The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-09 00:00:00

T_IIITRSDAVg RV

guilty ; and with reference to the complaint of his
conduct towards ESPARTERO, he passed a high com-
pliment on that eminent individual, declared his pro-
found respect for him, and expressed a desire to see
him back again in Spain. Ile added that no orders
now existed to prevent ESPARTERO from returning,
and that if he chose to come back the next day he
was at liberty to do so. He entered into explanations
with respect to the Spanish Ambassador in London
having declined to sign a pasport for ESPARTERO'S
return to Spain immediately after his refusal to ac-
cept the embassy in London ; but he again repeated
that there was now no obstacle whatsoever to his
return, that for his part he should rejoice to see him
back, and that he would be the very first to give him
his hand. These declarations excited great sensation,
which was immediately followed by a hearty round
of applause.
In the sitting of the Ist, General Ros DE °LANE,
explained th•a part he had acted in the recent Minis-
terial changes. He denied that he had betrayed or
deserted his colleagues; he had merely obeyed the
orders of the QUEEN in countersigning the decree,
appointing NARVAEZ President of the Council,
Senor OLOZAGA was speaking when the post left.
The proprietor of the Espanol has been elected a
Deputy.

General MANUEL DE LA CONCHA, ex-Captain-
General of Catalonia, had arrived in Madrid. The
Eco dcl Comercio says that divisions exist in the
Moderado party which render the duration of the
present Ministry uncertain. The same journal states,
that in order to favour the interests of two eminent
personages connected with what is called " the
situation," bonds given in payment of military
services from 1836 to 1840, have been paid in
full, whilst a little while ago the holders could only
get 20 per cent. for them. The 'Millar _Espanol
says that Lieutenant-General RONCALI has been
nominated Captain-General of the island of Cuba.
A petition has been presented to the Congress in
which GODOY, Prince of the Peace, is denounced as
debtor to the Spanish nation to the amount of
320,000,000 re uls. The petition was referred to the
Committee on Petitions. One of the papers states
that several commercial enterprises, and among them
the Iris, the banks del Fomento and de Ultramar,
and the Union Hispano-Filipina, are about to be
formed into one concern. General ALAII has, it is
said, been declared by the Supreme Tribunal of War
and Marine to be entitled to a trial.

MADRID BOLSA, DEC. I.—The Three per Cents. were
done at 27 at 50 days; the Five per Cents., at 15i ;
the Debt without Interest, at 41 for paper; and the
Coupons, at toi.

We have received the French papers of Tuesday.
The -National gives the following explanation of the
reasons which induced the authorities of the canton
of Vaud to suppress the assemblages of what are
called the Free Church. The clergy of this Free
Church, it should be recollected, were formerly in the
pay of the State ; but inasmuch as they chose to dis-
obey the orders of the State by refusing to make cer-
tain proclamations, after service in the churches, on
the subject of the elections (a matter nearly ana-
logous to the posting the register of voters on the
church doors in this country), the State stopped their
pay, they seceded, and other clergy who pay obe-
dience to the laws were substituted for them.
The decree, recently issued, forbidding these Free
Church meetings, has been stigmatised as abominable
intolerance. In reply to this accusation the National
says :—" The most complete religious liberty has
reigned in the canton, governed by the Radicals for
the last three years. As long as the meetings had for
their object matters relative to worship, the Govern-
ment did not interfere. But after the Sonderbund
had raised the tents of civil war, some preachers
transformed these assemblies into workshops of con-
spiracy; faith was not preached therein, but hatred ;
people did not pray there—they conspired."
We believe the National is perfectly correct in
its statements, and if so the authorities of Vaud are
abundantly justified. Sedition is not the less sedition
because it happens to be uttered by a clergyman from
a pulpit. Conspiracy is not the less conspiracy be-
cause the conspirators desecrate a place of worship by
using it for their place of rendezvous.
The following article from the Journal des Debuts
may be considered as showing the arriere pewee
of M. GeiZOT, in regard to the Swiss inter-
vention. It contrasts very forcibly with the
mild language of the note presented to the
Diet by M. BOIS LE COMTE :-" The funda•
mental compact of S witzerland," says the Dibats, " is
in a permanent state of violation. The military occu-
pation of the little cantons, and the administration of
them by the commissioners of the majority, have no
more the character of legality than in the Germanic
Confederation the absorption of the more feeble by
the stronger states would exhibit. But the Radicals
prepare, if they are permitted, to go farther. They
say so aloud in the Diet, in the clubs, and in all their
organs; they do not conceal their design to change
the compact with a simple majority ; they avow
openly their design to second in the states contiguous
to Switzerland the revolutionary movement, and they
correspond with all those who keep up in these states
a spirit of subversion and revolt. In their hands the
territory of the Confederation is nothing more than a
kind of free, port open to all disturbers of general
order; it is, in the midst of Europe, a hot-bed of
disorder, and a laboratory of anarchy. They assert
that no one can say who will be their allies ; they are
mistaken, we know well who they will be. In pre-
sence of such a past, such a present, and such a future,
it cannot be said that the question is finished. It
is a question which is not circumscribed within the
limits of Switzerland ; it is the general struggle
of Radicalism against order and against peace. It
is in this point of view that the question ought to be
judged, and it is thus that, from the beginning, M,
GUIZOT regarded it. The French Government claims,
and justly, the initiative which it has taken in calling
the attention of Europe to this alarming state of
Switzerland. But the warnings which, long before
the present crisis, it gave to the Confederation, were
so many friendly counsels to prevent the explosion of
a disorder which was sure to lead to general compli-
cations. When M. GulzoT is reproached with having
seized on, with having even sought for, occasions to
interfere in the affairs of Switzerland, it is
impossible to be further from the truth. M.
GUIZOT, on the contrary, has always been most
careful to uphold the right of Switzerland to
resolve her own affairs, as long as, by the exercise
of her private right, she did not infringe the
general one. He knew that the intervention of a
foreign influence or force, without the most evident
and most pressing necessity, could only be injurious to
the very cause of order which he decided to defend. This
necessity must arise from the facts themselves, in
order not to be doubtful to any one; it was necessary
that it should be demonstrated that the civil war not
only affected the internal organization of Switzerland,
but also the relations which connect the Confederation
to the whole European order. The French Govern-
ment, therefore, waited, and waited to the last ex-
tremity; M. GUM? did not call for active steps
until the evil was imminent, and until the necessity of
arresting its progress was become unquestionable.
The mediation of the great Powers being once de-
cided on, it was important that they should be unani-
mous. It was important, also, that the Powers who
represent most particularly the Liberal principle should
be united in a common action with those Tepresenting
great
Conservative
reatreaso principle. M. GuisoT, therefore, with
nenmthenatt
should take
)pwaarts uinrgtebnetmtheadtiatthieenE.ngyvliseh Gbeolvieevr
he is far from regretting the efforts which he made
to induce it to join. The delays which the nego-
tions engaged in on this point occasioned are
more than compensated for by the result
which they hare obtained. The union of the
mediating Powers was the best guarantee of
the impartiality and disinterestedness of each of
them ; and, since they assumed the parts of arl d-
trators, it belonged to them the first to give an
example of that compromise which all wished to
propose and several wanted to impose. A comn ion
mediation was therefore decided on, and the Fre: ich
Government immediately had the collective n ote
agreed on between the representatives of the f ive
Powers handed to the Diet. It is said that it is :no
longer time, and that all is finished. That is a gre at
error. The object of the mediation was not merely
to cause hostilities to be suspended; there w ere,
there are, still greater evils to prevent. The fall of
the Sonderbund has terminated a first period of the
question, but has pot decided everything. If there