CHAPTER XXI.

Chapter 2515,839 wordsPublic domain

SWITZERLAND AND THE EUROPEAN SITUATION.

Switzerland has no small influence on the affairs of Europe, as well by its situation as by its warlike genius. There is much of history, but still more political anomaly, written in the very conglomerate map of Switzerland. It is a land of unfulfilled destiny. The eye traces its great water-courses into the most important countries of civilized Europe, and recognizes the lines down which potent influences, social and political, are to descend. Its political boundaries do not coincide with those of nature; they are erratic, the result of wars and political vicissitudes. On the one hand, France shoots out spurs of her territory into Switzerland, and Switzerland, on the other hand, by the force of circumstances, has overlapped Italian ground, taking in Ticino south of the main chain of the Alps, which is Italian in climate and flora; a large part of the Grisons is east of the Rhine, and of the ranges separating it from Tyrol; while Schaffhausen and a couple of villages in the Canton of Basel are altogether on the north side of the line, the German town of Constanz is to the south of the line. Again, if a Swiss wishes to pass from the Rhine valley to Geneva by the south bank of the lake, he must cross French territory in order to do so. The southwest frontier of Switzerland stops at Geneva, instead of extending to the Jura, which forms its natural frontier. Military writers have pointed out that the easiest route for an investing force from Germany would be through Switzerland; and similarly for a force from France, over the Jura, by Zurich, to the Rhine at Schaffhausen. “That a power which was master of Switzerland could debouch on the theatre of operations of the Rhone, the Saône, Po, or Danube; from Geneva an army could march on Lyons, from Basel it could gain the valley of Saône by Belfort, from Constance the Danube could be reached; Italy could be invaded, and the lines of defence of that country against France and Austria turned.”[117]

This potential position of Switzerland, a prominent point of moral and political contact between powerful and somewhat antagonistic powers, on the one side confining the limits of the German empire, and on the other setting bounds to the French republic, naturally gives rise to many speculations. The gamut of these is frequently run by the newspapers; Germany making overtures for a treaty undertaking to protect Switzerland’s neutrality; France negotiating for the occupation by Switzerland of the Chablais and Faucigny districts, in Upper Savoy, in accordance with the treaties of 1815 and 1830, thus preventing the intervention of Italy as against France; then the right of Switzerland to occupy certain districts of Savoy, in case of war, is held by the German authorities to have been settled by the Congress of Vienna and needs no further discussion; on the other hand, it is alleged that this right was subsequently denied by Napoleon III., after the annexation of Savoy to France; and as a culmination, Germany makes a serious proposition to Italy for the partition of Switzerland, but Italy declines the offer, preferring to have a little neutral and friendly republic than a great military empire as her neighbor; the proposition is submitted to France in turn, and also declined, as the greater portion of Switzerland being Teutonic in race and tongue, France could get but a small fragment and Italy a still smaller. The theory is also advanced of making Switzerland, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemburg, and Belgium into a sort of federated block of neutral territory, the inviolability of which all the rest of Europe should solemnly pledge itself to accept. Regardless of these diplomatic tergiversations Switzerland continues to be governed according to the choice of its own people, and not according to the _bon plaisir_ of foreign powers. The sort of negative which the Swiss government practises, and which is what the position of the country specially requires, is displayed both in the theory and execution of the Swiss federal system, and by a great prudence in foreign policy. Its policy since the beginning of the sixteenth century has been neutrality. The object of the Congress of Vienna in guaranteeing the neutrality of Switzerland was primarily strategical; it was also felt to be essential that steps should be taken to prevent any one power from gaining possession of the line of the Alps upon the breaking out of a fresh war.[118] The appreciation of this danger was strongly expressed by the First Consul of France, in an address issued in 1803, wherein he announced: “I would have gone to war on account of Switzerland; I would have sacrificed a hundred thousand men, rather than allowed it to remain in the hands of the parties who were at the head of the last insurrection; so great is the influence of its geographical position upon France. The interests of defence bind Switzerland to France; those of attack render it of value to other powers.” Switzerland bears relations to the great powers of contemporary civilization, in some respects, even more remarkable than those which the little strip of soil along the Jordan, at the meeting of the continents, bore to the civilizations of antiquity. Like that of Palestine, its situation, while affording small temptation to aggression upon its neighbors, is supremely advantageous for defence, for isolation from foreign influence; and yet, at the same time, for the exercise of effective influence outward upon the coterminous nations. To these advantages it adds another, in its polyglot facility of communication with the most important nations of Europe. Preserving its ancient character, content within itself, constituting a confederated republic, which, by its good order and industry, morals and laws, rivals in age the oldest monarchy with its stability of self-government,--the greatest of these monarchies cannot afford to despise its friendship. Not only securing and protecting its own liberty, but it has been the arbiter of the fate of other people. It has given examples of those qualities by which men may be so ennobled that they are respected even amid their comparative poverty and weakness; heroes, though too few to be feared by the weak, they are too brave to be insulted by the strong.

In Europe, powers of apparently inconsiderable greatness have usually brought about its most decided changes, or at least have most influenced its historical course. Thus did Venice in the times of the Crusades, and Switzerland during the Burgundian and Italian wars; as Holland at the commencement of the eighteenth century gave a new form to Europe, so did Sweden predominate in the seventeenth century, and in the earlier half of that age surpass France herself in splendor. It seems to be a capital necessity of great states to have something placed between them that may relieve the severity of their mutual friction; an arm of the sea; an impassable mountain; a small neutral state, one not strong enough to play a great part in foreign politics, but, with a modest policy, absorbed in domestic affairs; any of these may be of great importance to limit and moderate the dangerous currents of great politics. This was illustrated by the action of Austria, after the partition of Poland and the consequent juxtaposition of Russia, offering to restore its part of Poland for the purpose of reconstituting that kingdom. The present age in Europe differs entirely from that of the Middle Ages. Then the general tendency was to small states, now it is to large ones. Then there existed a number of petty monarchies and republics; the unity of the Roman empire was ideal rather than actual. The tendency to form larger states began with England, and is seen on the continent after the latter part of the fifteenth century, and has not yet reached its limits. Everywhere there is a tendency to the formation of large and important states, speaking for the most part one language throughout their whole territory. It is promoted by the quickened impetus of trade and commerce, increased military and financial resources, improved and extended communication, and by the entire development of modern civilization. This progress towards the establishment of extensive and consolidated nationalities is conspicuously found in the present German empire. Though in no sense a restoration of the Holy Roman Empire, it is a real restoration of the ancient German kingdom, and the Kaiser fairly represents the German kingship from which the thirteen ancient Cantons gradually split off. Russia is practically the only Slavonic state; Italy comprises nearly all the Italians, except a few resident upon the head and eastern side of the Adriatic Gulf; France has by her losses in the Franco-Prussian war become more French, since neither Alsace nor Lorraine is inhabited by people of the Gallic race; Spain and Portugal comprise the entire Spanish Peninsula; Austria is a great mongrel state and represents no national aim, but is composed of fragments of various nationalities. The national question in the British Islands is not settled, and may end in separation or more probably in the formation of a federation. The smaller semi-independent principalities of Servia, Roumania, Bulgaria, East Roumelia are simply materials out of which a second Slavonic state may at some time be formed, perhaps under the authority of Russia. The natural fate of Holland is absorption into Germany; of Belgium, absorption into France. Turkey--how this cumberer of the earth can be disposed of without kindling a general European conflagration is a question that puzzles the wisest statesman. This unification might be made to play a beneficial part in checking war and improving the European situation; but so far it has merely essayed a science of combination, of application, and of deception, according to times, places, and circumstances. In the process of absorption there has not been shown much disposition to take questions of ethics into consideration in dealing with weaker peoples; even self-interest seems at times to be a less strong motive than the desire to annoy one’s neighbors. Bentham somewhere proves that there is such a thing as “disinterested malevolence;” and if it exists at all, it is certainly to be discovered in the action of these great European powers. Many of them present vicious systems of military and coercive governments; vast empires resting upon bayonets and semi-bureaucracy, an anachronism and an incubus upon the true development of national life. All these great powers are monstrous outgrowths of warlike ambition and imperial pride in different degrees and under different conditions. On nearly every battle-field great questions of dynastic and national reconstruction have hung in the balance; military operations have been the decisive factors. Huge military systems are abnormal, the morbid results of the spirit of war and domination, of national selfishness and revolutionary violence. The game of kings has become the impact of armed peoples. The Congress of Vienna settled the affairs of Europe upon a basis which endured with but few changes for almost fifty years; the great treaty of Berlin of 1878, in form an act of restitution as well as of peace, has become as dead a letter as the treaty of Paris of 1856. Principles of older date and less questionable validity than treaties patched up with premature jubilation obtain; and the solemn irony of Prince Talleyrand, that “non-intervention is a diplomatic term, which signifies much the same as intervention,” has become axiomatic. It is no exaggeration to speak of Europe as an armed camp, with the dogs of war pulling heavily on their chains. Armies of men stand scowling into one another’s eyes across a fanciful frontier, marked by a few parti-colored posts. In spite of all European assurances of “cloudless political horizons” and “luxuriant international olive-branches,” the perfection of armaments and the augmentation of already enormous armies go faithfully on. Every one who visits Europe must be amazed at the military influence that everywhere dominates, especially on the continent. “Above the roar of the city street sounds the sharp drum-beat of the passing regiment; in the sweet rural districts the village church-bell cannot drown the bugle peal from the fortress on the hill. France sinks millions in frontier strongholds, Russia masses troops in Poland and on the Pruth, Austria strengthens her fortresses in Galicia, and Germany builds railways to the Rhine and bridges to span its yellow flood.” There is no European peace, except that peace described by Hosea Biglow, which was “druv in with bag’nets.” Montesquieu, the upright magistrate, who, living under despotic rule, nevertheless insisted that by the Constitution of France its king was not absolute, sought in the records of history to discern the tendency of each great form of government, and has left his testimony that “_L’esprit de la monarchie est la guerre et l’agrandissement; l’esprit de la république est la paix et la modération_” (“the spirit of monarchy is war and aggrandizement; the spirit of a republic is peace and moderation”).

