The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-18 00:00:00

M. GUIZOT'S SPEECH.

The following is the speech delivered by M. Guizot
on the Swiss question, on Saturday, in the Chamber
of Peers :

The President of the Council—Before entering on
the subject under discussion I wish to re-as-
sure the Chamber as to the expression of
" Swiss cantons," employed in the Address.
It is the word consecrated by custom, and is
found in all the credentials delivered to the King's
ambassadors in Switzerland. Thus, therefore, when
the Committee on the Address employs thejexpression
in question, it only makes use of a term generally
used in our relations with Switzerland. Gentlemen,
if anything could inspire me with a sentiment of
regret for having done my whole duty in an important
and complicated matter, and accomplished all the ob-
ligations of a sound and just policy—a regret which
I trust I never shall experience—it would be what
occurs to me in this debate. I am a point of attack
for the most opposite reproaches. I have done too
much or too little—l acted too soon or too late—l
was actuated by good intentions, I carried into effect
good principles, but not efficaciously, not sufficiently.
Why are these contradictory reproaches ? Because
I was unwilling to attach myself to any fixed or exclu-
sive idea—because I was determined to take into ac-
count all rights, all interests, all facts—because I
wished to present unceasingly to the mind
the whole question, all its elements, all its phases,
and the future as well as the present. I admit that
certain inconveniences have resulted therefrom, and
certain sacrifices were rendered necessary ; still I per-
sist not the less in thinking that I was right, that I
did my duty, and that the future, perhaps at no re-
mote period, will prove it. I consider the arguments
of the Duke de Broglie relative to the question of
right and the points of fact to remain still unanswer-
able. I also accept as legitimate the approbation
which the Duke de Noailles bestowed on the princi-
ples that guided the Government in this matter; and
I regard as a tribute in our favour the deep and vir-
tuous impressions which Count de Montalembert
yesterday made in every heart. These are the
important parts of the question, and what I have to
treat before the Chamber is insignificant when
compared with them. What I have to address you
on is simply the prudence and propriety of the
conduct adopted by the Government towards Swit-
zerland. Gentlemen, since 1830 the policy of France
towards Switzerland has been invariably favourable—
on the one hand to her independence abroad, and
on the other to her liberties at home, and
to the progress of her internal government.
As an irrefragable proof of the truth of this assertion
I can appeal to our conduct on two great occasions :
first, in 1830 and 1831, when were accomplished
theinternal revolutions which followed ours, these
revolutions having received the strongest support
from us ; and secondly, in 1832 and 1833, when the
revision of the federal compact occunied the attention
of the whole Confederation. Far from offering any '
opposition to that proceeding, we supported, as much
as in us lay, the legitimate exercise of the right of
Switzerland to decide in her own affairs. But when
this question of the revision of the compact was dis-
cussed, we were in presence of a moderate, liberal,
and governmental party, who had no desire to renew
and prolong revolutionary proceedings, but were, on
the contrary, anxious to terminate them and govern
the country regularly. Unfortunately, by the side
of that party, and during the time that it governed
Switzerland, new facts developed themselves. A
religious spirit sprang up with great violence
