ABSTRACT
Governments, which are the incarnations of corruption or assassination, and, therefore, hated by the nations they govern, would act very unwisely for themselves by provoking a 'war of principles.' The perfidy, violence, and political pollution from which the people of France have suffered during the past seventeen years, are not the best guarantees against social convulsion, and such convulsion is more than probable in the event of an European war. The people of France are too democratic to quietly acquiesce in the desecration of the tri-coloured flag, and will never submit to see that flag joined with the colours of despotism against the Republican banner of Switzerland. The ring of the first Austrian shot fired against Switzerland, would reverberate through Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and Italy, and not Swiss rifles alone would answer the vollies of the armed slaves of a detested despotism.
