The French Radicals on Monday raised a scene in the
Chamber, M. Tony likvillon demanding that the Government should reassure them as to its attitude towards Liberalism. M. Cl6mencean declared that the Government was in league with the Right, and while admitting that General Boulanger was now in his proper place, affirmed that he had been removed at the bidding of the German Press and the Right. M. Laisant re- peated this charge, adding that the Cabinet had been con- stituted under foreign pressure. This remark so irritated M. Bouvier, that he threatened to resign if M. Floquet, President of the Chamber, did not call M. Laisant to order. M. Floquet, who had been much exhausted by attempts to maintain order, complied, but wrote out his resignation on the spot. The Chamber, however, on Tuesday, having had a day to recover itself, refused, by a unanimous vote of 485, to accept the resignation, and M. Floquet withdrew it. The effect of the incident has been to reveal the exasperation of the Radicals, and to increase the fear that, being at once defeated and enraged by the combination against them, they may try demonstrations outside. During the contest, M. Laisant described the Right as "the enemy," on whom the Republic ought to march, a, description of them which the Premier energetically refused to accept.
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