An armed truce is preserved out of mutual terror; if tranquillity exists, it is not the repose of reasonable, kindly powers, but the crouching attitude of relentless rivals dreading the enemy whom they hate, and afraid of the destructive weapons which support modern warfare, making the “mowing down” no longer figurative, but horribly literal. Sheer force holds a larger place than it has held in modern times since the fall of Napoleon; and the will to take, without better reason than the power to hold, is naked and undisguised. One of the most melancholy forms which this aggression has taken, and seems destined to occupy so much of the future energies of imperialism, is the partition and exploitation of the vast African continent and the defenceless islands of the Pacific. It is done in the name of “civilization,” and called _l’occupation des territoires sans maître_. In the Pacific Ocean the work has been nearly completed, Samoa and Hawaii remaining as almost the last abodes of aboriginal sovereignty. Colonial extension and annexation is a veritable European Pandora’s box; war is constantly threatened for the sake of localities whose very names were previously unknown, and whose possession would seem of no practical importance. Since Dido tricked the Numidian king in her survey and purchase of a site for Carthage,[119] the world has been in constant trouble upon the subject of boundaries, and a very large proportion of the wars between nations, like lawsuits between individuals, have arisen over disputed boundary lines. The cry of “fifty-four forty or fight,” the national watchword of the United States in 1846, has found an echo in every age. Between England and Russia smoulders the Central Asia and Turkish empire question; between England and France the matter of Egyptian occupation; Italy and France have their quarrel over Tunis and Tripoli, and the Mediterranean generally. Then there is the crux of the Balkan peninsula, where Austria and Russia glower at each other across the Carpathians; this Eastern question is opened as often as the temple of Janus, and, like that temple, its opening means war. So it goes; when pushed under at St. Petersburg, alarm makes its appearance in Paris; and when silenced on the Rhine, it causes itself to be heard among the Balkans. Russia lowers across Europe from the east, patiently waiting, and not fearing central European alliance, confident some day, by natural expansion, of overshadowing all eastern Europe, and gathering at will and in its own good time all the Slavonic people under its suzerain guardianship. France casts a dark shadow from the west, while the “_furor Teutonicus_” and the “_furie Française_” flourish perennially in the blood-feud which has Alsace-Lorraine for its bitter badge.[120] France looks with natural uneasiness at the iron circle in which the unity of Germany and Italy is circumscribing her influence and expansion. The tremendous struggle with Germany, with its crushing defeat and the provinces torn away, left a wound that will not heal, but with its gloomy memories and poignant regrets, with its latent but unfailing suggestion of revenge, too frequently guides her policy. While a united Germany made short work with the French emperor, it left France exasperated, and probably in a less unsound condition than at any previous moment since 1789.

Germany, with the huge mass of Russia on one side and the lithe strength of France on the other, must sleep in armor; during any respite from the partisans of _la revanche_ on the one frontier or a murmur of Panslavism from Moscow, Germany confronts serious problems with her congeries of states. It remains to be seen how Germany will get on without the large, comprehensive, incomparable skill and the mettle of unyielding determination with which the Iron Chancellor laid all international questions under tribute to the _Vaterland_. This continental entanglement points to England as holding the balance of power; jealous of Russia’s encroachments in the east, jealous of Austria, jealous of the power of Germany, worried with a certain uneasiness that “the circles of the morning drum-beat” may be broken, England finds in this situation much food for contemplation and conjecture. All European movements, especially on the part of the Great Powers,[121] profess to have no other object than to preserve their “political equilibrium” or the “balance of power.” Excepting the wars of religion, most European wars of the last three centuries have sought justification in this pretext, which is but another phase of the boundary question. Up to a very recent date the English Parliamentary grants for supplies needed to support the army were expressly recited to be made for the purpose “of preserving the balance of power in Europe.” The “European Concert,” with its brood of auxiliaries, in the _modus vivendi_, _status quo_, and _entente cordiale_, interlarded with numerous _pourparlers_, separating _re infecta_, is not the harmonious institution its musical title would indicate; but disagreements are constantly arising as to who shall be _chef de musique_ and who shall play second fiddle. It is a mere decorous synonyme for “European discord.” When not having in view a general scheme of spoliation, it is looking to the carving out the shape, the conditions, and the destinies of the remaining small states, with a cynical indifference as to the weal or wish of the populations. European powers are simply racing in the absurd and ruinous rivalry for the mightiest battalions and the heaviest budgets. Under the plea of _si vis pacem para bellum_ each one is striving to steal a march upon its neighbors, absolutely blind to the obvious fact that with each fraction of accelerated speed in one all the rest perforce quicken their pace. The danger of this much misused axiom, which advises the securing of peace by preparing for war, brings a crushing burden of apprehension; it involves conduct that betrays designs of future hostility, and if it does not excite violence, always generates malignity with a sly reciprocation of indirect injuries without the bravery of war or the security of peace. From such a condition some chance tide rather than any chosen course may any day cause a rupture. Nations drift into war, and peace is rarely disturbed by serious matters. The commercial necessities of Europe cannot much longer bear the severe strain of this unnaturally swollen and crushing militarism, a conscription so ruthless which demands one inhabitant out of every hundred and takes one producer out of every twenty, transferring him from the ranks of tax-payers to the ranks of tax-consumers. This strain must be lessened or it will infallibly snap; the people are merely the soldiers of an army, they are drilled rather than governed; the workman is getting tired of going to his labors carrying a soldier upon his back; the masses are coming to regard appeals to their patriotism as full of bitter mockery, being mere appeals to kill their neighbors or distant races that they and their children may be more permanently enslaved at home. A universal revolt is inevitable against exactions so intolerable, idiotic, and inhuman. If those alone who “sowed the wind did reap the whirlwind” it would be well, but the mischief is that the madness of ambition and the schemes of diplomacy find their victims principally among the innocent and the unoffending. The cottage is sure to suffer for every error of the court, the cabinet, or the camp, like the torrent which originates, indeed, in the mountain, but commits its devastation in the vale. If there is no check on this increasing demand upon the lives and property of the masses, “this devouring mischief of militarism which is consuming the vitals of Europe,” the mightiest potentate may find that he has to face a combination of the toiling and suffering classes against which all his weapons will be futile. “Great,” says Carlyle, “is the combined voice of men, the utterance of their instincts, which are truer than their thoughts; it is the greatest a man encounters among the sounds and shadows which make up this world of time.” There is no constitution and no despotism which could stand against it for a moment. The modern emperor is only an apparition in comparison with the imperial muscle and bone of his ancient prototype; no longer he is regarded as the “deputy elect of the Lord,” whom the “breath of worldly men cannot depose.” A revolt, political in its aims but economic in its origin, will take place; an economic revolt tending to change the economical conditions of the masses and a political revolt tending to modify the very essence of the political organization, demanding that these vast armies be disbanded, the swords turned into ploughshares, and the victory of the industrial over the military type of civilization be established. A revolution toward the final abolition of feudalism with its arbitrary privileges for the few and its excessive burdens for the many, toward the fuller participation of the people in the work of government and their more efficient protection in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labor. Otherwise the dilemma is a sad one,--to remain a colossal arsenal or become a wild field of devastation; war would mean destruction of human life and of the elements of national prosperity beyond precedent. Whether these immense armaments will be peacefully discontinued or war ensue as the only solution, and if so, what will be its effect on the map of Europe, are all momentous questions beyond the ken of man. The powers leagued together in the Triple Alliance may, if favored by the wealth and maritime power of England, serve as a potent guarantee for the maintenance of peace. This European drama is unfolding its actions slowly, so that no one can tell what it will bring forth; constantly new novelties are being introduced upon the stage with an increasing number of hints of stranger things to come. The prominent persons in the play, though preserving a romantic air of mystery, manage constantly to throw off a multiform mass of suggestions, speculations, and visions. What is developing astonishes the mind while it fascinates the imagination, for it seems to be nothing less vast and portentous than the passing away of the whole existing order of things almost without notice, certainly without comprehension. What proportions this gigantic, this politico-social movement will assume, how much of what is old it will leave standing, what the new order will be like, these are questions which Europe’s brain has not yet fairly grasped, much less tried to answer.

There is a strong continental opinion that in the event of war Switzerland can hardly hope to successfully maintain the position assumed by it in 1870; that it occupies too small a space in the great chart of European political and military calculations to have much weight attached to its views. With less confidence in treaty guarantees than in the maxim of Cromwell, whose Ironsides were taught to “put their trust in God and keep their powder dry,” Switzerland will heed the advice given in the reply of the German chancellor, when asked in 1870 to what extent Swiss neutrality would be observed, said, “to the extent to which you yourselves respect the device of the Scottish Order of the Thistle, ‘_nemo me impune lacessit_.’” Switzerland can no longer rely upon its mountain wall, which for so many ages, combined with other geographical advantages, formed a safe breastwork against the invader. Nature herself seemed to have thrown her arms around Helvetia to protect her from the invader; and by encompassing her with inaccessible mountains, tremendous precipices, and stupendous masses of eternal ice, to make her, as Frederick the Great of Prussia described the lords of Savoy, “kings by virtue of their locality.” The craggy escarpments, bastioned with horrid precipices, parapeted and battlemented with eternal snow, were the ramparts of the cradle of her liberty; they played a great part:

“That like giants stand To sentinel enchanted land.”

