NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ACCORDING to the latest intelligence from the United States, efforts are making by the friends of General JACKSON'S Adminis- tration to inflame the public feeling against France. The speeches of the French orators in the Chamber of Deputies on the subject of the Indemnity were translated, and, with other documents con- nected with the subject, were distributed in the form of a pam- phlet to the members of Congress, last winter. They will now be inserted in the JACKSON papers and circulated throughout the country. An intelligent correspondent of the Times says, that the tone of the President's message will depend upon the effect produced by these and other efforts to get up a warlike spirit. That they will succeed to a certain extent, is not improbable; but we are slow to believe that the majority of the shrewd and intelli- gent citizens of America will sanction a war with France, on the really frivolous grounds that are alleged.
It is absurd to suppose that the Government of the United States intended to bully so powerful a nation as France ; and on the other hand, the French King and Ministers must be aware that no apology can be exacted from the American President and Congress. A protracted war would not alter the status quo ante helium. Of this every one must be aware—none more fully than the men who now administer the affairs of both nations. Why then seek to exasperate the people of the two countries ? This is a question which it behoves the people carefully to ponder, before they rush headlong into a war.
It cannot be that either the American President or the King of the French supposes for a moment that benefit to either nation will result from the threatened contest. Far better would it be that the paltry twenty-five millions of francs were thrown into the Bay of Biscay, than that the struggle should last six months. " But the national honour is at stake." Granted : and after a
profuse expenditure of blood and treasure, where will the national honour be ? The Americans will be less likely than before to
withdraw the offensive expression in their President's message to Congress; the French nation will conceive it an indelible disgrace to have it supposed that they were beaten into concessions. Neither party, then, will or can gain any thing on the score of national honour by going to war. It may be urged that certain powerful "interests' in the United States may be benefited by a war : this view of the
question is put forward by a writer in the Globe. According to Mr. CLAY'S Bill, the duties on foreign manufactures are to be pro- gressively diminished, unless the revenue of the Union should
require them to be increased or kept stationary. The receipts into the public Treasury have during the year exceeded the esti- mated revenue by about two millions sterling; and if no extra- ordinary outlay takes place, the reduction of the duties will pro- bably be rapid,—to the detriment, it is assumed, of the American manufacturers, who are fostered by the protective system. In ease of a war, there would be a stoppage to this process of reduc- tion ; the British merchants and manufacturers, as well as the consumers in the United States, would be the sufferers; but the American manufacturers would thrive. Thus it might seem that the latter have an interest in provoking an open rupture with France.
But there are two sides to this question. A very large quantity of the American manufactured cottons are exported, principally to the South American States. This trade would be cut up by the French vessels of war. Almost every port on the Atlantic coast would be blockaded by the enemy. Occasionally the Americans would capture a French frigate or ship of the line, and great would be their glorification ; but they could not resist a powerful fleet, such as the French Government have actually in port and at sea at the present tie. We hold it therefore to be certain, that the American foreign trade would be most seriously endangered,
if not entirely destroyed, during the continuance of a war with France.
Supposing, however, that the manufacturers would not be losers, the mass of the people must see that their interests in that case would be exclusive and anti-national. The community at large would suffer ; for their trade would be crippled, their taxes, direct and indirect, augmented—very probably their unguarded sea-ports burned or plundered: and all for what ? To force France to con- cede that which in no sensible degree can benefit America, and which it is ridiculous to suppose that France ever will yield to compulsion.
As they have every rational motive to keep at peace with France, the American people should regard with deep suspicion the men who would plunge them into war. The object of the war party is selfish. They look upon the war-cry as one which may help them to retain office. They are willing to stop their country in the full tide of prosperity, in order to gain a partisan victory.
The same may be said of the party in France who are desirous of fomenting animosity against America. The conduct of the French Ministers has rendered them unpopular with a large por- tion of the nation. Their domestic policy will not bear scrutiny. Some of them are therefore inclined to distract public attention by a foreign war. This is an old trick of unprincipled politicians, conscious of having deserved and acquired the distrust and dis- like of the people. At present, the trade of France with the United States is thriv- ing, and regularly increasing. How would the Lyonnese silk- weavers and the vine-growers of the Garonne like to have their pro- fitable commerce destroyed, and their annual taxes augmented ? It is not merely their trade to the United States that would suffer: although their own Government would probably fit out fleets which the United States navy could not withstand, every sea would swarm with American privateers, as well as small Government vessels of war. A French merchantman would not be safe in the Pas de Calais or beyond cannon-shot of Toulon. Much evil, therefore, and heavy loss, would accrue to:Frauce faun a war which must be-undertaken, if at all; with the absolute cer- tainty that its ostensible object could not be gained, though France were twice as powerful as she is. Never could she compel the indomitable Republicans to bate a jot of what they deem their national honour.
There is but one course for rational and truly patriotic men in both countries to pursue. They should oblige their respective Governments to make mutual concessions. This might be done with ease and with dignity by bath, did the disposition to consult the real interests of the mass of the people exist. We trust, and in spite of present appearances we will believe, that the quarrel may yet be accommodated without resort to the plague of man- kind—accursed war.
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