The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-26 00:00:00

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LONDON. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1313

Negotiations etill continue actively in progress bv-
tweeu the Cabinets and Plenipotentiaries of England,
Prance, and Switzerland, for the purpo,e of ensuring,
pos,sible, the immediate tranquillity and permanent
prosperity of the Helvetic Confederation. kThe Vorort
IS still agitated with discussions and interviews. The
upreme Diet, while affecting a perfect reliance upon
the consequences of its late victories, is, in reality,
more than ever vigilant, and more than usually dis-
posed •
to the adoption of a prudential course of pro-
ceeding. Each- of the landsgemeindes betrays the
same degree of solicitude and watchfulness, and the
Radicals delegated by them to participate in
the councils of the Federal Government share to a
like extent in the anxieties experienced by the local
Administrations. In tke midst of these hopes and
perplexities, Sir STRATZORD CsoiruiNG, as the repre-

sentative of Great Britain, preserves, with a
profound impartiality, a sincere yearning to witness
the amicable adjustment of the affairs of Switzerland,
the judicious re-organization of its constitution, and
the solid and dispassionate vindication of its na-
tionality.
Nothing, we are satisfied, can tend to produce any
beneficial results to the confederates which does not
ensure to them in an extraordinary manner—in a
manner admitting of no subsequent misunderstand-
ings upon the point—a perfect Cantonal Sovereignty.
Without this, the pacification will be merely tempo-
rary—the liberty of the Swiss will be an illusion—
their independence will be restricted in several
instances to a fortunate minority, with whom success
will inevitably lead to cruelty, and power to despo-
tism. In the many and voluminous documents
which have recently appeared having reference to these
negotiations, the policy of England has been very signi-
ficantly expressed. It is a policy eminently worthy
of her character, and calculated to enhance in a
peculiar degree the reputation of the Russell Govern-
ment. From first to last—from the first outbreak of
the late internecine warfare to the last capitulation of
the cities of the Sonderbund the policy of Great
Britain has been consistent, her purpose has been
inflexible, and the pathway marked out by her di-
plomatists undeviating. Notwithstanding all; the
disingenuous hints uttered by M. GUIZOT, it is now
certain that the schemes of Lord PALMERSTON at
this moment, in regard to the arrangements to be
entered into with the Diet (now that its
cause has proved triumphant), are identi-
cal with those entertained by him when he
first adventured upon this friendly interference (when
the fortunes of the Radicals were altogether unde-
cided). There has been no double-dealing in the
communications forwarded from Downing-street, and
no inkling of chicanery in the different documents
transmitted to the Foreign Secretary by the distin-
guished negotiator to whose sagacity these very deli-
cate matters hare been confided. There has been
plain speaking and plain writing enough even for the
fastidious mind of the Hon. Gentleman the represen-
tative of Stafford. Of this negotiation, as conducted
by the Noble Viscount, her MAJESTY'S Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, the very key note has been the
demand of some rational assurance of Can-
tonal Sovereignty. Lord PALMERSTON has recognised
in Cantonal Sovereignty the only true security for
the maintenance of the freedom of the confederates
and for the preservation of their venerable and glori-
ous:nationality.
Let any one consider for an instant the character
of the federal republic of Switzerland—the exquisite
balance of interests for which it is remarkable—and
the calamities which have invariably resulted from
any infringement of the regulations of the Pact—and

it will be manifest that without Cantonal Sovereignty
the llelvetic constitution must prove a nullity and a
delusion. What, let us ask, would be the natural
consequences of such a legislative erasure ? They
would be as multitudinous as they would be destruc-
tive ; they would be as interminable as they
would be pernicious. Factions would triumph,
demagogues would acquire puissance, minorities
would ensure to themselves an irresponsible and
alarming authority. The national cause would droop
before the storms of insurrection, and wither under
the heels of rebels. The memorable axiom of SIETES
would be reversed—Power would not come from
above, nor would Confidence come from below.
Foreign bayonets would enforce the mandates of a
few insensate incendiaries, and the light of that Hel-
vetia which had dawned amidst the gloom of feu-
dalism would be extinguished by the hands of her
own treacherous and traitorous offspring. One can-
ton would fall under the treasonous blows of its
neighbour ; force would usurp the place of reason ;
and freedom of thought, whether in regard to religion,
politics, or philosophy, would never henceforth be
tolerated in the land which was once the very home
of Liberty.