Then Switzerland was self-contained, and enemies could not get at it. It could say with the Psalmist, “I will lift mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” “We did not fear,” said the shepherds of Uri, “the armies of France; we are _four hundred_ strong, and if that is not sufficient, _four hundred_ more in our valley are ready to march to the defence of the country.” In the same spirit wrote the Council of Bern, “A handful of Swiss is a match for an army; on our own soil, with our mountains behind us, we can defy the world.” The Helvetic Confederacy made the greatest and most powerful nations of Europe tremble in the fifteenth century; but Switzerland is no longer defended by natural frontiers; its two great cities, that of Geneva on the one side, and Basel upon the other, lie open to the invader, and the occupation of two or three points upon its railway system (which but for its army could be easily reached) would paralyze its defence; the strength with which nature had endowed Switzerland under the old condition of things has been wellnigh cancelled by the grand appliances of modern science, wealth, and organization. Modern Switzerland is now no stronger than any other part of Europe. Defence no longer can be intrusted to natural ramparts, the Alps, and mountaineers, led by the sound of the horn, and armed with the bow of Tell. The strength of Switzerland is exactly proportioned to its armed force; numerical strength preponderates in military fields, and victory attends the largest army. This implies no impeachment of Swiss courage and patriotism; that love of country, wrought into a great and noble sentiment, which summons to its aid every better portion of human excellence; that exalted power which gives vigor and efficacy to our exertions as citizens, which strengthens our constancy and animates our valor, which heightens our contempt of danger and inflames our impatience of oppression. There is no safer criterion of the virtue and happiness of a people than the height to which their attachment for their country is raised, and the difficulties which they are prepared to encounter in rescuing it from danger or exalting it to glory. As patriotism is always more intense in small states, where union for the purposes of self-preservation is more indispensably necessary, so the same institutions which have engaged the affections of the Swiss will likely inspire them with the courage and wisdom requisite for their defence. Switzerland will be prepared in event of a rearrangement of the map of Europe, by which it is likely to be effected, to demand a voice in the general summing up. Even to the diplomatist, who, wanting to reach an understanding, must have something behind it to command attention and respect, and exclaims, “Don’t trouble me with your arguments, tell me with what force you will back them,” Switzerland is not without an answer. The republic is not unprepared for war, as already shown in the chapter on the army; every man in shop and field would start into a soldier at the bugle’s call; a soldier armed, equipped, and ready for the march. Great sacrifices are willingly made in order to keep on foot an admirable democratic army. All the adjuncts for making this army a mobile factor in the field are under the Swiss system complete and in thorough working order. It could put into the field and maintain effectively 200,000 men, to prove that Switzerland was not a “mere geographical expression,” but a very formidable entity. The Swiss General Dufour, in a letter addressed to the French minister of war, just before the war broke out in 1870, after giving the size of the Swiss army, added: “Beyond all these defences we can count upon the national spirit in the heart of every citizen; a resolution to protect our independence and neutrality, let the storm break on us from whatever side it may.” What 200,000 brave Swiss sharpshooters might do defending their liberty in those mountain fastnesses no European army would care to learn by close experience. Their stout hearts and hardy arms will be ever ready, as in preceding ages, to vindicate against countless hosts their personal liberty and the independence of their country.

The Swiss government is not unaware that its neutrality may at any time be endangered; that a small state is always in danger when it stands in the way of the arms or the ambition or the greed of the great ones, that if its territory offers a convenient route for the rival armies, they would not hesitate to brush away its neutrality, in spite of all guarantees, as the Allies did in 1814. Accordingly for years past the government has been quietly but steadily preparing to defend the country in such an event. The plan, so far, consists in the fortifications of the summit of St. Gothard; the plateau of Andermatt commands not only the base of the St. Gothard, but the valleys, and whoever is able to hold it can prevent any passage across Switzerland from south to north. Since 1885 nearly 10,000,000 francs have been spent on the strengthening of this commanding position; forts have been placed so as to confront each of the four roads by which alone the stronghold can be passed, and it is thought that a large force of troops make it convenient to be cantoned in the vicinity, ready to make the most of the facilities for repelling intrusion when the occasion requires. They certainly could offer stubborn resistance to any junction being effected between portions of the German and Italian armies. The military Alpine roads, Furka, Ober-Alp, and Axenstrasse, are all kept in good condition by liberal appropriations.

Ever since 1830, when the religious refugees from France, England, and Flanders sought shelter there, and who, Sismondi relates, were wont to fall down on their knees and bless God when they came in sight of the Swiss mountains, the _right of asylum_ has been a difficult question for Switzerland, occasioning constant diplomatic collision. In 1838 the demand of the French government for the expulsion of Louis Napoleon, which was declined by Switzerland, almost led to war, and it was probably only avoided by his voluntary departure. Switzerland has never flinched from this sacred and most embarrassing duty of hospitality to the oppressed. The influx of political fugitives from the despotic countries of Europe, seeking shelter from their pursuers, has involved it in many a bitter discussion with powerful neighbors, but it has stood firm in maintaining the sanctity of its principles and soil, in the face of their overwhelming force and domineering spirit. A determined rejection of foreign interference in its domestic affairs has been maintained, and when in 1847 the blockade or cordon was established, all access to the rebel district was forbidden to foreign agents. Under the constitution the federal authorities have the right to expel from Swiss territory any foreigners whose presence endangers the internal or external security of the Confederation. An asylum is offered to the members of all parties suffering political persecution, as long as they show themselves worthy of such consideration by peaceful conduct. The republic, however, grants them no asylum, if, while on its territory, they continue their intrigues and attacks on the existence and security of other states. It preserves a faithful regard for its international obligations, and, as an evidence of its firm determination to fulfil them, keeps a federal official, known as the _Procurator General_, whose duty it is to prosecute any foreigners, socialists, nihilists, and _agents provocateurs_, and other dangerous types, who abuse the hospitality of the country for the shelter and promotion of schemes endangering either its international peace or internal security. In July, 1890, Germany gave notice to Switzerland that the treaty between the two countries, regulating the “settlement of foreigners,” would not be renewed at its expiration, which occurs at the end of 1891. This question of asylum involves in its handling the utmost skill and judgment; anything like bravado or anything like servility would be equally out of place. A dignified and wise discretion is necessary to enable Switzerland to continue to offer a safe refuge to the proscribed victims of the endless political revolutions and counter-revolutions of the surrounding nations, but it is believed, complicated as it is with delicate entanglements of diplomatic relations, and suspicions of countenancing schemes of anarchy, it will continue to meet every exigency of the question with an honest and fearless policy.

If the acquisition of power has a certain tendency to weaken the ties of federal union, we should expect that a Confederacy, deprived by natural as well as adventitious circumstances of all pretension to political power, would for that reason possess in a superior degree the merit of stability. Everything that sets in motion the springs of the human heart, engages the Swiss to the protection of their inestimable privileges. Bold and intrepid; a frame fitted to endure toil; a soul capable of despising danger; an enthusiastic love of freedom; an abhorrence of the very name or emblem of royalty illustrated in ages of heroic and martial exploits, that with steadfast and daring enterprise built up a nation and a state; with these qualities they will, if the necessity comes, bear in mind the warning of their own Rousseau, “Ye free nations, remember this maxim, freedom may be acquired, but it cannot be recovered.” In the moment of peril the Swiss will be moved by the spirit of their brave old Landammann, who answered the Duke of Burgundy: “Know that you may, if it be God’s will, gain our barren and rugged mountains; but, like our ancestors of old, we will seek refuge in wilder and more distant solitudes, and when we have resisted to the last, we will starve in the icy wastes of the glaciers; men, women, and children, we will be frozen into annihilation together, ere our free Switzer will acknowledge a foreign master.”

There may be a deeper danger awaiting Switzerland, to which no spirit, however vigorous and resolute, can be commensurate--a danger from within and not from without. The nation which, by the adverse circumstances of numerical inferiority, poverty of means, or failure of enterprise, cannot sustain its own citizens in the acquisition of a just renown and material welfare, is deficient in one of the first and most indispensable elements of strength. A small state is apt to waste its strength in acts too insignificant for general interest, frittering away its mental riches, no less than its treasure and blood, in supporting interests that fail to enlist the sympathies of any beyond the pale of its own borders; glory and strength, like riches, finding themselves, and being most apt to be found, where their fruits have already accumulated. If from any source evil should come to this little republic, in the patriotic words of its latest historian, “Generations will point to the spot where it arose and flourished, and will say, Here once lived a free, self-governing people, a small but active republic, with remarkable institutions, with a famous and memorable history.”

POPULATION AND SOIL, CENSUS, 1888.

+------+--------------+----------+---------+-----------+-------------+ |Order | CANTONS |Population| Total | | | | | | | area | Productive| Unproductive| +------+--------------+----------+---------+-----------+-------------+ | | | | [*] | [*] | [*] | | 1 |Zurich | 339,014 | 1,724.7 | 1,616 | 108.7 | | 2 |Bern | 539,305 | 6,889 | 5,385.7 | 1,503.3 | | 3 |Luzern | 135,780 | 1,500.8 | 1,369 | 131.8 | | 4 |Uri | 17,284 | 1,076 | 477.7 | 598.3 | | 5 |Schwyz | 50,396 | 908.5 | 660.2 | 248.3 | | 6 |Unterwalden | | | | | | | Obwald | 15,032 | 474.8 | 399.4 | 75.4 | | | Nidwald | 12,524 | 290.5 | 217.9 | 72.6 | | 7 |Glarus | 33,800 | 691.2 | 448.6 | 242.6 | | 8 |Zug | 23,120 | 239.2 | 194.3 | 44.9 | | 9 |Freiburg | 119,562 | 1,669 | 1,469.6 | 199.4 | | 10 |Solothurn | 85,720 | 783.6 | 717.8 | 65.8 | | 11 |Basel | | | | | | | Stadt | 74,247 | 35.8 | 30.4 | 5.4 | | | Landschaft | 62,133 | 421.6 | 405.6 | 16 | | 12 |Schaffhausen | 37,876 | 294.2 | 281 | 13.2 | | 13 |Appenzell | | | | | | | Ausser-Rhoden| 54,200 | 260.6 | 253.6 | 7 | | | Inner-Rhoden | 12,906 | 159 | 144.4 | 14.6 | | 14 |St. Gallen | 229,441 | 2,019 | 1,713.5 | 305.5 | | 15 |Grisons | 96,291 | 7,184.8 | 3,851.6 | 3,333.2 | | 16 |Aargau | 193,834 | 1,404 | 1,341.7 | 62.3 | | 17 |Thurgau | 105,091 | 988 | 835.6 | 152.4 | | 18 |Ticino | 127,148 | 2,818.4 | 1,880 | 938.4 | | 19 |Vaud | 251,296 | 3,222.8 | 2,728.8 | 494 | | 20 |Valais | 101,837 | 5,247.1 | 2,409.9 | 2,837.2 | | 21 |Neuchâtel | 109,037 | 807.8 | 572.3 | 235.5 | | 22 |Genève | 106,738 | 279.4 | 232.9 | 46.5 | +------+--------------+----------+---------+-----------+-------------+ | | Total |2,933,612 |41,389.8 | 29,637.5 | 11,752.3 | +------+--------------+----------+---------+-----------+-------------+

[*] Square kilometres.

