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    Untitled Article

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    SHALL WE MJVKE FRIENDS WITH FRANCE ?

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    THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

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    Untitled Article

    THE object of Lord Cowley ' s recent mission to England is no longer , unknown . Although closely wrapped in diplomatic mystery , the unmistakable form . of proferred friendship has been ' recognised , as one well-remembered and much prized . A cordial intimacy and good understanding between France and England has been professedly the aim of every eminent statesman in This country time out of mind . For sake of it Walpole was content to bear the ill-humour of the Court , and the calumnies of opposition ; For sake of it Pitt made his celebrated Commercial Treaty in 1785 , which anticipated , by half a century , the policy of Free Trade , which earned for him at the time amise

    in Parliament , ' and unpopularity out of doors among certain classes , but which the wisdom of the nation gratefully ratified , and which we now know that he sacrificed with deep reluctance and regret at the breaking out of the anti-Revolutionary War . For sake-of it Mr . Canning , when Foreign Minister , consented to endure the reproaches of Lord Grey , on the score of inconsistency regarding Spain ; and for sake of it the Duke of Wellington , who sympathised with PrincePolignac , and wished well to the success of his arbitrary measures , hesitated not , upon his fall and the overthrow of Chakle s ? £ ., to salute the King of the Barricades as the ally of England . For sake of it Peel

    and Lyndhurst , Palmerston and Russell , concurred in forgiving and trying to forget the perfidy of M . Guizot and his master regarding the Spanish Marriages ; and subsequently concurred m recognising frankly the changes in the Government and policy in France caused by the events of 18-iS , And whatever may be said to the contrary , in the organs or by the confederates of dynastic plotters against the ; Empire , the good feeling and good sense of the English people continue to be as muclTas ever in favour of friendship with France . Our national self-respect is in no way compromised by the admission that amity with France is worth more to . vis than all the other

    alliances in the world . And what is true with regard to us is equally true reciprocally as regards the . French people .. The enmity of England is the only enmity which France has never been able to frown down . Under the First Napoleon her victorious eagles were planted on ' . the . summits ' - of every other capital in Europe : —not a feather from their ambitious wing dropped here . . We feel that we can afford , therefore ; to acknowledge the high value we set upon alliance with France ; and we do acknowledge—all the more unreservedly just now , beca use it is impossible that the least informed of our neighbours . can any lone-er mistake the enthusiastic resolve of the wealthiest

    nation in the world , whatever it costs , to be prepared to meet all comers , by land or sea—the deliberate resolve of the most laborious people in the world , to devote any amount of time and labour that may be requisite to the defensive toil . of . rifle drill . We repeat it , therefore , that we can afford to own , without reserve , how much we should regret alienation from France , and how heartily we shpuld despise those public men , who , when the right hand of conciliation and confidence was held out to the Government of this country , should reject it .

    Lord Cowle y has returned to Paris ; of what answer to the Emperor ' s proposals has he been the bearer ? Of none , perhaps , iu a categorical sense or final form . After many months , we will not say of estrangement between the two nations , but of mutually irritating mistrusts and altercations , it is not possible perhaps to expect that a Government like our own , amenable in all its notions to the judgment of Parliament and of the Press , should suddenly , or without careful consideration of nil details and consequences , commit itself to the adoption of nny policy , however coincident with its own thoughts and wialies , which cpmes at the . suggestion of a foreign Power . The mere . imputation of predipi-¦ tnncy in such a case would do much to disquiet the minds of the circumspect , and to chill the faith of the confiding .

