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Show HASTENING HIS OWN DOWNFALL. Premier Combes will be hoisted by his own petard. pe-tard. Men of his temper and resentment are fit only to be grand .viziers in a despotism like Turkey. Tur-key. Friends of the government arc scandalized by his acts, and even some of the radical socialists were provoked to quarrel with him. A correspondent correspond-ent of the New' York Herald, whose letters betray a bias for the government, nevertheless says: "The week was opened (April 16) by an important im-portant political demonstration. Premier Combes, with a party of senators and deputies, went to Laon and made a big speech at a banquet which his partisans par-tisans in the department of Aisne offered him. The affair was lively, because this department recently elected deputies opposed to the government; also because two of its former deputies, although norni- -nated as radical socialists, quarreled with the cabinet cab-inet and deserted the ministerial "block." These -last named were Denecheau and Dourncr. The speech of Combes, therefore, was a veritable philippic philip-pic against '.the opponents of tho government.. It is. pitiful to see the- head of the cabinet give himself up to -this unworthy task when, with a little eloquence elo-quence and good humor, he might have merited the; applause of the public by simply showing his hearers what ' progress, had been made in a few I years by the government he represented France is at peace with all Europe, and henceforward 'bound to all her neighbors by treaties of alliance, our budgets arc showing a surplus, our foreign commerce is showing a balance in favor of exports, the military service soon will be reduced to two years, the way is paved for workingmen's pensions, and by the force of circumstances, finally as a finishing fin-ishing touch, there is the Anglo-French agreement which will permit us to complete our admirable African empire and put Morocco under our influence, influ-ence, so that in a few years the emperor of Morocco Moroc-co will be for us what the bey of Tunis is now. This is material to tempt the eloquence of a statesman. Combes preferred to be a partisan. He, moreover, angrily provoked his adversaries to calumniate liim and conlinuc the struggle."' - . A. . |