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

FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND.

The Swiss
,journal the Helvetic nublishes the following
e-re:-p: 7 !_:.l- , •,.: t-;
aident of the Se s liirectory mai tile F.= nea Ambassa-
dor. The f ellowing is the letter of the French Ambas-
sador, M. Bois le Comte :
" M. le P.resident,—lt was my first intention to present
to your Excellency only the expression of our wishes
that your magistracy may bring happiness to Switzer
land, but I feared that this, devoid of all explanation,
might make you believe that there was some dhqlecord
betrceen me and some of my colleagues. The circum-
stances which attended and followed your election, the
speeches you delivered before and after it, have appeared
to me to render it necessary for nie to open my relations
with you by an exposé which can leave no doubt as to
our principles in your mind. This course will be more
candid and more proper. I have to explain myself on
two subjects, the corps francs and cantonal independence.
M. Guizot, in his letter of March, 1845, expressed him-
self as regards the corps France in terms which make it
unnecessary for me to add anything. He has founded
his right to express himself in this way on the right of
every Government to protect the bases of order, and the
relation between nations against the principles and dis-
orders by which they may be attacked. He has founded
it also in the more direct interest of France, and it is as
respects that interest principally that I address you, for
if, as in the sittings of the Grand Council, the chiefs of
the state admit excuse to provide for the care of a people,
imagining that its Government is too tardy or too weak
in doing it justice, takes justice into its own hands by
resorting to force, the same principle may be applied to
the 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
may be compromised. All security of relations would
disappear with a Government which should admit this
principle, and which cannot answer for the armed action
of its population. 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
of her history, particularly in renouncing the faculty of
fortifying several parts of her territory. 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 does not recognise a Suisse
unitaire, but a Suisse fiderative, composed of 22 cantons.
If 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 falling into 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-
feed) enabled to add that we will do this in perfect ac-
cordance with the spirit and intention of the powers wh,,
signed the said treaties, and particularly with Austria,
who stands with regard to Switzer and in a position
perfectly analagous 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 he had not intended to remit a
note verbale, but only to deliver his discours par ecrit.
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 ai of the Government."
The following is the President's answer :
"M. In Comte 1 In thanking your Excellency for the
good wishes you have expressed towards Switzerland on
the occasion of my entering upcn my functions, I am
bound to make the following observations on the con-

tents of the verbal note ytu 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 EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sia,—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 of the County
Courts for the non-payment of an instalment, without
any notice being given of the intention to apply for such
committal, entitles you to the unqualified praise and
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, under circum-
stances never contemplated by the framers 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
wsTigit
nhthitai
enbe t employment
ghiaroteonh mf.
the
etms
duringhxuoeci nshytt
existence.
acehyi.l irenii
saying
,ghetermemp
oonrasrtryLeadlidononthlye
e
operation of the order during that considerable part of
f
Aoot rucall
tondigcl egahvawea
svaehs useless,
os
nco eco re upatpoihanwet
iemor
ne aonsu Commis-
sionerlastedos
the instalments were regularly paid, but when his means
—the essence of the power to make the order—ceased,
he was no longer ablecso comply. The threat of forty
days' confinement in at. gaol was then resorted to, and
the consequence of that threat was, that he pawned his
necessaries, got into debt, and list 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 co.oinittal, he could have insisted on the
protection of the Act, which doe's not give incarceration
LO the willing and poor, but to the unwilling and able to-
pay debtor —tam, Sir, your most obedient servant,
June 7, 1847. EQUITAS.
ewsasr a mbeeni being

RAILWAY RETURNS•
EALLwAIr Tiwilc.—The following are the Total Receipts of Rail
ways for the past week—that is to say, up to the date to which the
respective returns are made, together with the receipts of the same
week in the previous year:—