METZ AND MONAGHAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 34, 21 December 1883, Page 23

METZ AND MONAGHAN.

Aphopos of the prosecution for treason of M. Antoine, the French d |P»^ r f or Metz m the German Reichstag, the London correspondent of the Irish. Time* has the following :— The member for Monaghan is perceptibly enlarging his niche. Here is the Boulevard journal, the Evenetnent, in a violent article on tfie impeachment of the deputy for Metz, calling M. Antoine " the Tim Healy of the Beichstag." This, we think, is fame indeed. It is not hard to understand how Mr. Healy has come to be selected as the type of the Parliameatary obstructive, and the representative of irreconcilable patriotism. But we are fairly puzzled to account for the pecnlwr knowledge which enabled this scribe of Paris to parody in its familiar shape the personality of the putative father of the famous clause. We cudgel our brains for another example of such intimate acquaintance with his subject on the part of the French journalist, but our search is vain. It is not so in Germany, where a Berlin paper announces for an early date a series of sketches of French and English legislators. Among the latter are five of the Nation. * * P^y—Messrs. Parnell, Healy, Bipgar, Dawson, and O'Kelly— and Mr JSrrmgton," the Windhorst of Westminster," as the advertisement calls him. We have had evidence already that the Berlin Press is well posted m foreign men and matters, but they seem also open, ing their eyes next door, and some of us consider that between Metz and Monaghan a very happy stroke. M. Antoine, it need not be said, represents the irreconcilables of Alsace-Lorraine in the Parlia. ment o£the conqueror. He has carried himself with great boldness in the alien legislature, even bearding the Chancellor himself. Discretion is the better part of valour in defying the man of blood and iron, and the member for Metz is likely to find it out by the time the proceedings taken against him for treasonable practices have reached a decision. Meantime, Mr. Timothy-Polydore-Healy-Antoine cuts a composite figure of no small interest. Perhaps, having regard to •ome interesting circumstances, it is worth while to give another paragraph to the subject. The arrest and approaching trial of the member for Metz have inspired a numbeT of more or less apocryphal JS and anecdotes in the French papers. It is said, for Example, that M. Antoine-Healy, having been asked by the chairman oftti Committee of Forty appointed by the Beichstag to draw np a plan for reorganisation of the annexed provinces, addressed his report to • Monsieur All Baba." This was most decidedly neat, and themember for Monaghan may well feel his internal spirit cut a caper when when he finds himself cited as a model for such a malcontent. Another adventure of which M. Antoine is the hero is in effect that having cause to return to Metz, for family reasons, he walked in the afternoon on the public promenade of the city. His presence there was soon made known throughout the garrison, and thereupon, the story goes, that the German officers came out in force, and made a point of hustling the avowed advocate of the French revanche from tbe footpath. For some time the heroic Frenchmen bore these insults in silence, but at last the conduct of a Bavarian officer proved the last straw, so to speak, and, drawing himself up in the path of his msulter, M, Antome, looking fall in the face, exclaimed; "Perhaps you can tell me, monsieur, what is the usual punishment in Germany for officers who are dastards enough to insult a defenceless man. The Bavarian, taken aback, could only stammer, " Perhaps you can tell me, monsieur, how they wou Id pnnish such officers in France ?" "No monsieur, I cannot," replied M. Antoine emphatically, "for in France it is impossible for such a question to arise. Such a case could not present itself. Of course the Bavarian officer blushed crimson, and awkwardly moved on without another word ; and equally, of course, the heroic M. Antoiae was treated to a chorus of sotto voee congratulations by his delighted countrymen.