The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-05 00:00:00

weeks.have not elapsed since there was a national
thanksgiving for the bounteous and abundant
harvest with which the ALMIGHTY has been
pleased to favour us. There is no lack of
a demand for the productions of our ski'l
and industry—foreign orders have been more nume-
rous than heretofore ; there is no want of the raw
material for our manufactures, nor are the prices
thereof by any means unreasonable ; and there are
no large stocks on hand which must be disposed of
before the people can be employed in producing more ;,
and yet, with all these fair prospects, we are enduring
almost unparalleled distreig. Our operatives are cast
out of employment, our merchants and traders involved
in ruin, and there is a general stagnation of our
manufactures. The cup of prosperity that is within
our reach is snatched from our very lips by the
ruthless laws which theorists have forced upon us in
opposition to the repeated remonstrances of our prac-
tical men. The system is radically defective,
the foundation is rotten, and must be altogether
abandoned. There must be a total alteration. The
question should not be what can be done consistently
with a gold standard or a silver standard. A still
more comprehensive view must be taken, and the in-
quiry must be, what is bast suited to the wants
of the people, by what means can the greatest
amount of national prosperity be obtained, and how
can it be permanently retained. We are not without
lights to guide and direct us, we may refer to the
history of former years, and we shall find that general
prosperity, a happy, contented, and fully employed
people, were ever to be found when there
was an abundant circulation, and that when that
circulation was diminished and became scanty, the
most painful results were apparent. There is an
abundant foundation on which a statesman may
work, with credit to himself and advantage to the
country—on which we trust the Whig Ministers
may raise a durable erection, that will conduce to
their own fame, and remain to future ages a "monu-
mentum are perennius."

The Federal Gazette of Switzerland, of the 31st
ult., announces that, in consequence of the present
state of things, it will provisionally discontinue its
publication in a regular way, but will publish a bul-
letin of events, without comments.
A meeting of the Swiss Diet was held on the
evening of the 30th ult. to take into consideration the
report of the Committee charged to present proposi-
tions relative to the difficulties made by Neufchatel
with respect to the calling out of its contingent. The
Committee proposed that the Diet should decide that
Neufchatel should be summoned to call out its contin-
gent immediately, and to place it at the disposition of
the Federal Commandant, making it responsible for
the consequences of its refusal or delay, with a reserve
to the Diet to take further measures. After the Com-
mittee's report was read, the deputy of Thurgau, who
drew it up, contended that Neufchatel could not
be permitted to take a neutral position, as it pre-
tended itself entitled to do. A letter was next
read from the deputy of Neufchatel to the President
of the Diet, protesting against troops being sent to
that canton. The deputy of Neufchatel then argued
that his state could not and ought not to be called on
to co-operate with a military force in carrying into
effect a decree against confederates whose convictions
it shares. The deputies of Zurica, Glaris, Soleure,
Schaffhausen, Appenzell Exterior, Saint Gall, Argeu,
Thurgau, Tessino, Vaud, Geneva, and Berne, main-
tained that Neufchatel was bound to obey the
orders of the Diet ; and the deputies of Appenze'sl
Exterior, and Bale Ville, spoke in favour of Neuf-
chatel. In the course of his speech the deputy
of Berne stated that the Envoy of the King of
PRUSSIA had waited on him on the previous day,
and had expressed in his Majesty's name the desire
that the troops should not be called out, to whom he
replied that he would communicate that desire to the
competent authorities. The Deputy of Neufchatel
demanded that his protest against the military occu-
pation of that canton should be inserted in the pro-
tocol. A decision was then come to, when the
proposition of the Committee was adopted by the
twelve states and two half states of the majority.
The Diet subsequently decided, on the proposition of
the Federal Council of War, that the cantons which
do not make part of the Sonderbund shall be required
to hold their reserve or landwehr in readiness, in
order that the Federal military authority may be able
to dspose of it.
A letter from Berne of the 30th says--
" The incident of the abrupt retreat of the Depu-
ties of the League, after the result of the vote on their
pretended conciliatory propositions had been ma le
known, was a scene concerted beforehand; what
proves this most clearly is, that half an hour had not
passed before they had all quitted Berne. Their de-
parture caused a sensation only in this sense, that it
put an end to negotiations, the inutility of which was
known beforehand. At present the preparations fur
the struggle are redoubled; couriers anal aides-de-
camp are being dispatched in all directions; troops,
waggons filled with ammunition, and baggage•carts
are continually passing, and Switzerland may be said
to be one vast camp. The city of Berne scarcely con-
tains a man between 20 and 30 years of age, all having
repaired to the cantonments of the troops to which
they belong. M. Blanchenay, President of the Coun •
cil of State of the canton of Valid, arrived yesterday
evening at Berne, charged with a mission from his
Government. The troops of his canton, he says, to
the number of 32,000, had learned with the deepest
disappointment, that there was some idea of nego
tiating with an arrogant minority; they would be
well pleased to hear that the moment had come to
measure themselves with adversaries who affected
contempt fir Vaudese troops. The zeal of these troops
exceeds all expression, vithout their discipline suffer
ing in the slightest degree. Letters from Zug an-
nounce that a large number of clear sighted Conser-
vatives are joining the Liberals to bring about the
withdrawal of that canton from the Sonderbund.
The foreign Ministers only wait for the decree of
execution, which the Diet is to render, to 'quit the
Swiss territory. En attendant, the envoys of Russia,
Prussia, and Bavaria have been here for several days.
The Minister of Prussia, M. de Sydow, yesterday
paid a visit to M. Ochsenbein, to declare that he was
charged to support the demand of Neufchatel not to
furnish any military contingent to the army that is
to proceed against the Sonderbund. This question,
however, is to be decided to-day, for the Diet is con-
voked for this evening to discuss the grave incident
raised by the refusal of the Government of the canton
principality. The last accounts from the canton of
Vaud announce that nearly the whole of the troops of
the Valais are concentrated on the extreme frontier of
the Vaudese territory; which leads to the idea that an
invasion of that territory is intended in order to be
able to render assistance to the people of Friburg, who
will prohably have to support the first attack. Colonel
Ruliet, who commands the western division, has
already directed his attention to this point, and
has 'Aced there a sufficient cordon of troops with
plenty of artillery. I learn this moment that four
divisions (of Ruliet, Bourckhardt, Donatz, and
Ziegler), have already received orders to march,
and that several reserved battalions were to-day called
out to reinforce the other troops."

