T
U
only be secured by the existence of other
independent free states in E u ro p e ; and
whenever the allied sovereigns have fully
succeeded in their impious design to crush
the liberty of larger states, so surely will
they, soon after, stamp out the liberties of
the Swiss cantons, and th at with as much
ease as an elephant would crush an ant-hill
with its ponderous foot.* Many of the
citizens at Geneva have their treasures in
foreign funds, and where the treasure is,
there their hearts may be also, and they
may prefer a high price of French rentes
to all the free constitutions in the world.
On any other principle but this, or an
innate hatred of liberty, their joy at the
extinction of Italian freedom was downright
madness. The majority of the citizens
o f Geneva were, however, too enlightened
to view with satisfaction the
destruction of free constitutions in other
countries, and sincerely do I hope that
their own freedom and independence may
long be preserved, for I am convinced that
history presents few, if any, examples of a
state possessing more good, with less admixture
of evil, than the little republic of
Geneva.
* I was informed by a senator of Berne, tbat soon
after tbe marriage of Napoleon witb tbe Arcbducbess,
tbe House of Austria earnestly solicited bim to suffer
tbe Austrians to take permanent possession of Switzerland,
wbicb he sternly refused. The fact was well
known at Berne. We may be assured that the object
is not lost sight of, and should the crusade against
liberty in Spain prove successful, Austria will find no
power able or willing to preserve Switzerland from her
grasp, and a grand Te Deum will be sung, for the destruction
of republicanism in the centre of Europe.