    well affected to our Government . Had . he been indifferent to the sufferings of Italy , he would never have spent £ 20 , 000 , 000 , and 50 , 000 lives in Lombardy without exacting a prpvince or a fortress in return ; and had he harboured the designs of piracy . and brigandage against this country sometimes imputed to himj he would never have thrown away the power of distraction which he possessed in the passionate partisanship of Catholic Ireland Having given these unanswerable proofs of magnanimity and good intentions , as far as the Italian and the British nation is concerned , he fairly asks both now if they really value the friendship of France , to show it by renewing the triple league of interest and honour that bound them together as allies five years ago . As regards all real or supposed projects of aggrandisement in the Mediterranean , Napoleon III . professes himself ready to give proof that he has put away ambition . The project of the Suez Canal should be suffered to excite our apprehensions ho more ; and his arbitration could hardly be refused if offered for the immediate settlement of the dispute betwen Spain and Morocco , the continuance of which our Government regards with unconcealed dissatisfaction . Entire free trade it is not in his power to ordain ; but modifications of the French and English tariff he is not unwilling to make in that direction . If Naples will retain her Bourbon jailors , if Austria will not sell Venetia , and if Rome and the Vicariate of St . Peter ' s have not been able or willing to follow the example of the Romagna , —let all of these remain as they are ; let Italy be satisfied with the great tilings already done towards her unification and liberty ; and for the sake of consolidating the great work which has been accomplished , let England and France unitedly abjure all thoughts of further encouragement to Italian schemes ' of revolution , and , in common with the other great Powers of the Continent , guarantee the integrity of the residuary States of the Church ; and if , to have something to show to France , less in consideration for what he has ' ¦ done for Italy than as a geneious acknowledgment on the part of Piedmont , that Power shall agree ' to restore its ¦ only ' trails-montane appanage to France , let the re-annexation of Savoy form a part . of the general arrangement . When all this shall have been done " the tax-payers of both countries may be once more allowed to keep their " havtUearned money in theirpockets , instead of squandering it upon , extra means of mutual bullying and bombardment . Can any one conceive a consummation more- 'desirable ? Claremont and Stafford House , and the utterly selfish cliques that circle round ¦ them , may relish nothing that holds out a promise of good understanding and confidence between the two Governments while in France a Buonaparte reigns . But the people of this country need only to have it nuule clear to them that the real spirit that actuates our courtier oligarchs in their affected fear of French designs is Bourbonist , not British , —Legitimist , not Liberal , —and they will turn indignantly , from those who would deceive them , and ' deal with them as they did not long ago in the case of the Conspiracy Bill . We rejoice to think that Lord Palmerstox is no longer liable to be misled by the malign influence he then suffered to prevail too far in the administration of foreign affairs . That influence is active and busy still , and the instrument it then used is eager and restless tP be again employed . No effectual reform at home , and up cprdiarfriendship with France under an elected Sovereign , —these are the watchwords of the faction , —we should rather say of the Cabalagainst whose - machinations we have need tP be upon our guarJ .

    We shall pot be sorry then to leanithnt the well-trained Oowley , having dropped his message at the foot of those ho was told to give it to , hns returned wagging his t « il without nny immediate answer . But we should be sorry indeed to infer from this nny thing unfavourable to the ultimate issue . Unless there be involved in the proposals for a renewed iilliance some condition other than those which ore generally rumoured and believed , wo -should regard : tho ministers as the greatest enemies of the happiness and welfare of their country who should reject thorn .

    Napoleon III . desires the pacific settlement of Ttaly on tho "basis of tho present siatun quo ; and ho asks us to eo-oporato with him « in < securing so . dOsirablo « n end . Assuredly he has made sacrifices enough to entitle him to do so . His sacrifices havo not boon , in Italy atone . To win tho attachment of Italy 'ho lias lavished blood and treasure ; to disarm tho distrust of England ho has flung from him irrevocably tho admiration and sympathy of Catholic millions , already not particularly

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    HPI-IE patience of Mr . Buchanan has at Ia 3 t been exhausted . •*¦ He has delivered his message , although the Houso of Representatives has not yet managed to elect a Speaker . We do nofc wonder at it ; there is something both irritating and , ludicrous in the position of a President waiting , whilst that House ib engaged in tho-peculiar process which it somewhat facetiously styles " organisation . " He has had his message' quite ready so ' uio days before tho session commences ; it is duly printed ; copies arc placed in the hands of tho postmasters , for delivery to tho newspapers immediately tho telegraph nnnonncos its pretho natural

    sentation to Congress ; arid , apart altogether from impatience of n man to whom this is tho only legitimate opportunity of defending his past conduct , and expounding his views for tho fulure , to give to tho world tho elaborate document in which he has set forth his whole policy , it must be galling in the extreme to him to bo the object of violent attack and misrepresentation , in that very assembly for whose convenience Imis waiting , and incur tho . risk of a publication , by one of tho many persons acquainted with its contents , of a premature and imperfect : summary . 1 f , indeed , there wero any limit of time wit hm which the House must organise , it might bo fitting Hint we Chief of tho State shpuld bear with such fortitude as Jie can

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    Jan . 14 , 1860 . | The Leader and'Saturday Analy st , 31

    Shall We Mjvke Friends With France ?

    SHALL WE } SIAKE FRIENDS WITH FRANCE ?

    The President's Message.

    THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1860, page 31, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2329/page/3/