rder to remedy what they had denounced as the 'intolerable' evils of
the _scrutin d'arrondissement_. Under the stress of the Boulangist
panic, these same Republicans suddenly threw the _scrutin de liste_ over
again in 1889, to readopt and reimpose upon their beloved country the
'intolerable' evils of the _scrutin d'arrondissement_!

The second balloting was to take place on March 31. Suppose that General
Boulanger should take it into his head to force the fighting on that day
at Laon--worse still, try to make an 'arrangement' with the Conservative
candidate? What would then become of M. Doumer? So, on March 28, M.
Doumer tells us he went up to Paris, from Laon in company with the
chairman of one of the Republican committees, and there had an interview
with a leading member of the committee of General Boulanger, the result
of which was that the 'brav' General' published a letter, in which he
announced to the electors of the Aisne that he could not accept a seat
which he could only occupy to the detriment of competitors 'beside whom,
and not against whom, he had allowed himself to be made a candidate.' He
wound up by requesting his friends in the Aisne 'to vote at the second
balloting for the candidate who would best support the honour of the
country and the interests of the Republic.'

Then came, at Laon, a meeting of the Republican Committee of the Aisne,
at which the chairman of the meeting, M. Lesguillier, was instructed to
do his best to 'dissipate the somewhat equivocal effect' of the
language used by General Boulanger in his letter, and to induce the
Boulangist committee to work, on the 31st, for the election of M.
Doumer. And so, on March 31, 1888, M. Doumer was finally put into the
seat, which enabled him to draw up his model report on the great
question of 'co-operation.' That the Boulangists of Laon are not wholly
delighted with the course of M. Doumer in the late Chamber, and that the
working-men of Laon are not deeply impressed by the value to them of his
model report on 'co-operation,' may be inferred from his defeat by the
Boulangist candidate M. Castelin under the _scrutin d'arrondissement_ in
September, 1889.

But M. Doumer is a typical French politician of the Third Republic, and
as his alliance with M. Floquet seems to be firmer than ever, my friend
in the Aisne is probably right in thinking that M. Doumer will still be
heard of perhaps as a prefect, perhaps as a deputy filling the seat of
some 'inval