Foreign intervention.
the report of Mr. Geoffrey, first Secretary of the French Legation; as taken to Paris — views of M. Mercier.
The following are extract from a letter, dated Washington; May 22, published in the New York Times:
‘ Previous to his departure for Europe, on the 30th ult Mr. Geoffrey First Secretary of Legation, (French) communicated to some of his friends in Washington the result of his observations in Richmond, where he had been in company of Count Mercier. Mr. Geoffrey was of opinion that the rebels may be conquered may suffer defeat upon defeat, but that they will never submit nor be subdued He was particularly struck with the unanimity of feeling there respecting the conduct of the war. He could not find a single man who was not for fighting to the last rather than surrender. The whole population suffers the greatest privations without complaint. Every necessary of life, is heavily taxed — bread, meat, salt, vegetables-- still the people struck him as unaware of this state of things, and seem to conform cheerfully to their new position.
The repeated representations made to Louis Napoleon by Mr. Dayton, that the inland trade would be open as soon as the harbors would be in possession of the national Government, had induced the French Emperor to verify the truth of his statements, which the private reports of the French Consuls in the Southern ports flatly contradicted. In consequence, he sent Mr. Mercler to ascertain which, of the American or French representative's report, was the correct one.
Mr. Mercier had several conversations with the representatives of the Confederate States in Richmond, particularly with Mr. Benjamin, whom he knew before, and there acquired the certainty, which he, however, had since the beginning of the war, of the unwillingness of the Southern people to compromise, or to go back to the old Union. His observations, although different in form from those of Mr. Geoffrey, are substantially the same.
In a recent report to the Emperor, Mr. Mejean, the French Consul at New Orleans, says that although no trace of Union feeling is visible in New Orleans, he doubts not that if the Confederate Government does not act with vigor and energy, the consequence of its inaction or slowness will be to tire and disgust a portion of the population, which would, in such case, willingly return to the Union--Among all the reports emanating from the French Consulates in America, this is the only one which expresses a hope of a partial return of Union sentiment. All others positively deny the existence of such sentiment in their respective localities.
The cause of the anxiety, which certainly did exist some days ago in official circles, had no real ground, and is rather prospective than positive. It rested upon the uncertainty of the Emperor's resolution, after he will have heard of Mr. Mercler report, and after his conversation with Mr. Geoffrey, who has already reached Paris.
’ In the same connection, we copy a significant paragraph from the New York Herald, of the 24th:
‘ In a debate in the House of Commons on the relations of England and France with the United States, it is worthy of remark, that while Mr. Disraell asserts that the most serious differences and misunderstandings exist between Lord Lyons and M. Mercier at Washington about American affairs. Lord Palmerston, on the contrary, represents them as billing and cooing like a pair of turtle doves. The object of Mercler's visit to Richmond is evidently still a mystery to the British Cabinet and Parliament, and Louis Napoleon and his agents have succeeded in mystifying British diplomacy and drawing the wool over the eyes of even so a statesman as Lord Palmeraton. Time will soon develop the plot, as it has done in the case of Mexico.
’
