A Very Able Objection Has Been Made To This Measure In A Brochure,
Wherein It Is Stated That Many Of
These officers had no means of living
out of France and that, on a former occasion, when a number of
Swiss
officers were serving the English Government and were employed in America
in the war against the United States in 1812 and 1818, the Diet, then under
Napoleon's influence, issued a decree recalling them and commanding them to
quit the English service forthwith. This they refused to do and continued
to serve. No notice whatever was taken of this act of disobedience, when
they returned to their native country on being disbanded in 1814, and they
were very favourably received. Why then, says the author of this pamphlet,
is a similar act of disobedience to pass unnoticed in one instance and to
be so severely punished in another? Or do you wish to prove that your
vengeance is directed only against those who remained in France, to fight
for its liberties, when invaded by a foreign foe, while those who remained
in America to fight against the liberties and existence of the American
Republic you have received with applause and congratulation? Is such
conduct worthy of Republicans? O, fie!
Such an argument is in my opinion convincing for all the world except for
an English Tory, a French Ultra or a Bern Oligarch.
The Arsenal here is well worth seeing; here is a superb collection of
ancient armour, much of which were the spoils of the Austrian and
Burgundian chivalry, who fell in their attempts to crush Helvetic liberty.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 397 of 558
Words from 108261 to 108529
of 151859
