The Strasburg incident has quickened Boulangist feeling in France, and
on Tuesday M. Laguerre, the active representa- tive of the party, produced a scene in the Chamber. He wanted to know why the Senate delayed its preliminary inquiry BO long. M. Thevenet, Minister of Justice, explained that the Government had no authority over the Senate; whereupon M. de Cassagnac accused Government and the majority of protracting the proceedings in order to influence the elections, and alleged that the Home Office was persuading witnesses to perjure themselves. The majority, greatly excited, formally censured M. de Cassagnac ; and when M. Lagaerre jumped up to declare that the delay was caused by the inability of the authorities to discover any ground upon which to base a charge of treason, the Chamber refused to permit him to proceed. After a discussion so furious that at one moment a general struggle was expected among the Deputies, the Order of the Day was carried by 331 votes to 209. The delay would be considered in England mon- strously unjust; but it is true that the• mass of documents seized takes time to read, and unless the prosecution can show that the General instigated a mutiny, the electors are not likely to care much, whatever is proved or disproved. A plebiscite is a pardon for the man who obtains it. The only importance of the affair is the evidence it affords that the Chamber is "growing electric."
