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Our relations with France during the war have not been dissimilar to
those with England, but have been less grating and more courteous. The
same difficulties in regard to neutral rights have arisen; and the
Imperial cabinet have seemed throughout favorable to the South. But the
popular feeling, as far as it is patent, is decidedly more favorable to
us than that of England; whatever has been said against us has been said
considerately and temperately; and there has been at no period any
imminent danger of war. The design of Napoleon to mediate was
interpreted by the community as hostile and aggressive in its object.
The President, we think justly, took what appears a more simple
view,--that the Emperor miscalculated the actual condition of the
country, and a mistaken desire to advise induced him to take the course
he did. But those who know France best tell us that the Imperial opinion
is far from being the index of the popular opinion, on any subject; and
every evidence induces the conclusion that there is a strong
undercurrent of sympathy for America throughout France.
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