The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-20 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING FOREIGN

REFUGEES IN ENGLAND.
Tars important correspondence between the Courts
of St. James and of the Tuileries has been pub-
lished. It consists of five despatches. The first, dated
" Paris, February 23rd," is from Lord Cowley, and
announces the desire of Count Walewski that he
Lord Cowley) should express Count Walcwski's
astonishment and regret " at the interpretation
put, in England, upon his despatch to Count Per-
slimy of the 20th ult. Lord Cowley goes on to say
that Count Walewski " has evinced so much con-
cern that the deplorable events which have occurred
should not interrupt the friendly relations which
exist between the two countries," that " it is not to
be supposed he would intentionally have said aught
that could be construed into an attack upon the
liberties of the British nation." To this Lord Mal-
mesbury replies as follows :

TIIE EARL OF NALMESBURY TO EARL COWLEY.

Foreign-office, March 4, 1858.
My Lord,—Yon will take the earliest opportunity of
assuring Count Walewski that her Majesty's advisers, on
their accession to office, are earnestly desirous of main-
taining in their integrity those close and friendly rela-
tions which, since the restoration of the Empire, have'
marked the alliance between France and Great Britain, to
the great benefit of both countries.

Convinced that these sentiments are shared by the Go-
vernment of his Imperial Majesty, and that both Govern
ments will concur in the opinion that such friendly rela-
tions are best maintained by frank and unreserved inter-
course, her Majesty's Government appeal with confidence
to that of his Imperial Majesty to aid them in their en-
deavours to remove some causes of misapprehension
which, it cannot be denied, have produced, and, if suffered
to remain unexplained, must continue to produce, painful
effects upon the public mind of England.
Your lordship will assure Count Walewski that her
Majesty's Government entertain the fullest conviction that
his Excellency, in his despatch of the 20th January,
written at a moment when the just indignation of France
and of the world had been excited by the late atrocious
and cowardly attempt upon the life of his Imperial Majesty,
and ander the impression that the laws of England were
insufficient to protect his Imperial Majesty against a repe-
tition of such attempts upon the part of foreign refugees
resident in Great Britain, had no other intention than
that of pointing out to her Majesty's Government what
appeared to be a source of danger to France, and inviting
their attention to the supposed defect.
If such has been from the first the hope of her Majesty's
Government, that hope has been completely realised by
the full and frank assurances which Count Walewski has
spontaneously given, as reported in your despatch of the
23rd of February, of his astonishment and regret at the
interpretation put upon certain phrases in his despatch to
Count Persigny of the 20th of January, " astonishment
that his meaning could have been misunderstood, and
regret that he should be believed, with his knowledge of
England, capable of applying, as a generality, an imputa-
tion which the context of his despatch ought, he thinks,
to have proved could only have been intended fors definite
class of strangers."

Though her Majesty's Government have, from the first,
entertained the belief that an erroneous construction had
been put on Count Waleveskes despatch, they receive with
the highest satisfaction the voluntary repudiation, so
honourable to his Excellency, of the meaning which he
believes to have been attributed to him; and in the same
spirit of candour they desire to call his attention to those
expressions which really have produced an unfavourable
impression on the public opinion of this country.
Your lordsl ip will therefore remark to Count NValewaki,
that his Excellency. in stating that the attempt which has
just providentially failed, " like others which have preceded
it, was devised in England,"—in speaking with reference
to the "adeptea de /a demagogie" established in England,—
of " assassination elevated to doctrine, preached openly,
practised in repeated attempts," and in asking " whether
the right of asylum should protect sneh a stato of things,
or contribute to fAvour their designs and their plans,"
has has not unnaturally been understood to imply imputations,
not only that the offences enumerated are not recognised
as such by the English law, and may be committed with
impunity, but that the spirit of English legislation is such
as designedly to shelter and screen the offender from
punishment.
Her Majesty's Government are persuaded that had
Count Walewski known, when his Excellency held wi7.: