The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-14 00:00:00

FROM THE PORTFOLIO.

INSTRUCTIONS FROM COUNT NESSELRODE
TO M. DE SEVERIN, ENVOY OF' RUSSIA TO
THE SWISS CONFEDERATION.
ST. PETERSBUROII, JAN. 14, 1827.
_

SlR,—The confidence which the Emperor reposes in you
calls you to the honour of representing him in Switzerland ;
and herewith you will receive the letters which accredit you
to the authorities of that country. It is unnecessary to add
instructions to these letters. Your long labours in the de-
partment of Foreign Affairs, the services which you have ren-
dered in that departtnent, the knowledge which you have thus
acquired of the principles which govern the policy of the Rus-
sian Cabinet, relieve us from the necessity of explaining to
you those general maxims, with which you have been long
imbued, and which you have, moreover, studied with a view
to their particular application to Switzerland, from the time
when I had the pleasure of announcing to you your new and
honourable destination. If, then, at the moment of your de-
parture, we trace for you a rapid sketch of the intentions of
his Imperial Majesty in regard to his relations with the Hel.
vetic Confederation, it is less with the view of giving you
directions than in order to afford you, by expressing to you the
wishes of our august master, a proof of the kind interest which
he will always feel for you.

By her geographical position, Switzerland is the key of
three great countries. Her intelligence and her character
give her a distinguished rank in the scale of European civi-
lization. Finally, by the acts of the Congress of Vienna and
of Paris, she has obtained a guarantee for her present organi-
sation, for her neutrality, and for her independence.
These few words suffice to point out the interests over which
you will have to watch, in the exercise of your functions.
From the time that diplomacy, taking a part in the amelio-
rations of every kind which were taking place in Europe,
made it the aim of its deepest and most useful combinations to
establish among the different Powers such an equilibrium as
might secure the continuance of peace, the independence of
Switzerland became one of the first axioms of policy. It was
consecrated by the Treaties of Westphalia ; and it is easy to
prove from history, that it has never been violated without
Europe having to deplore universal wars and calamities.
At the time of the French Revolution, Switzerland sensibly
felt the shock which convulsed the two hemispheres. Her ter-
ritory was invaded, armies passed through it, and battles de-
luged with blood a soil which the discords of the States had long
respected. At the time of the dominion of Buonaparte, Swit-
zerland had her share of the despotism which reigned over the
continent. Finally appeared the alliance with its noble triumphs ;
and Switzerland, which had been overthrown during the revo- ,
lutionary storm, and enslaved during the reign of conquest,
became once snore independent and neutral, from the day when
the rights of nations recovered their empire, and when peace
was the wish of the Monarch, of whom this change was the
salutary work. It was then that the Helvetic Confederacy
occupied the mind of the Emperor Alexander, of glorious
memory ; and then, also, that its independence received a
solemn sanction by the acts of 1814 and 1815, which completed
and secured the firm re-establishment of general tranquillity.
One may, consequently, assert that Switzerland is one of the
points upon which the equilibrium of Europe depends ; the
form of political existence which she enjoys constitutes one of
the elements of the conservative system, which has succeeded
thirty years of storms; and it must be the desire of Russia that
this State should continue to cling to and depend upon no other
system. She is interested in this, as a power, whose principles
and whose sense of her own welfare incline her to wish for
peace. She has a right to be so, as a power who has signed the
acts of 1814 and 1815.

These considerations will guide you, Sir, in your relations
with the Federal authorities. You will find no difficulty in
convincing the Magistrates and the most influential men in
Switzerland, that our wishes will always be in accordance with
their's, for the maintenance of the political prcrogativesof their
country; that the solicitude with which she inspires the Em-
peror is hereditary, and that, in order to be conformable to the
wishes of our august Monarch, the relations which you are
charged to maintain with her must be relations of friendship
and of mutual confidence.