England
E has perceived this from the commence-
ment of her efforts at mediation. The paramount
importance of Cantonal Sovereignty has been ex-
pressed in every dispatch penned by Lord PALMERS-
TON, and in every syllable articulated by Sir
bTRATFORD UANNING. The fact, indeed, is becoming
so manifest, that we arc disposed to he sanguine as to
the result of the negotiation. After what has been so
repeatedly pressed upon the consideration of the Diet
it will be scarcely possible for either the Radicals or
the Ultramontanists to thwart the intentions of Great
Britain. Cantonal Sovereignty must constitute the
text of the reforms introduced into the Federal Com-
pact. There can be no evasion of this conditional
point in the settlement of the affairs of Switzerland.
However astute the political authorities of the Vorort
may be, they cannot disappoint, upon so essential a
particular, the skilful and practised diplomatists
of France and England. With a sound and
candid co •operation between the two latter
countries, we count with all confidence upon
the ultimate realisation of the dream of Lord
PALMERSTON+—a dream which, without representing
M. OCIICSNDEIN as shooting a ribston pippin in the
market-place of Berne, nevertheless, identifies with
the success of liberal ideas the victory of those
great principles of freedom of which WILLIAM
TELL was of yore the redoubted champion. In all
the vicissitudes of those negotiations, it must be a
solace tc the Foreign Secretary to reflect that in
the person of Sir STRATFORD CANNING he has secured
a plenipotentiary of singular integrity, intelligence,
and resolution.

The favourite assertion of the bullionisrs that the
calamities of the past year, and the general distress
and suffering that was experienced by all classes, but
more especially in the commercial districts, were oc-
casioned by the railway expenditure and the Irish
famine, is.well exposed in the article in Blachwood,
to which we alluded on Monday. If we are a miser-
ably poor people who have eaten up our resources,
and are consequently unable to bear the strain that
has come upon us, it is our own absurd laws that hare
made us so. The evil is entirely of our own creation.
A comparison between what had been done before the
integrity of the standard was restored, and while the
circulation of the country was carried on with
inconvertible rags, as they have been termed,
and that which has so recently reduced the
nation to a state •f destitution, although the cur-
rency was never in a sounder state, will show how
absurd it is to ascribe our embarrassments to the
amount of the outlay which has taken place under
those heads. The period selected for the comparison
cannot be said to afford any advantages to the anti-
bullionist side of the argument. In the years 1813,
1814, and 1813, when, according to our Contempo-
rary, " the miserable poverty-stricken people were at
the close of a bloody and costly war of twenty years
duration, during which they raised 585,000,000/.
sterling by loans to Government, and on an average
50,000,0001. annually by taxes, from a population, in-
eluding Ireland, not amounting to 18,000,000 of souls,"
advances and contributions were made to the Govern-
ment for the public service, which appear from
Pon-cures Parliamentary Tables to have amounted to
no less than 212,093,3781. raised by taxes, and
298,464,4281. by debts contracted, funded and un-
funded, giving a grand total of payments into the
Exchequer within these three years of 510,557,8091.,
or an average of over 170,000,000/. per annum. These
enormous contributions could then be made without
exhausting the resources or over-taxing the energies
of the British nation ; but we find that the value of the
corn which has been imported into the country from
tJhtei poen, 11y84t6i,utloe0dcutorbi
negr
h7i,eanp etrniiosd oefxltsr
amu
rodnituhasr
ybeiiinug.
portation took place, amounted in round terms to
33,563,0001. sterling, while the capital absorbed in
railways amounted in 1845 to 14,000,0001. ; in 1846
to 35,000,000/. ; and in 1847 to 63,000,000/. If we
suppose that during the same period the average
revenue collected by taxation amounted to 52,000,000/•
per annum, we shall find that the whole amount col-
lected from the nation within the last three years for
railways, for the importation of foreign corn, for taxa-
tion of every kind, and for the Irish loan of 8,000,0001.,
did not altogether amount to more than 31,000,0001.,
or about three-fifths of that which was collected from
1818 to 1815. It should also be borne in mind
that the money expended on the construction of rail-
ways was not sent out of the country, but that, on the
British industry,
estslaanabdnoduarffouv.ri:lhpi nireogicit
contrary, it was altogether applied in stimulating
rpelmoyainuieeidit tuostti.lll
al
rcvotaiuvs otherwiseaSnoti mt 3 of
other

