The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-02-12 00:00:00

Eipz.liibetpool *lanbarb.

MORNING, -FEBRUARY. 12, 1836.

In an article Avill.be found belOw,,r;eoffered
our opinions on the state of affairs hetcreei7fanee'and
the United States of America. Since that article was
written we liave received later advices from the United
States. The Sheffield, New York packet, arrived yes-
terday, after the unusually short passage of little more
than fifteen days, bringing no. New York papers to the
27th of January. In these we find a full corroboration of
the warlike disposition of President JACKSON and Con-
gress.

In the senate, on the 21st January, 660,000 dollars
were voted for the construction and equipment of floating
steam batteries.
A bill was repotted for the construction of a military
road from Port Leavenworth to the river Des Moines ;
also a bill• to provide for the increase of a corps of

. .
meet together and send some relief to the suffering and defe dee-
less inhabitants of Florida.

Colonel Twiggs, of the United States artily, chartered the
steamboat Merchant, and started with four companies from
New Orleans to Tampa Bay. Major Belton is now there with
the force under his command.

Mr. President JACXSON'S special message to congress
will be found in another column. We need hardly say
that the subject of that message are the differences which
exist between France and the United States relative to
the indemnity of five millions of dollars claimed by the
latter, and conditionally admitted to be due by the former

power.
We have repeatedly explained the nature of these dif-
ferences ; but, for the sake of clearness, we shall briefly
recapitulate the circumstances. The King of the French,
by a treaty ratified on the 4th July, 1831, agreed to pay
the United States, by specified instalments, the sum of
twenty-five million francs as indemnity in full for certain
losses alleged and admitted to have been sustained by
American citizens, provided that the two chambers should
consent to the payment..
The ministers of Lours PHILIPPE, in 1832, 1833, and
1834,.either did not or could not induce the chambers to
vote the money. In 1834, indeed, the Chamber of De-
puties refused their consent by a majority of eight. Mr.
President JACKSON, either' not comprehending or not
willing to comprehend the nature of the arrangements
or the delicacy of the position of the Frenph ministry,
remonstrated in strong terms against what he called a
vexatious, an unnecessary, and an unreasonable delay in
fulfilling the stipulations of the treaty; and on the meet-
ing of congress in December, in the same year, he ad-
dressed a letter to that body which was by no means cal-
-1 culated to facilitate the payment or make a favourable
impression upon the government or people of France.
On the contrary it reflected harshly on the conduct of
the citizen king and his ministry. It questioned the sin-
cerity of the King, and impugned the honour and justice
of the chambers. In short, to studied insult President
JACKSON superadded unequivocal menace—the last touch-
ing sorely the tenderest part of a brave and vain but
powerful nation.
Rankling under the wound thus inflicted upon their
pride, the two chambers of France, in April 1835, pro.
ceeded to consider the stipulations of the treaty, and
passed resolutions agreeing to pay the money, but annex-
ing a condition, that, before payment should be made,
the President of the United States should, in the name
of his country, address a written apology to the govern-
ment of France, and therein state that he never for a
moment, or even in thought, doubted the honour of
France, and never menaced her in any manner or de-
gree ! !

In consequence of this the conditions of the treaty re-
main unfulfilled to the present hour.
At the opening of the present congress, in December
last, Mr. President JACKSON addressed another intempe-
rate message to .the senate and house of representatives,
evidently calculated to sting and irritate our volatile
neighbours. Since then all diplomatic relations have
been suspended between the two countries. The Ame-
rican charge d'affaires, Mr. BARTON, made another formal
and final demand for payment in November last, which
not being complied with, inasmuch as the old objections
were repeated, that gentleman demanded his passports,
shortly afterwards left France, and made the communica-
tion to his government upon which the special message
of the president is founded.
In-that document Mr. President JACKSON asks, " Does
France want a degrading, servile, repetition of this act,
(the apology,) in terms which she shall dictate, and which
will involve an acknowledgment of her assumed right to
interfere in our domestic concerns? She will never ob-

tain it. The spirit of the American people, the dignity
of the legislature, and the firm resolve of their executive
government, forbid it."
Lie then declares--

COMP. WHAT MAX, the explana•

Lion winch France demands can never be accorded! and
no armament, however powerful or imposing, at a dis-

tance or on our coast, will, I, trust, deter us from dis-
charging the high duties we owe to our constituents, to
our national character, and In _the world." The presi-
dent recommends the prohibition for the present of the
" introduction of French products and the entry of
French vessels into the ports" rif the United States, and
urges congress to. make " adequate preparation, and
large and speedy appropriations for the increase of the
navy and the completion of our coovt,,,deano,:e,s7:_.!l_._'.

