country. To support the charges against the refugees, they were denounced as implicated in a plot against Louis Philippe, which was to break out on the 28th of July. After the review had thus been prevented, the circumstance was used as a pretext to decline the marriage, and France was left with the Swiss quarrel on her shoulders.

Switzerland having gone great lengths against France and against her Ambassador, M. Molé cannot help following up the matter; but he will strive to come to an adjustment. The foreign papers assert that France will not have the majority at the Diet; M. Molé believes the contrary. Should he find himself mistaken, France may, perhaps, be obliged to accept the mediation of England, which our Government now refuses. At any rate, M. Molé seems thankful for the mediation which England is disposed to grant; and he does not listen to the other powers which make the same offer. How could he give ear to the Russian Diplomacy, which is at the same time exciting the radicals of Switzerland?

The "Morning Chronicle" complains of the accusations preferred by French Diplomacy against the internal policy of Switzerland: that Journal is in the right. It is, also, in the right to censure the tone of the last French note. But it errs in charging the Government with what the Council is supposed to have done; and it mixes up M. Molé too much with the faults of M. Thiers.

The new French Administration has just manifested its good intentions by taking the first step towards an amnesty. M. Thiers was hostile to it. The first idea of the amnesty belongs to Marshal Gerard; M. Guizot was favourable to it; M. Molé also made it a condition at the moment of the entrance of Persil and Martin (du Nord) into the Council.

This commencement of amnesty will produce a lively

sensation in Europe, which will at length ascertain that the French Government is sufficiently consolidated to entertain no more fears of its old internal enemies. We should not be surprised if Austria, in consequence of this conviction, should draw a little closer towards France. Inhabitants of Vienna now at Paris say that the Archduchess Theresa is betrothed, but they know not to whom! Still, if M. d'Appony himself were to promise her hand to the Duke of Orleans, his promise ought not to be relied upon.

The Ministry hopes to meet the Chamber with the commencement of amnesty and the adjustment of the misunderstanding with Switzerland. It is not at all afraid of M. Dupin, who declared himself against all intervention. It reckons upon a fraction of the tiers-parti, connected with Messrs. Molé, Bernard, and Rosamel. In a word, it hopes to obtain a majority.

However, in order to make sure of a majority, it will have occasion for more acts than those which it has begun or consummated; and it will have, also, occasion to carry to the Chamber still more guarantees of the English alliance.

POSTSCRIPT, OCTOBER 17, 1836.

AFFAIRS OF SWITZERLAND.

AFFAIR OF CONSEIL.

We have this moment received a singular communication which throws new light on the Swiss question. It appears certain that the report from Berne of the 23rd of September, which produced the difference with France, reposed on very equivocal data. It appears to be proved that the depositions of Conseil were as false as those of his witnesses, and one

might even tax Switzerland with bad faith in having removed these witnesses. The result of the following information is that Conseil clumsily invented his lies, because they may be refuted.

In reading attentively the following observations, one acquires the conviction that Conseil never was a spy of the Foreign Department, nor of the French Embassy; and until we receive a proof to the contrary, which is not furnished by the report of the 23rd of September, we are as little inclined to believe that he was a spy of the Minister of the Interior.

We have received the following details from so authentic a source, that we are led to think our information conformable to that which the French Ministry must have equally received. The truth cannot fail to transpire at the Diet. The Swiss authorities will then have to acknowledge the incorrectness of the report, and thenceforth the misunderstanding can hardly fail to terminate without delay.

Copy of a Note from the Duc de Montebello to the Swiss Govern

ment.

I.

(TRANSLATION.)

Berne, July 19, 1836.

GENTLEMEN,

The Minister of Foreign Affairs has just acquainted me, that he has been informed by the Minister of the Interior, that a certain person of the name of Conseil had procured a passport made out in the office of that Minister for M. Cheli (Napoleon) for Switzerland. This individual, compromised in the affair of Fieschi, professes the most subversive doctrines, and will be equally dangerous every where. I am, therefore charged, Sir, to require from you the arrest

and expulsion of the person named Conseil; and I have the honour to request that you will have the goodness to communicate to the different cantons the facts relating to him, and the order which I have received with respect to him. You will have the goodness to inform me of the result of your proceedings.

I request your Excellency to receive the assurances, &c.

Extract of the Report drawn up at Berne the 3rd of September, and observations thereupon.

“The demand which formed the subject of the note of the French Embassy was communicated to the States on the 23rd of July; on the 6th of August the Department of Justice and the police of the republic of Berne gave an order to the director of the central police, that, in the event of Conseil being arrested in the Canton, immediate notice should be given of the circumstance to the French Embassy."

A correspondence from Berne makes an important remark on this passage. It has been verified, that, at the period when the Directory communicated the demand of the Embassy to the Cantons, the authorities at Berne had known for more than ten days of the presence at Berne of that individual, where he enjoyed to a certain degree the protection of the police, whose chief, Mr. Watt, had received his passport,

and had delivered to him his permit of residence, notwithstanding that Conseil had himself declared to him his name, his presumed implication in the affair of Fieschi, and the steps taken by the French Government against him. One is inclined to doubt the good faith of the Bernese Government, in giving to the Director of the central police the order to arrest, in the event of his being discovered in the Canton, a man who had resided there several days in virtue of the authorization of the police themselves.

"On the 10th of August, at ten o'clock in the evening, the Prefect of Nidan received information that amongst many strangers... there must be a spy. Hereupon this functionary made them produce their passports. Two were handed to him under the names of Berthola and Migliari, a third under the name of Mr. Hermann, of Strasburg; the latter given by the French Embassy on the 15th of November, 1835, and signed by M. de Belleval."

This information was given to the Prefect of Nidan by the Italian refugees, the same who had commenced at Berne the violent proceedings against Conseil-the same who had dragged him to Fribourg, and thence conducted him to Nidan, where they had convoked the Members of the Jeune Suisse. The authorities of Nidan arrested a man denounced as a spy; they left at liberty those who, according to their own avowal, had assumed the functions of agents of police.

"Hermann (Cheli Conseil) confessed that he had been for some time in the service of the French police. On the 12th of August he was delivered over to the central police of Berne, with his two travelling companions."

It is still evident from the correspondence from Switzerland, that, in spite of the above-mentioned order, which was given to the central police, the French Embassy has never been informed of the arrest of this individual!

It is singular, also, that the Bernese Government should