The Rhode Island Republican

The following extract of a letter from Washington, we copy from the N. Y. Times :

Extract of a letter from Washington.

December 3d, 1835.

It is idle to look this way for any certain indications as to the event of the French question ; that will depend exclusively upon the news from France, which you will, or ought to, hear before we do. Be assured of one thing, that you were right always in asserting that the President would be governed alone by considerations of public interest and national honor, and that the tone of the message would not be influenced by personal pique or vexation. It is now completed, unless news should arrive to change its tenor, and I think I may assure you positively that its recommendations on that prominent subject will be pacific in their character, whether they may be ultimately palatable to France or not. It is the general understanding that the President feels much confidence that the indemnity will be paid-which can of course arise only from the belief that the steps which Mr. Barton was authorized to take would prove satisfactory. In case it should not, the impression is that the President will suggest the adoption of measures to operate through the custom house, rather than more dangerous and less efficient ones. And there can be no question that France would feel more sensibly a system of discriminating duties than any result of hostilities. Indeed, Lyons has told them already, what such a system would do to her vast capital and manufacturing population.