Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-11

the royal domains of the Congo which the
king will leave to Belgium and the derisory
portions of his two other daughters, whom
he has practically disinherited.
Thus royalty heeled, what influences may
not the ambitious brothers conquer for
themselves and the French party that has
always been faithful to their cause? Sup
pose that they should come to Paris. let US
say by the same route as their father
cousin, who first got himself elected pres
ident of the then existing republic and
then, when he had secured the generals.
made himself Emperor Napoleon III by
way of plebescite election. One hears on
all sides that Louis might easily try it.
Well, by curious coincidence he would
find just beside the sacred center Of his
race and cause in Paris-the tomb of his an
cester, Napoleon the First-all the machin-
cry that might make mar him
This is the machinery of the military gov
ernor of Paris. republican capital that
has nevertheless not been suffered to have
a militia since the Gisbanding of the Ma
tional Guard after the commune, Paris is
full of soldiers-30, 900 under arms contin-
ually in its gates-and they are all under
the control of one man. whose post Is the
most envied of all the army hierarchy.
No Local Regiments.
This is the military governor, at present
general Dessirier, but the name matters
little, it is the Office and machinery that
Parisians refer to when they wonder vague
~ at its vast concentrat ton of power.
The seat of the military governor is at
the Invalides, the intellectually unique SOL
diers home built by Louis XIV; but all the
memories clinging round it are Bonapartist
The few old soldiers still living in one wing
of it are all survivors of the wars of Ma
poleon III, and no new ones enter. The
tomb of Napoleon the first. under its gilded
dome, attracts reyerential, awe-struck
crowds of visitors. and the two military
museums occupying the right wing are eIo-
quent of the great epoch.
All around the atmosphere is warlike and
aristocratic. The Officers School Is just
around the corner; a military hospital
stands by it, and In the immediate neigh
borhood rise three great barracks.
Here the military governor lives in great
suites of rooms magnificently furnished
from the national Garde Meuble, but his
offices. severely plain. are far more signi-
ticant. The telephone connects them with
the thirty barracks that-scattered from
Vincennes to st. Cloud and from Mont
rouge to Montmartre-contain the 10000
picked troops domiciled in Paris.
They are picked troops in this sense that
they are picked from everywhere but Paris
-fSherboyS from Brittany, farmer-boyS
from the Loire, shepherd-boys from Berry
IN no wise in sympathy with Paris, not
over-educated, knowing best of all their Of
flcers command.
Nor does the network of power end here
There are two generals under the military
governor. One commands the troops of
Paris proper. The other commands those
of the Seine-et-Oise, the environs for thirty
miles in one direction. Versailles Is it's seat,
with it's garrison of some 1900. Besides
these the military governorship has affect
ed to it twelve other line regiments drawn
in rotation from other departments, extra
cavalry divisions engineer brigades, bat
teries of foot chasseurs and artillery, and
the whole Legion of the Republican Guard
that regularly works with the Paris police
| have never yet met Partisan with any
thing but the most haZy notions of the
powers and duties of the military governor.
One has just been telling me: ''He COM
mands the place"-ie., he commands the
troops garrisoned IN and about Paris-with
respect 10 the troops rather than with re-
spect TO the Parisians. This Is true, as far
as it goes. 1t is all the same soldiers
answer; and, think. the man who gave 1t
was a civilian, a young man about town
who had served his three years as a con-
script and that IS where he got the spirit
1t seems that the military governor be-
comes what his name implies only In the
case of certain eventualities-one of which
is when the minister Of war calls on him to
preserve the peace of Paris.
Constitution Between Friends.
Thus It is the military governor of Paris
who ought to protect the chamber of depu-
ties should mob threaten to break into 1t
and dispense it's members-as it did after
Sedan TO the parliament of Napoleon III
At that time Gen. Trochu did just the op-
posite He at once swung all his regiments
into line with the new government"-that
Is to say into line with a lot of self-ap-
pointed men whose successors still
running the republic. Napoleon III came
into power through the activity of the
army He fell by the passivity of the
army.
In anv case the tendency to look on the
army as something apart from the republic
Is the weakness common among French Of
icers OF which the late minister of war
General Andre complained when justifyine
his attempt to purify the body by means
of his spy system. An artillery lieutenant
who has spent five years at Mount Valeri-
en-the fortress that dominates the capital
has given me the following illustration of It
II was when Boulanger was at the height
of his popularity. Rumors of a coup detat
were circulating. and open illusions were
made to the possibility of the dispersion of
the Chamber of Deputies by the Erav Gen
eral.
Il was chatting one day with a group
of officers" says the artillery lieutenant,
who Is a strong republican, land l began
exposing my apprehensions to them. They
were easy In their minds. The doctrine
of passive obedience dispensed them from
thinking. If the military governor ordered
them to march against the chambers, eh
bien. they would have to obeyn'
a. But the constitution 1 objected
1--we do not know the constitution they
replied. we only know our chiefs. We obey
and we are covered
And the Treveneuc law?
The freveneuc law, what Is that's? they
The republican lieutenant explained to