The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-23 00:00:00

TIIEJESUITS AND VICTOR EMMANUEL

The Superior of the Jesuits has addressed the
following protest to the King of Sardinia :
" Sire,—The Superior-General of the Company
of Jesus approaches respectfully the foot of the
throne of your Majesty to obtain justice and repa-
ration for the grave wrongs his order has recently
suffered in Italy, and, if his demands are vain, at
least publicly to protest against such acts of in-
justice.
" After the first agitations in Italy which took
place at the end of 1847 and at the commencement
of 1848, all the establishments and colleges pos-
sessed by the Company of Jesus in the Sardinian
States, whether in the Island of Sardinia or on the
mainland, were suppressed, its goods confiscated,
its members ignominiously dispersed.
" To give an appearance of legality to those acts
of injustice, a decree was published, posterior to that
which suppressed the said company, which confis-
cated its property, and imposed sundry gratuitously
vexatious obligations upon its members.
" That decree was issued without the knowledge
of your august father, Charles Albert, and even
contrary to his intentions ; for during the whole of
his reign that King showed himself favourable to
our order, and when the storm burst he exhorted
the fathers to remain firm ; perceiving the fears of
some of them, he complained to the superiors that
they did not place sufficient confidence in his word
and intention to protect them. Although the de-
cree could not have a retro-active effect, it has been,
nevertheless, invoked to legitimise the act of our
spoliation—it has been maintained and put in full
force by the Government which, since then, presides
over the destinies of the kingdoms.
" Dating from the war of Italy, which took place
last year, up to the present moment, the company
has lost in Lombardy three establishments and col-
leges, six in the Duchy of Modena, 11 in the Papal
States, 19 in the kingdom of Naples, and 15 in
Sicily. Everywhere the company has been lite-
rally stripped of all its property, personal or landed.
Its members, to the number of about 1,500, have
been turned out of their establishments in the
towns ; they have been led by armed force like
malefactors from country to country, thrown into
the public prisons, and grossly maltreated ; they
have even been prevented seeking an asylum in the
bosom of some pious family, and in many localities
neither their age nor infirmities have been re-
spected.
" All these acts have been committed without
anything culpable in the eye of the law having been
brought against the victims, without judicial form ;
the proceeding was most savage and despotic.
" Had such acts been done in a popular rising by
an ignorant and furious populace, perhaps we
should be able to put up with them in silence ; but
as an attempt has been made to legitimatize them
by the Sardinian law; as the Provisional Govern-
ments established in the States of Modena and of
the Church, as the Dictator of the Two Sicilies
himself have supported them on the authority of
the Sardinian Government; as, finally, to give
strength to these iniquitous decrees and sanction
their execution, the name of your Majesty has been
and still is invoked, I can no longer remain a silent
spectator of so great an act of injustice, and in my
position as supreme Head of the Order I feel myself
rigorously bound to demand justice and satisfaction,
an to protest before God and before man, so that
religious resignation and meekness may not appear
to have degenerated into a weakness which might
be taken as a confession of culpability or as an
abandonment of our rights.
" I therefore protest solemnly, in the form which
I think best, against the suppression of our esta-
blishments and colleges, against the proscriptions,
banishments, imprisonments, violence, and insults
inflicted upon my brpthren in religion.
" I protest, before all Catholics, in the name of
the rights of the Holy Church, sacrilegiously vio-
lated.

" I protest in the name of the benefactors and
founders of our establishments and colleges, whose
wishes and express intentions in founding those
pious works in the interest of the dead and of the
living are thus deprived of effect.
" I protest in the name of the right of property
discarded and trodden under foot by brute force.
" I protest in the name of the right of citizen
and inviolability of person, neither of which can
be despoiled without accusation, trial, and sentence.
" I protest in the name of the rights of humanity,
so scandalously outraged in the persons of so many
feeble old men turned out of their quiet asylum,
deprived of all support, thrown into the public
highway without the means of existence.
" If, unhappily, I can give no other aid to my
brethren, they will see, at least, by this step that
their common father is not indifferent to their sad
position.

" I address this protest to your Majesty's con-
science. I place it upon the tomb of Charles Em-
manuel IV., illustrious predecessor of your Ma-
jesty, who 45 years ago voluntarily left the throne
now occupied by your Majesty, came to live and
die with us, dressed in the clothes and bound by
the oaths of the Compan3 of Jesus, and professing
in our novitiate at Rome, where his blessed ashes
now repose, that mode of life which the Govern-
ment of your Majesty has persecuted with fierce
calumny and hatred.

