The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-12-12 00:00:00

declarations that France still maintains her original
views, and still admits the justice of the demands
of Russia ; and that the epresentatives of the
Powers, who are expected to complete the work
which the last congress left imperfect, will come to
the examination of the points at issue in the full
independence of their respective opinions. to the
meantime those who are on the watch for any inci-
dent which is likely to disturb the good under-
standing between the two countries, spare nothing
to envenom the feelings on both sides. In the
coteries where the course of political events is
watched with untiring assiduity in order to turn to
account every accident likely to promote their
views, various explanations are given for the
change of feeling between the allies. On the one
hadd, we are told of some secret understanding
between England and Austria, in which France has
no participation whatever; on the other, of the
discovery by the English Government of an
important correspondence said to have been carried
on between high personages here and the Court
of St. Petersburg relative to a close alliance
between France and Russia, and from the present
and prospective advantages of which England
was to be excluded. More than one foreign
Minister accredited to the 'English Court is said
to have recently informed his Government of these

facts, as also that copies of the alleged corre-
spondence between Paris and St. Petersburg are
actually in the hands of our Government, and
that the feeling entertained by it towards the
Emperor of th French was far different from
that which existed only twelve months ago. I know,
however, sufficient of the means generally employed
by the coteries to break tip the alliance between
France and England to maita:me suspicious of the
truth of such stories. Before any one anticipated
that the day would come when the French and
English armies would meet on the same battle-
ground against a common enemy, these politicians
' did their utmost to reduce France to isolation in
Europe, so long as any one else, no matter who,
occupied the place of either of the dethroned
dynasties. They were disappointed in their object,
but they have not been discouraged, and the limi-
tation question was too good an opportunity not to
begin their work again. Whether the mysterious
correspondence between Paris and St. Petersburg
alluded to has ever existed, or whether any members
of our Govenment have expressed those strong
opinions about the Emperor, or about France, I
much doubt ; but it is certain that the subject has
been much talked of, and that it is traced to the
source I have already alluded.
This is not all. When it was found that England
was disposed to maintain her construction of the
20th article of the Paris treaty, and that Russia
appeared equally inflexible, a compromise was said
to have been proposed by the Emperor Napoleon.
The proposal was that the Cabinet of St. Peters-
burg should.yield on the question of Belgrad, arid
that whatever loss was incurred thereby should be
made up by the abandonment to Russia of a
portion of the, Bessarabian territory which the
treaty f.s,f Paris had assigned to Moldavia, and that
an equivalent for Bolgrad the lino of limitation
should pass nearer to the former frontier than the
Congress decided, Russia, after some hesitation,
but on the assurance that the Emperor undertook
to induce England to agree to that sacrifice of ter-
ritory, consented. The story runs that it was then
proposed to the English Cabinet, but rejected
peremptorily, on the ground that such a measure
would be nothing more or less than a revision of
the treaty. The matter was allowed to drop for
some time, but was recently repeated, and, I
presume, again rejected.
The selection of the diplomatists who are to meet
in Congress is another question, which, on the
same authority, has led to some interchange of
communications between the Governments. The
English Cabinet is said to demand that the Con-
gress shall be formed of the second Plenipoten-
tiaries only. This plan would require a new Presi-
dent. During the last Congress Count Walewski
presided at the deliberations. In the present
instance another person would probably have to
be selected. Among the diplomatists are persons
of the rank only of Ministers Plenipotentiary, and

others of that of Ambassador. The senior among
the whole corps would naturally be the party
selected ; but is the senior to be taken from
the secondary or the primary order ? Probably
from the primary, and of this class the English
ambassador is the senior ; of the former. I believe,
M. Hatzfeld, whose title of ambassador is only
very recent. The precedence and etiquette ob•
served among diplomatists is regulated in the 17th
Annex of the treaty of Vienna, and the 3d article
specifies that " diplomatic characters charged with
any special mission shall not, on that account,
assume any superiority of rank." What, it is
asked, would be the effect of the English ambas
sador presiding at the Conferences instead of the
Minister of Foreign Affairs ; would it be followed
by the resignation of that Minister ?
A telegraphic despatch from Friburg, Switzer-
land, dated yesterday, says, on the subject of the
elections now taking place for the renewal of the
Grand Council. " the Conservatives are full of
hope. Yesterday, at mid day, they were gaining
ground in the town of Friburg. It was apprehended
that disorders would break out. Disturbances had
taken place at Estavayer."
The statement which the Federal Government
of Switzerland has just addressed to the various
European Powers on the Neuchatel question is of
great length, and is preceded by an introduction
in which the creation of the canton principality of
Neuchatel in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna is
declared to be incontestably one of the least
rational acts of that period, since the co-existence
of two opposite principles was certain, within
a given period, to lead to the annihilation of one of
them. As none of the political parties existing in
the country had obtained satisfaction, disputes
were sure to arise as the necessary consequence
of so anormal a situation. Accordingly, in
1848, the political transformation of Neu-
chatel, so long foreseeen, took place without
effort and without resistance. In Switzerland,
the document declares, a universal burst of joy
hailed that event, which, by putting aside from the
common country every foreign element, established
in it an entire homogeneity. Europe felt no aston-
ishment at what had taken place, and was not dis-
turbed by the act. Some complaints, in certain
public journals, found a feeble echo in a protest
from the King of Prussia, followed by a declaration
in which he authorised his former subjects to take
part in public affairs, and announcing that he would
send some commissioners to treat with the Federal
Government. A constitution, assimilating the in
stitutions of the canton of Neuchatel to those of
all the other States of the Confederation, was sub-
mitted to the vote of the people, accepted by it, and
guaranteed by a unanimous vote of the Federal
Diet. Everything went on most smoothly and pros-
perously for four years, and the annexation of
Neuchatel to the Swiss Confederation appeared a
fait accompli, when, all at once, it was announced
that in May, 1852, on the reiterated representations
of Prussia, a protocol relative to Neuchatel was
signed at London by the five great PoNs ers. From
that moment nothing further appeared to have
been done in the question, until the plenipotentiary
of Prussia at the Congress of Paris endeavoured to
introduce the question there. As, however, the
minutes of the sittings do not make any mention
of deliberation with respect to Neuchatel, it is to
be inferred that the wishes of the Prussian repre-
sentative were not attended to. Next took place,
on the 3rd September, 1850, a rising of the Royalist
party in the Canton, and the object of that move-
ment could not have been any other than to force
the attention of the various great Powers to a sub-
ject which they seemed but little inclined to take
into consideration. The Cabinet of Berlin, at
present, in redoubling its efforts to obtain a diplo-
matic intervention in the question, gave, the docu
ment declares, a contradiction, calculated to excite
astonishment, to those principles of order and
conservatism of which it has hitherto declared
itself to be the defender.
The paper then refers to the language of the
Congress of Vienna in restoring to the King of
Prussia the suzerainty of the Canton of Neu-
chatel, and remarks that it was not evidently
intended that he should possess more extended
rights than' he had before the treaty of Tilsit in
1807, which wrested Neuchatel from Prussia. The