The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-09-14 00:00:00

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Diet; but, as the assembly is to meet again in a few
weeks, there is little doubt but it will then adopt coercive
measures to enforce obedience to its decision. In the
course of the sitting of the 3d, the Directory informed the
Diet that the Government of Lucerne was constructing
additional fortifications on different points along the fron-
tier of Argau. That communication was referred to the
committee, charged with presenting propositions for the
dissolution of the Sonderbund.
PROPOSED'EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS FROM SWIT-
ZERLAND.—WhiIst England is offering every facility for
the reception of Jesuits, the Pope—the Holy Father of
the Church to which they belong, is guarding himself
against their devices ; and Switzerland, where they have
settled in considerable numbers, is struggling hard to
expel the dangerous fraternity. The Swiss Diet, on the
3rd inst., decided (by a majority of twelve Cantons and
two half Cantons, against eight Cantons and one half
Canton) to interdict the Jesuits from admission into the
Swiss territories, and called upon the four Cantons in
which they are now established to expel them. The in-
ternational differences of the Swiss Cantons are not,
however, exclusively religious. Seven of the Cantons
have formed themselves into a League, called the Son-
derbond, the object of which is probably more positively
against the Radicalism of the other Cantons than in favor
of their own toleration of Jesuitism. The population of
this Republic within a Republic is only about 350,000,
against a population in the remaining Cantons of nearly
1,700,000. The Swiss Diet first declared the existence of
the Sonderbund illegal—a decision to which the seven
Cantons of which it is composed have refused to submit,
And as they may be expected equally to treat with con-
tempt the subsequent decision as to the expulsion of the
Jesuits, the Federal Union of the Cantons is virtually at
an end ; and war is, therefore, apparently inevitable.

A Ccritious WILL.—The 6itrrier "des Etats Unis
gives an account of a singular will left by a wealthy notary
in Paris, about 25 years since, and which is yet in course
of fulfilment. His greatest pleasure in life had been to
gather his numerous friends around his table and treat
them splendidly, being generous and a good liver, and he
conceived the notion of perpetuating these social gather-
ings after his death. Accordingly, by his will he institu-
ted an annual banquet for twenty of his chosen friends,
appropriating to the purpose the sum of 2000 f. The
details of the feast were strictly enjoined, directing the
expense always to be 100 f. a head. The memory of the
deceased was to be toasted, and the subject of conversation
to be as friendship or politeness might dictate. The feast
was to be inviolably the same, 21 plates to be always set,
(one for himself as perpetual head of the table,) and the
2000 f. to be expended. The first year the twenty friends were
all there, but year after year they were removed by death,
until in twenty years they were reduced to eight. These
partook as customary of the feast, and toasted the memo-
ries of their departed companions. Last year, however,
there were but two, who solely shared the luxurious but
melancholy banquet. The two knew each other but little,
and met yearly at this table. Their positions were very
different. One was very rich, while misfortune had re-
duced the other to destitution. The rich and the poor
man sat coldly opposite to each other, until, warmed by
the wines, they had forgotten their different circumstances.
On the Ist of June, this year, the feast again returned,
but the rich man was dead, and the poor and only survivor
seated himself at the table laden with silver, with its 21
covers and its delicious viands. There he sat the victim
of poverty, subject to all privations, pervaded by a feeling
of sadness and desolation, at a magnificent banquet of
2000 f. Pressed by his wants he made bold to request that
the sum which was supplied to this yearly feast for himself
might be appropriated to his daily sustenance. The law-
yer showed him the positive clause of the will, which he
was compelled to see executed to the letter. The poor
man retired in sadness, thinking how many days he would
be obliged to go without a dinner, while once a year he
was compelled to be surfeited with a feast prepared for 21
persons, and valued at 2000 f. A singular piece of folly
truly.