England was visited in 1889 by two of the most perturbing personalities in European politics, the Kaiser Wilhelm II and General Boulanger. _Punch_, however, resolutely and, as it turned out, rightly refused to take the _brav' Général_ seriously, though he found in him plenty of food for disparaging satire as a shoddy hero on his prancing steed, as a "General Boum" in real life (recalling the grotesque figure in _La Grande Duchesse_), and as an uninvited guest, whose unwelcome arrival John Bull took as an occasion for going off to the French Exhibition. In a burlesque cartoon on France's embarrassments in choosing the right form of Government, _Punch_ exhibited President Carnot, the Comte de Paris, Prince Jerome Bonaparte ("Plon-Plon") and General Boulanger dancing a grotesque _pas de quatre_ before the French Electorate. But Boulanger was already ended, though his death, by his own hand, did not take place till the autumn of 1891. His histrionic equipment was perfect, and the French, though the most logical of people, are often carried away by their theatrical sense. He had served with some distinction in the army, and he was a fine figure on a horse. But he lacked the inflexible will, the iron resolution and the ruthlessness which make Cæsars and Napoleons; and _Punch's_ epitaph is a closely-packed summary of the forces and influences which conspired to his undoing:-- So high he floated, that he seemed to climb; The bladder blown by chance was burst by time. Falsely-earned fame fools bolstered at the urns; The mob which reared the god the idol burns. To cling one moment nigh to power's crest, Then, earthward flung, sink to oblivion's rest Self-sought, 'midst careless acquiescence, seems Strange fate, e'en for a thing of schemes and dreams; But Cæsar's simulacrum, seen by day, Scarce envious Casca's self would stoop to slay, And mounting mediocrity, once o'erthrown, Need fear--or hope--no dagger save its own. The Kaiser's visit to attend the Naval Review at Spithead is treated in a somewhat jocular and cavalier spirit in the cartoon, "Visiting Grandmamma":-- GRANDMA VICTORIA: "Now, Willie dear, you've plenty of _soldiers_ at home; look at these pretty _ships_--I'm sure you'll be pleased with _them_!" [Sidenote: _Mistrust of the Kaiser_]