MONEY, WEIGHTS, MEASURES.

Franc Cents, 19.3. One hundred centimes One franc. Metre, equal to 1.094 yards. Kilometre, equal to .621 mile. Metric quintal, or metre centner, equal to 100 kilogrammes, or 2 cwt. nearly (1 cwt. 3 qrs. 24½ ƚbs.). Square kilometre, equal to .386 square mile. Hectare, equal to 2½ acres nearly (2 acres, 1 rood, 35½ poles). Centner, equal to about 110¼ ƚbs. Cubic metre, equal to 1.308 cubic yards. Litre, equal to .88 quart. Hectolitre, equal to 22 gallons.

CENSUS OF 1888.

AREA--PRODUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE LAND.

_Productive Land._

Forest 7,714.2 square kilometres. Vineyards 305 ” ” Cultivated 21,618.3 ” ” -------- Total 29,637.5 ” ”

_Unproductive Land._

Glaciers 1,838.8 square kilometres. Lakes 1,386.1 ” ” Cities, villages, and outer buildings 161.8 ” ” Area of railroads, turnpikes, etc., } rivers and rocky wastes } 8,365.6 ” ” -------- Total 11,752.3 ” ”

_Population as to Confessions._

Protestants 1,724,869 Catholics 1,189,662 Jews 8,384 Others 10,697

_As to Languages._

German 2,092,479 French 637,710 Italian 156,482 Others 8,565

ORDER AND DATES OF THE ENTRY OF THE TWENTY-TWO CANTONS INTO THE CONFEDERATION.

Order of entry. French name. German name. Year. 1 Zurich Zürich 1351. 2 Berne Bern 1353. 3 Lucerne Luzern 1332. 4 Uri Uri 1291. 5 Schwytz Schwyz 1291. 6 Unterwalden Unterwalden 1291. Le haut Obwald Le bas Nidwald 7 Glaris Glarus 1352. 8 Zoug Zug 1352. 9 Fribourg Freiburg 1481. 10 Soleure Solothurn 1481. 11 Bâle Basel 1501. Ville Stadt. Campagne Landschaft. 12 Schaffhouse Schaffhausen 1501. 13 Appenzell Appenzell 1573. Rhodes-Extérieures Ausser-Rhoden. Rhodes-Intérieures Inner-Rhoden. 14 St. Gall St. Gallen 1803. 15 Grisons Graubünden 1803. 16 Argovie Aargau 1803. 17 Thurgovie Thurgau 1803. 18 Tessin (It. Ticino) Tessin 1803. 19 Vaud Waadt 1803. 20 Valais Wallis 1814. 21 Neuchâtel Neuenburg 1814. 22 Genève Genf 1814.

APPENDIX.

COPY OF THE LATIN “PACT OF 1291” IN THE ARCHIVES OF SCHWYZ.

In nomine domini Amen. Honestati consulitur, et vtilitati publice prouidetur, dum pacta, quietis et pacis statu debito solidantur. Novereint igitur vniversi, quod homines vallis Vranie, vniversitasque / vallis de Switz, ac conmunitas hominum intramontanorum vallis inferioris, maliciam temporis attendentes, ut se, et sua magis defendere valeant, et in statu debito melius consevare, fide / bona promiserunt, inuicem sibi assistere, auxilio, consilio, quolibet ac fauore personis et rebus, infra valles et extra, toto posse, toto nisv, contra omnes ac singulos, qui eis vel alicui de ipsis, aliquam / intulerint violenciam, molestiam, aut iniuriam, in personis et rebus malum quodlibet machinando, ac in omnem eventum quelibet vniuersitas, promisit alteri accurrere, cum neccesse fuerit ad succurrendum. / et in expensis propriis, prout opus fuerit, contra inpetus malignorum resistere, iniurias vindicare prestito super hiis corporaliter inuramento, absque dolo servandis, antequam confederationis forman iuramento vallatam, presentibus innovando, / Ita tamen quod quilibet homo iuxta sui nominis conditionem domino suo conuenienter subesse teneatur et seruire. Conmuni etiam consilio, et fauore vnamimi promisimus, statuimus, ac ordinauimus, vt in vallibus prenotatis, nullum / iudicem, qui ipsum officium aliquo precio, vel peccunia, aliqualiter conparauerit, vel qui noster incola vel provincialis non fuerit aliquatenus accipiamus, vel acceptemus.

Si uero dissensio suborta fuerit, inter aliquos conspiratos, prudencio-- / res de conspiratis accedere debent, ad sopiendam discordiam inter partes, prout ipsis videbitur expedire. et que pars illam respuerit ordinationem, alii contrarii deberent fore conspirati. Super omnia autem, inter ipsos extitit / statutum, ut qui alium fraudulenter, et sine culpa tracidauerit, si deprehensus fuerit uitam ammittat, nisi suam de dicto maleficio valeat ostendere innocenciam, suis nefandis culpis exigentibus. et si / forsan discesserit nunquam remeare debet. Receptatores et defensores prefati malefactoris, a vallibus segregandi sunt, donec a coniuratis prouide reuocentur. Si quis uero quemquam de conspiratis, die sev / nocte silentio, fraudulenter per incendium uastauerit, is numquam haberi debet pro conprouinciali. Et si quis dictum malefactorem fovet et defendit, infra valles, satisfactionem prestare debet dampnificato. Ad / hec si quis de coniuratis alium rebus spoliauerit, vel dampnificauerit qualitercumque, si res nocentis infra valles possunt reperiri, servari debent, ad procurandum secundum iusticiam lesis satisfactionem. Insuper nullus capere / debet pignus alterius nisi sit manifeste debitor, vel fideiussor, et hoc tantum fieri debet de licencia iudicis speciali. Preter hec quilibet obedire debet suo iudici, et ipsum si neccesse fuerit iudicem ostendere infra / sub quo parere potius debeat iuri. Et si quis iudicio rebellis extiterit, ac de ipsius pertinasia quis de conspiratis dampnificatus fuerit, predictum contumacem ad prestandam satisfactionem, iurati conpellere tenentur / uniuersi. Si uero guerra vel discordia inter aliquos de conspiratis suborta fuerit, si pars vna litigantium, iusticie vel satisfactionis non curat recipere complementum, reliquam defendere tenentur coniurati. Supra / scriptis statutis, pro conmuni vtilitate, salubriter ordinatis, concedente domino, in perpetuum duratis. In cuius facti euidentiam presens instrumentum, ad petionem predictorum confectum, Sigiliorum prefatarum / trium vniuersitatum et vallium est munimine roboratum. Actum Anno domini. M.CC.LXXXX. primo. Incipiente mense Au-gu-sto.

TRANSLATION.

IN THE NAME OF THE LORD--AMEN!

Virtue is promoted and utility provided for by the state so long as covenants are firmly established with a proper basis of quiet and peace, therefore, let all men know that the valley of Uri and the entire district of the valley of Schwyz and the community of the intramontane people of the lower valley, while regarding the evil character of the times, with the view of being able more efficiently to protect themselves and their interests, and better to preserve them in their proper condition, have promised in good faith mutually to stand by one another with their help, advice, and undivided support, in their persons and property, within and without the valleys, with their entire force and united effort against all men and singular who shall inflict upon them or upon any one of them any violence, molestation or injury in plotting any evil against their persons and property, and every district has promised to another in every event to make haste whenever it shall be necessary to render it help. They also (have promised) at their individual expense to resist, as it shall be necessary, the attacks of the evil-intending, to avenge wrongs, having taken their oath corporal touching the faithful preservation of these presents from change before the ratification by oath of the instrument of Confederation. So, however, that any and every person is to be held to be subject to and to serve his Lord exactly according to the terms of his obligation. We also have promised, decided, _and more_, ordained by common resolve and unanimous assent that we will not, to any extent, accept or acknowledge any judge who shall secure the office itself at some price, or by money, by any other device, or who shall not be one of our inhabitants or a provincial.

But if a disagreement shall arise among any of the Confederates, the more discreet of them ought to come forward to allay the variance among the parties just as it shall appear to them to be expedient, and the party which shall reject the settlement _decided upon_, it were proper for the other Confederates to be their adversaries.

Moreover, above all things, it has been ordained among them that he who shall wrongfully and without provocation murder another, if he shall be arrested, shall lose his life, as his heinous wrong-doing demands, unless he shall be able to show his innocence touching the alleged crime, and if perchance he shall leave the country, he must never return, the harborers and defenders of the aforesaid malefactor are to be cut off from the valleys until they be recalled with due foresight by the Confederates. But if any one shall in the daytime or in the silence of night maliciously injure any one of the Confederates by burning, he ought never to be regarded as a fellow-provincial. And if any one harbors and defends the alleged evil-doer within the valleys, he ought to render satisfaction to the person who has sustained the loss. In addition, if any one of the Confederates shall rob another of his property or otherwise inflict loss upon him, if the property of the offending party can be found within the valleys, it ought to be held for procuring satisfaction for the injured according to justice.

