OBITUARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18460, 25 July 1923, Page 9

OBITUARY.

EX-PREMIER OF FRANCE. M. : C. ALEXANDRE '.'• DUPUY. A. and N.Z. " PARIS, July 23. , The death is announced of' M. Charles .: Alexandre Dupuy, who was five times '■ Premisr ; of France. - ', ' It. was under the Premiership of M. , Dupuy, in December, 1894, that Captain Dreyfus was' arrested and condemned. M. ' Dupuy, who waa born in 1851, was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1885 and 1 formed his first- Ministry in 1893 after serving .in M. Ribot's Cabinet. During ' his first week of office an anarchist, ; Vail-' •lant, who had managed to gain admission to the Chamber, threw a bomb at the President, and'M. Dupuy's collected bearing and ..bis historic words, "Messieurs, la seance - continue."* gained him much credit. In 1894 M. Dupuy again . became Premier, and was by President Carnot's side when the latter was stabbed to death at Lyons. M. Dupuy became a candidate for the Presidency, but was defeated, and his Cabinet remained in office. until January, 1.895. The progress ; ,of "l'affaire Dreyfus" cast its shadow upon M. Dupuy, but. in November, 1898, after M. Brisson had at last remitted - the case to the judgment of the Court of Cassation, he formed a Cabinet of * Republican concentration. In view of the apparent' likelihood that the Judges of the criminal division of the Court .of - Cassation—who formed the ordinary tribunal for such an appeal—would decide in favour of Dreyfus, it was thought that M. '.Dupuy's new Cabinet would be strong enough to reconcile public opinion to .such a result, but to the surprise of outside observers, it was no sooner discovered how the Judges were likely to decide than M Dupuy proposed a law in the Cham ber, transferring the decision to a. full Court of all the divisions ,of the Court of Cassation. This arbitrary act, though adopted by the. Chamber, was at once construed as a fresh attempt to maintain the judgment of ".the first court-martial, but id the interval President Faurc, # an anti-Dreyfusard. died, and the ;iccesMon of M Loybet doubtless: had some effect in qaieting public' feeling. ; The. whole ': Court ■ ; of Cassation ■•'' decided that there ' must.-be a-; ? new : court-martial and M. Dupuy-at ouca resigned* ' ' •'