The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-22 00:00:00

LATEST N E WS.

PRUSSIA AND SWITZERLAND.
VIENNA, DEC. 21.
Advices from Berne of the 20th inst. ha-re been

received here.

Prussia has refused to treat directly with
Switzerland.
All the Federal staff officers of Switzerland
have been ordered to return to their posts imme-
diately.
20,000 men are to be put under arms without
delay. One half, under General Bourgeois, will
be stationed at Basle ; the other half, under
General Ziegler, at Schaffhausen.

The van and reserve are to be in readiness to
take the field.

The Grand Council of Berne has unanimously
granted unlimited credits for the purposes of war.

BERLIN, SUNDAY.

The Frankfort Journal announces that the
Swiss Federal Council has called out 10,000 men
for the defence of Basle, and 10,000 for the de-
fence of Schaffhausen.

Unlimited credits for military purposes have

been voted.

It has been officially announced here that the
diplomatic relations between Prussia and Switzer-
land are broken.

The French Envoy will take under his protec-

tion all Prussian subjects resident in Switzerland,
and will have charge of the archives of the Prus
sian Legation at Berne.

The Federal Gazette, of Berne, publighpa tho
::,11olving announcements :

" BERNE, DEC. 18.

"A Prussian despatch, arrived this instant,
breaks off diplomatic relations. The Chancery of
the Prussian Legation is already clused. There is
an extraordinary sitting of the federal council this
evening.

"AN Noun LATER.—The Diet is convoked,
probably for Jan. 5. The question has entered
upon a new phase (evidently a very serious one).

" TIIIRD DESPATCH.—The Diet is convoked for
Dec. 27. The cantons have been instructed to
prepare the personnel and materiel of their military
contingent."

Advices from Constantinople to the 12th, re-
ceived via Trieste, state that Ferouk-Khan trans-
mitted Lord Stratford de Redcliffe's ultimatum to
Teheran on the Bth.

The ultimatum, according to these advices, de-
mands a revision of the treaties with Persia, the
evacuation of Herat, authority to found factories
along the coasts of the Persian Gulf, and the con-
cession to an English company of certain railways
to be made across the Persian territory.
Persia is supported by Russia in demanding
neutrality from Turkey, but England demands
permission for the passage of troops across Turkish

territory.
The Imaum of Muscat has refused to pay his
annual tibute to Persia.

A correspondence in the Presse says that the
Swiss Government is resolved to exhaust all its
resources rather than make the least concession to
pretensions which would involve the moral suicide
of the confederation.

The Prussian Government has formally demanded
authorisation from IVurtemburg and Baden to be
allowed to march an army of 120,000 men through
those States. It is believed the request will be
granted. Should Prussia really so far commit her-
self, a French army of observation, it is said, will
approach Neuchatel.

Letters from St. Petersburg say it is now gene-
rally believed that Russia will take an active part
in the Persian war. There is, however, it appears
a strong party at Court opposed to plunging the
country again into war, and especially as the
enemy would be England.

FRANCE.

PARIS, SUNDAY.

The Constitutionnel publishes an article, evidently
emanating from an official source, on the subject of
the Conferences. It notices, for the purpose of con.
tradicting them, the rumours which have found
their way into " foreign journals" relative to an
adjournment of the Conferences, the doubts enter-
tained in high quarters as to the utility of opening
them, and the new difficulties that have arisoen fromareto
the pretensions of some of the Powers h
saednmditPtieedni pho3, e no tt iht
ci rt. 3 . s
which
might which werej.d notto
h
the abandonment of Conferences a.lstongoetfhohernd.atTiohne
Constitutioroiel states t hat t ere
reis
willr
i oeason
la te
forto doubtthes e thatrumours the
t t
Plenipotentiaries
as-
semble at the period already indicated, namely,
towards the end of the present month ; that
nothing of a serious nature has occurred to th© pre-
sent date to impede the preparations for the meet_
jug ; and that the delay had been foreseen and was
inevitable. }To time has been lost, as the Con-
ference could not be held before the arrival of in-
structions from the Ambassador of the Sublime
Porte. The convocation dates from the Ist of
December; and the instructions of the Porte left
Constantinople on the 12th. The bearer of them
is one of the sons of the Grand Vizier, and he is
expected in Paris in a few days.
The delay which has taken place (observes' the
Constitutionnel) has been turned to account, and
the spirit of conciliation and the judgment which
decided the reunion of the Plenipotentiaries have
not ceased, in the meantime, to reconcile diffe-
rences of opinion, and to conduct matters as nearly
as possible to a solution. There is every appearance
that some few sittings will suffice for the labours of
the Conference, and that these sittings will not be
prolonged beyond the first days of January. There
is reason to hope that the question of the frontiers
of Bessarabia will then be settled, as well as the
other difficulties of less importance which relate to
this part of the treaty. The labours of the Con-
gress will receive from the first days of the new
year their definitive sanction, and no further ob-
stacle will exist for their execution.

It then allades to the organisation of the Danu-
bian Principalities, and the impossibility of con-
voking the Divans in order to ascertain the wishes
of the population, owing to the presence of foreign
troops on the territory. The foreign occupation
has not ceased, because the frontier-question is not
yet decided. When the question is decided the
troops will evacuate theMoldo-Wallachian territory
and the Divans will forthwith assemble. When the
wishes of the Principalities are ascertained, the
European Commission will terminate its labours;
the Conference will once more, and for the last time
assemble in Paris, as the treaty prescribes ; it will
take under consideration the wishes of the Moldo-
Wallachian people expressed by the Divans, as
also the report of the European Commission, which
will serve as the basis of that important question.
The article concludes :
" We, may, therefore, flatter ourselves with the
hope that this last phase of negotiations, which
have kept alive the attention of Europe since the
Congress in Paris, will no longer meet with any
serious impediments, and that the new organisation
required by the Principalities will take effect in
the spring."
The sou of Reschid. Pacha, bringing the Turkish
Ambas..aldor at Paris his full powers for the Con,
ferences, arrived at Marseilles this day.
The Prince of Prussia—or the Petit Prince, as