—a spirit of a dogmatical and ardent character. I
allow that there are dangers attendant on such a spirit,
but taking everything into consideration, I am of
opinion that it does more good than harm to society.
By the side of that awakening of religious spirit was
placed the progress of the Radical party, for if the
religious sects had been in presence of a moderate and
liberal Government in Switzerland, you would not,
in all probability, have ever heard anything of the
late events. The Radical party is naturally anar-
chical, tyrannical, and profoundly irreligious ; a
struggle, therefore, quickly set in between the Radical
party, having the advantage in the majority of the
cantons, and the religious spirit, active and ardent in
the others. In place of a moderate and prudent Go-
vernment, such as we had previously lived with, we
found ourselves in presence of a Radical one, which
neither dissembled nor repressed, I am forced to
declare, the hostility of their party against the con-
servative policy of the Government of July. In a
great country it is not necessary to pay any marked
attention to the language of journals, or to the out-
breaks of such or such a person in a public meeting,
when by the side of such demonstrations there is a
strong Government to repress them. But when clubs
evidently weigh on the Government, when the men
who govern are themselves governed by what is said
by the journals, how is it possible not to take notice
of what is printed in such publications, and of what
is done in the clubs ? It was that which we were
led to do by the changes, I may almost say the revo-
lutions, effected in most of the Swiss cantons. But
what was our conduct then ? Did we menace Swit-
zerland ? Did we assume a belligerent attitude ?
Not in the slightest degree. At the very time that
we felt the necessity of assuming towards Switzer-
land an attitude of observation and warning, at
that very moment we rendered homage to the
principle of the independence of nations and of
foreign governments. We have been accused
of not having gone far enough, of not having spoken
loud enough at first, of not having at once provoked
in Europe preventive and efficacious measures against
what was going on in Switzerland. Why did we
not do so ? From respect for the independence of
the Swiss and of their Government. As long as the
Deputies sat regularly in the Diet and discussed their
affairs legally, by what right could we interfere ? AS
long as there was a chance that the affairs of Swit•
zerland could be regulated amongst the Swiss
selves, we did not think it fit to go beyond warnings
and advice. We took measures certainly to bring
Powers
of promptly an understanding amongst the
of Europe, if such should become necessary ; but we
went no farther. Our respect for right did not
permit us to go beyond that point. But when the
explosion took place, and all reconciliation amongst
the Swiss themselves was clearly impossible—when
the seven dissentient Deputies withdrew from the
Diet, did we lose a day to offer mediation ? No, we
at once called for the common action of the great
European Powers—of all of them—for we held it to
lie most important that the action should be unani-
mous. First, in the interest of Switzerland ; because
we were always anxious that all matetial intervention
should be kept back—that nothing should be
employed but a moral influence, in order that it might
be of use to Switzerland; that action we considered
ought to be unanimous, and that unanimity we care-
fully endeavoured to attain. Next, we sought for it
in the interest of Fi•ance—in the interest of our gene-
, "ral poliZy. Ana before I enter on this part of the
question, I think it right to remind the Chamber
, that three days back I demanded that the names of

