In 1853 Austria turned out six thousand Swiss (Ticinese) in the harshest manner from Lombardy, on the plea that Italians had been allowed to combine on Swiss ground against Austria. Six years later the Swiss had an opportunity of heaping coals of fire on the head of Austria, for when the Austrian garrison was driven from Fort Laveno, on Lake Maggiore, the soldiers were not only freely admitted into Swiss territory, but were liberally treated. Mazzini, too, the Italian patriot, sought safety in Switzerland, causing her, by the way, considerable trouble. The Franco-German war, again, offered the Swiss many opportunities of showing their usual benevolence and charity towards distressed foreigners. To the Germans who had to leave France on the outbreak of war, making their way home through Switzerland, the Swiss people showed innumerable kindnesses, many of the people being poor, and destitute of even necessaries. And when they heard of the siege of Strasburg, their old friend and ally of centuries ago, the Swiss sent a deputation to invite the weak and tender to go home with them. This was done with the consent of both belligerents, and fourteen hundred persons, chiefly women and children, and old men, accepted the invitation. It was a touching scene when they left with their protectors, and few eyes were dry. Every one knows how Bourbaki, failing to relieve Belfort, was compelled to flee into Swiss territory, with his eighty-five thousand men and nine thousand horses (February 1, 1871). The troops were disarmed, and quartered all over the country, and remained till peace was concluded. High and low, rich and poor, the Swiss vied with each other in showing kindness to the refugees. Miserable in the extreme had been their condition on their arrival, but they left recruited in health, improved in appearance and full of gratitude. As they departed the air was filled with shouts of "Vive la Suisse." That same spring, too, when seed was wanting with which to sow the ground in many districts of France, the Swiss sent large quantities of potatoes, oats, barley, and beans, and other seed corn, besides money and clothing. And during the war Swiss aid was distributed amongst French and Germans impartially. It is not from self-interest or vain-glory that the Swiss act thus, but from motives of humanity and benevolence. And, though the "right of asylum" is liable to be abused, its nobler side is not to be forgotten. It is to be hoped that Switzerland will ever keep her present independence and neutrality, the very existence of which bears witness to the more human tendencies of modern European politics.