The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-12 00:00:00

' FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND.
The Swiss journal the Helvetic publishes the following
lorrespendoece which ha, taken place between the Pre-
id. nt of the Swiss Directory and the Pet nch Awbassa-
or. The following is the letter of the French Ambas-
ador. M. Bois.le Comte t--
"M. to President,—lt was my first intention to present
.0 your Excellency only the expression of our wishes
that your magistracy may
bring happiness to Switzer
Lind, but I feared that this, 'devoid- of all explanation,
might make you believe that there was some disaccord
between me and some of my colleagues. The circum-
stances which attended and followed your election, the
peeches you delivered before and after it, have appeared
o me to render it necessary for me to open my relations
with you by an expose which can leave no doubt as to
ur principles in 3 our mind. This course will be more
candid and more proper. I have to explain myself on
wo subjects, the corps francs and cantonal independence.
Guizot, in his letter of March, 1845, expressed him-
self as regards the corps france in terms which make it
innecessary for me to add anything. He has founded
`its right to express himself in this way on the right of
,vely Government to protect the bases of order, and the
elation between nations against the principles and dis-
a.ders by which they may be attackers. He has founded
+t also in the more direct interest of Flmm, and it is as
-aspects that interest principally that I address you, for
1, as in the sittings of the Grand Council, the chiefs of
:he state admit excuse to provide for the care of a people.
imagining that its Government is too tardy or too weak
to doing it justice, takes justice into its own hands by
resorting to force, the same principle may be applied to
he relations with foreign states as well as to those with
other cantons. The 15,000 French who reside in Swit
zerland on the faith of treaties may one day find them-
selves exposed to this popular justice, and our frontiers
/nay be compromised. All security of relations would
disappear with a Government which should admit this
princitle, and which cannot answer for the armed action
its populati,n. It is also in the name of our direct
interest and of our positive right that I
speak to you on
the second question respecting which I have to treat
with you. Every nation is independent, but it is one of
the attributes of its independence to have the power of
restraining its exercise by treaties with other nations.
France has done this several times, at different periods
,f her history, particularly in renouncing the faculty of
rortifying several parts of her tertitury. Switzerland
has done as France has done. Whilst
preserving her
independence, she has signed a treaty which limits the
exercise of it on some fixed points. I speak to you of
the dispositions of the act of the Congress of Vienna, to
which the diet of Zurich adhered by a solemn declara-
tion. The Act of Vienna doss not recognise a Suisse
unitaire, but a Suisse federative, composed of 22 cantons.
one or more of these cantons should one day say to us
that its independent existence was menaced, and that it
was sought to substitute a unitary Switzerland for a can,
tonal Switzerland, recognised by treaties, and say that
thereby our treaties were attacked, we should have to
consider whether our treaties really were attacked. The
very nature of this sort of questions, the consideration
of the right and fitness of raising them, renders them so
dependent upon circumstances connected with. them, that
there is always a risk of fallinginto error when-they
are prematurely discussed. We have therefore not done
this. We have confined ourselves to the simple resolu-
tion expressed by the words, we will examine. lam per-
fectl3 enabled to add that we will do this in per;ect ac-
cordance with the spirit and intention of the powers who
aigeed the said treaties, and particularly with Austria,
who stands with regard to Switzeraind in a position
perfectly analagtus to ours from contiguity of frontiers."
" M. Ochsenbein the President," says the Helvetic,
" the next morning paid a visit to M. de Bois le Comte,
and read to him his answer. M. de Bois le Comte im-
mediately objected, as be had not intended to remit a
note verbale, but only to deliver his discours par ecrit.
M. Ochsenbein thereupon requested him to receive his
answer as a discours ecrit, and which seems to us to
express correctly the opinion of the people of Berne as
well_as of the Government."

The following is the icesident's answer
M. le Comte I In thanking your Excellency for the
good wishes you have expressed towards Switzerland on
the occasion of my entering upon my functions, I am
bound to make the following observations on the con-
tents of the verbal note you have delivered to me.
This note refers to facts which are personal to myself,
and of which I have rendered no account to the authori-
ties, or to the public opinion of my country, and you
foresee eventualities upon which I am not called upon to
explain myself; either personally, not agreeing with the
consequences drawn from them, or in the name of the
Directory or of the Confederation, not being warranted
in answering officially such communication without being
authorised. I feel it, however, to-be my duty to assure
your Excellency, that the federal authorities will not
make any attack upon existing treaties and that they
will in all cases entertain the firm will, and have the
power to cause respect to be paid to public order and
the rights of the people throughout the Swiss territories,
even when they at the same time oppose with no less
energy every attempt at foreign interference in their in-
ternal affairs, and that they will never allow any power
or any minority of cantons the right of interpreting the
federal compact,—a right which belongs to the Confede-
ration alone."

THE SMALL DEBTS ACT.
TO THE EDI fait OF BE SUN.
SlR,—The short, but excellent, article which appeared
in your columns on Saturday evening, relative to the
discharge of a prisoner by the Court of Common Pleas,
who had been committed to prison by one et the County
Courts for the non-payment of an instalment, without
any notice being given of the intention to apply for such
committal, entitles sou to the unqualified praise arid
gratitude of all those who are unable but willing to pay,
and who are either suffering from threats (or actually
undergoing an imprisonment in pcenam, unuer circum-
stances never contemplated by the trainers of the Act,
or the legislative body that passed it).
The following case is well known to me, and similar
ones are far from rare.—An order under the Small
Debts Act was obtained in the Court of Bankruptcy to
satisfy a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas. The
defendant was ordered to pay the debt and costs,
amounting to some 251, odd, by instalments of 255. a
month. His employment being temporary, and only
during the sitting of Parliament, he remonstrated on the
operation of the order -during that considerable part of
the year in which he would have no certain means of
existence. The remonstrance was useless, the Cotrmis•
slon ,q. saying that the Act gave him no power to use
whier:setsuis:en:ncivoents were regularly paid, but when his means
such discrimination. So long as his occupation lasted
the
nogferthaebleP(tiwu
days'o cocnosicifiuneetel confinement toti.nthaatgtahorleawtaws
atshertnhhaert
,crotino lake the order—ceased,
het
he
necessaries, gut into debt, and hat expectations and
friends, in addition to bOdily health, in his efforts to
keep from so dreadful a punishment. Had he the
opportunity of stating why the instalments were not
paid previous to coaitnittal, he could have insisted on the
protection of the Act, which do, s not give incarceration
to the willing and poor, but to the unwilling and able to-
pay debtor —I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
EQUITAS.
June 7, 1847.