The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-23 00:00:00

SWITZERLAND.

A letter from Geneva, dated April 18, says :—lt
is but four days to the time of the voting in Savoy,
and yet all interest in the matter has ceased. No
wonder ; the result of the vote in Nice foretells that
in the upper valleys of the Alps. The mouth which
has passed from the time the treaty of cession was
signed has not been lost. From the beginning the
question was not to have a majority, that had been
assured by the treaty itself, which left no choice,
but the danger was lest the mass of the people
should think it superfluous to come and vote in a
matter which they knew to be decided already, and
the mouth has been employed to avert this danger.
You may take the success for granted in the north
as well as in the south. The measures used were
simple enough. First the conviction was brought
home to every one that resistance was useless ; that
Sardinia had given them up, that Switzerland was
powerless to help, and thatthe Emperor was decided
to have his own will. When this had been done
thoroughly it was easy to show the people that it,
was in their own interest to make themselves agree-
able to their new masters, and thus predispose them
in their favour. Es-en people more energetic and
independent than the Savoyards are would have
yielded, and no one can blame them if they will show
the same enthusiastic unanimity as the Nizzards.
What rendered the task easier was, that nowhere,
not even in Chablais and Faucigny, has there been
an aversion to be united with France. Everywhere
the great majority was for remaining with Sar-
dinia, and when this had become impossible it was
only in the neutralized districts that an union with
Switzerland would have been preferred as more
suited to the interests of North Savoy. The chief
object of M. Laity's tour was to prove to Chab-
lais and Faucigny that, instead of losing, they
will gain by the annexation to France. The zone
which is promised will leave their relations with
Switzerland undisturbed—nay, improve them, and
give them at the same time all the advantages of a
free importation of French articles. Besides this,
they will belong to a country where the Government
can and will spend money for works of public utility.
Indeed, in every town which M. Laity visited his
chief care was to ascertain what they would like in
that way, and no sooner was the wish expressed than
it was granted. Of course, he took good care net to
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root even in a country more advanced in the science
of political economy.
If the voting on Sunday next excites little interest
in these parts, so much greater is the anxiety felt
about things abroad. Prospects are not very cheer-
ing in that direction either—very little more than
vague assurances, ending with injunctions to hold
out. It is an appeal to faith, which certainly needs
strengthening. Day after day passes, the annexa-
tion is at hand, and nothing positive has as yet ap-
peared to show that these assurances will lead to
anything. The combinations of the Powers require
time, and the Swiss feel that no time can be lost.
Once the vote given, and the French rule estab-
lished. it is difficult to believe that anything short
of war will induce the Emperor to give up the dis-
puted territory.
However, for the last few days the accounts from
Berne are more re-assuring, and have excited fresh
hopes. The telegraphic news of yesterday an-
nounces even aspeedy solution of the whole question
favourably to the interests of Switzerland. The
first idea suggested by this news would, of course,
be that France was inclined to listen to the repre-
sentations of the Powers, and come to an arrange-
ment satisfactory to all parties. Unfortunately,
there are some fasts which militate strongly against
the probability of such an assumption. The first is
that both troops and material of war have been sent
to the Fort des Rousses, on tho French slope of the
Jura, which commands the road into the Pays do
Getz and the Pays de Vauci, and that Marshal Can-
robert, who has been lately at Berne, has gone there
to look at the position. The other fact is that the
Etat Major of the sth Swiss Division has been
called out, which would seem to indicate a prepara-
tion to put on foot this division, having its canton-
ments at Bale and Soleure, in the direction of the
French Jura. The troops of this division have re-
ceived as yet no orders, but the Etat Major re-
ceived them yesterday.
It is rather difficult to make these facts agree
with the news of a speedy and satisfactory solution,
unless One assumes that this hope of a speedy solu-
tion is merely based on the announcement of an
understanding upon a common course of action be-
tween the Powers, and that the calling out of the