The French have set up a Colonial Ministry, and appointed
M Boulanger Minister, with a seat in the Cabinet. The Premier rushed the Bill through the Chamber on Saturday without trouble, and expected to rush it through the Senate; but the Senate, in an unexplained fit of ill-temper, adjourned till April 24th. Thereupon, M. Casimir-Perier told the Pre- sident of that body, in plain terms, that if the Senators did not • come back on Monday and vote his Bill, he would resign. So they came back from their holiday, two hundred and fifty of them, and by eight to one voted his Bill. It was an autocratic method of acting ; but, as we have explained elsewhere, both the Bill and the speed were State necessities. The Times' correspondent complains that no details are settled, the Bill merely creating a Minister with a salary, but all details can 'be settled afterwards. What is indispensable is a Minister in the Cabinet whom Colonial authorities will obey. At present they laugh at home instructions, and are ready to .conquer Empires on their own hook. The march to Timbuctoo for example, with its resulting catastrophe, was made in direct defiance of written orders, the Colonel in command thinking himself a much bigger man than anybody except a Minister.
