Washington telegraph., 1849-10-31
From the Boston Transcript.
Rsstile Feeling of France against the u
States--Grave Aspect of Affairs.

States--Crave Aspect OF Affairs.
| Some days since the New York Cou-
rier and Enquire: intiinated that it had
deriven the assurance from we!l-informed
quarters that the present government OF
France are not disincined TO a war with
the United States. The Courier of yes
terday is more explicit on the subject.
and says:
1--WE understand that, as long ago as
| May last, Mr.. Rush, our minister in Paris,
wrote to Mr.. Clayton, our Secretary of
/ State, that the President of--the Freuch
republic had declared that. if France was
to engage in war with any power. 1t
aoouI{ be aosth the United States The
dispatch in which this fact was stated
b,re date the Sd of May; and OIL the 18th
Of May M. Poussin made the perenptory
demand on Mr.. Clayton. avowedIy under
instructions from the French Minister for
| Foreign Affairs, for satisfaction for the
insult offered to the French flag by Com
mander Carpenter.
IN. Poussin distinctly claims to have
done and said nothing more, in all this
correspondence. than explicit and imper-
ative instructions from his own govern
ment Obliged him to do aud to say
These several facts, viewed III connexion,
are thought TO warrant the inference that
the French government regards the de-
tention of the Eugene as an insult to the
French fag-that satisfaction for that
insult was demanded and refused by the
Government of the United States; and
that setting the dismissal Of his minister
entirely out of the question as an unin-
portant incident, Louis Napoleon may
deem it due to the honor OF the French
nation to prosecute the demand even to
the point OF open war. And MIR. RusLs
despatch is referred to as an evidence
that he intended to do so from the very
beginning.
'It cannot be denied that there is plau.
sbility liz these considerations, and that
they justify far graver view OF the whole
matter than a portion OF the public has
been inclined to entertain. The country,
however, will feel the most entire conf
deuce that the Administration will do
every thing, that due regard to the
rights and To the honor of the uatlon will
permit, to preserve peace with all the
world.
There has been little that was fat
:rriny in the conduct Of France since
she became republic, towards this coun-
try She was infinitely more civil and
conclialory under Louis Philippe, whose
early associations with the United States
were of a character to render him friendly
and respectful But, from the days of the
provisional government to the present,
IL
with cool superciliousness aud all arro-
giant nonchalance. While we, in the fra
ternal, but perhaps too romantic spirit OF
the German gentlemen, who, encounter
iny a perfect STRANGER at all inn, rushed
forward to "swear eternal friendship"
France, with the hauteur OF coX-comb
who repels the advances OF clown, look
ed at us with a blank, UNCONSCIOUS stare,
and told Us as far as frigidily could do 1t,
10 keep our distance. Lamartine is said
TO have openly expressed his opinion as
TO the mental calibre OF our cOuutryinen,
by alludlng 10 some one as being stupid
as an American Perhaps the specimens
he has encountered of our people have
| been Of character justly TO INSPIRE this
estimate. But with the exception of
Chevaier and few other Frenchmen,
who have practically studied our lnstltu-
| tious, deep prejudice against US exists
among the cultivated classes i'll France.
The following extract from the "G~zette
de France" the organ of the Leyitlsnists,
or friends of Henry Cinq, will show the
bitterness Of this prejudice. which by the
way, is not confined TO the friends of a
monarchy:
"rhe people of the Unted States yet
belong to the age of Clovis. Slavery
still exists among them. 1t is in this
country. possessing four times more terri
| tory than population, that we have lately
seeL, in its very capital, the people attack
ing, in broad daylight, the a0itlte cr0Uats,
that is to say, the rich. Forty men were
slain III the first skirmish. Others will
necessarily follow.
s.This people, which has been III ex-
isterce now for forty years, has not pro-
duced q single gretst man, nor u single
book, nor u single thought. Its great
men, Franklin aud Washington. were
| brought up under the vigor OF hereditary
| power. 1t is peculiar to democracies to
produce only generals; for democracy IS
| war in pernanence This is the happy
country whose representatives must be
| skillful boxers, and lCjsSc/ does not possess
single Journal Of the ytorce 9f our pro-
UinciQL Sheets
The Red Republicans and Social phil
osophers are not whit more tolerant OF
our example. They spurn the idea that
we have made such progress III Demo-
cratic ideas, or thrown off SO far the abuses
of European systems OF government; that
we can compare with these ulIraists III
| nolitical enlirh1 nenI and NH lanthrOnY -