The Express.
London, England, 1852-06-07 00:00:00

SWITZERLAND.

A ministerial contemporary states that at the con-
ference on Swiss affairs held at the Foreign-office on
the 24th ult., Lord Malmesbory and the Prussian
Envoy at this Court invited the representatives of
Russia, France, and Anetria to confirm, by a re-ac-
knowledgment, the protectorate which, under the
treaties of 1815, the King of Prussia claims to exer-
cise in the Swim canton of Neufchatel. The popu-
lation of the canton in question it will be remembered
resolved in 1848 to disencumber itself of the doubtful
" protection" which till then it had suffered from a
foreign prince and to enter freely into direct and
normal relationship with the Swiss confederation, its
ancient ally. As neither Russia nor Austria recog-
nises the right of a people thus to regulate its own
affairs at the expense of hereditary sovereigns it was
natural that th. representatives of these two powers
should at once express their readiness to concede the
recognition demanded by the Prussian minister.
That Louis Bonaparte, who professes to represent
the self-determining . principle of a great nation
should, through his minister, sign away the rights of
the people of Neufchatel, is inconsistent enough but
hardly surprising. The English public, however, is
quite justified in the indignant astonishment with
which it sees a British minister stooping to league
with the fellow-servants of Haynau and Paskie-
witch, in order to make a little state submit to a yoke
which the people had deliberately thrown off. "The
King of Prussia," we are told, " felt aggrieved by an
attack on the inheritance of his family," language
which comes upon us like the apparition of a form
which we had thought buried for ever. The revival
of this mode of speaking nukes it necessary to ex-
plain that the property claimed by his Prue-
man Majesty is not in the land of Neufchatel;
it is a right in the people which he affects
'to inherit and hopes to bequeath. An at-
' tempt is wade to justify the royal movement for
' regaining power in Neufchatel, by pretending that
the change of 1848 was effected by strangers to the
canton, and alleging that the restoration of Prussian
supremacy is still desired by its citizens. A simple
answer may be made to both these allegations. The
'elections of members of the Cantonal Council took
1 place but a few weeks ago. The royalist party strained
its every nerve for the struggle, and In the end

relikd iag\th a east imignifloant minority. We then
psibliad the panthers, and at the same time a letter
boa the King of Prussia to one of his adherents in
the canton. But for the atter failure of the attempt
to regain his lost position in Neufchatel by a consti-
tutional agency, this protocol would never has been
heard of. It is not, however, to the conduct of the
Prussian King that we would call attention, so much
as to the unnatural position in which Lord Derby
and his foreign **eatery piaos Bilked, when they
nes her power to destroy' the first rights of a people
in favour of an arbitrary principle._ _ .

BERLIN, Jos■ 4.
Speiser 'a Amnia, which wu the first, to pub-
lish the notice about the London compact for res-
toring the King of Permit's sovereignty ►n Neuf-
chatel, states that, in spite of the denial given by the
French press, it has ascertained by inquiry in the
best iofcemed quarters that such compact has actually ,
been concluded.
FRIBURG, Juin I.
Last evening a party of gendarmes wu again
sent out in search ofColonel Perrier, who has con-
cealed himself He has written to the president of
the Grand Council to ask for a safe conduct only
until after the session of tho committee. Then, he
says, he will give himself up to his goaler.