The herald., 1897-05-25
FREEDOM OF FRANCE
IS NOT BUILT ON THE AMERICAN
PRINCIPLES
Retiring Ambassador Eustis Gives
His Impressions of the Liberty
of the Sister Republic

PARIS, May 24.-The retiring United
States ambassador, Mr.. James E. Eustis
drove to the Elysee palace today and
presented his letters of recall to Presi
dent Faure.
After the ceremony Mr.. Eustis granted
an interview to a representative of the
Associated Press and gave the latter his
Impressions of France. expressed his ad
miration of the French people, and gave
his opinion of the rejected Anglo -Ameri-
can arbitration treaty.
Mr. Eustis said: My four years resi-
dence in France has afforded me very
favorable opportunity of studying
French institutions, and it has been a
most interesting study, as it has enabled
me to contrast the working of repub-
lican government in France and the con-
stitutional government in the United
States. There are some points of dis
similarity They are called sister re-
publics, but as to fundamental princi-
pies they are not very closely related.
In advocacy of personal liberty France
has never produced single great man,
the fact being that however ardent
IL rICilShiiidi may cS oAA
how great may be his devotion to the
political rights of the people. he does
rot seem able to form the slightest con-
ception of what is known in England
and the United States as the funda-
mental rights of personal liberty. They
made a revolution to destroy one bastile,
but they have many today upon the re-
publican soil of France, owing to their
system of arbitrary arrests, detentions
and perquisites, which exist only under
the most autocratic forms of govern
ment To an American such system
would render life intolerable. 1t could
be wiped out in one day, but no one
seems to consider it sufficiently import
ant to protect the personal liberty Of
the citizens"
LAS you were for years a member OF
the senate of the foreign relations COM
mittee, what is your opinion of the re-
iected arbitration treaty between the
United States and Great Britain?"
Il have always considered it senti-
mental farce. 1t is based on the false
idea, in the first place. that the intelli-
gent processes of diplomacy are made
auate to adjust the differences between
the two governments, and secondly that
the amicable process of special arbitra-
ton will not be resorted to when diplo-
macy fails. Both of these assumptions
are falsified, even by our very late ex-
perience, and it is a humiliating con-
fession by both governments to admit
that these potent instrumentalities ara
not to be within their reach in the fu-
ture as they have been in the past. If.
on the other hand, it means that the feel
ing of hostility between the two coun-
tries is so pronounced that it is neces-
sary to establish a disciplinary tribuna!
to keep them in order and to prevent
them from rushing at each others
throats (Which is preposterous suppc-
sition) any permanent tribunal of ar
bitration would be brushed aside and
utterly fail of it's intended purposes"
General Horace Porter. the United
states ambassador to France, was re-
ceived today by the French minister Of
foreign affairs, M. Hanotaux. General
Porter will have an audience with Presi-
dent Faure on Wednesday.