Published in The Northern Star (Leeds), No. 344, June 15, 1844, p. 7, in the section “Foreign Intelligence”, under the heading “SWITZERLAND. (From our own Correspondent.)—The Civil War in the Valais.”; unsigned; attributed to Friedrich Engels by MEGA² I/3. Letters lost in the inner margin of the facsimile are supplied in square brackets; “Vand” corrected to Vaud; “may being back” left as printed. Text from the original newspaper (NCSE, Northern Star facsimile). Traducción al español.
The valley of the River Rhone, from its source at the foot of the glacier du Rhone to the Lake Leman, is one of the finest countries in the world. On its sides are the highest mountains of Europe, two uninterrupted chains of a mean height of 12,000 feet, covered with eternal snow, from which spring the numberless rivulets which feed the Rhone and fertilize the meadows and fields of the valley. Here, within a few hours’ walk from eternal winter, the chesnut and the vine are found thriving under a sun as powerful almost in its warmth as that of the evergreen plains of Lombardy. This valley is called the Valais, and inhabited partly by Germans, partly by Frenchmen. The Germans, entering the country from the north-east, occupy the higher and more mountainous part of the valley, where the country is unfavourable to agriculture, but excellent for the breeding of cattle; consequently this part of the population remains up to this time in almost the same state of nature in which their forefathers occupied the Upper Valais. Political and religious education is left entirely in the hands of a few aristocratic families and of the priesthood, who, of course, keep the people as stupid and superstitious as possible. On the contrary, the French settled in the lower Valais, where the widening of the valley admits of introducing agriculture and other pursuits of industry. The French have founded the more considerable towns of the Valais, are educated and civilized, and by their bordering on the lake and the Radical canton of Vaud, are brought into connection with the outer world, and enabled to keep up with the progress of their neighbour’s ideas. Nevertheless, the [r]ough mountaineers of the Upper Valais had, I know [no]t how, many hundred years ago, subdued the [F]rench Lower Valais, and continued to consider this [p]art of the country as a conquered province, and to [ex]clude its inhabitants from any participation in [go]vernment. In 1798, when the French overthrow [t]he old aristocratic system Swiss patrician despotism, [t]he Lower Valais got its share of government, but [no]t to the full extent it was entitled to. In 1830, [w]hen the democratic party in all Switzerland was in [t]he ascendant, the constitution was re-modelled upon [f]air and democratic principles; but the priest-ridden [co]w-herds of Upper Valais, and the sovereign rulers [o]f their minds, the parsons, have ever since tried to [b]ring about a change in favour of the old system of [in]justice. The Radical party, in order to guard [a]gainst this, formed an association called Young [S]witzerland—la jeune Suisse—among themselves [a]nd the Radicals of Vaud. They were most violently [as]sailed and calumniated by the priesthood, and [usu]ally attacked upon the ground of being infidels, [wh]ich, however, on the continent is a charge more [la]ughed at than shuddered at. In 1840 the first out[bre]ak against Young Switzerland took place, but, [fi]nding the democrats well prepared, the dupes of [su]perstition and ignorance retreated to their un[as]sailable mountain passes, in order to break forth [ag]ain in March, 1844. They have now succeeded in [tak]ing the Radicals by surprise, in profiting by the [gen]eral reaction in favour of Conservative principles; and of the leading canton (the seat of the federal Government for the time being) Luzern, being a Conservative Canton. The democratic party in Valais is for the moment overwhelmed. The interference of the federal Government will be required; it remains to be seen what profit the priests, who accompanied the Conservative army and headed it, will make of their victory; but, at any rate there is no chance, even now, to re-establish anything like the old system, or to keep the lower Valais and its spirited inhabitants in a state of subjection. A few years, nay, months, may being back the ascendancy of the democratic party.