causes of our distress must therefore be assigned than
the amount of the national expenditure.
But it may be said that the nation was wealthier in 1
1815 than in 1847—and that therefore so great a
pressure on our resources could more readily be en-
countered at the former than at the latter period.
The income-tax returns will, however, show that such
was not the case, but that, on the contrary, the
increase in the wealth of the nation more than kept
pace with the increase in the population. In 1815
the income-tax was ten per cent. on all incomes ex-
ceeding 601. per annum, and it produced 15,000,0001
sterling; in,1847, the year of greatest pressure, when
the chief absorption of capital in railways and for
corn was taking place, it amounted to 5,395,3911. at
21. 18s. 4d. per cent., although it was not levied on
incomes lower than 1501. per annum, perhaps we
might practically say less than 200/. per annum, so
that, without taking into consideration the apprecia-
tion of the value of money, if a similar rate was now
levied to that which was enforced in 1815, we should
find that a much greater amount of realised and ac-
cumulated property now existed in the country—that
we are, in fact, a far wealthier people.
The property of the nation has been calculated to
amount to more than five thousand millions sterling.
It would be easy to show that this calculation is rather
under than over the mark, if we took into our consi-
deration the value of our real property, producing
105,000,0001. per annum, and which alone may be
fairly estimated as being worth upwards of three thou-
sand millions sterling. We have in addition our funded
property, amounting to 800,000,0001.. The railway
and banking property, the capital invested in com-
merce, manufactures, and agriculture, the deposits
in the several banks, the value of the agricultural
stock, the millions of horses, oxen, cows, pigs, sheep ;
the implements of husbandry, the articles of comfort
or luxury in the various dwelling-houses, which
would make us the richest nation the world ever saw,
even had we not a single ounce of gold in our cof-
fers. And yet with this enormous capital we are
brought to the verge of ruin, because we have seat
away thirty-three millions for foreign corn, and
expended sixty-three millions on railways, in adding
to the facilities of transit, in saving time and money
to the traveller, and enabling the farmer to obtain
new markets for his produce, and thus materially
increase the value thereof, and have advanced
eight millions to relieve our starving brethren. Would
an individual worth 5,0001. consider himself ruined
because he had expended 1001., the fiftieth part of his
capital, for such purposes ? Most assuredly not-
Neither can the British nation acknowledge that it
has been ruined by what has taken place.
The great cause of all our sufferings is the contrac-
tion of the circulation, the not having a currency which
is a representative and measure of value sufficient
for the wants and exigencies of the nation. The Act
of 1844 rendered that contraction inevitable, and
thus disabled our manufacturers from carrying on
their operations to the usual extent. All the panics
upon record have arisen from the abstraction
of gold in unusual quantities, and have been cured
by the issue of a corresponding amount of paper. Sir
R. PEEL has, however, instructed us in the currency,
contracting it when gold is scarce, and expanding it
when gold is abundant. The nation has, however, paid
dearly for this instruction.

Letters from Copenhagen of the 18th state that on
that day the life of the King of MINDIARK. was
despaired of.

Advices have been received from Constantinople to
the 6th, Athens to the 9th, and Smyrna to the 7th
instant.

The friendly relations between Turkey and Greece
had been resumed. M. MUSSURUS was about to leave
Constantinople for Athens. He had his audience of
leave of the SULTAN on the 3d. He is to proceed to
Athens in a Turkish frigate.:GLAßAßts, the Greek Mi-
nister for Foreign Affairs, has addressed a note to the
representatives of the five Great Powers at Athens.
in which he denies that any shots were fired at Patras
at her MAJESTY'S ship Spitfire.

