The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-11 00:00:00

On the motion that the report err this bi'l be received,
Mr. J. O'CONN ELL gave notice that he would take the
tense of the house for the last time on the bill on Monday,
in order to place before the country more distinctly the fast
that the government had proposed for Ireland a coercion
bill without remedial measures.
The rep vt was then brought up and received.
Sir 0. GREY, having made a verbal smendinent in claws
9, brought up a new clause, giving the Lard Lieutenant the
power 01 removing convicted persona from the gaols in
proclaimed districts to prisons in ot►er districts, with a pro-
viso to ontinue the burthen of maintaining the said pri-
genera up m the districts from which they were removed.
The clause having been agreed to in the usual form, and
added to the bill, the bill was ordered to be read a third time
on Monday.
The house adjourned at Kali-put twelve o'clock.

LITEST INTELLIGENCE.

THIS DAY, Four o'Clock.

Accounts from Berne to the 6th inst. are important.
The Diet has positively refused the proposed media-
tion of the foreign powers, and that determination
has been made known, not through the intervention
of the M. Bois-le-Comte, bat directly to the
minister of foreign affairs at Paris, in a letter signed,
on behalf of the Federal Diet, Ochsenbein, president;
&bless, Secretary of State. This communication sets
out by acknowledging the note of M. Beis-le Comte,
offering the mediation of France, conjointly
with the other powers " to re-establish peace
and concord between the cantons which com-
pose the Swiss confederation;" which, "although
the Diet sensibly appreciates the solicitude which the
high powers have deigned to avow for the interests
of Switzerland, it will not be able to accept: not only
because the circumstances supposed to exist by the
government of the king and his allies, do not exist, or
have ceased to exist, but, above all, because the very
principle of the proposed mediation is consistent nei-
ther with the position which treaties have recognised
to belong to Switzerland in Europe, nor with the con-
stitution
of the confederation. In effect, the object pro-
posed by the mediation offered is to put an end to civil '
war in Switzerland, and to bring about a reconciliation
between the Diet and the Sonderbund. This media-
tion would suppose the existence of a separate league
—the existence of two belligerent parties. But hos-
tilities have completely ceased for several days past ;
consequently there is no civil war, nor are there
belli-
gerent parties in Switzerland, the seven cantons whisk
composed the Sonderbund having expresslyrenotinesd
it, their troops being disbanded and disarmed,
as is also a considerable portion of the federal
army. However, supposing the Sonderbund to be
still in existence, and that hostilities continued, inter-
national law and federal rights would net
permit the Diet to accept the offered mediatioe.
In the view of the questions as relates to international
laws, the letter urges that the mediation of one or
several neutral powers would suppose the existence
of a difference between Switzerland and some other
power—an international quarrel ; and adds, that if
this were the case, nothing would be more natural
than an offer of mediation or arbitration, although
such an offer could not oblige either party to accept
the proposal. As respects the fedral views of the,
matter we quote the letter itself :
But Switzerland does not find herself in such a position.
The Sonderbund, being a league prohibited by an express
provision of the fedral compact, an alliance distinctive
within the confedtration itself, ought not to be considered
as a party adverse to the canton' composing the majority of
the Diet; it must not be held in opposition to the confede-
ration ; the Council of War of the Sunderbund could not be
placed on a parallel footing with the Federal Assembly, nor
the representatives of the league with those of the Diet,
much less with the representatives of the five powers; the
President of the Council of War of the Souderbund is not,
or rather was not, the equal of the President of the Diet.
For, if it had been so, there would hate been
two confederations in Switzerland, two or several ; that
is to may, there would be no longer a confederation.
Moreover, in putting the Sonderbund and its dependents
upon an equal footing with the Confederation and the &utile,
cities thereof, by inviting a representative of the Sonderbund
to tke proposed conference, in assimilating such represents-
tive to that of the Diet, and indeed to those of the powers,
the mediation supposes a principle which Switzerland could
not admit without committing an act of suicide—namely,
that there r xisted rival confederations, and that the Sonde,
bond had taken its place amongst the European powers. If
such were the case, the Diet would protest with all its
strength against such an attack upon the integrity of Swit-
zerhind—against a violation so flagrant of her rights and of
existing treaties.
No ! the Sonderbund was nothing. else, and could be
nothing more, than a factious minority within the Swiss
confederation. The cantons of Switzerland are not, as re-
gards one another, independent and foreign powers, as, for
example, France and Great Britain are ; but, in truth,
the members of one body, united by a federal league.
This body —the confederation—has interests in common
with all the cantons. Moreover, Switzerland professes a
general constitution—the federal compact—and which is
superior to the constitutions of cantons, as the federal sove-
reignty takes higher rank to that of the cantons. She has a
general assembly—the Diet—where decisions are taken by the
majority of voices, and not unanimously, as is the case at
the congresses of sovereigns ; she has a federal directory,
exercising in all essentials the ex.cutive power ; a capital,
the Vorort, an army, a flag, a seal, possessions, revenues,
and a public exchequer; she has administrative departments,
public functionaries, codes, laws and regulations, tribunals,
and, in a word, everything which constitutes a govern-
ment. The Diet declares war, and concludes peace; it alone
snakes alliances with foreign powers, and makes trestles of
commerce. It is not the cantons which are represented at
the courts of European powers, but it is the confederation
which has charges d'affaires and consuls ; in like manner, it is
to the confederation, and not to the cantons, that the ambas-
sadors, the ministers, and the charges d'affaires of other
powers are accredited in Switzerland. The people of the
22 cantons, notwithstanding the diversity in their origin,
their manners and customs, and in their institutions, local
and religious, form one single and same nation,—the Swiss
nation. Never, for ages during which the confederation
has existed, has the sovereignty of the cantos, been absolute
and unlimited to the uttermost ; it has never been other
than relative and subordinate to that of the whole of the
confederation.
Admitting that the principle of mediation offered, that
is to say, that of treating the Sonderbund as one power with
another, would be to compromise the integrity of Switzer-
lend, which has been recognised and guaranteed by treaties;
it would be to break the compact which .a the federal con-
stitution of Switzerland; Which only recognises one Confide.
ration, one Diet, one Federal Dir itiory, one Federal Council,
one Council of War, and which declares in the Bth article
that in all cases where the compact does not require a
different majority an °isolate majority shall decide ;—it
would be to sever the bond which unites the cantons in
one federative body;—it would be W &townie that Swiss