The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-15 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDA Y, DEC.IS.
By the valour of its sons, by the prudence and 11
wisdom of its statesmen, Switzerland has escaped the
greatest of dangers ; and it will redound to Lord
PALMERSTON'S honour that he in some degree contri-
buted to this rescue. Had Austria and France suc-
ceeded
in their joint project of rendering the Jesuit
cantons independent of the Diet, and impregnable to
the ideas or influence of the more liberal portions of
the country, there would have ensued a kind of par-
tition of Switzerland between the surrounding
powen, analogous to the partition and destruction of
Poland in the last century.
As to the states of the Sonderbund, they would have
become to all intents and purposes Austrian, guided
by the council" alai supported by the arms of the ca-
binet of Vienna. So complete a breach of the Confe-
deration would have driven the liberals to desperation.
They would have broken forth in violent acts, and
then the French world have intervened by Austrian
permission to restore order in Berne, Lausanne, and
Geneva. The liberals of those cantons would have
been treated like the Spanish ezaltados, shot, exiled,
despoiled, and the south-west of Switzerland reduced
to the state of a French department; whilst Prussia
would have been indemnified by the complete sove-
reignty of its own Swiss principality.
No scheme more fatal to the peace of Europe or of
Switzerland could have been devised than this. It
must be evident to every one who knows France that,
whenever a government or a party carries things
there to an extreme in one direction, it is sure to lead
to a terrible reaction in a contrary sense. It has
pleased M. OrIZOT to become hyper-catholic to
espouse the cause of monks and clergy abroad
and at home ; and, though a protestant, to enact
the part of Pope lIILDERRAND, in ouch a
way as to make even Prince Martnasitcs appear
tolerant and tame. M. GUIZOT, as champion of the
Jesuits, may reduce a portion of Switzerland under
French influence ; but M. GMZOT may fall to-morrow,
and this influence in Switzerland might then be
I wielded by M. TRIERS or M. BAREOT. French and
! Austrian influences then, instead of being as hitherto
kept apart, and out of all risk of collision, by the inde-
, dependence and neutrality of Switzerland, world rush
I together like fire and water, or like clouds of contrary
electric tendencies; and the consequences would be
an explosion, compered to which the present inter-
cantonal strife would appear but a child's experiment.
If Prussia and Russia therefore entertained a wise
and truly conservative policy, they would have joined
with England in dissuading France and Austria from
interference in a country where the result of such in-
terference would have been moet injurious to both.
Had the Sonderbund not been suppressed, there was
an end of the Confederation, of the Diet as a collective 1
body, or of a Vorort, as a general executive. The
sumese of the Sonderbund was the dissolution of the

111....aa•
This revolution, attempted in the political state of
Switzerland by M. GIJIZOT, has, fortunately, been
defeated; the Diet and its government have
triumphed; and the great object now is, that it should
make a jest and wise use of its victory. One of the
first requisites is that there should be no ascendancy
of protestant. over eatholics ; no religious permen-
tion ; and that, in maintaining the supremacy of the
Diet, and enforcing its decrees, there should be no
domination established by one canton over another.
Of the three cantons which act alternately as Vowed,
Lucerne alone is catholic. Its catholicism, thereat.,
ought not to be suppressed. One of the most math-
factory symptoms of the war was the atter
absence of obstinate fanaticism in the defence. The
Lnoernese not only did not resist, but even welcomed
the troops and officers of the Diet. They feared no
religious persecution, and felt that it was not a war
for their holy religion, for their altars, or for their
hearths. This confidence ought to be met by recipro-
cal justioe and tolerance.
Thme will, however, be little difficulty with Lu-
cerne, which was not long rime a liberal though a
catholic canton, and in which there exists a large
c=in of liberal electors, and numbers of en-
catholic', fit to form executive and legisla-
tive mavens. A general election at the present
montimt. under the influence of late events, would no
doubt prudes, the formation of liberal assemblies, and
Awe the government of the canton beyond the reach
of Awaits and ultramontanes.
With Friburg the case is more difficult. That
lowa and canton have been ever since the events of
1830, and even previously, the great retreat and ren-
dezvous of French Cwrlista and legitimates. It has
been a modern Coblsnta for young nobles, and a semi-
nary for the rising generation, taught to execrate
Louts PIIILIPPE. Fribsrg has derived so much
wealth and advantage from this circumstance, that its
Carlism and Jesuitism is part of the stock in trade of
its middle classes. They, therefore, are attached Wit,
sad find their hypercatholiciim a lucrative speculation.
To make the canton liberal would therefore be to de-
prive it of its bread and butter. And in justice
Loth it and the forest cantons ought to be left to
their Ware tendencies, and be allowed to indulge
in motile and monkeries, their influence being con-
fined to their respective cantons.
At the lame time, if the liberal catholic, of Fri-
burg and Lucerne wish to reform the excrescences of
the church; if they wish to imitate France, in being