The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-03-08
DIPLOMATS ABROAD.
From the Diplomatic Annals of France.l

cipal Trench newspapers. This practice has been adhered to by succeeding minis ters, so that it may be said that no for eign office in the world Is better informed of current events than that of the United States. Part of the correspondence oi Thomas Jefferson with Secretary Jay is in cipher, as, among other abuses of the old regime, the systematic violation oi the sanctity of correspondence, even that of ministers of foreign powers, by the French post office authorities was con- spicuous feature.
 It was in January, tTS1, that Minister Jefferson hrs. wrote nls government about i French troubles. He had just made a heightened tour in the south of France and was mus impressed with the appa- rent poverty and wretchedness of the French peasantry. This he attributed to the vicious system of government. in the i first place, and, secondly, to the supersti- ton of the people. Thus, in one of his letters he says: '' In this part of the country there are no farm-houses, and the peasantry are gathered together in villages. Are they thus collected by vir- tue of that dogma of their religion which makes them believe that 10 keep the Creator in good humor with His own works they must humble a mass every day." IL is eviden, from this that Min is,er Jefferson thought that if the peas antry worked harder and were less su- pers,itious they would be better of The winter of I7S1 was of unexampled rigor. and in many parts of France the people ! sst III
 From his observations during his tour h the south of France, he appears to have arrived al the conclusion that the misery of the people was al i,s eulminai- ing point. He writes ,ha, of 70 GOO . 900 of people, there are lsooo ooo more wresched and more aocursed in ev- cry way ,han the mos, wretched individ- ual in the United States. On another occasion, he compared France to heaven Where VIC see God and His angels in sp.endor, and crowds of the damned ,.ampled under foot tte WIS convinced tha, monorcalal government, was the soasce not on.y of French. but also oi European misery generally. and he was was never weary ot cont; asting the hap pier condition of the American people under a republican form of government He writes that, ii all the evils which can arrive among us from the republican form os government, from this 10 the day of Judgment, could be put into scale against what France suffers from a mon archial form of government in z weef ? that scale would preponderate m favor oi America.
 " No race of kings wrote Ny leffer- son, "hAs ever presented above enc man of common sense in twenty generations. The best thing they can do IS 10 leave things to .heir ministers, and wha, arc their ministers but a committee badly chosen On another occasion h writes that ' The king oi France Is ioel, the queen of Trance d saIabier, the k.nsS of span and ,isples are mere siaus oi bnds and deer. the king Q, Prcesia Is hog in body and mind, the king ol Great Britain Is nadman, ard ihe prince of Wales Is an animal. lis ia vonte eNpressi on, often repeated Tn his ,e,,ers, is that 1" European governments are governments of kitss over pigeons" To Madison he writes that There is not a crowned head ia Europe whose talents or merits woaid enable him to be erected vestryman ty the people of AmeSca" Regarding the royal authority as an evil institution, he thought shat it could not be eurbed too much. aad if 1t coald be got rid of, so much the better. Hence. he was inclined to attribute the meanest motives to .ulers with crowns on their Thus, on the occasion of the eonvening of the assembly of notables in .s-, he says " Courss love the people always as wolves do the sheep. The court wants money"
 On the subsequent 1onvening of the States General in I-So, Thomas Jefferson was regular attendan, at its sittings and he had great hopes of it's success in drawing up 3 constitution suitable to the wants of the French nation. 4u,, not w:thstanding. he was somewhat staggered at the difficulty of managing an assem- bly consisting zoo members He wrote 70 Thomas Paine in July, l7Ss: "Ycu see tha, there are materials for superb ediice. and the hands which have pre- pared them are perfectly capable of p,i- ting them together. have always been afraid their numbers would lead to con-
 
 many. have still that fear Another apprehension is that a majority cannot be induced to adopt the trial by uty. and consider that as the only anchor ever yet imagined by maa by which government, can be held to the principles of its constitution. Ou. minister w4s very mach aartezed q, the constant ret erenoe n mauess of dispute to the prac- ;ice of he American congress. He arn.e to Madison in August, .7S9: ea- pso- ceediags have been vie~ed AS d model for them on every occasion ani,al,he4sh m the hea, ot debate men are geaer- ally dispe>e ;o contradict every authority urged by irs,s opponents oars has eeen treated like ,hs; of ihe bible. open to ex- plan ition. out rot 10 question"
 He WAS. nevertheless. mach disturbed in mind al the viTa!ence oi the lacohn press. and he rightly though ominous of future evil Writing on this subsecI. he remarks that the hcen,iousness oi the press produces the same effect which the restraint of the press was intended 10