" Foreign-office, June 9, 1832.
" The events which have passed in Switzerland
during the last session have attracted the attention of
his Majesty. Great Britain having been a party in
the treaties of 1814 and 1815, by which the neutra-
lity and inviolability of Switzerland have been
guaranteed, and in consequence of which the system
has been established which unites the separate can-
tons in a general confederation, it is impossible that
the Government of his Majesty can see without un-
easiness the prospect of any important changes in the
federal compact, which might affect the political
relations of Switzerland, with respect to neighbouring
states.

" The Government of his Majesty has been in-
formed by you that a proposition will be made to
the Diet at the period of its approaching meeting, for
the revision of the federal compact. The Govern-
ment of his Majesty has not learned what alterations
in this compact may be expected to be proposed. It
may happen that there are, perhaps, changes which
may be made with advantage in the dispositions of
the compact, and against which no foreign
power could raise any reasonable objection. But
any alteration which may tend to the destruc-
tion of the independent sovereignty of the se-
parate cantons, and of placing all under the arbi-
trary authority of a central government, will produce
a change of so much importance in the political
condition of Switzerland, with respect to its foreign
relations, and will be so much at variance with the
stipulations under which the neutrality and inviola-
bility of the Swiss territory have been guaranteed,
that the guaranteeing Powers would undoubtedly be
authorised to raise objections against any such change,
" The neutrality of Switzerland is essentially at-
tached to the federal system at present established in
that country, and consequently when, in 1815, the
great Powers of Europe proposed, not less for the
general interests of all than for the particular advan-
tage of Switzerland, to invest its territory with the
character of perpetual inviolabilityand neutrality, the
contracting Powers required, as an indispensable
preliminary to such a guarantee on their part, that all
the cantons, without exception, should sign the federal
compact.
" You must therefore lose no time in taking the
necessary steps to acquaint the proper parties with
the sentiments of the English Government. On this
point, you will say that it is very far from being the
intention of the Government of his Majesty to inter-
fere in the purely internal affairs of the Swiss Go-
vernment, but that in a matter having such direct
relation with the stipulations of the treaties in which
Great Britain is a party, the Government of his Ma-
jesty is persuaded an expression of its opinions, frank
and without reserve, will be received as a proof of
interest and friendship.
" You will say that if the changes which it is in-
tended to propose in the federal compact have relation
solely to reglementary dispositions, it might be more
prudent to postpone them to a future period, when
the public mind will have become less agitated than
it is at present, for fear that in raising these questions
in the present state of opinion, other and more em-
barrassing discussions may ensue. But if the inten-
tion be to make changes such as militate against the
independent sovereignty, and the political and separate
existence of the cantons, you will strongly represent
all the diftlulties and all the dangers that the execu-
tion of such a project will produce, as it appears to be
incompatible with the arrangements established in
virtue of the treaties of 1815. You will observe that
it is altogether improbable that all the cantons will
agree to a plan which would be a manifest injury to
many of them, and that consequently every attempt
to execute such a reform may lead to a civil war."

I ask the Hon. Count de la -Itedorte what difference
he finds between this languague • and ours—between
these principles and those which we have supported ?
It is evident that there is none ? It is evident that
the sovereignty of the cantons has been in these latter
times much more seriously attacked and compromised
by what has taken place in Switzerland than it could
have been in 1832, at the time when the revision of the
compact was treated regularly and constitutionally in
the Diet itself. Thus, in 1832, the opinion of the
Powers who signed the treaties of Vienna, as to the
meaning of these treaties—as to the rights of sove-
reignty of the cantons—as to the necessary relation
established between these rights and the perpetual
neutrality of Switzerland—that opinion was univer-
sally adrnittted ; and we might have hoped that, it
would be equally so in present ci
rcumstances. It has
been otherwise. We have no right to complain of
its
policy A Government is quite entitled to modify
; licy but when we have made sacrifices of time,.
sacrifices of language, to have the concurrence of
England to our proposition of mediation, in order
that by our unanimity : it might be more effi-
cacious in Switzerland, and we had, I repeat it,
some right to hope that result, and no one can be
surprised that we sought it. For my own part
I do not repent the sacrifices which I advised the
Government of the King to make in order to obtain
the unanimity of which I speak.. I regret it the less,
because, although these sacrifices have retarded the
offer, and consequently prevented the effieacy of the
mediation, the Swiss question appears to me to be far
from being terminated, and Europe ought not so soon
to cease to occupy itself with regard to it. I will not,
gentlemen, again place before you the picture which
the Count de Montalemb ert SD eloquently placed before
you yesterday, of the interior position of Switzer-
land. It requires an absolute necessity to induce one
to resolve to bring such facts before you, and in such
language—the only language in which they could be
spoken of. I will limit myself to a resume in a few
words of the melancholy situation of that country.
What do you think of political liberty in a confedera-
tion in which one part of the sovereign states is in the
military occupation of the others, and where troops and
federal representatives preside at the elections ? What
do you think of civil liberty in a confederation where
property is treated as you have seen ; where exile, con-
demnations, and fines amounting to confiscation, are
inflicted without trial, not by the tribunals of the
country, but simply by the provisional Government
itself—by the conquerors? They are real war con-
tributions. What think you of civil liberty in a
country where the ancient chiefs of the government
of certain cantons are, at the moment of the elections,
carried out of their cantons, because it is feared that
they will influence the elections, and carried to
another canton until the elections shall have been
finished ?—(Hear, hear.) What think you of re-
ligious liberty in a confederation where such facts as
have been brought to your recollection occur, whe-
ther with regard to Protestants or. Catholics ? I
wish to add nothing to this but a document, which
I ask the permission of the Chamber to read,
and which proves the state in which the relations
between the civil powers and the Catholic
Church are at the present moment in the
Confederation. It is the protest of the Pope,
Pius 1.X., transmitted in his name to Switzerland,
and addressed by himself to the Helvetic Confedera-
tion, against all that has passed in that country.
Here it is. [M. Guizot then read the protest.] Gen-