Moreover no one ought to take the pledge of a second unless this one be clearly a debtor or security, and this ought to be done only in accordance with a special license of a judge. Furthermore, any and every one ought to obey his judge, and to indicate the very judge, if it shall be necessary, under whom he by choice assumes the obligation to obey the law. And if any one shall show himself defiant of the decision of a judge, and in consequence of his perverseness any of the Confederates shall be damaged, all who are under oath are held to force the aforesaid obstinate one to render satisfaction. But in case war or violent division shall arise among any of the Confederates, if one party of the disputants is not disposed to receive the award of justice or satisfaction, the Confederates are held to defend the remaining party.

The statutes above written are wholesomely ordained in behalf of the public advantage with an unlimited duration, the Lord consenting thereto. As an evidence of this act the present instrument, made according to the petition of the aforesaid persons, is confirmed by the authority of the seals of the aforementioned districts and valleys. Done in the year of the Lord 1291, in the beginning of the month of August.

* * * * *

The above translation was kindly made by Professor W. E. Peters, of the University of Virginia, and in transmitting it he says: “I send you a literal rendering of the Pact, the original is exceedingly rough and incorrect according to classical standards. I think, however, the sense is given. I render _vniversitas_ as district, and Commune might be embraced in brackets; I would render it _Canton_, but the Swiss Cantons were not then formed, and the term Commune hardly expresses the sense, as it is French. I have had in some cases to force translation where the Latin is absolutely corrupt and wrong. I have aimed to make the translation, as you desired, strictly according to the Latin, and not according to what was permissible with the Latin and its collocation.”

The Honorable John D. Washburn, United States Minister at Bern, in an article contributed to the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, Mass., April, 1890, on the “Foundation of the Swiss Republic,” referring to the Pact of 1291, says: “The foundation stone on which it is generally understood that the whole superstructure [of the Swiss Republic] rests is known as the Pact--Letter of Alliance, _Bundesbrief_--of 1291. This is not a myth, but, apart, perhaps, from absolute exactness of date and some extraneous circumstances alleged to attend it, a well-established record of history. This instrument well repays a careful study, not only as a wonderfully bold declaration of modified independence at a very early day, but as especially interesting to the American student for the remarkable parallels of thought in the minds of these ancient men, and in the minds of those who nearly five hundred years later made the preliminary declarations of American Independence.”

INDEX.

Aar, water system of the, 415.

Aarau, peace of, 14.

Aargau admitted, 16. conquest of, 13.

Academy, military, 238.

Act of mediation, 39.

Administrative law, 90.

Agricultural schools, 289.

Agriculture, 290, 306.

Alliance, Holy, Switzerland in the, 18. Letter of, 473, 477.

Allmend, 181. future of, 183.

Alpenglühen, 426.

Alpenstocks, 375.

Alphorn, 340.

Alpine flowers, 371. hay-making, 326.

Alps, 354.

Alsace-Lorraine, 458.

Altdorf, folkmote in, 155.

Amendments, constitutional, 50, 51.

American and Swiss constitutions compared, 54, 56, 59, 63.

American elections compared with Swiss, 82.

Appeals to federal tribunal, 109.

Appellate courts, 136. criminal, 112.

Appendix, 473.

Appenzell admitted, 14. division of, 141. Inner, councils in, 159. Outer, folkmote in, 151.

Arbitration, intercantonal, 104. international, 445.

Armaments, European, 456.

Army, active, 237. federal, 233. strength of, 239.

Assembly, federal, 42, 65. local, 158. powers of, 71.

Asylum, right of, 466.

Ausser-Rhoden folkmote, 151.

Authorities, federal, 49.

Autonomy, cantonal, 146. communal, 176, 186.

Avalanches, 366.

Banquet, communal, 183.

Basel admitted, 14. division of, 141. inheritance of property in, 218.

Battle of Marignano, 14. of Morat, 13. of Morgarten, 11. of Sempach, 13.

Beef, dried, 345.

Bern, 411. aristocracy of, 423. codes in, 216. joins the league, 13. life in, 423. name of, 413. places of interest in, 420. surroundings of, 425.

Bills of rights, 57.

Bise, 23.

Boundaries, 20.

Breeds of cattle, 311.

Brunnen, league of, 11.

Bundesbrief, 473, 477.

Bundesgericht, 104. See _Federal Tribunal_.

Bundespräsident, 88, 97.

Bundesrath, 85. See _Federal Council_.

Bundesstaat defined, 36. established, 42.

Bundesversammlung, 42, 65.

Bürgergemeinde, 180.

Cæsar and the Helvetians, 9.

Calvin, character of, 30.

Calvinism in Geneva, 29.

Cantonal affairs, federal intervention in, 129. citizenship, 199. coinage, 123. conservatism, 160, 164. constitutions, 134, 146. courts, 136. customs, 160, 164. differences, 104. individuality, 144. institutions, 146. judges, 136. land laws, 215. officials, 141. revenues, 141. rights, 60, 146. sovereignty, 45, 130, 147. standards, 143.

Cantons and half-cantons, 141. area and population of, 469. Catholic, 18, 29. chief magistracy of, 133. coercion of, 90. eight old, 13. elections in, 131. entry of, into confederation, 471. forest, 12, 13. history of, 123. legislation in, 131. present status of, 125. Protestant, 29. relations of, to the communes, 188. representation in, 131. sovereignty of, 45, 130, 147. status of, 38.

Capital punishment, 48, 51, 139.

Cassation, courts of, 136. tribunal of, 112.

Cataracts, 370.

Catholic cantons, 18, 29.

Celtic ancestry, 9.

Census of 1888, 24, 466.

Cereals, 306.

Chalets, 329, 332.

Chamber, criminal, 112. of accusation, 112.

Chamois, 337.

Chancellery, federal, 49.

Character of the peasants, 351.

Chaux-de-Fonds, altitude of, 25.

Cheese, 315.

Citizenship, 47. acquirement of, 178, 200. American, 193. ancient Swiss, 191. cantonal, 199. communal, 177, 187, 193. defined, 192, 195. exit from, 203. history of, 191. instruction in its duties, 189. nature of, 202. renunciation of, 204. rights and duties of, 127, 134. state, defined, 196. Swiss, 198.

Climate, 21.

Codes, cantonal, 215.

Coercion of cantons, 90.

Coinage, old cantonal, 123.

Colonial extension, 457.

Commerce, 299.

Commercial courts, 136. restrictions, 46.

Common lands, 181.

Communal assembly, 186. citizenship, 177, 187, 193. membership, 177. by purchase, 178. officers, 186. paupers, 188. relations to the cantons, 188. rights, 177. schools, 266.

Commune defined, 174, 176. d’origine, 177. history of, 175. origin of, 189. powers of, 186.

Communes and communities, 135. area of, 180. des bourgeois, 180. des habitants, 180. double, 180. local, 150. national, 150. population of, 180. property of, 181, 183.

Composite state, 42.

Concert, European, 456.

Confederation and federation, 37. Helvetic, 40. powers of, 45. reform of, 43.

Congress of Vienna, 40.

Conservatism, cantonal, 160, 164. in government, 62.

Conservative party, 83.

Constitution, amendments of, 50, 51. compared with that of the United States, 54, 56, 59, 63. nature of, 61. of 1874, 43. Swiss, 34. text of, 44.

Constitutions, cantonal, 131, 134, 146.

Convention of 1848, 42.

Convention of Geneva, 433.

Corruption, absence of, 81.

Costumes, 349.

Council, blood, 159. communal, 186. federal, 76, 85. See _Federal Council_. great, 158, 159. in Appenzell-interior, 159. in Unterwald-lower, 159. national, 65, 66, 68. of states, 65, 69. triple, 158.

Councils, greater, 132. lesser, 133.

Courts, cantonal, 136. commercial, 136. district, 136, 137. federal, 111. of cassation, 136. supreme, 137. See also _Federal Tribunal_.

Courtship, primitive, 347.

Covenant, original, 12, 473.

Cows, Swiss, 310, 336.

Cretinism, 429.

Criminal courts, 112.

Criminals, extradition of, 130.

Curriculum in schools, 267, 268.

Custom in cantonal business, 160, 164.

Dairy products, 309.

Decapitation, 141.

Defensive preparations, 465.

Democracy, early, 12, 148, 151.

Department, political, 100.

Departments, executive, 97. governmental, 49.

Dependent classes, 188.

Dialects, Swiss, 24.

Diet, general, 39.

Differences among cantons, 104.

District courts, 136, 137.

Dogs, St. Bernard, 27. Swiss, 422.

Dried beef, 345.

Duties on imports and exports, 46.

Écoles des recrues, 236.

Edelweiss, 371.

Education, 253. See _Schools_. military, 236, 238. religious, 260. scope of, 278.

Eidgenossen, 14.

Eight old cantons, 13.

Einsiedeln, 27.

Einwohnergemeinde, 180.

Elections, 67, 70, 81. in Ausser-Rhoden, 153.

Engineering feats, 320.

Estate in lands, 210, 211.

European concert, 459. situation, 450.

Executive department, 49, 85. departments, 97.

Expatriation, right of, 207.

Exports and imports, 304.

Farms of peasants, 307, 325.

Federal army, 233. assembly, 42, 49, 65. powers of, 71. authorities, 49. chancellery, 49. council, 49, 76, 85. appeals from, to the assembly, 114. authority of, 91. business of, 97. departments of, 97. duties of, 88, 90, 96. election of, 71, 93, 101. eligibility to, 92, 94. history of, 94. judicial powers of, 90. meetings of, 97. membership of, 87. _personnel_ of, 102. powers of, 91. salaries of, 96. tenure of members of, 94, 95. triennial renewal of, 95. workings of, 101, 103. pact, 17. tribunal, 49, 104. appeals to, 109. compared with the Supreme Court of the United States, 115. defects of, in practice, 120. election to, 106, 114. history of, 104. limited powers of, 114, 115. membership of, 106, 109. origin of, 104. powers of, 106, 114, 115. seat of, 114.

Federalism, growth of, 145. tendency of, 62.

Federation and Confederation, 37.

Feudal Helvetia, 10.

Feudalism, end of, 211.

Firn, 365.

First inhabitants, 9.

Flora, native, 372.

Föhn, 23.

