17 JULY 1886, Page 3

The Dac d'Aumale has been expelled France. General Boulanger, under

the Act of Expulsion, struck him off the roll of the Army ; whereupon the Duke wrote to the President denouncing the decree as a violation of the Charter of the Army, an officer's commission in France being beyond attack except through a court-martial. The letter, which is curt and haughty, but not otherwise objectionable, was declared by the Ministry an insult to the Republic, and a decree of expulsion was at once forwarded to the Duke at his country-seat, who thereupon quitted France, and will reside in Worcestershire, where he has an estate. On Tuesday, the dismissal and the expulsion were attacked in the Chamber, but defended by General Boulanger on the ground that the Duc d'Aumale, as a Prince, had been promoted too rapidly, and that his commission, therefore, was essentially irregular ; while the letter to the Presi- dent insulted the Republic. The former argument is ridiculous, first, because the head of the State in France, as in England, has a discretionary right of promotion, and secondly, because the Duke's Army rank had been confirmed by a statute passed under the Republic ; and the latter would only have justified a court-martial. The Chamber, however, voted a direct approval of the firmness of the Government by 375 votes to 168, and the Senate, after a stormy scene, did the same by 175 to 78.