But it is not only the external independence of the Helvetic
Confederacy, for which the acts of 1814 and 1815 have stipu-
lated. Like all other countries, Switzerland could not avoid
the struggle which the French Revolution has created be-
tween old and new ideas.

The principles which constitute its Government have felt its
effects. A more equal division of power between the different
Cantons of which it is composed was the necessary consequence
of this influence • and, from the epoch when Switzerland
placed herself under the liberating banners of the Allies in
1813, it became evident that the internal organisation which
had formerly existed there would be no longer applicable ; that
the last twenty years had brought to light interests which
justly claimed respect; and that a wise compromise between
the past and the present could alone restore peace and happi-
ness to these countries. This was effected ; the basis of a new
Federal Convention was laid; and this Convention, formally
guaranteed by the treaties concluded at the Congress of 1815,
and thenceforth as inviolable as these treaties themselves, was
for the future to be considered as forming an integral part of
the new European system.
Russia, then, is under the obligation of contributing, as
much as she possibly can, (but without exercising a right of
interference, which she will never assume, in affairs which do
not directly concern her), to the stability of the present regime
of Switzerland ; and your first care, Sir, must be to prove that
Russia acknowledges and fulfils this obligation. Your ex-
planations on this subject with your colleagues, the represen-
tatives of other Courts, as well as with the functionaries of
the country, must be as positive as the clauses to %those au-
thority you are to appeal. They will leave no doubt, with
regard to the intention of the Emperor, that the Helvetic
Confederacy should .maintain itself and prosper, such as it has
been definitively constituted by the acts of 1814 and 1815.
But Switzerland is threatened by two dangers, of which our
wish to co-operate in her welfare induces us to warn her,
through your agency, and with perfect frankness. Placed in
the midst of States where the leaven of revolution still fer-
ments; between Piedmont, where the events of 1821 have but
too clearly revealed the secret and the power of a party, the
enemy of all legitimate order ; France, where numberless ex-
citers of disturbances are active in diffusing the spirit which
agitates. themselves ; and the South of Germany, where are
to be found the ramifications of the same plot ; Switzerland,
with her Republican forms, will always have to fear that these
miserable men will seek to establish in her bosom the focus of
their guilty activity, and that, reckoning upon the institutions
by which she is governed, and upon the neutrality of her ter-
ritory, they may flatter themselves with being able to prepare
there, without interruption, for the accomplishment of the plots
which they form against nations and Kings.
The attention of the principal Cabinets of Europe has been
already drawn to this danger by the representations of the Sar-
dinian Government at the Congress of Verona. They
pointed out the serious inconvenience that would ensue from
the sojourn in Switzerland of men obliged to fly from a coun-
try whose ruin they had conspired ; and the Protocols of the
Congress, s s well as the subsequent decisions of the Con-
ference of Paris, have laid down principles with regard to these
points; which the Helvetic authorities cannot apply too scru-
pulously or too strictly.
We must here do them the justice to say, that the steps
taken towards them, in consequence of the wishes expressed
by the Court of Turin, have been crowned with success ; that
all the representations of your predecessors, on this occasion,
and in several cases of a similar description, have met with a
favourable reception ; and that the answers which ho has
transmitted to us on the subject of the communications with
which he was charged concerning the discovery, the judgment,
and the punishment of the horrible plot which had been formed
in Russia, breathed sentiments, the expression of which is ho-
nourable to the views and spirit of the federal government.
But, at the same time, we must say, that the apprehensions of
the States friendly to peace, with regard to the revolutionary
plots which were carried on in Switzerland, are not yet en-
tirely dissipated ; and though no decided proof has yet at-
tested that she is, without her own knowledge, perhaps, the
centre of secret societies which meditate insurrection and re-
gicide, it is, nevertheless, true that repeated warnings, and
presumptive evidence of more than one kind, do not allow us
to regard this opinion as devoid of all foundation. You will
not fail, Sir, to observe, with an attentive,eye, any indications
of this new danger. You will not fail to point it out to the
vigilance of those magistrates whose duty it is to prevent it.
Declare to them, with that energy which the knowledge of
good and pure intentions inspires, that, as a pledge for the
stability and prosperity of Switzerland, her existence must be
inoffensive. Make them understand that it would no longer
bear this character, if Helvetic liberty were to further the ef-
fbrts of the genius of revolution ; if the causes of the uneasi-
ness which is manifested were not sifted to the bottom ; if the
friendly voice of the Cabinets which express it were not
listened to. Finally, you are to remark to them, and to all
those who preserve a sincere patriotism in Switzerland, that
the interests which they have most at heart, the interests of '
their independence and of their national institutions, are in
accordance with our counsels ; that Switzerland would be the
first victim of the machinations, whose progress she had im-
prudently allowed ; that a frightful democracy would take
place of the wisdom and intelligence of the government which
now presides over our destinies : it is, then, of urgent neces-
sity to probe the wound, and to heal it, to take account of all
criminal plots, and to suppress them with energy.
Add to this, that on these conditions Switzerland may feel
sure of finding in the Emperor Nicholas the affectionate senti-
ments of the Emperor Alexander, the same support in the day
of danger, the same resolution to guarantee to her the peace-
able enjoyment of the rights accorded to her by treaties. If
this language should rally well-intentioned men, if it should
encourage them to extend with all their power the influence of
the moderate opinions which they profess, and to oppose the
progress of the spirit of change and disorder, the good cause,
and the Helvetic confederacy itself, will be indebted to you
for a great service.
The Emperor is not ignorant that, in some of the Cantons,
symptoms of another threatening re-action have been remarked,
and it appears beyond a doubt, that a party exists there which
endeavours to modify the present, not in order to effect inno-
vations, but to recall the past, and to revive the forms of ad-
ministration and the constitution which governed Switzerland
nearly forty years ago. His. Imperial Majesty can no more fa-
vour such intentions as these, than the attempts which we have
mentioned above. The policy Russia is to be found entire
of
in her treaties and in a juste milieu between extreme opinions.
Now, these treaties do, not allow of this retrograde march,
which, under the present circumstances in which Switzerland
is placed, would itself be a revolution ; and, besides, it would
be vain to endeavour to conceal from one's-self that such pro-
jects, the abuse of all that is most sacred among men, of a re-
ligion c..wntially Conservative, in order to spread them, the
means put in operation to induce those Governments to accede
to them, or in order to execute them in spite of their opposition,
would directly lead Europe to the results prepared fQr her by

