lazy
ever did anything TO her, but Boulanger adores his
mother When he is within fairly easy reach OF her
| he never misses spending Sunday evening with her.
and all tenderness for her physical infrmiues ana
| overooks her mental ones. All he thinks OF Is her
devotion to him. when, nom wound received In Italy
| .Ae hcfxu N
His fidelity In lia gratitude ought to raise him IN his
wife's mind But no. IT has only called up In hF
feeling of mean jealousy Her temper at dinner was
so naggng that the husband got into the way OF an
ing in a cafe. After leaving him to live IN convent
she now oilers TO return to the conJugai douiiclo
He would rather that she did not All the lhhuehco
of the Ministry of Justice will be directed to prevent
him obtaining Judicial separation, which eventually
| might be extended into a divorce.
don't think General Boulanger medtates the ruin
of the Republic HIS speech at Nevers shows that
he read with care and profit mass OF literature
which he procured five or six weeks ago ana WHICH
bore upon the collapse Of Louis Philppes govern
mont the state of parties during the second hePuOAo
and the coup dctat. 1t should be remembered that
General Boulanger undertook TO reconcile Bonapartiss
and Republicans at Nevers, and that he was obliged
10 be reserved in speaking Of the crime Of Louis
Napoleon But The passages In his speech against
the hereditary principle shows that he UNDERSTOOD
why the coup d'etat committed and why the
Republicans were dccimated by the mixed commits
sions Louis Napoleon was not man OF me IN
telect or Of clear and deep insight But he had
subtlety and something in his moral Tor immoral
nature analogous TO the whisker feeers OF the cat
The cats whiskers greatly supply the lack Of round
pupils IN the eyes and enable II to Walk In daylight
and in darkness without knocking its snout against
hard objects Louis Napoleon felt that France at
bottom was as she stu is, Republican, and that the
National temper and the Civil Code both made for
Republcansm. Though he was the elect OF ,oOO,O
he also felt that he could not become Emperor with
out crime. If there had been no powerful Re
publican ferment in the naton, or IL he had not
| been aware OF its existence, he would have never
shot or transported any one from the day on which
his coup was sanctioned By hastily taken plebiscum.
! All opposition 10 him must have died
| out II he made the coup detat merely
TO get out Of a deadlock situation, 10 prevent the
! Assembly which reactionist restoring either
the Comte de Chambord the Comte de Paris. But
he perperated II not TO strengthen the action of the
democratic principle but secure forever himself
and his heirs and creatures perpetual earthly para
| disc IN which they might break the laws Of God and
| nature with mpunity so far as human law was con-
ccrned. He and they wanted to live in palaces with
coulty surroundings 10 fare sumpuously every day,
TO give themselves up to amusement, and TO pass IN
doing all this for sayiors Of society.
There is a vast number of Frenchmen who have no
higher IDEAL. Quite mob Of them gathered around
| Gambetta at the Palas Bourbon and threw him
| into groove which, he lived,
, must have landed him in Dictature
or ruin. Another mob Of the same sort Is gathering
round General Bouanecr. 1t will no doubt astonish
many 10 hear one who las l dd) Intimately and for
long years knew Gambetta and who knows fairly
well Boulanger, say that Of the two Boulangcr Is
better man than Gambetta for highly centralized
Republic He is less, to begin WITH the slave Of his
hosh gets up early In the morning, has habits oil
military punctualty and personal cleanliness is
| intensely shrewd under snowy exterior, takes In
quickly complex situation, is gifted with common
sense and is as klndhearted man as ever breathed
In some respects he IS severe on himself Then he
reverences religion, without being In any degree
q clerical. His education morally sound When
his father Rennes Attorney, got cngaged IN specu-