General Boulanger is about to submit his own popularity, and
much else, to the vote in the Department of the Charente. He has asked the electors there to choose M. Paul Deroulede as Deputy, telling them in so many words that "to vote for M. Deroulede," who is a native of the department, "is to vote for me." M. Deroulede, it will be remembered, was the head of the Patriotic League, but was so eager for war with Germany that he became a public danger. and was invited to resign. Athough General Boulanger testifies to his love of peace. M. Deroulede has not recanted any of his opinions, and is still eager to recover the lost provinces by war. He has made himself so conspicuous that he is one of the few men whose ideas are known to everybody in France, and his candidature will test not only the extent of his patron's influence, but the peasants' readiness to risk a great cam- paign. The vote, which will be taken on Sunday fortnight, June 17th, will therefore be watched with interest, not only by the existing Government of France, but by the whole world. If General Boulanger in the teeth of the whole Executive can carry a firebrand like M. Paul Deroulede, M. Goblet's pacific assurances will not go for much.