Madrid papers of the 29th ult. have arrived.
The Gaceta announces the appointment of the
Marquis of MTRAFLORES as Governor of the Palace,
and of the Duke of BAYLEN (CAsTANos), as Captain-
General of the Royal Halberdiers.
The rumour that ESPARTERO had accepted the
English Embassy appeared to gain credence in
Madrid.

The notorious General MAROTO died recently at
Santiago, in Chili.
Rumours of the accession of MON and PIDAL to
the Cabinet, continue to prevail.
MADRID BOLSA, OCT. 29.—The Three per Cents.
were done at 26i, at fifty days; the Five per Cents.
at 16h-, at forty-nine days ; the Debt without Inte-
rest, si, for paper; and the Coupons at 12k.

We h ye received the Paris papers of Wednesday.
They all comment on the affairs of Switzerland,
and reflect with deserved severity on the course
which the French Government is pursuing with re-
gard to Swiss affairs. The Constitutionnel takes a
view of the aiiacious offers of the Sonderbund nearly
similar to that s hich we presented to our readers
yesterday. It says—

" To temporise, to negotiate, to wait until the
snow should have mdered the roads impracticable to
maintain tf!',:iiporalily the status quo, and to strike with
non-execution the decisions of the Diet, was probably
the project of the States of the Sonderbund. This is
what they imagined; they proposed to the majority
catioa:'s
dtweelitCll.o,,d'el
to BlibrUit to the arbitration of the Pope the two
Re.stions of the Jesuists and of the convents of Argau.
tri demand from the Diet a complete abdi-
si •
r.ce it had already pronounced against these
rnionosietyThtehaDiet, e ifnedaecrcaelptminagjo,rwitoyulwdahs have
iong, ar judge, legally instituted by the compact, to
Prr juounce between the divided cantons that the Ah.