DUBLIN, JAN. 16.—Notwithstanding the positive
assertions to the contrary, there has been a decrease,
and a decided one, in the extent of crime in the dis-
turbed districts of the south since the Special Corn-
mission•commenced, and the proclamations were issued
by the Lord-Lieutenant, under the Act for the Pre-
vention of Crime. The Limerick Chronicle—an
authority not likely to be questioned on this point--
has deemed it necessary to contradict the statements
of some Dublin Conservative journals, to the effect
that all the measures of the Executive had failed to
produce even a temporary abstinence from crime.
The Limerick Chronicle adds—" There has been no
murder in Clare or Limerick since the Special Com-
mission came down to these counties."

The only agrarian outrage of a serious character in
the Limerick papers is the following:—
"On Thursday evening, during the hours of six
and seven o'clock, an armed party entered the house
of a respectable farmer named Malone, residing near
Goulogue, about a mile and a half from Doonass, beat
him and his son severely, threatening him if he did
not give up the lease of the lands he held from Mr.
Lloyd, of Mount Catherine., they would again visit
him and not leave him so quietly. Malone's wife is
dangerously ill from the effects of the fright. On
Malone's assuring them he had not the lease in the
house, they departcd after firing two shots. The
neighbourhood of this well-conducted man is thickly
inhabited, yet no one came to his assistance."
ADJOURNED SPECIAL COMMISSION AT

LIMERICK.
The, judges are to return from Clara to Limerick
on fuesday next, and on Wednesday they are to
open the adjourned commission. The calendar of
prisoners for trial at the adjourned commission in
Limerick contains the names_of ninety-three persons,
and embraces no less than twelve distinct cases of
murder or conspiracy to murder, besides Whiteboy
offences, attacking houses, seizing arms, &c. This is
an appallirg exhibition of crime, after the numerous
caies disposed of alrt ady at the commission for this
county. The first case for trial at Limerick is that
of the Quains, for the murder of Mr. Ralph Hill.
LIMERICK, 'JAN. 15.—THE CONVICTS FOR MUR-
DER.-14iiii4111 Ryan (Puck), Andrew Dea, and
John Renihan, under sentence of death in the county
gaol, for murder, are, ue learn with satisfaction, all
become reconciled to their ignominious fate, and sin-
cerely penitent. The Rev. Mr. Bourke, Rev. Mr.
Bunton, and the Rev. Mr. Quinlan, of St. John's
parish, visit them daily, also the Sisters of Mercy.
A barrel of gunpowder, in the possession of Wil-
liam Vaughan, a labourer, at Doonas, was discovered
yesterday by the police. We hope the local magis-
trates will look close to such a matter as this.

All the villages in the proclaimed counties are to
be occupied by a large military force preparatory to
general search for firearms. _

MEETING OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS.—A.
provincial journal says—" The Roman Catholic pie-
lates of Ireland will hold another conference in
Dublin, upon the poverty and distress of their several
dioceses, before the meeting of Parliament on the 3d
of February."
NEW MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF EDO^
CATION.—James Gibson, Esq., barrister-at-law, has
been appointed, by his Excellency, a member of the
National Board of Education.

