Note 12 — XXXV THE FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE WAR 1846–1848

McLane did not feel quite so confident. His private 297letter of January 17, 1846, to Polk said that in case of war with England he was not sure popular sentiment would be able to restrain the French government; but the representative of Mexico at Paris believed that in such an event the government would probably be unable to “neutralize the effects of the innate hatred of the French toward their neighbors and rivals,” the British (77Mangino, Jan. 29, 1846, res.).