Folkmote, 149. of Ausser-Rhoden, 151.

Foreign affairs, 100. policy, 452.

Forest cantons, 12.

Forestry, 291.

Forests, 372.

Fountains, 417.

France and Germany, 458.

Frankish supremacy, 10.

Freedom of conscience, 47, 54, 56. of trade, 46.

Freiburg admitted, 13.

Fremden-industrie, 323.

French-speaking Swiss, 24. supremacy, 15.

Friendly remonstrances, intercantonal, 104.

Funeral customs, 349.

Gauls, early, 9.

Gemeinde-trinket, 183.

General diet, 39.

Geneva admitted, 17. and its lake, 378. Calvin in, 29. code Napoleon in, 220. convention, 433.

Geography of Switzerland, 19.

German cantons, testamentary powers in, 220. empire, relations to, 14. -speaking Swiss, 24.

Germany and France, 458.

Glaciers, 359.

Glarus and Uri, boundary between, 143. constitution of, 157. joins the league, 13. landsgemeinde in, 157.

Goitre, 428.

Government, coördinate branches of, 122. principles of, 61.

Grass crops, 315.

Great council, 158. powers, the, 455, 459.

Grisons admitted, 16.

Guides, 374.

Guilds, history of, 178.

Gymnasia, 267.

Half-cantons, 141.

Handelsgerichte, 136.

Hapsburg protection, 11.

Hay-making in the Alps, 326.

Health resorts, 375.

Helvetians, ancient, 9, 10.

Helvetic confederation, 40. republic, 15. union, origin of, 12.

Herdsman’s life, 337.

History of constitutions, 38.

Holy Alliance, Switzerland in the, 18.

Homeless persons, 49.

Hospice of St. Bernard, 26.

Houses, legislative, 65, 69, 73.

Ideals, national, 410.

Independence of cantons, 38.

Individual rights, 57.

Individuality, cantonal, 144.

Industrial schools, 277.

Industry, 299.

Influence on European affairs, 453.

Inheritance of property, 209.

Initiative, popular, 171, 173.

Inquest, judges of, 112.

Intercantonal affairs, 125. judicial relations, 138.

International arbitration, 445. copyright, 437. labor congress, 448. law, 448. unions, 430.

Introduction, 9.

Isotherms, 22.

Italian element, 25.

Jesuits expelled, 31, 48.

Judges, cantonal, 136. federal, 109. of inquest, 112. their relations to juries, 138.

Judicial department, 49. See _Federal Tribunal_. powers, limitations of, 121. torture, 140.

Judiciary, cantonal, 136.

Juf, altitude of, 25.

Juries in cantonal courts, 138.

Jury, functions of, 138. in federal assizes, 112.

Justice, 136. See _Courts_.

Kuhreihen, 340.

Labor congress, international, 448.

Ladin, 345.

Lake-dwellers, prehistoric, 315.

Lakes, 378.

Land laws, 209, 212. cantonal, 215.

Land, ownership of, 209. by peasants, 222. communal, 181. subdivision of, 222.

Landammann, re-election of, 160.

Landammann’s oath, 154.

Landrath, 157.

Lands in common, 181.

Landsgemeinde, 70, 148, 149, 152. at Altdorf, in Uri, 155. at Trogen, 151. functions of, 157. history of, 148. in Glarus, 157.

Landsturm and Landwehr, 237, 239.

Languages, census of, 470. spoken, 24.

Lausanne, the seat of the federal tribunal, 114.

Law, administrative, 90. international, 448.

Laws, cantonal, 130. summarized, 135.

Leases of land, 213, 216.

Legislation, federal, 48, 52. harmonization of, 131. initiation of, 73, 76, 89.

Legislative bodies, _personnel_ of, 79. sessions of, 78. department, 49. houses, 65, 69, 73. tyranny, 58.

Legislators, oath of, 79.

Legislatures, cantonal, 131, 132.

Legitima portio, 221.

Letter of alliance, 473, 477.

Lion of Luzern, 230.

Liquor traffic, regulation of, 52.

Literary property, protection of, 437.

Local assembly, 158.

Localism and nationalism, 60.

Love of country, 33.

Lunéville, treaty of, 16.

Luzern, becomes a canton, 12. lake of, 381.

Manufactures, 302.

Marignano, battle of, 14.

Marriage customs in Ticino, 346. laws, 53.

Material progress, 387.

Mediæval nobles, 10.

Mediation, act of, 39.

Mediatorsbip of Napoleon, 16.

Meinrad, St., 27, 28.

Mer de Glace, 364.

Metric standards, 470.

Militarism, dangers of, 460.

Military education, 236, 238. service, 226, 233, 236. status, Swiss, 464. tax, 243. topography, 451.

Militia, 237, 239, 249.

Mineral springs, 375.

Money, 469. old cantonal, 123.

Monks of St. Bernard, 26.

Moraines, 365.

Morat, battle of, 13.

Morgarten, battle of, 11.

Mountaineering, 373.

Mountains, 20, 354. their effect on character, 32.

Mythenstein, 398.

Name of Switzerland, 19.

Napoleon’s influence in Switzerland, 16, 39.

Napoleon’s mediatorship, 16.

National communes, 150. Council, 65, 66, 68. languages, 49.

Nationalism and localism, 60. growth of, 145.

Nationalities of Switzerland, 24.

Natural beauties, 353. features of the country, 20.

Naturalization, 200. defined, 207. in the United States, 204, 208.

Neuchâtel admitted, 17. history of, 17.

Névé, 364.

Nobles, mediæval, 10.

Normal schools, 265.

Oath of landammann, Appenzell, 154. nature of, 154.

Obergericht, 136.

Office, tenure of, 80.

Officers, military, 241.

Officials, cantonal, 141.

Old cantons, 12, 13. Catholic party, 31.

Original inhabitants, 9. pact, 12, 473, 477.

Orography of the country, 20, 21, 354.

Ownership of common lands, 181.

Pact, federal, 17. original, 12, 473.

Parliaments, peasant, 151.

Parties, political, 83.

Pastoral life, 335.

Pastures, Alpine, 313.

Patois, 345.

Patriotism, 32, 33.

Pauperism, 188.

Pay of soldiers, 241.

Peace of Aarau, 14.

Peasant home and life, 324, 344.

Peasant parliaments, 151. proprietorship, 222.

Pensions, 242.

People, character of, 31. patriotism of, 32, 33.

Personal rights, 57.

Pestalozzi, educational work of, 255.

Petite culture, 325.

Physical geography, 20.

Policy, foreign, 452.

Political department, 100. parties, 83.

Polytechnic school, 270.

Popular initiative, 171, 173. sovereignty, 168, 174. vote. See _Referendum_.

Population, 469.

Postal union, 435.

Powers, the great, 455, 459.

Prehistoric remains, 383.

Presidency, American, compared with the Swiss executive, 86.

President of confederation, 88, 97.

Presidents of legislative bodies, 66, 67, 69, 71, 73.

Principles of government, 61.

Procureur-général, 112.

Progressive spirit, 387.

Property, communal, 181, 183.

Propitiator, 137.

Proprietorship in lands, 211.

Protection of literary property, 437.

Protestant and Catholic parties, 18. cantons, 29. Reformation, 28.

Provisions, temporary constitutional, 50.

Prussian supremacy in Neuchâtel, 17.

Public life, training for, 95.

Punishment in schools, 262.

Punishments, 48. unusual, 170.

Rack for prisoners, 139.

Radical party, 83.

Railways, 317.

Ranz des Vaches, 340.

Rath, 157.

Realschulen, 293, 295.

Red cross flag, 433.

Referendum, 74, 77. benefits of, 169. cantonal, 172. compulsory, 172. defined, 164. functions of, 165. history of, 171. nature of, 50, 56. optional, 172. principle of, 171. veto by, 167, 169.

Reform, federal, 19.

Reformation, 28.

Religion in schools, 260.

Religious controversies, 18. differences, 25. freedom, 47, 54, 56. statistics, 470.

Remonstrances, friendly, 104.

Representation, 68. in cantons, 131.

Republic, Helvetic, 15.

Rhetians, 9.

Rhone, the, 379.

Right of asylum, 466.

Rights, cantonal, 146. communal, 177.

Rigi, 382.

Rivers of Switzerland, 20.

Roads, 323.

Romansch language, 345.

Rütli, story of, 393.

St. Bernard, monks of, 26.

St. Gallen admitted, 16. inheritance of property in, 218.

St. Gothard tunnel, 318.

Salvation army, 55.

Scenery, 353, 384.

Schaffhausen admitted, 14.

School-houses, 262.

Schools, 253. agricultural, 289. communal, 266. grades in, 267. industrial, 277. art, 286. manual training in, 282, 296. military, 238. normal, 265. punishment in, 262. religion in, 260. straw-platting, 287. technical, 277. trade, 285, 288.

Schützenfest, 249.

Schwyz, an original canton, 12.

Scrutin de liste, 68. des arrondissements, 68.

Sempach, battle of, 13.

Shepherd’s life, 337.

Silk industry, 302.

Situation, the European, 450.

Small nationalities, character of, 453.

Soldiers, pay of, 241.

Solothurn admitted, 13.

Sonderbund, 18.

Sorcery, execution for, 139.

Sovereignty, cantonal, 45, 147. popular, 168, 174.

Staatenbund defined, 36.

Standards, cantonal, 143.

Ständerath, 65, 69.

Stantz, treaty of, 13.

State, the composite, 42.

States, council of, 65, 69. -attorney, 112.

Statistics, 469.

Statutory enactments, 52.

Staubbach, 370.

Suabian war, 14.

Supreme Court of the United States compared with the Swiss federal tribunal, 115-122.

Swineherds, 339.

Swiss foreign influence, 452. mercenaries, 257. valor, 230, 251.

Tagsatzung, 40.

Tagwen in Glarus, 158.

Tax, military, 243.

Technical schools, 277.

Telegraph union, international, 435.

Tell, William, 391. the national hero, 407.

Tell’s story, legends parallel to, 401.

