FRANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 464, 15 April 1857, Page 6

FRANCE.

Paris, Monday, 6 p.m. The quarrel between the Swiss Confederation and the King of Pussia, cannot be much more serious than it is. It has gone so far that the next step, unless prevented by powerful intervention, can only be actual hostility. The King of Prussia gets more excited every day, and his resentment increases.as the trial of the Neufchatel prisoners is approaching. The Prussian people were at first said to be rather iudifferent about the matter; they are not so now; and from the beginning the Prussian army—anxious, no doubt, to redeem its inglorious idleness during the Crimean campaign—is not unwilling to take a turn against the Switzer, for want of a stronger foe. Preparations on a large scale, are in progress. It is true still more formidable preparations were made, by the King of Prussia'some years ago without any ruinous consequences to Europe. His Majesty loves to talk loud, but he is not really so. terrible as he would lead the world to suppose. He " agravates" his voice now and then, but sometimes his roar is "as gentle as the sucking dove's." 60,000 men are not now the number spoken of as likely to be put in movement, but 100,000, and [ the necessities of a campaign may require 150,000 more. • These are formidable measures, which prove that his Majesty is determined to show that he-is, whatever people may think to the contrary, a first-rate military power. It is a pity that this warlike ardour was not exhibited du7 ing the war with Russia,'one way or the other. The present pretext is ignoble in comparison: there was a finer field open some time since—a field' where achivalrous monarch might have won renown and perhaps profit, and where even. the defeated would not have come out of the conflict without glory. If < the King of Prussia push matters to an extreme, he may light a flame in Europe which it will not be easy to extinguish, and all on account of a handful of insurgents caught 'in flagrante.' His Majesty has been as quiet[as'possible for the last n,ine years on the subject of Neufchatel; there was a mild protest against the order of things established in 1848, but on the sth, of April of the same year, a "letter patent" issued from Potsdam, in which he allowed his subjects of Neufchatel full liberty of action.