"Neue Rheinische Zeitung" — New Ally of the Counter-Revolution

New Ally of the Counter-Revolution

["Neue Rheinische Zeitung" No. 166, 12 December 1848]

*
Cologne
, 11 December. The counter-revolution has acquired a new ally: the Swiss Federal Government.

Five days ago we learned from an absolutely reliable source that the recently circulated rumours about an intended invasion of Baden by the German refugees, of military preparations on the frontier, of a fabulous battle at Lörrach between irregulars and imperial troops, that all these strange rumours had been "agreed upon" by the party Furrer-Ochsenbein-Munzinger, which dominates the Swiss Federal Council, with the German central authority, in order to provide the said party with a pretext for taking steps against the refugees and thereby establishing a good understanding with the central authority.

We did not immediately communicate this news to our readers because we could not unconditionally believe in such an intrigue. We waited for confirmation, and confirmation was not long in coming.

It was already noticeable that these rumours were not brought by the Baden newspapers, which, on the spot themselves, must have been best and first informed, but by the Frankfurt papers.

It was further noticeable that the *Frankfurter Journal* was informed from Berne as early as 1 December that the Federal Council had issued a circular on account of the refugees and dispatched a commissioner, whereas the Berne newspapers, several of which (*Verfassungs-Freund* and *Suisse*) are in direct contact with Federal Councillors, only bring the news on the 3rd.

Now at last the circular to the cantonal governments lies before us in the *Suisse*, and if we could still doubt earlier the accession of Switzerland to the new Holy Alliance, all doubts are now removed.

The circular begins with the
rumours
of fresh military preparations by the political refugees and of an intended new invasion of the territory of Baden. It
motivates
by these rumours, which the whole of Switzerland and the whole of Baden know to be fabricated, the new extraordinary measures against the refugees. The decisions of the Federal Assembly on the Ticino <See "The Personalities of the Federal Council">
are mentioned only to establish the competence, not the obligation of the Federal Council to take these measures; on the contrary, the essential difference in the situation in Ticino and the northern cantons is
expressly acknowledged
.

Then the following instructions:

1. All refugees who took part in Struve's incursion or who otherwise offer no personal guarantees of quiet behaviour, to be removed from the frontier cantons;

2. all refugees without distinction to be carefully watched;

3. a list of the refugees coming under <unter> point 1 to be sent to the Federal Council as well as to all other frontier cantons, and

4. possible exceptions to the internment to be left to the decision of the federal representative Dr. Steiger, and in general to follow his instructions.

There follows the demand to comply
"strictly"
with these instructions, since otherwise, if troop deployments became necessary, the costs would fall on the frontier canton concerned.

The whole circular is couched in a harsh language, most offensive to the refugees, and concludes with the words:

"Switzerland must not become the rallying point for foreign parties who so utterly mistake their position on neutral soil and so often trample underfoot the interests of the country that receives them with hospitality."

Now compare this bitter language with the language of the note of 4 November; consider that the rumours on which the circular relies are
notoriously false
; that, as we are written from the frontier today, the federal representative Dr. Steiger has
already completed
his inspection of the Canton of Aargau, against which the central authority had most complaints, and found that the refugees in question had long been interned and that he has nothing more to do here (he is already in Liestal); that the

note of 4 Nov. already asserts that the Swiss press (for example *Schweizer Bote*, *Basellandschaftliches Volksblatt*, *National-Zeitung*, etc.) had long proved that all frontier cantons had long fulfilled their duties; consider, finally, that after a long period of uncertainty, after the most contradictory news about the frontier closure, for the last 2-3 days all our Swiss newspapers and letters agree that
no
coercive measures at all are being applied against Switzerland, indeed that the order for stricter control of the movement of persons, which had been given to some frontier posts, was already revoked 24 hours later; consider all this and say whether the circumstances do not confirm, down to the smallest detail, the information we gave above.

In any case, it is well known that Messrs. Furrer, Ochsenbein, Munzinger, etc. have long been burning with eagerness to put an end to the "refugee nuisance" once and for all.

We congratulate Herr Schmerling on his new friends. We only wish that, if
he
should ever come to Switzerland as a refugee — which could well happen before the present Federal Council's three-year term of office expires — these his friends do not perhaps reckon him among those refugees who "offer no personal guarantees."