A banquet given on Sunday last by the Rifle Clubs
of the Vosges, was made by M. Jules Ferry the occasion for a very remarkable attack upon General Boulanger and his supporters. The speech, which, by-the-way, has not been done justice to by any of the correspondents, after dealing at length with the improvement in the condition of the Army and the patriotic spirit to which that improvement was due, contained a warning against a new patriotism which was being developed, and which, instead of making for union, sought rather to divide and dis- unite. Under the new spirit, patriotism was to be made the monopoly not even of a party, but of a group, and all who refused to adore its idols and to follow behind the car of a "Saint-Arnaud de Caf6 Concert," were without distinction to be classed as belonging to the party of the foreigner. Our readers will remember that St. Arnaud was the General employed by Louie Napoleon to carry out the Coup d'Stat. We have no apace to summarise the rest of the speech, but its tone affords by no means pleasant reading to those who still hope against hope that the desire for revenge will die away in France without another war. Underlying the whole, though carefully suppressed, is the feeling that all true Frenchmen are only waiting for the moment to strike.
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