What the French Minister Says

NEW YORK, April 28. – The Washington Star says it is not only true that M. Mercier, the French minister, did not see or converse with Dr. Lemoine, in Richmond, on the occasion of his trip into secessia, as alleged by the Richmond papers, and therefore did not hold out encouragement for perseverance in their current insurrection through Dr. Lemoine, as they also allege, but it is also certainly true that while there he held no official communication whatever with any person except the Consul of his own Government, at Richmond and Norfolk. While there we learn he saw and conversed with many persons whom he had known in society here, including Judge P. Benjamin, but his interviews with these, one and all, was wholly of an official character.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 3, 1862, p. 4