" The; remembrance of benefits constantly con-
ferred in past times by the illustrious House of
Savoy on the Company of Jesus, and the sublime
character with which your Majesty is invested,
give me hope that my supplications and protesta-
tions will not be unavailing.
" But if the voice of so many rights trodden
under foot should not be listened to by earthly tri-
bunals, I will then appeal to that supreme and ter-
rible tribunal of a holy, just, and all-powerful God,
before whom oppressed innocence witl infallibly be
re-established by the Eternal Judge, the King of
Kings, the Lord of Lords. It is in the hands of
that God that I place our whole cause, and, fully
reassured as regards ourselves, I supplicate Him to
inspire your Majesty, and the men who advise
you, with sentiments of justice and equity towards
so many innocent men, my unjustly persecuted and
oppressed children.
Moreover, under all circumstances my brethren
and myself will console ourselves in having been
found worthy to suffer for Christ's sake, with the
satisfaction of our consciences of not having given
any ground for this revival of ancient hatred,
it is to have preached the us
Christ, respect and obedience to thi‘efHa
jeoslyty,Cshmutocsht
and to its Head the Sovereign Pontiff, submission
and fidelity to Princes and to allauthorities esta-
blished by God.—l remain your

humble servant,
sc PIERRE BECEZ, Superior-General of the
Company of Jesus.
" Rome, October 24, 1860."

OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE,--Under
between the
e England are to have
thoTaHrrEanßgeAmNKnSt described
and the Bank of France, the Bank of
power to deal with the £2,000,000 of silver either by
they may
otherwise, as deem fit. In fact, it is au
purchase from the Bank of France at a specific
absolute p
the Bank of will price, although - France be allowed to take
it back on the same terms, should they desire to do so.
salefall or
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.—The following
gentlemen having undergone the necessary examinations
forethe di
of ploma were admitted members of the College at a
ting the Court of Examiners on the 15th inst., viz. :
Messrs. Charles Walls Boothby, Spilsby ; Thomas Savage,
miughara ; William Pitt, Willenhall ; George Valentino
Wolverhampton;
Samuel Lloyd, Smethwick, near Bir-
Theodore Manly, Free Town, Sierra Leone ; Henry Goon-
all, Madras ; Edward Parker Young, Delamere-crescent;
Richard Henry Nilson,
London ; Felix William Isher-
wood, Clitheroe, Lancashire; William Henry O'Toole,
mund Young, Meehlin;
Dublin ; Edward Julian Sharood, Brighton ; George
Long-
ton,Ed-
Staffirdshire ; Frank Harvey Browne, Stowe Marks ;
Franthwayte Beevor Ford,
Alfred Frederick Stafford Clarke, Gordon-square; George
Augustus Hicks, Torquay, Devon; John Sampson Levis,
Skibbereen; Henry J.seph Altmann, Islington ; John
March, Hounslow; Edward Buller Hicks, Greenhithe ;
Theodore Orton Littlebourne ; and William Ironeide,
1
IWlRottaniont, North Britain,

FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND.

Note of the French Ambassador in Switzerland to
the President of the Confederation on the pro-
ceedings which took place on Sept. 27, 1860, in
the railway station at Sion respecting the French
flag

Bee, Oct., 1860.
M. le President,—The Emperor's Government has been
informed of the regrettable proceedings which took place at
the opening of the railway at Sion on Sept. 27.
This fresh insult to the French flag makes it impera-
tively necessary that the Federal Council should take steps
to show that it highly disapproves of the hostile sentiments
which a portion of the population, misguided by unjust
provocations, manifested towards France. I have there-
fore to demand of your Excellency that the authors of that
reprehensible manifestation be immediately discovered and
punished.
Your Excellency, I hope, will readily comprehend how
desirable it is that the good relations which it is necessary to
maintain between the two countries should not suffer a
lamentable interruption through any fresh delay in afford-
ing us due and proper satisfaction.—Receive, &c.,
TURGOT, Ambassador of France.
Answer of the Federal Council to the note of the
French. Ambassador in Switzerland on the pro-
ceedings which took place in the railway station
at Sion :