Father Mathew intends to visit Rome before pro-
ceeding to America.
APPALLING CASE OF DESTITUTION AND DEATH.--•
The Limerick Examiner Says—" On Wednesday last
an inquest was held in the neighbourhood 01 Hospital
under melancholy circumstances. It appears a family
named Touby, consisting of the mother and four chil-
dren, were in fever, in a temporary hut, erected for
the occasion. On the night of Tuesday the hut took
fire, when the eldest son, Michael, who was nearly
convalescent, exerted all his strength, and succeeded
in removing the mother and three children beyond
the reach of danger, but having returned to see if all
was safe, the burning hut fell on him, and be was
found next morning a black and shapeless cinder.
The above is the substance of the evidence delivered
at the inquest. The deceased was a fine young man,
about 18 years of age."
r
.
Lisbon,Tlie sailsTerribwleithstceaanmv-afsrsi,gaatne,d whichisot ileft
steamo r k
thef
passage. The crowded state of the vessel with o
ord-
nance and naval supernuinararrs, prevented General
Napier and his family proceeding from Cove by the
Terrible, on a visit to his relative, Admiral Sir
Charles, commanding in the Tagus.
n

ALARMING FlRE.—Yesterday morning, between
the hours of five and six, a fire, nearly attended with the
most disastrous consequences, broke out upon the
premises belonging to Mr. James Baldock, the
Kent and Essex Inn. situate in the Kent and
Essex-yard, Whitkchapel. The flames originated, from
some unexplained cause, in the front bar, and when first
discovered they were making fearful havoc amongst the
spirits. "rhe whole of the inmates were immediately
aroused, and a messenger was sent fir the engines.
There being an abundant supply of water obtained from
the East London mains, the brigade, under Mr. George
Folio, the foreman of the district, set to work, and after
some time the further progress of the alarming element
was cut off, l,ut not until a considerable quantity of
spirits had been consumed, and the bar burned out.
Fortunately, Mr. Baldock was insured in the Licensed
V!ciutillers Fire-office.

In accounts from France it is stated that the pro-
dir!., of the Marine Salt Works in that country for 1845
am ,unted to 3,385,495 metrical quintals, valued at
12,984,2051, an i that the mantiracture afford. d emi,loy-
went to 15,064 persons. It, wz; understood among par-
ties interested in the exploration of salt pits that the
Government were desirous of investitiZthe State with the
privilege of_the exclu-ive management of the sale of this
article, and that with this view a project of law had been
brought before the Chamber. According to what was
known of the nature of the meastue. the proposal appears
to be that the fixed price by the State shall be 27e. pt.
kilogramme, and by retailers 30c. In these accounts it
is asserted that the attention of the Belgian mining in-
terest has been recently directed to workings for the
discovery of zinc. In Liege, where indications have
already proved favogut,rabinle,
asdovegnrtehattesaadkt.isiiereithhaids, bteheant
sweavilerifaelsatepdplitco e
applications for concessions have latterly been
made to the authorities.
SITTINGS OF TIIE COURT OF CRANCERY —A. me-
morial very numerously signed has been agreed to, and
is on the point of presentation to the Lord Chancellor,
setting forth the great inconvenience and loss of time
occasioned to the barristers and almost all the solicitors
practising in the Court of Chancery, from i:s sittings
being held during term time at a place distant'from the •
Mister's offices, and other %places of business. It also
states that the Courts at Lincoln's Inn are more cotuwo-
dious to the public as well as the practitioners since the
Opening of the new Hall there, which Courts are wholly
unoccupied during term. The memorial then prays that
his Lordship will direct the necessary steps to be taken
for causing the sittings during term at Lincoln's Inn
during such terms in which Parliament is not sitting.
A similar memorial is in agitation among the country
solicitors, who are greatly inconvenienced by the Courts
sitting so far from the Law Institution in Chancery-lane.
Th returns connected with the Prussian ports of
Konigsberg and Pillau show that the number of vessel
which arrived there during 1847 'amounted to 951,
measuring 54,139 lasts. The departures included 962
6 vessels, measuriug 57,388 lasts.