The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-01 00:00:00

TEE SUN,

ascribed to Bank mismanagement, importation of
corn, railway expenditure, Irish loans, undue
speculation, over-trading., or any of the various other
origins of the mischief that have been assigned by
the bullionists, hut the offspring of JONES Loin—the
adopted of PEEL the Enfant trouvE of Sir
CHARLES WOOD, must be spared. Sacrifice any
other interest, but let the real delinquent escape
unscathed.

If the object of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
had been to establish the error of the Government in
consenting to even a temporary relaxation of the
stringent provisions of the Act, he could not have
laboured more energetically. It is perfectly clear
that its virtual suspension was forced upon him by
his wiser colleagues, and that many a bitter pang
was thereby occasioned. He, good easy man, still
maintained the same happy indifference to the state
of the country, still regarded the innumerable bank-
ruptcies and the general stagnation of trade and
commerce with the same philosophical composure
whiA he manifested to the Newcastle deputation,
when he assured the gentlemen who waited upon
him " that there was not any just cause for the ap-
prehensions which the deputation and the mer-
cantile body of Newcastle appeared to entertain
—that the Bank of England had not limited
its discounts—that as far as he knew, and he fully
believed it was not the intention of the directors of
the Bank to limit discounts as they had done in
April, or to resort to any other stringent mea-
sures—that he felt confident the worst had past, and he
thought the alarm would speedily subside." Even to this
moment he cannot be satisfied that the Bank of England
denied any reasonable accommodation to any solvent
parties, indeed, but yesterday he tells us " that the
Bank never refused a bill which it would have dis-
counted at another time." Hear this, ye merchants
of England, who were made but too painfully aware
of the impossibility of converting even the most satis-
factory securities received in the regular course of trade
into cashl—how groundless were your complaints and
how ridiculous your joy at hearing that the fetters
and restrictions by which the directors were supposed
to be bound were unloosed! Judge how absurd
were the rumours that the Bank had lent or
offered to lend Government stock when they
were unable to supply applicants with the required
advances in cash. We have the authority of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer that " the Hanle never
refused a bill which it would have discounted at
another time." But if this be so, and surely we
cannot doubt a statement proceeding from such a
source, what was the use of the letter to which
he himself was a party ? In ordinary times, the
Bank afforded every legitimate accommodation ;
they desired to obtain undoubted bills, and would
scarcely deny the request of parties about whose
solvency or stability no doubt was entertained. If
they refused no bill which they would have dis-
counted at another time, why did the Premier
and Chancellor of the Exchequer " recom-
mend the directors of the Bank of England
to enlarge the amount of their discounts and advances
upon approved securities ?" Surely, it was as purely
a work of supererogation as the Right Honourable
Baronet considers the Committee he has just moved
for to be—something that might for the moment
satisfy good gullible JOHN BULL, but which
was merely intended to quiet him for the
moment, but from which there are to be no real
results. We should, perhaps, alter this last phrase;
there was a great fact occasioned by that letter—a
fact that has long since become too painfully ap-
parent to our commercial men—a minimum rate of
eight per cent. as interest for the use of money,
and which still, in the favourable condition
of the Bank with a reserve of 5,800,000!., a condition
so favourable that there is not the slightest probabi-
lity of any present measure being required—is main-
tained at the moderate rate of 7 per cent. Perhaps, too,
the Committee now moved for , may lead to a change
in the Bank management.

Happily fur the confederates of Switzerland the
Governments of England and France have undertaken
their pacification. The diplomatic convention en-
tered into on Friday between Lord PALMERSTON
and the Due Da BROGLIE must speedily put an end
to the Helvetic differences, and the mission of Sir
STRATFORD CANNING to Berne proves the prelude to
the negotiation of a peace such as has not been
known for seventeen years among the twenty-two
federated cantons. During those seventeen years the
Diet has found it as impossible—whether its annual
assemblage were at Berne, Zurich, or Lucerne—to
conduct the aggregate affairs of the Republic, as the
Laiukgemeinde has discovered it to be impracticable
to direct with satisfaction to the citizens the affairs of
each individual canton. And while Basle has sepa-
rated, of late, into two distinct divisions, the one
comprising the town and the other country, and
while Appenzell has evinced the same disjunction
of interests between the agricultural and manufac-
turing districts, the whole of Switzerland
has broken up into factions, and these factions, ani-
mated by the fanaticism of religion or by the equally
extravagant fanaticism inspired by a love of
liberty, has advanced from the petty feuds of
local animosity to the grand and overwhelming
miseries inseparable from civil warfare. This war-
fare may be traced back not merely as far as the
revolution of 1820, bat even to the year 1803, when
NAPOLEON, as First Consul of France, and Head
Pacificator of Switzerland, established the new can-
ton of Argovie, by uniting together fragments of
Berne and Zurich, and the beautiful valley of the
Erickthal. For out of the perverse policy of the
local government of Argovie have sprung those ca-
lamitous contentions of the Confederation which first
displayed themselves in the estrangement of the Swiss
republicans, and have ultimately drawn forth the
brand of intestine hostility.
It were ridiculous to doubt for one moment
the success of the negotiations undertaken by
a British Plenipotentiary as practised and expert
as Sir STRATFORD CANNING, especially when the
mediation proffered by him from the Govern-
ment of Great Britain is seconded by all the
principal powers of Christendom. The Vorort of
Switzerland must yield to the generous demands of
our envoy, and the seizure of Zug and Lucerne by the
Federal forces must induce even the most violent up-
holders of the Sonderbund to listen to his representa-
tions. From the very commencement of these dis-
turbances there has been no little culpability on both
sides of the belligerent confederates. The Radical
cantons have arrogated to themselves, without suffi-
cient authority, the name of the Liberal Party; while
the advocates of the Jesuits, and those who are obe-
dient to the Sonderbund, have absurdly monopolised
the distinguishing title of the Catholic Party. Before
tranquillity can be restored to Switzerland, con-
cessions must be made by both parties, and the
basis of a permanent pacification can alone be the
acknowledgment of their common errors by the an-
tagonistic forces. Otherwise the protocol signed by
the French Ambassador and her MAJESTY'S Minister
for Foreign Affairs will be so much unprofitable
parchment—the consent accorded by the European
Courts to the correspondence opened by England will
be superfluous—and the mission already entered upon
by SIT STRATFORD CANNING will be null and fruit-
less. It would be frivolous to blink the matter by
putting any other construction upon what has already
transpired, and what is still transpiring in the Hel-
vetic Confederation. The truth must be recognised
and avowed by the negotiators, or the peace of
Switzerland can never be permanently restored.
Any evasion of facts so obvious and notorious, indeed,
as those we have already enumerated would be only
a procrastination of evils which have even now con-
tinued too long in existence.

The endeavours making on the part of France and
Great Britain for the restoration of peace, prosperity,
and happiness to Switzerland, presents to the historian
one of those spectacles which it is most agreeable for
him to record among the national annals. It is
another specimen of the fraternal sentiments inspired
by p.litical freedom ; it is an illustration of that
communion of social sympathies which are more
lasting bonds of friendship between states than
treaties signed by emperors and witnessed by
statesmen.
Before the late outbreak between the Swiss Radi-
cals and the zealots in favour of the Sonderbund, it
was by no means difficult to conjecture the result
of a conflict between armies so disproportionately
nlatCh ed.
command of ZIZOLDI, of Duroun, and of
theunder