The Contemporaneo of
,Rome of the 15th mentions
a report that the Neapolitan General, LANDY, who is
at Messina, had opened a dispatch of the English
the taaauk_tn W 116
Embassy at Naples, and that k
about to demand reparation, and the dismis.._al of
General LANDIr. Letters from Naples of a subse-
quent date, say that the Neapolitan Government has
acceded to the demands of the English Ambassador,
and that General LAND"! has been dismissed.

It is said that Calabria and Salerno are in open
revolt.

A letter from Turin of the 20th announces that in
consequence of the events at Leghorn, the advoca'es
PELLEGRINI, LIIGHORN, and 13iszo, have been arrested
at Genoa. The papers seized at their residences
prove, it is said, that they acted in concert with the
advocate GUERRAZZI, promoters of the late disturb-
ances at Leghorn, and with the chiefs of the Young
Italy party in foreign countries.
A letter from Civita Vecchia, of Jan. 16, says—

" The inhabitants of Palermo in the outbreak of
the 12th fought from four o'clock to eleven, and
proved victorious ; several soldiers were killed ; and
the arrival of the inhabitants of the surrounding
country decided the troops to retire, and shut them-
selves up in the forts ; a provisional government was
appointed. The English Minister at Naples sent his
yacht to Cagliari, where the English squadron is now
lying, with orders to send two frigates to Palermo
and two to Naples, to protect the English residents.
A revolutionary proclamation has been circulated at
Rome, but it produced no effect. It was considered
as an act on the part of the enemies of the present
progress. It is confidently asserted that the Council
of Ministers has approved of the regulations of the
Consulta, relative to the publicity of voting and to the
publication of the proceedings at the sitting. The
Consults is at present busy in preparing an address to
the Roman people for the arming of the State."

The Swiss Diet met on the 22d. No opposition
will take place to the revision of the Federal Pact.
The Courrier Suisse announces that on Sunday,
the 16th, the people of Zug accepted the new consti-
tution by a majority of 1,206 to 663 votes, or just
two to one. In Lucerne the Grand Council is pur-
suing its discussions on the project of constitutional
reform. It has decided, amongst other things, to
reduce the number of Councillors of State to nine
(from eleven), and to substitute the departmental for
the collegial system, as at Berne.
Several of the Swiss Jesuits have attempted to
take refuge in Bavaria, but the KING has issued orders
forbidding them to remain longer than three days in
his dominions.

It is said that Prussia and Austria have proposed
to blockade Switzerland. Wirtemberg and Baden
concur in the proposal, but Bavaria opposes it
strongly.

Letters have been received from Vienna, which con-
vey important intelligence. For the first time during
the whole of his official career Prince MErrEaxrcu
has received a check. He has been opposed in the
Council of State and outvoted—METTERNICK wished
to carry things with a high hand in Lombardy. Ile
would hear of no concessions being made, insisted on
punishing severely the authors of the movement, and
wished to remove the Archduke RAINER from the Go-
vernorship, as too much inclined to concessions, and
too feeble to be trusted with the cares of government
in troublous times. He proposed also to increase the
army to 100,000 men, and to make the young Duke
ALBERT, a rash, headstrong, high• spirited, but
imprudent, and by no means talented, young man,
Governor of Lombardy, in the place of the Archduke
RAINER. Those propositions were strenuously op-
posed by Count KOLOIVRAT, who has long been the
rival of METTERNICH, and by the:Archduke Lours;
and for the first time in his life' .MET-
THENICII was compelled to give way. In-
stead of adopting his propositions, the Council of
State resolved to dispatch Captain MATER to the
Archduke RAINER, recommending him to exhibit
more energy against the leaders of the late move-
ment, but at the same time sanctioning his proposi-
tions for introducing certain reforms into the Ad-
ministration of tie country. A number of German
functionaries at Milan are to be removed, and to be
replaced by natives, and the provincial congregations
of Lombardy are to be permitted to address their
grievances direct to the EMPEROR. As if to render
this check for Prince METTERNICH the more marked,
the EMPEROR has addressed a most flattering letter
to Count lior.owßAT, and has conferred on him the
grand cross of the Order of St. Stephen. It is con-
sidered that after this there will be no more talk of

Austrian intervention in Switzerland. The chief
supporter of an armed intervention was Prince MET-
TERNICH, and the threat of the SIN iss Diet to march
an army into Lombardy, in the event of Austrian
intervention in the affairs of the republic, has opened
the eyes of the more prudent members of the Aus-
trian Cabinet to the dangers by which they are
surrounded.

