The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-25
RIGHTS OF FRENCHMEN
INTERESTING TALK WITH EX-Eal-
BASsADOR JAMES ID. EUsTIs.
Little Personal Liberty Enjoyed by
the French PeOpIe-GeneraI Porter
Received by NJ. HanOtnux.

PARIS, May 24.-The retiring United
States ambassador James z. Eustis, drove
to the Elysee Palace to-day and presented
his letters of recall to President Faure.
After the ceremony Mr. Eustis granted an
interview to a representative of the Asso-
ciated Press and gave the latter his inn
pressions of France, expressed his admira-
ton of the French people and gave his
opinion of the rejected Anglo-American ar
bitration treaty. Mr.. Eustis said My
four years residence in France has afforded
me very favorable opportunity of study
ing French institutions and it has been
Dost interesting study, as it has enabled
me to contrast the working of a republican
government in France and constitutional
government in the United States. There
are some points of dissimilarity They are
called sister republics, but as to funda-
mental principles they are not very closely
related. In advocacy of personal liberty,
France has never produced single great
man, the fact being that no matter how
ardent a republican a Frenchman may be,
and how great may have been his devotion
to the political rights of the people, he
does not seem able to form the slightest
conception of what are known in England
and the United States as the fundamental
rights of personal liberty. They made a
revolution to destroy one bastile, but they
have many to-day on the republican soil
of France, owing to their system of arbi-
trary arrests, detentions and perquisitions,
which exist only under the most autocratic
form of government. To an American such
a system would render life intolerabe. 1t
could be wiped out in~one day, but no one
seems to consider ii sufficiently important
to protect the personal liberty of the citi-
zens. The French certainly deserve q great
PThdif having nat
republic in the face of such adverse cir
cumstances, but they present the strange
anomaly OF self-governing people being
fond of the constant and unremitting inter-
ference of the government in their personal
affairs and their personal relations and be-
ing supremacy indifferent to the rights Of
personal liberty. An eminent Frenchmen
with whom l was discussing this question
most truthfully declared: The ignorance
of public men in France with regard to the
working of our constitutional government
has often amazed us
LAS regards the French people my resi-
dence in Paris has increased my admiration
for them. | consider them most mar
velous people as regards their Intelligence.
their thrift, the habits of Sobriety their
wonderful resources and their devotion to
political liberty, and IT, as DO, they al
low their free institutions to develop in
stead of dwarfng the individuals, their ma
tional power would be much greater than
it is now %
the Senate foreign relations committee,
what is your opinion of the rejected treaty
of arbitration between Great Britain and
the United States?"
II have always considered it sentiment
tai farce. 1t is based on a false idea, in
the first place that the. intelligent pro-
ceSseS of diplomacy are inadequate 10 adj
just differences between the two govern
ments and, secondly, that the amicable
process of special arbitration will not be
reSorted to when diplomacy fails Both Of
these assumptions are falsified, even by
very late experience, and it is hui
initiating confession by both governments
to admit that these potent instrumentalitieS
are not to be within their reach in the
on the other hand, it means that the feel
ing of hostility between the two countries
is so pronounced that it Is necessary to
establish disciplinary tribunal to keep
them in order and to prevent them from
rushing at each others threats (Which is
a preposterour supposition) any permanent
tribunal of a tration would be brushed
aside and uttC -ly fail of its intended pur-
pose.
what are your plans now?"
II have presented my letters of recall
and, therefore, am private citizen shall
shortly leave Paris, settle in New YORK
and practice law there"
General Horace Porter, the new United
States ambassador to France was received
to-day by the French minister for foreign
affairs M. HanotauX. General Porter Will
have an audience with President Faure on
Wednesday.
Mr.. Henry Vignaud, secretary of the
United States embassy to-day presented to
M. Hanotaux the members of the United
States bimetallic commission, Senator Ed
ward O. Wocott of Colorado ex-Vice
President Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois,
and Gen. Jackson Paine of Massachusetts.