A LADY'S PORTRAIT OF GENERAL BOULANGER.
MRS. CRAWFORD, a clever woman of letters who resides in Paris, and is correspondent of a leading English journal, endeavours, in the first number of the new magazine, the Universal Review, to give the English public some notion of what General Boulanger is. It is rather a clever performance, though not a satisfying one. Read hurriedly, as most people will read it, there seems to be nothing in it, less even than in the sketches of which a dozen or so have recently appeared in different journals ; but read studiously, with all the pin-pricks carefully noted, there emerges a fairly definite and intelligible figure. The lady, we should say, though she does not exactly wish to put her opinion into an epigram, and sandwiches any depreciatory remark she may have to make between sentences of eulogy, holds the General to be a kind of brummagem Henri Quatre. At least, it is the figure of the first Bourbon which her whole portrait suggests, whether she intended it or not. She begins by explaining, with commendable frankness, her materials for forming a judgment. She had been acquainted with General Boulanger for some years, and had received some official kind- ness at his hands when she was called upon to write a sketch of his personality, and with professional audacity asked the General himself to furnish the materials. 'Talk about yourself, General,' she seems to have said, 'as if you were a third person,' a nail request, which to most men, and especially to most vain men, would have been irresistible. General Boulanger, however, though there is vanity in him, he being half-Celt, and of the Gascon turn of mind, is, said General Farre of him, rather a cau- tious person (avise), and he jumped out. of that trap by promising to send his questioner two friends who knew him thoroughly, and would tell her everything about him. The friends came, and to one of them the General made a remark which is, we fancy, an indication of the man on one important point :-- "Madame wants to make a wide breach in the wall surrounding my private life. Modesty forbids me to help her. But I not only authorise but require you to tell her everything, bad, good, and indifferent, which you think of a nature to satisfy her curiosity ; I have, mind, the fullest trust in her tact. Make on my behalf a clean breast; and if she wants to publish what you tell her, she will make herself the choice of what is to be withheld. I don't mind how wide the breach is in the wall. Treat Madame en phi losophe et en antic. If you are tli3s indiscret, taut miewx. Les dames aiment les indiscretions. The more faithful you are in discharging this mission, the better you will please me." Considering that the General was then War Minister, which means in France Commander-in-Chief as well as Secretary of State ; that the friend had been his aide-de-camp, and probably looked to him for his advancement ; and that the French idea of discipline extends to criticism, that sentence suggests to us a man who, under a mask of entire bonhomie, covers a large measure of craft and self-seeking. He knew quite well that under those circumstances his portrait would not be a photograph, much less a caricature. General Farre's judgment of him, also, was exactly in that sense. That General knew him well, liked him, and offered him important posts, and when he was called feather-headed, cried out,—" I beg your pardon. It's not feather-headedness, it's verve ; et il on a mime enormement. I don't see the harm in that.
Boulanger is a Gascon du Nord; being myself an Gascon du Midi, I'm able to understand him. He has a light heart but a cool head, and I think him rather knowing (avise) than rash." That, too, is indirectly the judgment passed on him by his aide-de-camp. No man really self-seeking ever fails to study character, though no doubt the instinct of character is often given to men in whom self-seeking has no place, and, says the aide-de-camp, "General Boulanger's perceptions are intensely acute. There's no possibility of taking him in or of hoodwinking him. At first sight, he takes stock' of utter strangers, seeing their strong and weak points, summing them up and striking a balance. If the total is in their favour, he does not worry about the rest. Human nature is human nature, and where does the perfect man exist?" His demeanour in the interview with M. Wilson, which, in Mrs. Crawford's opinion, led to his professional ruin, though highly creditable to his character, was marked by the same note of pawkiness. The General, besides being, for aught we
know, quite honest in pecuniary matters, was not going to be brought under the thumb of the Elysee by engaging in dis- reputable jobs, and when asked about a contract by the all- powerful Mayor of the Palace, genially but sufficiently snubbed his interlocutor :—
" How d'ye do, M. Minister ?'—' Well, thank you. Enchanted to see you, dear Deputy. Pray sit down. To what do I owe the honour and pleasure of your call ?'—‘ A mere trifle, my dear Minister. I'm interested in a youngster, the son of a canvassing elector of mine, who wants to servo as a twelvemonth's volunteer, but, unfortunately for himself, is not up to the examination standard. You see what a vital interest I have in serving him, and how greatly I shall be your debtor if you can oblige me. Could you get his application for an examination to be delayed, granted 2'—' Delighted ! Favours of this sort are granted constantly. Give me the youth's name, and all the needful information about
him!—After fumbling, first in one pocket-book stuffed with papers, then in another, and finally in a third, the A.-P. Deputy finds he has left at home what the Minister wants, but will come back with it all to-morrow. He (looking askance) thanks Mr. Minister for his kind reception, and takes his leave. As his fingers are on the handle of the door, a sudden thought strikes him, and he slaps his forehead. 'What a forgetful fellow I am !' he cries, retracing his steps. 'There's another matter on which, my dear Minister, I want to have a little chat. It's (lowering his voice and screwing all his resolution into his furtive eyes) on an important matter between us both.'—' What is it ? I'm always yours to command!