Is this, or is it not, pmatunptive of war ? We need
not remind our readers that this complication of erenta

is what we prepared them to expect many months ago.
We were as much satisfied then as we are now that
France would not pay the indemnity, and that the United
States would adopt measures of retaliation, which France
will consider tantamount to a declaration of war. We
repeat, for more than the twentieth time—France' will
not pay the dollars ; and we are convinced that both the
senate and the house of representatives will adopt the
views of the president, and that the non-intercourse,
which he recommends, will he carried into effect.

. But stop, say the peace-party, has not Lord PALMER-
sTON, our own dear lord of the protocols, our gentle and
softheaded minister for foreign affairs, offered his kind
mediation, and has not the Pantaloon sloop of war, with
a red box of gilt-edged papers, tied with red tape, and I,
scented with otto of roses, been despatched to New York,
conveying this generous offer to our representative at
Washington ? True, most true, gentle musician ? It is
all as you say; and therefore play away, upon your lyre
or your flute, " Fly not yet," and cling to your delicious
" Last rose of summer." The Pantaloon, ordered by a
slippered pantaloon, has sailed as you state, and if not at
the bottom of the sea, the probability is that she is
within sight of America at this present writing. But
what will President JACKSON care for the Pantaloon, or
PALMERSTON, or his red tape, or his mediation ? We
much mistake the man if he do not consider it a most im-
pertinent piece of mediatorial presumption. What
right has England or PALMERSTON to interpose between
France and the United States ? On what principle,
based upon any thing but impudence, has. our meddling
secretary assumed the , powers of an intercessor ? Who
asked hini to interfere ? Certainly not France. Did
America seek his good offices ? Decidedly not. Mr.
President JACKSON may not toss Lord PALmEasTox's
' proposition in the face of the British ambassador, for
that would be rude, and JACKSON, like all Americans, is
a polished gentleman; but he will most probably ex-
claim, " Mediate I—there‘is nothing to mediate about !
I want no mediator ! I want the dollars; and, by the
bones of my father, I swill have' them, " come what

may!"
declined .at Washing-
'.
The Britishintercession/ thus
ton, may again be tried in Paris, thus causing delay and
suspending the operations of
,France ; but those of the
United States will proceed meanwhile, and the non-in-
tercourse act will be passed before the. Pantaloon shall
have returned to England. But what good effect can
possibly be produced by any Mediationin Paris ? • Will
the government of France recognise a mediator which
the United States would not listen to ? The idea is pre:-
posterous. France will commence active offensive and
defensive operations as Soon' as she hears that her pro-
ductions and ships are prohibited from entering the ports
of the United States.

There is another reason why we should view the mat-

ter in the worst light. The ministry that succeeded in
inducing the French chambers to recognise the indemnity
are now out of office; and we contend they cannot be
replaced by any administration so favourably disposed

towards America as was that of the Duke de BROGLIE.
This is an important consideration. But there is ano•
ther—a still greater consideration. France, by remain-
ing involved in differences with America,.has-an oppor-
tunity of completing her naval armaments which she is
preparing for a war with Russia. Her answer, when in-
terrogated by the envoy of the Court of St. Petersburgh
—What do you mean by such vast naval preparations ?
Oh, she replies, they are all intended for the contest into
which we have been dragged by that haughty and pre-
sumptuous republic of English expatriots who grow to-
bacco and raise slaves, for the purposes of liberty, on the
other side of the Atlantic.
What answer could M. Pozzo DI BORGO make to this ?
He would know it to be as far from the truth as St. Pe,.