Madrid papers of the 19th, have arrived.

The influenza seems to have brought everything to
a stand-still in that city. Pour members of the
Cabinet, viz., NARVAEZ, SOTOMATOR, BELTRAN DE
Lis, and SARTORIUS, are confined to their beds, and
122 persons have died of it in one single day in
Madrid. The Moderado candidate has been returned
for Santiago.
The Duke of GLUCKSBURGH and the Danish and
American Ministers have called on General Es-
PARTERO.

MADRID BOLA, JAN. 19.—The Three per Cents.
were done at 27i at fifty days; the Five per Cents.,
at 16 13-16 for cash, and at 17 at fifty days; the
Debt without Interest at 5i fur paper; and the
Coupons at 41i for cash.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
There was a grand reception at the Tuileries by
the QUEEN on Monday, the first that has taken place
since the death of the Princess ADELAIDE. All the
Royal Family were present, and among the distin-
guished personages assembled to pay their respects to
her Majesty the Queen of the Faexcn, was the
Count of SYRACUSE, the brother of the King of
NAPLES. All the Foreign Ambassadors attended.
The discussion on the second paragraph of the Ad-
dress, which relates to the financial condition of the
country, was commenced on Monday, continued on
Tuesday, and had not finished when the post left. The
debate was commenced by M. DE LEYSTERIE, who after
denouncing the system of constant loan contracting,
alluded to the large reforms which had been last year
promised in the salt duties and in the postage on
letters, and observed that the gravity of the present
financial position would only permit trifling changes
to be effected. Since 1840 the present Ministry had
expended 2,400,000 franca more than the ordinary
budget had amounted to when they had entered on
affairs. When anything was said against such a
lavish expenditure, what was the answer ? " Look
at the railways I" But how much had that great
source of expenditure called for ? Not more than
550 millions. Out of the rest not less than
1,400,000,000 f. had been expended in augmentation
of salaries and extraordinary expenses of various
kinds.

The Minister of Finance defended the conduct
of the Government, and while admitting the
existence of a very serious deficit expressed a hope
that the time would come when the deficit would be
covered, and the receipts would equal the expenditure.
The debate was resumed on Tuesday by M. FouLD,
who declared that the financial condition of the
country had been getting worse year after year ever
since the accession of the present Cabinet to office.
This brought up the Minister of Finance to complain
of the exaggerations of the preceding speaker, and
then M. TRIERS rose and declared that in his opinion
the financial condition of the country was not such
as to warrant the hopes held out by the Government ;
but that, on the contrary, it was surrounded by
difficulties. The Hon. Deputy was speaking at the
hour the post left.

There were various rumours rife in Paris on the
subject of the affairs of Naples. One rumour which
was current in the Chamber of Deputies, and
which obtained extensive credit among the Mem-
bers, was, that on the withdrawal of the troops from
Naples to Palermo, a revolution had broken out in
Naples, which had been completely successful,
and that the King of NAPLES had been compelled to
take refuge on board a British ship of war.
The Presse states that a dispatch had been received
from the King of SWEDEN, warmly complaining that
as one of the parties of the treaties of Vienna, he had
not been invited to take part in the negotiations
opened by France with the three northern Powers, on
the subject of Switzerland.
The Itionifeur publishes the returns of the imports
and exports of France in 1847. The Customs duties
eAntnit a diminution of 10,641,1t6C.7 as coin-
pared with those of 1846, having only amounted to
134,117,730 f.

