Two journals, one thoroughly Ministerial, the other Ministerial in its
foreign policy, put forth dissertations on the state of Switzerland, of such a nature as to have the appearance of indi- cating a British intervention in the turmoils of the republic.
It IS well known that the Swiss republic consists of a federation of sovereign states, each having independent control over its own affairs ; the majority Protestant, and the rest Roman Catholic. The Protestant majority burns to exercise its power and enforce its doctrines. It suppressed the convents in the Canton of Argau; it sought to drive away the Jesuit teachers from the schools -of Lucerne ; and the Protestant "Free Corps" even invaded that Canton, but were repulsed. Menaced by these attempts at com- pulsion, the Catholic Cantons have formed among themselves a defensive League. Meanwhile, a change has taken place in the government of Switzerland. Berne, the focus of the Anti-Catholic turbulence, become the Vorort, or governing Canton ; M. Ochsenbein, the quondam leader of the Free Corps, is elected President; and he declares a policy which threatens formidable results. It is the object of his party to enforce a "constitution unitaire" through- out the republic,—in other words, to consolidate respectively the Protestant majority and the Catholic minority, so that the Protes- tants may get at the Roman Catholics even in their cantonal fastnesses, to crush them. The President desires to enforce "the execution of all the measures which have for their object the real and durable prosperity of the people,"—that is, Protestant mea- sures. A preliminary will be to dissolve the Catholic League by act of the Diet.
Now, M. Ochsenbein is-as formidable a personage as could be found for the leader of such a movement: he is a person of un- blemished character ; bold to audacity, he seems not to know such things as hesitation and fear; he is a man of imposing presence, expressing in his countenance the ingenuous and amiable dispo- sition for which he is personally beloved ; and he is heartily con- vinced that his cause is just. Such a man will commit crimes against social order with the exulting conscience of a martyr. M. Bois le Comte, the French Minister in Switzerland, has in- timated that France will protect the Catholics ; the Ministers of Austria and Prussia have before signified that they will maintain the compact of 1815. M. Ochsenbein declares that the Swiss will resist foreign intervention, to the last drop of their blood. The Protestant party therefore arrogates to itself the right to re- peal the settlement of 1815, and denies the right of other par- ties in that settlement to interpose ; and the gentleman holding that violent revolutionary doctrine is head of the Executive Go- icernment I This would matter less were the Catholic minority without either its conscience or its obstinacy ; but Lucerne stands on her rights, and there will be bloodshed.
Even a victory would not terminate the trouble. The vice of the Swiss constitution is that it includes incompatible elements : it holds cat and dog, Catholic and Protestant, in one cage ; and so long as they are together, there will be contest—contest until the minority be extirpated. But is it to be supposed that the European Powers will sit quietly by and witness a consumma- tion so shocking? Of course not : they will interpose, either to maintain the status qua, the constitution which they have gua- ranteed, or, if there be any change, they must insist on justice for the weaker party, which now relies on their good faith. In either case, the Powers of Europe are pledged to withstand the projects which appear to be entertained by the Executive Go- vernment of the republic.
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