Rhode Island Republican

Extract of a letter from a gentleman at Washington, dated February 11, 1803.

"The president has received dispatches from our minister in France, which will shadow the hopes of the friends of religion, the federalists. The accounts are so pacific, that unless we are disposed to act the part of the wolf in the fable we shall really have no pretext for war; and how a state of peace will "be relished by these preachers of Christianity and denunciation of infidelity, we can at no loss to conceive—war was their last hope, and having this last and only hope destroyed what have they left to console them? Reflection affords to them no comfort, and anticipation is a worm that gnaws their vitals. But to proceed to the news. The substance of it is, that our minister at Paris has received assurances from the French government, that they had the greatest desire to cultivate a good understanding with the American government, and that general Victor, who is to command in Louisiana, had received instructions from the First Consul to pursue conciliatory measures, such as would conduce to the harmony and mutual improvement of the interests and the rights of both countries, and to respect the rights, territory and persons of the people of the United States."

Phil. pap.