In 1886 he advocated the exile of the Orleans princes and the erasure of the Duc d’Aumale’s name from the list of French generals.  For this he was reproached with ingratitude to the duke, who had once been his commanding officer.  His own letter of thanks for kindness, favors, and patronage was produced, and Boulanger could only defend himself by pronouncing it a forgery.

He made many changes in army regulations, which increased his popularity with the army.  One was all order to the men to wear their beards, and as in the French army soldiers had always been obliged to shave except when on active service, this was interpreted, in the excited state of public feeling, into an intimation of the probability of a speedy declaration of war.  As War Minister, the general also extended the time when soldiers on leave might stay out at night, and relieved them from much of the heavy weight that on the march they had had to carry.  He broke up certain semi-aristocratic clubs in the regiments which controlled army opinion, and gave more weight to the sentiments of the sub-officers.

But before long the Ministry, in which he represented the War Department, came to an end,—­as, indeed, appears to have been the fate of all the ministries under the administration of M. Grevy.  No policy, no reforms, could be carried out under such frequent changes.  The popular cry was that the popular favorite must retain his portfolio as War Minister in the new Cabinet; and this occasioned considerable difficulty.  The general had begun to be feared as a possible dictator.  His popularity was immense; but what his place might be in politics no one could precisely tell.  That he was the idol of the nation was certain; but was he a Radical of the Belleville type, or a forthcoming Napoleon Bonaparte,—­an Imperialist on his own account, or a Jacobin?

The fall of the second Ministry in which he served put him out of office, and the War Minister who succeeded him proceeded to bid for popularity by fresh reforms, which the Radical Deputies thought might be acceptable to the people.  Those who deal with the French peasant should never lose sight of the fact that the peace and prosperity of himself and of his household stand foremost in his eyes.  The Frenchman, as we depict him in imagination or in fiction, is as far as possible from the French peasant.  If ideas contrary to his selfish interests ever make their way into his mind, they are due to the leaven of old French soldiers scattered through the villages.  So when the new Minister of War proposed, and the Chamber of Deputies passed, an ordinance that made it illegal to buy a substitute, and required every Frenchman, from eighteen to twenty-one years of age, to serve in the army, the peasant found small consolation for the loss of his sons’ services in the thought that the son of a duke must serve as well as the son of a laborer.  Boulanger had introduced no such measure.  “Vive le General Boulanger!”