The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-25
MANY BASTILES IN FRANCE
RETIRING c AMBASSADOR EUSTIS ON
 THE FRENCH CONSTITUTION.

 Subordinate to Political Liberty-Mr. Eustis Calls Rejected Arbitration Treaty Sentimental Farce.
 Paris, May 24.-The retiring United States ambassador, MT James B. Eus- tis, drove to the Elysee palace to-day and presented his letters of recall to President Faure. After the ceremony MT. Eustis granted an interview to a representative of the Associated Press and gave the latter, in an interesting way, his impressions of France, ex- pressed his admiration of the French people, and gave his opinion of the re- jected arbitration treaty. MT. Eustis said:
 My four years residence in France has afforded me a very favorable op- portunity of studying French institu.< tions, and it has been most interests ing study, as it has enabled me to con- trast the working of republican govern ment in France and constitutional gov- ernment in the United States. There are strong points of dissimilarity. They are called sister republics, but as to fundamental principles, they are not very closely related. In our constitu- tion personal rights, personal liberty and the freedom of the citizen from the arbitrary interference of the govern ment are specifically protected. Here | f,,ffn known, nor are all the other other l rights, which are secured to the citizen accused of crime under our system. known to the French constitution, such as the right to bail, the writ of habeas corpus, and many others. The French constitution Is based upon the idea of | political liberty-ours upon the idea of personal liberty.
 "In advocacy of personal liberty, France has never produced a single great man, the fact being that no mat ter how ardent republican a French man may be, and how great may have been his devotion to the political rights of the people, he does not seem to be 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 revolution to destroy one Bastile, but they have many to- day upon the republican soil of France owing to their system of arbitrary ar- rests, detentions and organisations which exist only under the most auto- cratic form of government. The fact lis that every juge dinstruction is in- | vested with a power to oppress inno- cent citizens, so that he may become a; petty tyrant, depriving them of their liberty for an indefinite period, deny l ing to them access to any member of their family and the aid and advice of counsel
 "To an American such a system would render his life intolerable. It could be wiped out of existence in one day, but no one seems to consider it sufficiently important to protect the personal liberty of the citizens. It is very extraordinary that when the French adopted their present constitu- tion ours had been in successful oper- ation for over eighty-fve years, and yet they did not borrow a single idea or copy a single provision of our con- stitution, which an English statesman has pronounced to be the greatest work of human reason. This only illustrates what is observable with regard to oth- CT matters-how intensely French everything is in France.
 l "The French certainly deserve a great deal of credit for having main- tained their republic in the face of such adverse circumstances, but they pre- sent the strange anomaly of a self- I ,t,,er Io{n fNS,I <1ds |. constant and unremitting interference of the government in their personal af- fairs and their personal relations, and being supremely indifferent to the rights of personal liberty. @
 "The ignorance of public men in France with regard to the working of our constitutional government has often 1 amazed me.
 "As regards the French people, my residence in Paris has increased my admiration for them. I consider them a most marvellous people as regards their intelligence, their thrift, their habits of sobriety, their wonderful re- sources and their devotion to political | liberty; and if, as we do, they would allow their free institutions to develop instead of dwarfing the individuals, | their national power would be much greater than it is now"
 "As you were for years a member of the senate committee on foreign rela- tions what is your opinion of the reject ed treaty of arbitration between Great Britain and the United States?"
 q have always considered 1t senti- mental farce. It was based upon a false idea in the first place that the in- telligent processes of diplomacy are in- adequate to adjust differences between the two governments, and secondly that the amicable process of special arbitration will not be resorted to when diplomacy fails
 "Both of these assumptions are falsi- fled, even by our very late experience, and it is a humiliating confession by both governments to admit that these potent instrumentalities are not to be within their reach in the future as they l have been in the past. If on the other hand it means that the feeling of hos- tility between the two countries Is so pronounced that it is necessary to es- tablish a disciplinary tribunal to keep them In order and to prevent them from r1IShiue at zach other's throoto