11 DECEMBER 1847, Page 1

By the submission of the Canton of the Valais, the

subjection of the Sonderbund is consummated, and Switzerland is no longer By the submission of the Canton of the Valais, the subjection of the Sonderbund is consummated, and Switzerland is no longer in a state of civil war. According to Lord Palmerston and the Swiss Diet, the whole affair Is at an end; and there win be no mediation, as there're not two parties between whom town- diate. According to 'Austria, France, and Prussia,stliare must lie mediation; and, as if to keep open an opportunity for it, a new

question has been-raised. •

One of the Swiss Cantons is in a very anomalous position : Neufchatel is at once a " Principality," whose Sovereign Prince is King Frederick William of Prussia and it is a" Canton" in the Confederate Republic of Switzerland. For its own satis- faction, it joined the Republic; but now, being desirous to remain neutral in the civil contest, it falls back upon its allegiance to King Frederick William : whereupon the Monarch is brought into direct antagonism with the Diet—he insists on the neutrality of the Canton, and hints that war upon his faithful lieges will be resisted by himself; the Diet insists on the obedience of the Can- ton, and hints that it shall repel foreign intervention. Here is a easus belli as good as diplomatic casuist could desire ; the two sides of the claim being irreconcileable. The position of Neuf- chatel is an absurdity, apparently not to be remedied unless by altering the relation of that province, separating it from alliance with one or other of its two Sovereigns, Royal or Republican : but to do that implies "foreign intervention." To the Diet, which is no longer in want of men and money for the civil war, the question at issue is purely theoretical; but the stout Repub- licans look as if they really meant to beard the Prussian Monarch