Temporary constitutional provisions, 50.

Tenant, rights and responsibilities of, 213.

Testamentary powers, 209.

Thirty Years’ War, 14.

Thurgau admitted, 16.

Ticino admitted, 16. marriage customs in, 346.

Topography, military, 451.

Torture, judicial, 140.

Tourmentes, 385.

Tours de scrutin, 68.

Training of officials, 95.

Treaty of Lunéville, 16. of Stantz, 13.

Trial by jury, 138. See also _Jury_.

Tribunal, federal, 104. See _Federal Tribunal_.

Triple council, 158.

Trogen, folkmote at, 151.

Troops, cantonal, 234. federal, 233.

Tyranny of legislatures, 58.

Union, postal, 435. telegraph, 435.

Unions, international, 430.

Universities, 269.

Unterwalden, division of, 141.

Uri, an original canton, 12. and Glarus boundary, 143. folkmote in, 155.

Valais admitted, 17. peasantry, 350.

Vaud admitted, 16. land laws in, 217.

Veto, popular, 167, 169.

Vice-President, 66. succession of, to the Presidency, 100.

Vienna, Congress of, 40.

Vierwaldstätten, 13.

Vineyards, 307.

Vorort, 37, 41.

Vote, popular. See _Referendum_.

Waldstätten, 12.

War, Suabian, 14. Thirty Years’, 14.

Watchmaking, 303.

Waterfalls, 370.

Wedding customs, 370.

Weights, 469.

Winds, 23.

Winkelried, story of, 404.

Witch-burning, 139.

Witenagemote, 149.

Woman’s lot, 343.

Women, courage of, 251.

Yodel, 341.

Zug joins the league, 13.

Zurich joins the league, 13. testamentary powers in, 219.

Zwingli, 28.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Müller, “Histoire des Suisses.”

[2] “History of the Helvetic Confederation,” Lausanne, 1650.

[3] See Appendix for original Pact and translation.

[4] A federal executive officer resembling the French consul.

[5] The history of Switzerland affords frequent instances of mutual succors for these purposes.

[6] After this battle Francis stamped on his medals, “_Vici ab uno Cæsare victos_” (“I vanquished those whom Cæsar alone had before vanquished”).

[7] It was only in 1857 that the anomalous condition of Neuchâtel ceased. The rights of the kings of Prussia as sovereigns date back to the cession made of it in 1707 by William of Orange to his cousin Frederick, first King of Prussia. In 1806 it was granted as a principality to Marshal Berthier, and so recognized by all the powers of Continental Europe. The Congress of Vienna restored it to the King of Prussia, making it, however, a Canton of the Helvetian Republic. In 1848 a revolution forcibly overturned the authority of the King of Prussia, and it so remained, in apparent conflict to what had been formally recognized by all the Great Powers, until 1857, when a treaty was signed between Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Great Britain, and Switzerland, by which it was made independent, to continue to form a part of the Swiss Confederation, by the same title as the other Cantons.

[8] Rufus Choate.

[9] Book xxi., ch. 31.

[10] The dog Barry, one day, found a little child in a half-frozen state; he began directly to lick him, and having succeeded first in restoring animation, and next in the complete resuscitation of the boy, he induced the child by his caresses to tie himself on his back. When this was effected, he carried the poor child, as if in triumph, to the hospice. The body of Barry was stuffed and placed in the museum at Bern, and may be seen there, with the little vial still hanging to his neck in which he carried a reviving drink for the perishing traveller.

[11] Zwingli lost his life in 1531 in the battle of Cappel; though he fell under another banner than that of the Prince of Peace, he was acting in obedience to the law of the republic, and accompanied the army by the express command of the magistrates. He is represented as a man of great meekness and moderation and charity, and, amidst all the disputes, was a constant advocate for peace and reconciliation.

[12] A hair-dresser of Geneva was imprisoned for arranging a bride’s hair with too much attention to vanity; and a woman was beaten for singing secular words to a psalm-tune; men were imprisoned for reading what were considered profane books, and children beheaded for striking a parent.

[13] The old curator of the Bern Museum would say to the visitors, pointing to the portrait of Voltaire, “There is the portrait of the famous M. de Voltaire, who dared to write AGAINST THE REPUBLIC and against God.”

[14] Professor Fiske.

[15] These words, it may be remarked, are from the same root, _ligo_, to bind.

[16] Agreements to furnish soldiers to foreign countries.

[17] There are many provisions regulating the rights of citizens and electors, Cantonal and Communal, which are given in Chapters 6 and 9, and “Chapter on Citizenship.”

[18] It reads in the French text, “From his natural judge,” the natural or constitutional judge being the one provided by the terms of the judicial Constitution, and as contradistinguished from an exceptional Court created after the appearance of the case to be adjudged.

[19] See amendment of December, 1887.

[20] See amendment of June, 1879.

[21] Homeless persons, _Heimathlosen_. These comprise not only foreigners who have lost their nationality of origin without having obtained another, but also natives who are not members of any Swiss Commune.

[22] The Constitutional provisions relating to these are fully given in chapters severally devoted to these Departments.

[23] The Constitution is officially published in _Romansch_ and _Ladin_, in addition to the three “national languages.”

[24] That the Constitution-making and amending power should be vested in a bare majority of the voting citizens, coupled with a majority of the Cantons, is considered by some as wanting in that solidity and security which are the most vital attributes of a fundamental law. But none of the enactments contained in the Swiss Constitution can be legally abolished or modified without the employment of the _Referendum_. And no law which revises the Constitution, either wholly or in part, can come into force until it has been regularly submitted by means of the _Referendum_ to the vote of the people, and has been approved by a majority of the citizens who on the particular occasion gave their votes, and also by a majority of the Cantons. It is also provided, that under certain circumstances a vote of the people shall be taken not only on the question, whether a particular amendment or revision approved by the Federal Assembly shall or shall not come into force, but also on the preliminary question whether any revision or reform of the Constitution shall take place at all. And the _Referendum_ in all such cases, in the language of the Constitution, is “obligatory.” The self-imposed checks of the Constitution of the United States, in this respect of amendment, have been described as “obstacles in the way of the people’s whims, not of their wills.” The system of the Initiative for the Swiss constitutional revision (by 50,000 citizens), though modelled upon one of the alternative methods by which amendments to the United States Constitution may be proposed, contains one significant modification of it; the people in the former appear in their national character and independent of state lines; the same holds true of the ratification of amendments.

[25] In 1480 fifteen hundred executions took place in Switzerland.

[26] By a Federal law to carry out this amendment, the distilled liquors are sold for cash by the Confederation in _minimum_ quantity of a hundred and fifty _litres_ (0.88 quart), and the price to be fixed from time to time by the Federal Council; but it shall never be less than one hundred and twenty francs nor more than one hundred and fifty francs per _hectolitre_ (twenty-two gallons) of pure alcohol. Denaturalized spirits to be sold at cost price for technical and household use.

[27] The Swiss Constitution contains 7700 words and 127 articles (including temporary provisions); that of the United States, 5300 words, divided into 37 sections.

[28] “American Historical Association,” vol. i., p. 37. Professor Scott.

[29] It was the original purpose of the writer to include, as an appendix to this volume, a translation of the Swiss Constitution; a faithful search having failed to discover any publication of it in English. But having ascertained that during the current year two such translations had appeared, one by Professor Edmund J. James, University of Pennsylvania, the other by Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, of Harvard, copies were obtained, and found to meet, in a most satisfactory and excellent manner, every possible demand for such a work. However, every important provision, and, in fact, almost the complete text of the Constitution, appears in the copious citations from it in the chapters on the Federal Departments, Cantons, Communes, and the Army.

[30] John Adams, Works, iv., p. 186.

[31] Previous to 1874 the members received only twelve francs a day.

[32] Woodrow Wilson, “The State.”

[33] Federal legislation may confer upon the Assembly the election or confirmation of other federal officials.

[34] This power was exercised in connection with the Neuchâtel revolution of 1856, the Royalist prisoners and deserters being amnestied in 1857.

[35] In 1874 it was fixed by a federal law that the Assembly should convene on the first Monday in June for the first, and on the first Monday in December for the second portion of the regular annual session.

[36] The remuneration of these officials in 1848, when the system was inaugurated, was much smaller; the President receiving only 6000 francs a year and each of the other members 5000 francs.

[37] This election occurs during December of each year on a day agreed upon by the Assembly.

[38] Although the Assembly cannot exactly turn out the members of the federal executive during their term of office, it enjoys such extensive power of supervision and control over their acts, and, in fact, exercises so large a part of what is called executive discretion, that it can practically have very little reason for desiring to remove them.

[39] “All such laws are adopted by the people, either tacitly or through the _referendum_; and the judiciary must submit their judgment on constitutional questions to the will of the people.”--Dubs, “Das Oeffentliche Recht der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft.”

[40] Marbury vs. Madison, 1 Cranch, 137. Mr. Madison disregarded the _obiter_ opinion of the court, and Mr. Jefferson treated it with contempt. “The federal judges,” he said, “declared that commissions signed and sealed by the President were valid, though not delivered. I deemed delivery essential to complete a deed, which as long as it remains in the hands of the party is as yet no deed. It is _in posse_ only but not _in esse_, and I withheld delivery of the commissions.” (Letter to Judge Roane, September 6, 1819. Works, vol. vii. p. 135.)

[41] “Political Science Quarterly,” June, 1890. C. B. Elliott.

[42] See also Professor Bryce, “American Commonwealth,” i. p. 237.

[43] Kent’s Commentaries, i. p. 453.

[44] Burke.

[45] A common standard of weights and measures was adopted in 1835, but the question of the coinage remained unsettled until 1848.

[46] It was customary, formerly, to deduct from five to ten per cent. from all property going out of the Canton by inheritance or marriage. It was also usual, when a person wished to sell land, to recognize a right in his relatives, or even neighbors, or fellow-citizens of the Canton, to take the property at an arbitrated value.

[47] Communities include school, church, and political territorial divisions, and only the latter are designated as Communes.

