SWITZERLAND.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 205, 17 May 1848, Page 3

SWITZERLAND.

The Paris Constitutionncl publishes the following letter, dated Ucnie, Dec 10, regarding the interview of Sir S. Canning with the President, which we p»eviously noticed : — " The audience which Sir Sttatford Canning had ye^crday from the President of the Diet, lasted nearly thiec houis, nnd they both paited highly pleased with each olhei. Sir Stratford Canning began by present* ing his credentials as Ambassador E\U\umIiuaiy to the Swi<=s Confederation, antl next dnectly broached the subject ot his mission in the most friendly term* tor the nation lv wl.icli he was delegated. The project of a mediation was, he said, adopted by the Cabinet of St. James's at o period when that muliation might have been attended with beneficial results. England, added Sir Stratford C.mning, w.s more anxious to protect the inteiests of Switzerland against any attempt at eucroachment on the part of thePowois, than to interfere in a purely domestic question. The peaceable ibsup of the struggle, and the facility with which the population of the Sorideibund abandoned a rause which appealed to have taken such deep root in the Catholic cuntons, must have necessarily modified the opinions of the Powers, and induced Great Butain in paiticularto act with great cucumspeclion, not to concur in a step which was likely to be construed into a violation of the letter and sp'nit of treaties. " M. Ocl^enbein, in thanking his Excellency for his frankness and piceision of his explanations, which continued in so chaiacteristic a manner with the hostile attitude and the intrigues of other dip'.omaticngents, corroborated nnd coraphted ihe information which the new British Minister h«d already obtained from Mr. Peel. Sir Niatford Canning did not conceal from M. Ochsenbein that it was at Pans, and particularly in the upper ic»ions, that ths greatest opposition to Switzerland existed; that the present state of the Confederation was there depicted under the darkest colourb ; that, in his presence, the conllagration of several villages, and the massacre of a number of old men, women, and children, were adduced as an argu» ment against the Federalists, but that he was already aware of the degree of credit those calumnies merited. Political and interna ional considerations do not permit me to disclose the remainder of what occurred at that important interview. Sir Stratford Canning, however, finished by declaring, that he would wait fresh instructions from his tfoveinment before he would Uke any step that m'ght be ieijaided as an acquiescence in the collected note of the three Cabinets, winch appeared to him altogether inopportune. M. Ochsenbein returned to-day the visit of hir Stiatford Canning, andthp'ir new conversation assumed a BliU more friendly turn than ihe first."