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

'7l?igning

L°Sl3l-)N. WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 26, 1838

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Negotiations still continue actively in progress be-
. tween the Cabinets and Plenipotentiaries of England,
France, and Switzerland, for the purpose of ensuring,
if possible, the immediate tranquillity and permanent
prosperity of the llelvetic Confederation. The Vorort
is still agitated with discussions and interviews. The
Supreme Diet, while affecting a perfect reliance upon
the edissequences 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-
NE w
..eldi\ng; 1., Each of the landsgemeindes betrays the
imue_Aegter4 of solicitude and watchfulness, and the
, .„~-"'
hip the eouneilf the Federal Government share to a
(-----
14, -K-.7.,*;?iif4ike---extepi-ein the anxieties experienced by the local
.:7,i=4*:Adlni.niistft,t#ns. In the midst of these hopes and
31-7- -!p4l_o4tiaf'§ir STRATFORD CANNING, us the
IV II II ST

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
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—
theirseveral
independence will be restricted in
instance 3 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 tofi 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 have 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 Helvetic 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 SIEVES
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
I of Liberty.

England 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
STRATFORD CANNING. The fact, indeed, is becoming
so manifest, that we are disposed to be 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. OCHSENBEIN 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 to 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 bullionists 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 Blackwood,
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 have
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 of 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 1818, 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
60,000,000/. 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
PORTER'S Parliamentary Tables to have amounted to
giving
no less than 212,093,3781. raised by taxes, and
298,464,4281. by debts contracted, funded and un-
funded,a grand total of payments into the
Exchequer within these three years of 510,557,8091.,
ornarage of over 170,000,0001. per annum. These
exhausting enormous contributionsathe
resources
ou
rl do
over-taxing
a xbien
gm
the
ee
energies without
corn which has been'
of the British nation •
June,
but we find that the value of the
?imported into the country from
etrhi.od of 15 months, being
while the capital
the only time during
extraordinary im-
portation amounted •
33
,s
63
33,563,0001. sterling,
took l
bsoirnbeldB4i6n
in round terms to
railways amounted in 1845 to 14,000,000 a/.
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
1813 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
contrary,Britis
it was altogether applied in stimulating
Britishindustry, and affording a vast quantity of ern!'
plOyment to that labour which'would otherwise have
remained useless and unproductive. Some other