Richmond Enquirer

RICHMOND. (VA.) OCTOBER 28.

FRANCE & AMERICA.

The prospects of France are gloomy beyond all description.—150,000 troops are about to be cantoned upon her—the Prussians, the most inveterate of her enemies, at their head—and her inhabitants are to have the honor of paying her oppressors.—

Suppose, that we had seen our Revolution set in despotism; the legitimate Prince restored upon us—100,000 foreign mercenaries quartered upon us, to keep the yoke fastened upon our necks—and our principal strong-holds delivered into the enemy's hands! What should we have said? How should we have felt?—Yet such is the situation of France!

To crown the whole—the legitimate Prince is mean enough to order the gallant commanders of those fortresses, who refused delivering them into the invader's hands, to relinquish all these chivalrous scruples, and place the keys of France in the enemy's possession!

Happy America! too happy if you could but estimate the blessings which you enjoy. Not cursed with legitimate princes, not overshadowed by an established priesthood, not torn to pieces by foreigners who prey upon your vitals, with no Wellingtons or Bluchers to triumph over your misfortunes, you present the spectacle of the only Republic in the world, "where man is man" where your people can sit under their own vines and their own fig-trees, with no usurper or conqueror "to make you afraid"—While they enjoy the honor of furnishing the only asylum to the oppressed of all nations, to the Irishman who flies from native persecution, or the Regnault de St. Jean d'Angely, who shun the glooms of despotism to bask in the sunshine of your liberties.—

Happy America! while England offers her hand to legitimate monarchs, and nobles, and priests, you offer your arms unto persecuted man.

The calamities of the French have no end. While their country is torn in pieces by foreigners, they are distracted by intestine disputes. The Royalist is quarrelling with the Republican—and what is worse than all, there are districts in the south where the Roman Catholies are murdering the Protestants. Such are the blessings of Superstition and Despotism! There are men in France, who seem to have leapt back to the 16th century—and are crying out for the horrors of St. Bartholomew's day!!

No man is in a situation to form a correct opinion of the present state of France—who does not consider her in these two points of view. 1st. As to the evils, with which she was afflicted under the old regime, and of which the Revolution divested her—2ly. As to the benefits, which Bonaparte, in spite of all his ambition, had shed upon her internal improvements.—Both these considerations seem to have been forgotten amidst the blaze of glory which at this moment encircles the Bourbon throne!!