A contract for soldiers' blankets.'—` 0-o-o-o-o-h ! Desolated.
Don't you know that's not in my province You're certain ?'— ' Certain.'—' It's a big—a very big affair.'—` Tantalising. But no
help for Positively sure ?'—' Oh, yes, positively. You must go to the office of the 5th Direction about the matter. I absolutely -keep aloof from contract business, unless to overhaul when I scent .a job."
Under this character, which is essentially one of good- -natured craft, such as both tradition and history assign to Hemi Quatre, is a certain efficiency, the efficiency of a good- humoured despot who will have his regiment in order and his commands obeyed, and is apt, even with his colleagues, to state his views rather than discuss them ; and above it, in part concealing it, is the Gascon of the North, a little boastful, a little vain, fond of pleasure, a worshipper of women—" not on all occa- sions platonically," smiles Mrs. Crawford—fond of luxury of all kinds, beautiful horses particularly, and of show, the latter a quality which recommended him to Gambetta, who wanted to make of Paris a modern Rome. He is quick to perceive the evidences of his own popularity, and does not grow furious under attack, chiefly, says Mrs. Crawford, because lie learned to endure contumely at his English school at Brighton, where he was derided as "Froggy," partly also, we would suggest, because self-esteem, when it is genuine, often serves a man under obloquy like a cloak in a shower. Add that he does not mind being used as an instrument by Gambetta, by Bonapartists, by Radicals, by anybody, and means none the less to have his own way; that he is a good soldier as well as a brave one ; and that in an explanation which he gives of his relation to the Due d'Aumale he is clearly more anxious to defend himself from the charge of ingratitude than from the charge of lying, and we have a man very like what we have said, a brum- =gem Henri Quatre. We say " brummagem," because, If we comprehend Mrs. Crawford, she wishes it to be under- stood that General Boulanger is not a great gentleman, which 'Henry IV. was, and because he has as yet shown no sign of Henry's great quality,—a kind of royalty of nature which made him avoid oppression and hold all subjects equal in his eyes. General Boulanger feels, it is true, for the common soldier; but it is not yet certain that his kindness to him was not a result of calculation, though we are bound to add, he says himself that his motive was his conviction that good soldiers
are bred in times of peace.
Mrs. Crawford's portrait, though imperfect and even blurred,
and singularly deficient in intellectual appreciation or depre- ciation, does explain a little the French selection of General Boulanger as an idol. Henri Quatre is always the popular hero in France. To Englishmen he seems a very imperfect hero, a sensualist and a despot, a man of little faith and sio fidelity, who gave up his religion to win a crown, and was In many ways the Bourbon family embodied ; but he touches the French heart, his daring and his successes, his vices and his kindliness, his love of show, and his thought for the common folk, all alike helping to make him acceptable, while las craft is taken as wisdom and his religious indifference as extreme good sense. General Boulanger has something of Henry in him, especially as to externals, and is taken by his fellow-countrymen, we fancy, to have much more. No one is ever much disgusted by the conversion of an acquaintance to his own creed; and Frenchmen who are sick of the inefficient talkers 'thrown up by the Chamber, and who are sighing for a man to believe in who shall not be bourgeois either in qualities or virtues, would be only too glad if the hero of the white plume were once more ready to lead the way. Whether General Boulanger can win his Ivry, may be doubtful—certainly it is not rendered more probable by this sketch—but he has the white plume, and if there is any charging to b3 done, he will be found in front.
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