The number of French vessels which entered the
harbours of France in 1847 was 7,836, measuring
916,951 tons; the foreign vessels, 13,303, measuring
1,896,938 tons: in all 21,139 vessels and 2,813,889
tons. The French vessels which cleared in 1847 were
5,425, measuring 674,341 tons; the foreign vessels
7,514, measuring 825,720 tons : in all 12,939 vessels
and 1,500,061 tons. As compared with the naviga-
tion of :846, there was a decrease in 1847 of 348 in
the number of French vessels which entered the har-
bours of France, but an increase of 37,143 tons;
and an augmentation of 1,190 in that of foreign
vessels, and of 216,648 tons. The number of
French vessels which sailed from France also pre-
sent a diminution of 170, whilst the foreign increased
by 891.
Four companies have made application for the con-
cession of the Lyons and Avignon Railroad. They
are the Paris and Lyons Company ; the company
formed by Messrs. LAFFITTE, BLOUNT, and Co.; that
formed by Messrs. BLAQUE, CEARTAIN, and DROUIL-
'LARD ; and the Marseilles and Avignon Company,
which last, however, requires only the line from
Avignon to Valence. The Lyons Company calls
upon the Ministry to adopt the line of the left bank
of the Rhone. Messrs. LAFFITTE, BLOUNT, and Co ,
for the right bank, with private arrangements for
following, as far as Gisors, the St. Etienne line, and
having at Lyons a station in common with that
railway. M. DROUILLARD, who is the owner of
large iron works, which would probably be
called upon to furnish supplies to his com-
pany, is also for the right bank, but, as his con-
' ditions, he demands the giving up as a subvention of
the deposits paid to the Government by the old com-
pany of Lyons to Avignon, augmented by those of
the Bordeaux to Cette and Fampoux to Hanebrouck
companies, the shareholders of which would be ad-
mitted into his company, and the amount to which
each would be entitled, if his share of the deposit
were to be restored, could be taken on account of a
first instalment upon their shares. The Marseilles
Company proposes to follow the left bank, and to
adopt the plans already prepared for it. It is quite
ready to undertake the work at once, and the recent
completion of the section from Avignon to Valence
would enable it to turn to account the implements,
&c., which were used for the making of the Avignon
to Valence section. On one point all the competitors
are agreed, viz., calling upon the State to guarantee
a certain rate of interest upon the capital to be em-
ployed.
The Prince and Princess DE JOIN MLLE are to
embark immediately on board the steam-ship Cuvier,
for Algiers. The alleged reason of this visit is the
health of the Princess (by birth a Brazilian), who
suffers much from the intense cold which prevails in
Paris during the winter months.
Don ENRIQUE and his consort left Bayonne on the
121st for Toulouse.
Three per Cents. for cash, closed on the Paris
Bourse yesterday at 73f. 70c.; the New Loan. 741.
75c. ; Fire per Cents., 115 f. 90c.; the Orleans
Railroad Shares, 1,1711. 25c.; Rouen, 892 f. 50c.;
Havre, 442 f. 50c.; Great Northern, 627 f. 50c.;
Avignon, 5521. 50c. ; Vierzon, 505 f. ; Bordeaux,
472 f. 50c.; I3oulogne, 365 f. ; Paris and Strasburg,
406 f. 25c.; Tc urs and Nantes, 3831.; Paris and
Lyons, 391 f. 25c.
MARSEILLES.—MarseiIIes and Avignon, 547 if.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT TLIE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE.. JAN. 25.

Boulogne and Amiens, 13% —East Indian, ?4—:Northern
of Freace, 10%—Orleans and Bordeaux, s—Paris and
Lyons, 51,4,.

SUDDEN DEATH OE A LICENSED VICTUALLER.—
Mr. Baker held an inquest this day on the body of Mr.
Thomas Betts, landlord of the Marquis of Lansdowne
Tavern, Thomas-street, Kingsland-road. It appeared
that Mr. Betts, had for some few days past complained
of slight indisposition, but continued as usual to attend
to his business. On Sunday night he retired to rest
with his wife, at about a quarter past twelve, but had not
been many seconds in bed when he ejaculated, " 0 my
God," and died. Air. Wallis, surgeon, of the Hackney-
road, was instantly sent for, and promptly arrived, but
life was found to be quite extinct. The deceased had
died from an affection of the heart. The jury returned
a verdict in accordance with the testimony given. The
deceased, who was deservedly much respected, has left
s wife and wine children to deplore their low