Switzerland is again the theatre of civil war, and eaeyolit-
tionary government is enthroned at Geneva. The immediate- question at issue was the right of Lucerne and six other Cantons to form a league for the purpose of defendino-e' Roman Catholic interests ; but the true cause of dissension lies deeper. It is not merely the want of any central controlling power, but the union in one federation of people with incompatible opinions. The balance of wrong lies clearly with the Protestant section. Lu- cerne encouraged the Jesuits : people from Berne, not content with theological anathemas against Popery, invaded Lucerne vi et corrals, in order to coerce the Government of that separate and sovereign state ; and foreign countries in the Protestant in- terest, though they profess formal disapprobation of the " free corps," speak as though Lucerne were responsible for all the wrong because she had encouraged Popery. Lucerne has abso- lutely as much right to cultivate Popery as Berne to cultivate Protestantism ; and the incursion of free corps was an act of law- lessness—of land piracy. Lucerne and the six Roman Catholic Cantons make a league to resist the free corps the Protestants pro- nounce that league to be unlawful—quite forgetting the flagrant breach of lw which was perpetrated on Lucerne. The Grand Coun- cil of Geneva joins in condemning the league, but declares that public order ought to be maintained: for that decree, the liberty- loving Protestants of the city rebel, depose the Council, and es- tablish a Provisional Government ; which sets about its task with a most arbitrary and tyrannical proclamation. The coolness of the Genevese in doing these things only attests the shocking levity with which such excesses are viewed. An English writer on the spot has the face to praise "the irreproachable conduct of the people," and we see that four other Englishmen sign the same declaration ! The atmosphere of the place seems fatal to distinc- tions between right and wrong ; and it is evident that while such. discordant elements are forcibly kept in one confederation, there never will be peace in Switzerland.
