The Swiss Factions

The population of Switzerland is about two million, of which two-fifths only adhere to the Roman Catholic religion. Three languages are spoken in the Cantonal Confederation-French, German, and Italian; and this, of itself, is sufficient to prevent any close amalgamation. Add to this, the struggles between the aristocratic and democratic parties; the prejudices existing, and embittered by recent contests between the cantons of the mountains and those of the plain; the sectional jealousies and religious animosities that prevail among small communities packed so closely together; and we have the key to the incessant struggles by which the peace of the twenty-two cantons, forming the Helvetic Confederation, has been so continuously and grievously disturbed. Independently of this misfortune, there is another danger to be apprehended-lest France, Savoy, and Austria, should get tired of watching such unquiet neighbours [neighbors], and determine on preserving the peace by adding convenient portions of the Swiss territory to their own, and thus destroy a restless nationality, which is a source of annoyance and apprehension to the contiguous governments.

It is well known that the lower cantons are

imbued with liberal notions, and that those of the mountains are the strongholds of the aristocracy and of Papal supremacy. The government of the wealthy and populous canton of Lucerne has lately thought proper to recall the Jesuits, and to appoint them to posts connected with popular education. This gave umbrage to many, who rose in arms against the authorities, but were worsted in the conflict. The government maintains its armed position, lest its refractory citizens should be assisted by their liberal friends of the other cantons; and has demanded the military intervention of the neighbouring [neighboring] members of the confederation; but some of the liberal cantons utter ominous murmurs of an inclination to take part against the government of Lucerne, in which event there could not fail to be a civil war; while there is no doubt that France, Austria, and Savoy would not pretermit so favorable an opportunity of settling the difficulty at the expense of the nationality and integrity of the Swiss Confederation. Thus stand matters at present.

The principle at issue is an important one also: being no less than whether the Jesuits are to have the absolute control over the minds of the rising generation, and to fashion them in a form inimical to the progress of liberty and enlightened religion. Freedom of conscience, freedom of the press, and the real freedom of education, are the points in dispute; and it seems, at the present day, looking to what is going on in England and many other parts of Europe and America, that there is an urgent and palpable necessity stoutly to defend and uphold the maxim, that the clergy should enjoy no privilege or jurisdiction beyond the Church; and that a priest out of the Church is neither more nor less than an ordinary citizen. The Roman Catholic clergy in France, Switzerland, and America, complains of persecution, because it is restrained from persecuting; and exclaims against tyranny and oppression, because it cannot grasp a monopoly. Let it cry aloud; but be it our part to withstand and controvert the insidious and hypocritical arguments, by means of which it is again endeavoring to prevert [pervert] to its own profit unreflecting minds and disturbed consciences. The day of St. Bartholomew, the Massacre of 1641, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the Dragonnades, and the scandals and bankruptcy of the Jesuits, would seem to oppose an insuperable barrier to the re-entry of the Roman Catholic Church as a body into political concerns; but should these disgraceful and sanguinary recollections prove insufficient as a warning and an example, we may add to them the case of Switzerland, which the Jesuits are now seeking by fire and sword to divide into two hostile camps of Protestants and Catholics; while they oppose themselves to every reform of the aristocratical compact of 1815, in the hope of sheltering their religious tyranny under the protection of a temporal despotism.