the labours of the revolutionists, and that to encourage the for-
mer would be to assist the latter. _

Thus, Sir, you will show equal disapprobation of that ten-
dency which has the triumph of democracy for its aim; and of
that whose object is to re-establish in Switzerland an order. of
things which henceforth would not be consonant either with
her wishes or her wants, or with those ants which have pacified
the world.

Such are the instructions which the Emperor has desired us
to address to you ; we have limited ourselves to general obser-
vations, because at this moment we have no particular interest
to discuss, no special negociation to pursue, with the Helvetic
confederacy.
It will not be difficult for you to show that the orders with
which you are furnished are dictated by a sincere and lively
desire to secure the tranquillity and prosperity of Switzerland ;
and you will perceive, Sir, that they confer a real importance
upon your functions. This importance is still farther aug-
mented, if we consider that you are about to occupy a post,
where the South of Germany, the North of Italy, and the
Eastern provinces of France, will be under your eye ; and
where, indeed, they ought constantly to excite your attention ;
and from whence you cannot but find occasions of transmitting
to us useful informatian.

We doubt not but that you will prove yourself deserving of
the confidence of his Imperial Majesty, and, like your prede-
cessor, you will acquire, in the execution of the duties of your
office, new claims to the approbation and to the esteem of our
August Sovereign.
Receive, &c.
(Signed) NESSELRODE.