Soulouque, it is fair to say, gained the good opinion of many of our countrymen on account of the protection which he generally accorded to foreigners, and a supposed predilection for the English, which the manly and conciliatory conduct of our agents had greatly fostered, and which contrasted with that of the French agents, who brought a fleet to Port-au-Prince under Admiral Duquesne to threaten to bombard the capital (1853). No events occurred worthy of record, except the interminable negotiations to induce the Emperor to conclude peace with Santo Domingo, which occupied 1853 and 1854. The year 1855 was enlivened by a very comic quarrel between the Haytian Government and the Spanish agent. The Emperor had decided that every one that passed the palace should show his respect for his office by raising his hat. It appears that a Spanish employé did not observe this formality, and was stopped by the guard, who insisted on his complying with it. The Emperor, attracted by the altercation, put his head out of a window of the palace and cried, “Qui moun-ça sacré f---- blanc qui veut pas saluer mon palais, f----?” The Spaniard had a long discussion with the Haytian Foreign Office, and would not accept the denial by the Emperor of his having used these words--in fact, there was much ado about nothing. In spite of all the efforts of the foreign agents, Soulouque in December 1855 marched with all his forces to attack the Dominicans--those under his personal command numbering, it is said, 15,000 men. But in January 1856 he was disgracefully beaten by the enemy. His troops fled at the first volley, and losing their way in the woods, fell into the hands of their enemies, who did not spare them. The Emperor, furious at his defeat, shot several superior officers for treachery or cowardice, and then returned with the remains of his army to his capital, where he was received in mournful silence, amid the scarcely-concealed murmurs of the people; the muttered curses of the women at the loss of their relatives being particularly remarked. This dissatisfaction could not escape the notice of the Emperor, and to assuage his outraged feelings he shot sixteen men in Les Cayes, amid such circumstances of barbarity that even Haytians of all classes were moved by feelings of indignation and disgust. But Soulouque cared not; he shot three more and condemned above fifty to his dungeons, where little more was heard of them; in fact, they are said to have been beaten or starved to death.