The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-31 00:00:00

THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND
MR. SOULE.

The French Government have taken an unusual,
though not an unwarrantable, step when all the facts of
the case are known, in declining to allow Mr. Soule,
the Minister of the United States accredited to Madrid,
to enter the territories of the French empire. We un-
derstand that this gentleman expressed himself in very
strong language upon his return to London, after an
ineffectual attempt to continue his journey through
France, from Calais or Boulogne, and that the personal
affront to which Mr. Soul 6 conceives himself to have
been subjected has been taken up as an affair of na-
tional and political. importance by Mr. Masson, the
American Charge d'Affaires in Paris, and by Mr.
Buchanan, the American Minister in this country. It
is to be regretted that men who are entrusted with the
important and responsible duty of representing such a
country as the United States in Europe should display
so much sensitiveness on so paltry an occasion. What-
ever affronts may befall Mr. Soule have been richly
earned by himself since he set foot in Europe, and,
while he has forfeited his claim to the courtesy usually
shown to strangers, he can claim no especial considera-
tion for his diplomatic character, which is, of coarse,
confined to the country to which he is accredited.
The circumstances of this case are, however, peculiar,
and there is reason to apprehend that they will give rise
to some discussion. In the first place, Mr. Soule is by
birth a Frenchman, and, although he has done all that
lay in his power to repudiate his national character and
to assume that of a citizen of the United States, it can
hardly be contended that the French Government is
bound to take no account of his origin, or to regard
him precisely as it would a citizen of Boston or New
Orleans. In adopting a new country, it would, at ;least,
have been in good taste if Mr. Soule had not forgotten
that he owed something to the land of his birth. The
United States not only adopted him, hut raised him
to the honourable position of one of their Ministers
abroad, and President Pierce selected him as his repre-
sentative in Spain, apparently because he had identi-
fied himself with the party which did not disguise its
intentions upon Cuba. With the political effects of
such a nomination We are not here concerned, but no
sooner had Mr. Soule arrived at Madrid, where he was
received in official society, than his son contrived to
pick a ridiculous quarrel with the Duke of Alba, at the
house of M. de Turgot, the French Ambassador, which
was followed by a duel with M. de Turgot himself, in
which that gentleman was most dangerously wounded.
The outrage thus offered to the brother-in-law of the
Emperor of the French was evidently a fortuitous cir-
cumstance. The career of Messrs. Soule, both
father and son, in Madrid continued in the same
course both in politics and in society. They freely
associated with the revolutionary leaders in diffe-
rent parts of Europe. The Spanish Government
were satisfied that they- traced the active partici-
pation of Mr. Smile in some of the disturbances which
occurred in Madrid shortly before be left that capital.
In the south of Prance, which Mr. Soule visited for a
short time in the course of the summer, he held without
disgui-e language with reference to the head of the
French Government which was at least indecorous in
the accredited representative of an allied State ; and
more recently he has teen playing a part at a so-called
conference of American Ministers at Brussels, where, if
we are rightly informed, the chief topics of discussion
were not exclusively of American interest. In short,
Mr. Sould bad done what he could to obtain an unenvi-
able notoriety in society and in politics, and he can
hardly comnlan i, he is regarded in the character he has
c, anxious to assume. _

The French Government, under all preceding regimes
as well as the present, have possessed and exercised the
right of excluding from the territory of France such
persons as they did not think fit to admit. Not long
ago, for instance, M. Kossuth was informed on his arri-
val at Marseilles that he would not be allowed to enter
the country. The other day, upon Mr. Soul6's landing
at Calais or Boulogne, he was politely informed by the
police that orders had arrived not to allow him to proceed.
No objection was made to his passport, and no reason
was assigned for this decision beyond the will of the
French Government. Some expostulation followed, and
a reference was made by telegraph to the authorities
in Paris, who confirmed the refusal of the local police.
So Mr. Soul 6 was compelled, re infector, to recross the
Channel and to return to this country, which is per-
fectly indiscriminating in its toleration of all who may
reach its shores. No one, we imagine, will see much
reason to pity Mr. Soul6's wrongs. If he has been
affronted, the exception made to his prejudice is ob-
' viously on personal grounds, and has nothing to do with
his public character, which was not involved in the
question. It would be absurd to contend that he has
any right to enter the French territory, for whatever
right he may have possessed as a French citizen was
waived by his own act, and he may console himself with
the reflection thnt thousands of better men than himself
are just now excluded from that soil to which they pro-
I fess more attachment than he can do. His grievance, if
it be one, is a private affair, and, though he happens to
hold the commission of a Minister of the United States
in Spain, he has no public or official character in France
or any other country.
We advert to the subject because we find that there
is some disposition on the part of the Ministers of the
United States here and in Paris to give an importance
to this affair which it does not possess, and to demand
explanations and redress for a measure which the French
-Government had a perfect right to take, if it thought
fit. We hope that we may be permitted to tell these
Ministers in a friendly spirit, that if they really do re-
sort to violent measures for such a cause they will not
be supported by public opinion in Europe, or probably
in the United States. It cannot be supposed that the
American people are insensible to the inconvenience of
appointing as their envoys in Europe men who set every
rule of social and political life at defiance—who mix
with gentlemen of character and station only to insult
and assail them —and then fall back into that congenial
society which has been thrown on our shores by the
political convulsions of former years. No class of states-
men has been more favourably received or more gene-
rally respected in Europe than the Ministers of the
United States, when they brought with them the
qualities which maybe reasonably expected in men filling
their position ; but it is too much to require that the
mere title of an American Minister should exempt such a
person as Mr. Soul 6 has shown himself to be from the
penalties which attach to his conduct. If the people of
the United States are anxious to maintain the dignity
and honour of their representatives, they have only to
select Ministers in whose bands the character of their
legations will not suffer ; but it would be the height of
folly and inconsistency first to send such an envoy as
Mr. Soul 6 to Europe, and then to resent as a national
injury what is, in fact, no more than the result of
his own want of conduct and discretion. The French
Government will probably decline in such a case to
give any explanation and any redress. Their motives
drop,
ander notod
for the exclusion of easilyetAtlhii.sSfoouolisisharaeffairro
understood
and justified ; but, if the American missions are well
advised, th-eY
convert this private grievance into a cause of dispute
between two powerful States.—Times.