The two sections into which Switzerland is unequally divided seem
to be resolved upon an actual appeal to arms at an early day ; both sides making diligent preparations. Accommodation appears to be hopeless for the present. Berne, the Canton whence the Free Corps invaded Lucerne, is now the Vorort ; Colonel Och- senbein, the leader of the Free Corps, is President of the Federal Republic; and an overwhelming majority gives to his policy the prestige of a continued triumph in the Federal councils. He is to enforce the dissolution of the Separate League, as a violation of the Federal Pact. Lucerne and her allied Cantons no less reso- lutely prepare to stand by each other; declaring the League necessary for defence against a majority bent on crushing their religion. The Federal Pact, violated by the Free Corps, is vir- tually annulled by the Separate League. The last of the series of letters on this subject, which com- menced in our pages on the 4th of September, appears in the present number. For closeness of investigation, clearness of ex- position, and comprehensiveness of view, competent judges have pronounced them the most valuable elucidation of the complicated Swiss question that has yet been placed before the public. The sympathies of the writer are avowedly with the Federal majority: his grounds of preference are distinctly stated in the letters ; and full credit for the good faith as well as the high intelligence of his statements will be accorded when we name the writer— Mr. Grote, the historian of Greece.
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