The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-22 00:00:00

GERMANY.

A telegraphic dispatch from Berlin of the 18th
states that the First Chamber had adopted a resolu-
tion, expressing the wish that the Government should
in the course of the year bring under deliberation
the modifications in the tariff, and other measures
calculated to prevent the prejudice to Prussia arising
from the treaties of 1848 with Belgium and Holland.
It is stated, in a Berlin letter of the 16th, that the
troops of Baden are to be sent into the Marcnes and
Pomerania. s

The Emperor of AUSTRIA, by decree of the 15th,
authorises a radical reform in the code of criminal
proceedings.
.. _

The Council of Administration of Germany re-
solved on the 16th, that on the 12th March its sittings
at Berlin shall cease, and be resumed on the 15th at
Erfurth.

The Lloyds, the Wanderer, and other journals of
Vienna, state positively that the Austrian Cabinet is
in negotiation with that of Bavaria for the promulga-
tion of a new constitution for all Germany.

SWITZERLAND.
The Federal Council of Switzerland caused it to
be notified on the 18th that it had been obliged to
send Sergeant BOICUOT, ex-representative of France,
twelve leagues into the interior fur having published
at Geneva a work which had been seized by the
French authorities.

The following is the answer of the Federal Council
to the Prussian note on the subject of Neufchatel:-
44 TUE FEDERAL COUNCIL OF SWITZERLAND TO THE
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF PRUSSIA, AT

BERLIN.
" BERNE, JAN. 25, 1850.—The Federal Council has
seen with pleasure, by the note which the Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Prussia has addressed to it, dated the
21st of November last, that the Prussian Government is
equally animated with the desire of submitting the affair
of Neufchatel to an amicable arrangement. The Federal
Council has, at the same time, the convictio❑ that there
exists on this subject a misunderstanding, which it con-
siders it its duty to clear up. The Federal Council, in
the note of the Bth of November, in speaking of another
question, had expressed incidentally an opinion, with
respect t i which the answer of the 21st of November
said specially that it amounted to an acknowledgment,
that an end ought to be put, in accordance with Prussia,
to the violation of authority which had lasted since the
insurrection at Neufchatel, of the Ist of March, 1848.,
This interpretation rests entirely on a misunderstanding,
for it never could have entered into the intentions of the
Federal Council to express, in a manner entirely inci•
dental, an acknowledgment of this kind in a letter which
had been addressed to Prussia (in its quality as a state
or power), and which had reference solely to the inter-
national relations with Switzerland (considered as a col-
lective state), and that a till the less, considt ring that
that acknowledgment, in the present situation of the con-
federation, would place the question of peace in peril to
an alarming extent i❑ the canton of Neufchatel. In
short, such an ackeowledgment as that would virtually
render impossible the object which it was proposed to
attain, and which is set forth in the answer of the 21st
of November, namely, the taking into consideration the
present state of Switzerland altogether, and the necessity
of endeavouring to maintain the peace and prosperity of
the canton of Neufchatel.
" But, besides this, there is nothing in the words con-
tained in the note of the Bth November which can be at
all construed as having this meaning; there is nothing
in it that can be considered as showing an intention on
the part of the Council to make any such recognition.
On the contrary—indeed, the different circumstances to
which the attention of the Prussian Government is
called are by no means calculated to be so interpreted as
to lead to the belief that tho Federal Council had any
idea of the event i❑ the re-establishment of the primitive
situation, which would, to all appearance, be considered
as a satisfactory arrangement. In the present state of
things, the Federal Council of Switzerland must limit
itselt to calling the attention of the Prussian Govern-
ment to the errors which that interpretation contains.
"In the honoured answer of the 21st of November
' last, it has been thought necessary to designate the
affair of the legalisation of the documents as accessary,
and it has been treated in that sense.
" The Swiss Federal Council, nevertheless, takes the
liberty of rectifying that interpretation, seeing that it
does not at all consider that affair as secondary. The
affair has its own independent signification, and a ge-
neral political interest, which only attaches itself fuel-
dentally to the affair of Neufchatel, because the events
that have taken place in that canton appear to have been
the motive why the usuage which had previously been
in practice with respect to the legalisation of docu•
meats, should have been to a certain extent departed
from. But abstraction made of this accessory and acci-
dental connexion, the affair is quit :distinct, and depends
on its own particular significative, at the same time that
the affair of Neufchatel has regard to the relations of the
canton with respect to the royal family, and that there is
also a question as to the position of the confederation
with relation is the kingdom of Prussia, considered as a
state, and as to the principle and usage recognised by
other states as to their mutual relations.
" In termieat:ng, the Federal Council of Switzerland
has the honour, &o. &c. Sze."
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