GENERAL BOULANGER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7387, 4 June 1887, Page 2

GENERAL BOULANGER.

The following sketch of the life of General Boulanger, who at present in the most popular man in France, will be read with interest. It is from the London Times : — > General Georges Boulanger was born in 1837 at Rennes, in Brittany, where his father was then practising as an avoue. His family afterwards removed to Nantes, and in that, city he passed the greater part of his boyhood, but. in 1850 he spent several months "with some relatives at Brighton, acquiring while there a deoided taste for cricket, which he played with his cousins and their schoolfellows on tho famous old Brunswick ground. It may

here be mentioned that General Boulanger's molhe/, who is still alive, was a lady of English family, a -Miss Griffith, but alr though she was born in England she had [ spent almost the whole of her life in France. Having determined to enter the army, young Boulanger was senl to St. Oyr, and shortly after obtaining his commission he 'saw some service in Algeria. . In the expedition to Cochin China he received a spear* thrust in the leg. The wound was not very serious in itself, but as many of the native weapons were poisoned it was at first a cause of some anxiety. -Fortunately, however, no bad effects came from it. A far more serious ' wound was that which the young officer 3 received at Solferino, where he was shot t completely 'through 'the body, and he would undoubtedly have succumbed to it but for the nursing of hia mother, who, when hope was abandoned by the surgeonff, had him' removed from the hospital, and taken' to a private house. 3 It was just a, chance whether he had - strength to survive the removal; but he 1 had, and his life was saved . He now received his captaincy and the Cross of the ' Legion of Honour, and for some time , afterwards he held a professorship" in his ' old school at St. Cyr. Daring the siege of Paris he, as chef de bataillon, received in the presence of the army the thanks of General Trochu for hia bravery, and he was also rewarded with a coloneloy and with 3 promotion ia the Legion of Honour. At 1 the fall of the Commune he was again, wounded. Coming to a courtyard in which r a number of Communards had taken refuge, j Colonel Boulanger opened the wicket, and stepping in received a volley, one of the balls striking his right wrist and passing out at the elbow, but barely had his sword reached the ground before his men, who I had followed him through the wicket, had . taken ample vengeance. For some time j it was feared that this wound might permanently impair the usefulness of the . right hand ; but this has not been the caße. 1 On the .return of the French prisoners 1 from Germany it was naturally found that j army had too many superior officers, and, I among others, Colonel Boulanger had to suffer a temporary loss of rank ; but he soon regained it, and was attached, in command of a regiment of the line, to the • corjps d'qrmie under the Dao d'Aumale i whose headquarters were at Besanoon, On attaining the rank of general he was for a time attached to a cavalry brigade, and more' lately he held the divisional command at Tunis, having in the meanwhile been selected to head the deputation of officers who were sent to represent the French army at the celebration of the centenary of the independence of the United States j of America. In 1863 he married a cousin on his father'e side, and if he inherited from his mother any partiality for £he English, it is likely to be counteracted by his wife, who is so pronounced an Anglopbobist that when her father was French Consul at Bristol she resolutely avoided learning a word of our language. They have two daughters. General Boulanger's appearance is much in his favour, his manners are extremely prepossessing,' and he is a fluent and effective speaker.

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