The Express. — 1847-12-11 (London, England)

LITEST INTELLIGENCE.  THIS DAY, Four o'Clock.  Accounts from Berne to the 6th inst. are important. The Diet has positively refused the proposed mediation of the foreign powers, and that determination has been made known, not through the intervention of the M. Bois-le-Comte, bat directly to the minister of foreign affairs at Paris, in a letter signed, on behalf of the Federal Diet, Ochsenbein, president; &bless, Secretary of State. This communication sets out by acknowledging the note of M. Beis-le Comte, offering the mediation of France, conjointly with the other powers " to re-establish peace and concord between the cantons which compose the Swiss confederation;" which, "although the Diet sensibly appreciates the solicitude which the high powers have deigned to avow for the interests of Switzerland, it will not be able to accept: not only because the circumstances supposed to exist by the government of the king and his allies, do not exist, or have ceased to exist, but, above all, because the very principle of the proposed mediation is consistent neither with the position which treaties have recognised to belong to Switzerland in Europe, nor with the constitution of the confederation. In effect, the object proposed by the mediation offered is to put an end to civil ' war in Switzerland, and to bring about a reconciliation between the Diet and the Sonderbund. This mediation would suppose the existence of a separate league —the existence of two belligerent parties. But hostilities have completely ceased for several days past ; consequently there is no civil war, nor are there belligerent parties in Switzerland, the seven cantons whisk composed the Sonderbund having expresslyrenotinesd it, their troops being disbanded and disarmed, as is also a considerable portion of the federal army. However, supposing the Sonderbund to be still in existence, and that hostilities continued, international law and federal rights would net permit the Diet to accept the offered mediatioe. In the view of the questions as relates to international laws, the letter urges that the mediation of one or several neutral powers would suppose the existence of a difference between Switzerland and some other power—an international quarrel ; and adds, that if this were the case, nothing would be more natural than an offer of mediation or arbitration, although such an offer could not oblige either party to accept the proposal. As respects the fedral views of the, matter we quote the letter itself : But Switzerland does not find herself in such a position. The Sonderbund, being a league prohibited by an express provision of the fedral compact, an alliance distinctive within the confedtration itself, ought not to be considered as a party adverse to the canton' composing the majority of the Diet; it must not be held in opposition to the confederation ; the Council of War of the Sunderbund could not be placed on a parallel footing with the Federal Assembly, nor the representatives of the league with those of the Diet, much less with the representatives of the five powers; the President of the Council of War of the Souderbund is not, or rather was not, the equal of the President of the Diet. For, if it had been so, there would hate been two confederations in Switzerland, two or several ; that is to may, there would be no longer a confederation. Moreover, in putting the Sonderbund and its dependents upon an equal footing with the Confederation and the &utile, cities thereof, by inviting a representative of the Sonderbund to tke proposed conference, in assimilating such representstive to that of the Diet, and indeed to those of the powers, the mediation supposes a principle which Switzerland could not admit without committing an act of suicide—namely, that there r xisted rival confederations, and that the Sonde, bond had taken its place amongst the European powers. If such were the case, the Diet would protest with all its strength against such an attack upon the integrity of Switzerhind—against a violation so flagrant of her rights and of existing treaties. No ! the Sonderbund was nothing. else, and could be nothing more, than a factious minority within the Swiss confederation. The cantons of Switzerland are not, as regards one another, independent and foreign powers, as, for example, France and Great Britain are ; but, in truth, the members of one body, united by a federal league. This body —the confederation—has interests in common with all the cantons. Moreover, Switzerland professes a general constitution—the federal compact—and which is superior to the constitutions of cantons, as the federal sovereignty takes higher rank to that of the cantons. She has a general assembly—the Diet—where decisions are taken by the majority of voices, and not unanimously, as is the case at the congresses of sovereigns ; she has a federal directory, exercising in all essentials the ex.cutive power ; a capital, the Vorort, an army, a flag, a seal, possessions, revenues, and a public exchequer; she has administrative departments, public functionaries, codes, laws and regulations, tribunals, and, in a word, everything which constitutes a government. The Diet declares war, and concludes peace; it alone snakes alliances with foreign powers, and makes trestles of commerce. It is not the cantons which are represented at the courts of European powers, but it is the confederation which has charges d'affaires and consuls ; in like manner, it is to the confederation, and not to the cantons, that the ambassadors, the ministers, and the charges d'affaires of other powers are accredited in Switzerland. The people of the 22 cantons, notwithstanding the diversity in their origin, their manners and customs, and in their institutions, local and religious, form one single and same nation,—the Swiss nation. Never, for ages during which the confederation has existed, has the sovereignty of the cantos, been absolute and unlimited to the uttermost ; it has never been other than relative and subordinate to that of the whole of the confederation. Admitting that the principle of mediation offered, that is to say, that of treating the Sonderbund as one power with another, would be to compromise the integrity of Switzerlend, which has been recognised and guaranteed by treaties; it would be to break the compact which .a the federal constitution of Switzerland; Which only recognises one Confide. ration, one Diet, one Federal Dir itiory, one Federal Council, one Council of War, and which declares in the Bth article that in all cases where the compact does not require a different majority an °isolate majority shall decide ;—it would be to sever the bond which unites the cantons in one federative body;—it would be W &townie that Swiss