Our relations with France during the war have not been dissimilar to those with England, but have been less grating and more courteous.  The same difficulties in regard to neutral rights have arisen; and the Imperial cabinet have seemed throughout favorable to the South.  But the popular feeling, as far as it is patent, is decidedly more favorable to us than that of England; whatever has been said against us has been said considerately and temperately; and there has been at no period any imminent danger of war.  The design of Napoleon to mediate was interpreted by the community as hostile and aggressive in its object.  The President, we think justly, took what appears a more simple view,—­that the Emperor miscalculated the actual condition of the country, and a mistaken desire to advise induced him to take the course he did.  But those who know France best tell us that the Imperial opinion is far from being the index of the popular opinion, on any subject; and every evidence induces the conclusion that there is a strong undercurrent of sympathy for America throughout France.

Of all the foreign powers, Russia has been the only one which has given us cordial, unstinted encouragement.  The sovereign, the most liberal and enlightened Czar who ever ascended the Muscovite throne, has expressed himself again and again the constant friend of the Union.  It is agreeable to reflect that that vast empire, now far on its way to a liberal constitution, and hastened, instead of retarded by its august head, should lend the moral force of its unqualified good-will to the cause of American liberty.  The noble words of Prince Gortschakoff to our envoy will be grateful to every loyal American heart:—­“We desire above all things the maintenance of the American Union, as one indivisible nation.  Russia has declared her position, and will maintain it.  There will be proposals for intervention.  Russia will refuse any invitation of the kind.  She will occupy the same ground as at the beginning of the struggle.  You may rely upon it, she will not change.”

Our relations with other nations have not been important, and are quite similar to those with England and France.  But, generally, the belief and hope in the final success of the Union have been steadily strengthening throughout Europe.  The idea of our centralization has become more vivid; and far juster estimates of our character and institutions have been formed.  When the war shall have been brought to a successful issue, we shall have afforded a noble proof of the full efficiency of a republican system over an intelligent people.  Our own sinews will be compact, and our spirit will be infused into the aspirations of distant peoples.  It may not be presumptuous to feel that our efforts are not for ourselves alone, but that they tell upon the fate of the earnest and hopeful millions who are striving for disenthralment in the Old World.  Let us, then, expand our just ambition beyond the object of our national integrity; let us embrace within