The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-03 00:00:00

France and the United States.

The New York _Herald, alluding to the delicate
relations existing between France and the United
States in reference to Mexico, says :—France and
the United States have a mutual respect each for
the other. We felt the fellowship of France in the
gloomiest period of our history, and it will require
many bitter experiences to erase from the memory
of the nation the fact that the French were our
allies in the war which gave us existence as an in-
dependent people. We have had the sympathy of
France, and we have in turn sympathised with her
in all her glorious aspirations and attempts. We
have regretted her errors and grieved over her mis-
fortunes as earnestly as we have admired the mag-
nificent heroism of her sons. Indeed the lives of
the two nations have reacted upon one another in
so marked a degree that it seemed at one time to
have established a political twinship between us.
French blood was shed in our cause on the fields
that made us free; and the influence that her par-
ticipation in our struggle had upon France enlarged
her nature, opened her eyes to her position and
rower, and enabled her in turn to throw down her
own tyrants—till intoxicated with the glorious
draught of liberty—to take her position as the
leader of the free nations of the earth. War there-
fore could not be kindled between these two nations
without doing violence to the traditions and senti-
ments of both ; and whatever form political com-
plications may take, however the peace between
America and Europe may be broken, there is no
people whom our countrymen less desire to meet in
battle than the people of France. But there is a
limit to the forbearance that these sentiments would
impose. We want plain dealing from the Emperor
on the withdrawal of his troops from the Mexican
territory. While we respect France, and are quite
content that her pride should be spared as much as
the unfortunate nature of her position in Mexico
will permit, we also have to assert our own dignity
as a great nation, and cannot submit to any un-
worthy trifling and trickery. France stands in a
dilemma in Mexico—that is a national calamity ;
but they must remedy that who brought her there.
It is her calamity, not ours ; and if there is to be
any expense of national dignity it must be the dig-
nity of France that suffers, not that of the United
States. France is the loser ; and it is the loser, not
the winner, who pays. While we are not disposed
to press the advantage of a victor, it is a fact too
notorious for concealment that France went to
Mexico as our enemy, as one too ready to triumph
in our supposed fall ; and it is an abundant gene-
rosity that we give her the opportunity to with-
draw. She must not abuse that opportunity.
There must be no chicanery, no weaving of a web
before the world that is to be unwoven in the secrecy
of diplomatic darkness. Mexico must not be
another Rome. When we reflect upon the condi-
tion of Rome and recur to the Emperor's repeated
promises to withdraw his troops from that city,
and remember that the troops are still there, all
must conclude that Napoleon's promise to withdraw
his troops is not enough. High as certain states-
men rate the plighted faith of the ruler of France,
the simple truth is that his plighted faith is no de-
pendence. We must have something better than
an ambiguous phrase—something even better than
a distinct and positive promise would be—before
the atmosphere clears between us and France. We
must see the troops go.
The New York Times discusses the good faith of
the Emperor's speech regarding the withdrawal of
his troops from Mexico, and especially the Empe-
ror's allusion to the fact that the Government of the
United States was invited in 1861 to take part with
France, England, and Spain in the Mexican inter-
vention. The United States Government declined
making a quartette in the partnership of Septem-
ber, 1861—not from any dislike to join France,
England, and Spain in any enterprise which should
promise fair and honourable returns, but from a
sense of what was due by the most powerful of the
Republican Governments of the American Conti-
nent where the destiny of a sister Republic was
concerned. In the very crisis of a domestic war
this honourable position was never deviated from
for a single moment. America struggled against
rebellion as well as she could—sometimes under
skies as black as midnight—but in the extremest
hour the true men who conducted her international
affairs never faltered even for an hour when the
question of continental independence in the Wes-
tern hemisphere was at stake. The Secretary of
State at Washington was neither more nor less
complaisant in this Mexican imbroglio when Lee
was leading his forces northward across the upper
fords of the Potomac than he was when the final
surrender of Lee sealed the fate of the rebel Con-
federacy. As there was neither craven-heartedness
nor abnegation of principle in the hour of apparent
weakness, so likewise is there to-day no uillainous mis-
givings in the hour of complete triumph. The
business of the United States now is simple. They
are unfit to have allies if they cannot trust them.
France has maintained a friendly position, and they
must either trust what she proclaims, or cease to
maintain the semblance of a hollow friendship. H
they have endured grievances at the hand of
Mexico, they must be prepared to admit otherthat
indaetniotincsalmay
t with their have
own, enduredleast
ofg grievances, ekviannde es su, .fc i
en
no
tt
ff
•
to justify their demanding and enforcing redress.
All Americans have had a right to protest against
;
has been the continuance of an intervention which
aimed at political propagandism and the moment
f
the Federal Government has the
fairand
as-
surance that this presumptive object
frank
itis bound by all the laws which bind independent
communities together in honourable friendship to
accept without cavil and without dispute such de-
clarations as those of the Emperor of the French.
The antecedents—looking to Italy and the exterior
relations of the empire generally—of the Sovereign
of France, moreover, justify this faith. The hope
of Mexican regeneration has not been entirely dis-
tant from the thoughts of other'statesmen than the
Emperor. And the question is one which may re-
cur—and which must recur—to other minds, after
the last French soldier shall have left the soil of
Mexico.

The Americans at Hamburg celebrated the 22d
of February. Consul Andrews sent out circulars inviting
the Americans in that vicinity. _ _

In Paris Washington's birthday was appropriately
kept. Circulars were extensively issued, signed by ex-
President Phillmore as chairman, asking a general attend-
ance. Other nationalities were not invited.
A