Our True Friend

"Bleak are our shores with the blasts of December, Fettered and chill is the rivulet's flow; 

Thrilling and warm are the hearts that remember Who was our friend when the world was our foe. 

Fires of the North in eternal communion, Blend your broad flashes with evening's bright star; 

God bless the Empire that loves the Great Union Strength to her people! Long life to the Czar! "

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871

AMERICAN TOPICS IN PARIS.; 

Mr. Slidell's Conference with Napoleon III-- The outcry against Gen. Butler--Colonel Cluseret--Charivari.

PARIS, Friday, Nov. 7, 1862.

Mr. SLIDELL, the agent of the rebellion at Paris, has at length and for the first time, obtained an interview with the Emperor. What transpired at the interview no one seems to know, further than that Mr. SLIDELL declares that the interview was entirely satifactory. The general impression appears to be, however, that this interview was not granted for any special purpose, but simply because Mr. SLIDELL had been for a long time demanding it, and because the Emperor happened to have leisure during his late stay at St. Cloud to grant it. The interview was therefore an act of politeness offered to a distinguished man, representing eight millions of people in a state of rebellion against their government -- an act which formed no exception to the general line of conduct pursued by the Emperor toward most agents of the same kind from other parts of the world. 

His Majesty, who likes to hear what people have to say, who is always anxious to inform himself on both sides of a question, could not very well refuse to receive a man representing such immense interests as those represented by Mr. SLIDELL, and especially when backed in his demand by a man of such influence as M. DE PERSIGNY. But although the occurrences at the interview remain a secret, it is easy to understand that the subject of intervention was not discussed, since it is known that the Government is now as firmly settled in the doctrine of non-intervention as it was during the whole reign of M. THOUVENEL at the Bureau of Foreign Affairs; but we can predict that Gen. BUTLER received a scientific dissection, and that the condition of the "thirty thousand suffering Frenchmen at New-Orleans," to use a standing phrase of the secession Press here, was not overlooked. They no doubt discussed the prospects of the cotton trade, a subject on which Mr. SLIDELL is known to possess all the requisite figures, and they probably attacked the Mexican question, for a majority of Frenchmen believe that if the Southern Confederacy had acquired its independence it would still cling to the doctrine that an extension of Southern territory in the direction of Mexico was essential to the existence of Slavery, and it may be that His Majesty was one of those who cherished this belief. It may be also that they devoted some time to the chances of the war, for His Majesty sent two or three days before the interview to JOHN MONROE & Co. the American Bankers, to obtain copies of all the war maps which they might happen to have. 

But notwithstanding the undoubted ability of the Southern agent for diplomacy, we have no fear of his getting the advantage of the present American Minister at Paris, who by his good taste and superior judgment has gained such a position with the French Government as to be able to obtain its ear at all times, and who is sure to be consulted on all questions relating to the present complications in America. Up to the present time not a word of official communication looking to an intervention in American affairs has passed between the Government of Europe, and there is no indication that there is to be any change of policy in the repect. Nevertheless it will be observed that since the tide of success begins to roll back against the Confederates, the secession papers of Paris and London are recommencing [???] for mediation, and their canards on the [???] subject. [???] that these [???] have [???] their effect, both here and at home.

The abuse of Gen. BUTLER continues with a crescendo that bids [???] to have no limit of ascent. The Constitutional, which appears to enjoy a monopoly of the written complaints of the people of New-Orleans, and which always speaks of these people as if they were foreigners, or rather as if the Federals at New Orleans were in a foreign country, precedes one of its late letters from New-Orleans with the following reflection: "Each day brings us some new and heart-rending revelation on the condition of things at New-Orleans. Oppression has there assumed an unheard of degree of cruelty. The life, the property, and the liberty of the citizens are completely at the mercy of an uncontrolled military dictature, and what is to be hoped for from such a system? Certainly neither peace nor a pacification of the public mind. Such excesses, such a revolting use of victory, will only leave in the hearts of the people an undying hatred and an implacable desire for revenge; they will only engender calamities and ruin. Is it not, therefore, time that these useless atrocities, at which humanity shudders, should have an end? The honor of civilization, the honor of the century, is interested in it.

The Constitutionnel then publishes a letter which naturally gives but one side of the story, and which gives a picture of oppression only surpassed by that of the Empire in which the Constitutionnel is printed, and of which it is one of the most devoted supports and eulogists. To those readers, however, who look no further than the printed letters of the Constitutionnel, the picture of affairs at New-Orleans is a dark one, indeed, and well calculated to arouse the sympathies of the French people.

The Constitutionnel has also had the misfortune to declare that the mission of Gen. FOREY was to convert the Mexicans into a "great people." The word has been taken up by the Opposition Press, which naturally desires to know how much it is going to cost and how long it is going to take to accomplish so herculean a task. There are even people who deem such an undertaking an impossibility.

A French paper notices with satisfaction the promotion of Col. CLUSERET to the rank of Brigadier-General, for meritorious services at the battle of Cross Keys, and adds: "Col. CLUSERET has served in the army of his native country in Africa and in the Crimea, and he has served the cause of liberty under GARIBALDI, at Naples. He is a grandson of a companion of LAFAYETTE, in the war of Independence in America, and now naturally finds himself in the right place, under the flag of the Union."

Charivari has its own way of criticising the American war. It gives this week two pictures on the subject, from the pencil of "Cham," the first one of which represents Saturn congratulating himself that other people as well as he de-vour their children. The unnatural god stands looking at a rapacious squaw (American) swallowing a Confederate, and holding in the other hand a National, ready to undergo the same operation. The other engraving represents the game of America -- deer, rabbits, pheasants, &c. --reposing quietly in various attitudes of indiffer-ence, regarding the two American armies de-stroying each other. It is labeled: "The game of America, felicitating themselves on the peace and tranquillity which the civil war affords them." MALAKOFF.