It is rumoured that before the election General Boulanger will
reappear in Paris to demand his trial. He has asked for a Court-Martial, but probably knows that it will be refused, and is therefore; it is said, preparing to enter France. The Government will arrest him, but the excitement of the inci- dent will bring his name to the memory of every elector, and his arrest at such a moment will be considered unfair. The Government has directed the Prefects not to allow his name to be submitted to the electors, inasmuch as he has been condemned by a legitimate Court, and is there- fore disqualified. That is legally doubtful; but, in any case, we apprehend that in returning he quashes his sentence, and until again convicted he is legally free. The assertion, moreover, so constantly made in the Times, that he cannot be rehabilitated without a Revolution, because the
Senate would not pass the Act, is, we imagine, constitutionally unsound. The Revisionists, if victorious, would summon a joint meeting at once ; and the Assembly, while it sits as one body, is sovereign, and can pass any law. Besides, the Senate, if the Chamber were Boulangist, would not face a Revolution alone. Nobody resists a plebiscite while it is still warm.
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