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

SWITZERLAND.

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

The fAlowing is the answer of the Federal Omen
to the Prussian note on the subject of Neufchatel:—
" THE FEDERAL COUNCIL OF SWITZERLAND TO THE
MINISTER OF FOREIGN ♦FFAIRS OF PRUSSIA, AT
SERLIN.

" BERNE, JAN. 25, 1850.—The Federal Council has
seen with pleasure, by the note which the Minister of
F.,reign Affairs of Prussia has aaldressed to it, dated the
21st of Neveteb r last, that the Prussian Government is
equally animated with the d, sire of submitting the affair
of Neufthistel to an amicable arraugement. The Federal
Council has, ae the same time, the conviction that there
xiats on this subject a misunderstanding, which it con-
salers it its duty to clear up. The Federal Council, in
the riFte of the Bth of November, in speaking of another
question, had expressed incidentally an opinion, with
respect t which the answer of the 21st of November
said speesagy that it amounted to an acknowledgment,
that an end ought to be. put, in accordance with Prussia,
to the violation of authority which bad lasted since the
insurrection at Neufchatel, tf the let of March, 1848.'
Thieinterpretation 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 bean addressed to Prussia (in its quality as a state
or power), and which had reference softly to the inter-
national relations with Switzerland (considered as a col-
lective state), and that still the less, considering that
that acknowledgment, in the present situation of the con-
federetion, would place the question of peace in peril to
an alarming extent in the canton of Neufchatel. In
short, such an acknowledgment 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 the Federal Council had
.any
idea of the event in the re-establishment of the primitive
situation, which would, to all appearance, be considered
as a satisfactory arrangement. In the present state of
things, tee Federal Council of Switzerland must limit
itselt to calling the attention of the Prussian G?vern-
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 inci-
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 bten
in practice with respect to the legalisation of .docu-
ments, should base been to a certciu extent departed
from. But abstraction made
i of this accessory and acci-
dental connexion, the affair s quit 3 distinct, and depends
on its own particular signification, at the sauce 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
w'th relation to 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 terminating, the Federal Council of Switzerland
has the honour, &c. &c. &c."

ITALY.
The Statuto of Florence states that there is no
truth in the rumour of the intended abdication of the
GRAND DUKE.
in the sitting of the 16th of the Chamber of
Deputies of Turin, M. MELLANA presented and sup-