Berne, Nov. 7.
The Swiss Federal Council has had the honour to receive
the note of his Excellency the French Ambassador, dated
Oct. 9, complaining of the fresh insult offered to the French
flag at Sion.
His Excellency is of opinion that this insult makes it im-
peratively necessary that the Federal Council should take
measures to show that it highly disapproves of the hostile
sentiments which a portion of the population, misguided by
unjust provocations, manifested towards France, and he de-
mands its immediate and decided interference for the dis-
covery and punishment of the authors of this reprehensible
manifestation, adding that if the satisfaction which is
justly due to France should be further delayed, this must
lamentably interrupt the good relations which it is neces-
sary to maintain between two countries.
The Federal Council as early as September 30 received
from the mouth of the president of the Council of the Can-
ton of the Vallais information of the proceedings that took
place in the railway station at Sion on the 27th of that
month, and at the same time it received an assurance that
steps would be immediately taken in accordance with the
laws of the canton against the authors of this in all respects
lamentable manifestation.
As early as October 6, the Council of the Vallais issued
a proclamation to the people declaring its entire disappro-
val of such acts committed by individuals, and forbidding
such acts in future. The Council has, moreover, convicted
the offenders before the proper tribunals, in so far as they
acted against the law and the authorities charged with its
execution. In so doing the said government believed that
it took the proper measures in a case to which no interna-
tional character can be attributed, and in which the railway
company had made no complaint. This company, which
displayed the colours at Sion, can only be regarded as a
Swiss company. Their rights are based on a Swiss conces-
sion; they work to this day exclusively on our territory;
they stand under the protection of our laws; and accordingly
they have to appeal to Swiss tribunals if they imagine
themselves injured in their rights or property.
The Federal Council, which regards the matter in the
same light as the government of the Vallais, considers,
therefore, that the Sion affair has through the measures
adopted by that government received a just, simple, and
conclusive settlement. If, as the aforesaid despatch of the
French Ambassador shows, the French Government is of a
contrary opinion, that despatch shows also that only erro-
neous and exaggerated reports could have called it into
existence. Only in.this way can the Federal Council ex-
plain the matter to its own satisfaction, especially as it re-
sults from the information of wholly impartial and trust-
worthy persons who were present at the incident, that only
one tricoloured flag was taken away from the train, that that
was immediately afterwards replaced, and moreover that
this flag bore the Italian and not the French colours. This
circumstance is confirmed by trustworthy witnesses, so
the complaint of the Marquis Turgot falls to the ground of
itself.
But even granting that it was a flag with the French na-
tional colours that was taken from the locomotive, the Fe-
deral Council would not see in that a case calling for diplo-
matic intervention. the Federal Council cannot consid,sr
foreign flags hoisted on Swiss territory by individuals,
societies, or companies, without official character or federal
authority, as anything but ornaments, chosen to serve that
purpose by the persons who display them, having the same
rights as any other private property, but to which they can-
not attribute anything of a national character, and which
they cannot look upon as in any way representative of the
nation whose colours they bear.
If we look for the principal cause of the event of the 27th
Sept., we find it undoubtedly in the acts of the railway com-
pany itself, which, instead of obeying the official request
which the government of the Vallais sent it by a special
messenger, to abstain from ornamenting the train with any-
thing that could give occasion or pretext to disagreeable
demonstrations, first debated whether it should obey this
request or not, and then concluded not to obey it, thus
offering a lamentable provocation.
The Federal Council sincerely regrets the excitement of
men's minds which has been manifested by a part of the
population on the frontiers of the two countries, as well as
the deeds to which it has given rise in both sides. Switzer-
land, however, has no occasion to reproach herself with
anything that may have brought about such a state of
things, and no one wishes more than the Federal Council a
return to the former friendly relations. But to this end it
is more than ever necessary that people should on both
sides abstain from everything that may provoke each other,
and that both sides should avoid attaching importance to
isolated manifestations which are only the work of a few
individuals, and which are disapproved of by the autho-
rities of the country and the vast majority of the
inhabitants.

The Federal Council, in giving these explanations to the
French charge-d'affaires, takes the opportunity of assuring
Count de Massignac -of its perfect consideration.
In the name of the Swiss Federal Council,
FREY HEROSEE, President of the Council.
SCHIESS, Chancellor of the Council.