[48] Repealed in 1879, relegating it to the discretion of the Cantons except as to “political offences.” Since then eight of the Cantons have re-established capital punishment in their codes. They are the small Cantons, and represent only twenty per cent. of the Swiss population. No execution, however, has taken place in any of these Cantons since 1879; two sentences of death have been passed, but in both cases they were commuted to imprisonment for life.

[49] Professor Dicey, “Law of the Constitution.”

[50] These horns are made to imitate the human voice, and have a most mournful bellow.

[51] This is done to secure religious equality and to provide for the representation of the Catholic population in the Communes in which they are in the minority.

[52] _Et in corruptissima republica plurimæ leges._--Tacitus.

[53] Professor Dicey.

[54] Numa Droz.

[55] See chapter on citizenship.

[56] Thomas Jefferson.

[57] See chapters on “Constitution” and “Cantons.”

[58] This includes, also, birth abroad of children of American citizens temporarily residing or travelling in other countries (Rev. Stat. U. S., Sec. 1993).

[59] “Citizenship of the United States,” Richman,--“Political Science Quarterly,” March, 1890.

[60] “A citizen of a State is now only a citizen of the United States residing in that State; citizenship of the United States is the primary citizenship; State citizenship is secondary and derivative, depending upon citizenship of the United States.” (Slaughter-House cases, 16 Wallace.)

[61] The difficulty of obtaining citizenship, at one time, in the pastoral Cantons, is shown by the fact that no one had done so in lower Unterwald from 1664 to 1815.

[62] The successful issue of this suit was due to the vigorous and determined efforts of the United States consul at Zurich, George L. Catlin.

[63] These peasant proprietors do not live scattered amid the fields which they till, but are disposed to gather in the centre of the Commune, forming numerous small hamlets.

[64] Called in the Roman law _legitima portio_, legitimate portion; but the German law has a better designation for it,--_Pflichttheil_, duty part.

[65] In the district of Saffelare, a part of East Flanders, which nature has endowed with an unproductive but easily cultivated sandy soil, the territory is composed of 37,000 acres and has to nourish 30,000 inhabitants, all living by agriculture; and yet these peasants not only grow their own food, but they also export agricultural produce, and pay rents to the amount of from fifteen to twenty-five dollars per acre. (Krapotkin, “The Forum,” August, 1890.)

[66] In the matter of these capitulations the Cantons claimed that, first, they never granted troops to any prince or state but by virtue of some preceding alliance; second, they granted troops only for the defence of the state they were given to, and not to act offensively; third, that the sovereign never received any subsidy or other advantages from it. The Cantons contented themselves with giving such auxiliary troops as were stipulated by their alliance and procuring a beneficial service for their subjects, without reserving profit to themselves. But in spite of the contention that these mercenaries espoused only a just quarrel, such service was a source of social no less than of political ills, and seriously impaired, for the time, the dignity and standing of the country.

[67] _Primi in omnibus prœliis oculi vincuntur._--Tacitus.

[68] Even the Cantons, from the first institution of their governments and up to the time the Confederation assumed control of the military service, never kept in pay any standing troops. During the wars with the House of Austria the service was performed by militia, who were paid by the respective Cantons while kept in the field, and dismissed as soon as the campaign was ended.

[69] The minimum height for a recruit in the United States army is five feet four inches, weight one hundred and twenty-five pounds, and chest measure thirty-two inches.

[70] United States Revised Statutes, Sec. 1625, makes subject to enrolment in the militia “every able-bodied male citizen of the respective States, resident therein,” etc.

[71] “When the citizens of Geneva were alarmed in the night [the _Escalade_ of December 12, 1602], in the depth of winter, by the enemy, they found their muskets sooner than their shoes.”--Rousseau.

[72] The report of 1887 for the Canton of Bern gives 1,925,580 francs expended on the cantonal and communal schools, not including the university.

[73] In July of this year (1890) a statue of Pestalozzi was dedicated at Yverdon, on the Lake of Neuchâtel, for it was there that, after many struggles with adversity, he founded, at the beginning of this century, the school which was perhaps more deeply and lastingly useful than any school that ever existed, by spreading the educational tenets and methods of its famous master throughout Europe, and later across to America, with contagious force. The unveiling of the monument was accompanied with a _Cantate patriotique_ by a choir of a thousand children. The statue represents Pestalozzi with a boy and girl whom he is instructing by his side, and bears the simple inscription, “Henry Pestalozzi, 1746-1827. Monument erected by general subscription 1890.”

[74] The University of Geneva, at the close of the last century, known as the College of Geneva, and which exerted a wide influence in Europe, being temporarily suppressed during the revolution which had taken place, proposed, through its faculty, the transplanting of the college in a body to the United States. To Washington, who had in view the devoting of a quite large amount of money to the founding, or to the support, of institutions of learning, Jefferson wrote a letter on February 23, 1795, in which he laid before him the plan for the transferring of this institution to the national capital; and in the letter Jefferson characterized the College of Geneva as one of the eyes of Europe in matters of science, the University of Edinburgh being the other.

[75] Zurich has made its city forest, the _Sihl-Wald_, a great public pleasure-ground that pays large sums annually into the city treasury, besides yielding inestimable dividends in the shape of health and happiness to the citizens. This forest has been owned by Zurich ever since 1309, and has been carefully administered for centuries, and is now managed on the most approved scientific principles by corps of trained foresters. Last year the net profits were something over eight dollars an acre, or a total of about twenty thousand dollars, for the city treasury. Half the annual yield of wood is from thinnings alone. In the economic treatment of the forest, its value as a pleasure-ground is not forgotten; the landscape is preserved unharmed, and the place made thoroughly and pleasantly accessible.

[76] Early in the seventeenth century a king of Spain came to see a clock which had been made by Jacques Droz, who resided at Locle, and whose automatons were much noted. Upon the clock there were seated a shepherd, a negro, and a dog. As the hour was struck the shepherd played upon his flute, and the dog fondled gently at his feet. But when the king reached forth to touch an apple that hung from a tree under which the shepherd rested, the dog flew at him and barked so furiously that a live dog in the street answered him. One of the courtiers of the king ventured to ask the negro, in Spanish, what time it was. There was no reply, but when the question was repeated in French, an answer was given. All of them at once voted that the clock was the work of an evil one.

[77] It is estimated that 200 francs’ worth of steel will make 525,000 francs’ worth of common watch-springs.

[78] On the new federal palace at Bern, in progress of construction in 1890, men were employed to act as turnspits, in immense wheels, for elevating the large blocks of stone.

[79] Adams and Cunningham, “The Swiss Confederation.”

[80] The _Fête des Vignerons_, which occurs once in fifteen years at one of the villages on the Lake of Geneva, is the most brilliant festival held in Switzerland, and is accompanied with all the light, joyous mirth of the ancient Bacchanalian festivals. It is graphically described in Cooper’s “Headsman.”

[81] The word _Alp_ is a provincialism, and means an elevated pasture, and hence the name of the mountains on which the pastures exist.

[82] Liquid manure fills an important part in the economy of Swiss husbandry, under the name of _Jouche_ or _Mist-Wasser_ in the German Cantons, and of _Lisier_ in the French Cantons. They collect in large casks the drainage of their manure-piles, stables, and hog-pens, and bring it in carts to the fields, where it is drawn off into wooden tubs fitted to the shoulders of men, and sometimes of women, who, walking along the furrows, distribute it in due proportion to each plant, by stooping to the right and left, the coffee-colored nectar pouring over their heads. It would be impossible to perform an uncleanly task in a more delicate manner.

[83] The great projector did not live to see the accomplishment of his grand work.

[84] The construction of the St. Gothard railway stopped this indemnity.

[85] A report, made in connection with the Swiss National Exhibition of 1883, calculated that up to 1880, 1002 inns had been built for the special use of travellers, and that they contained 58,137 beds, an average of 58 apiece. The capital value of the land, buildings, and furniture belonging to these was estimated at 320,000,000 francs; the gross profits on which were 53,000,000 francs, or seventeen per cent.; this was reduced by deduction of working expenses to 16,000,000 francs, or five per cent. Of these 1002 inns no fewer than 283 are situated in positions above three thousand four hundred feet, and 14 are actually above six thousand five hundred and sixty-two feet in elevation.

Switzerland only became a “play-ground” within the last century. The first English guide-book appeared in 1818, by Daniel Wall, of London. The first of any kind was published in 1684, by Wagner, a Zurich naturalist, and called “_Index Memorabilium Helvetiæ_.”

[86] Ruskin.

[87] When these storms break upon the mountain, be it night or day, the bells of the village churches are vigorously rung to exorcise the evil one, and bring the pious villagers on their knees in prayer.

[88] These are made of maple, linden, and pine by the shepherds themselves, who bestow much time on their manufacture. The ladles are made in the shape of shells. The milk-strainer, the measures, and the milk-hods are all elegantly shaped and very clean.

[89] The chamois is a small species of antelope, somewhat resembling a goat. Its hoofs are remarkably cloven, with a protruding border, which enables it to climb almost perpendicular declivities. Its muscular power is great: it can leap chasms twenty feet wide, and jump down rocks the same distance to platforms with only just room enough for its four hoofs. In the autumn, when strongest and fattest, it is black, in the early spring gray, and in the summer red.

[90] It measures four and one-half feet in length and nine to ten feet from wing to wing extended, weighs as much as twenty pounds, and is of a rusty brown color. It is a fierce enemy of sheep, goats, dogs, hares, etc., and has been known to carry off young children.

[91] The Swiss infant is bandaged into a large piece of cloth,--to be kept straight, it is explained,--and resembles a pappoose. In the country churches can be seen old paintings of the Virgin holding the infant Christ swathed in just the same manner.

[92] A French writer, Picot, went so far as to say of the peasants of Valais: “The Valaisans, far from desiring to attract attention from the world, are jealous of their obscurity, of their ignorance, and even of their poverty, which they believe essential to their happiness.” Many localities have their written existence in song or story. The words of the Vaudois poet, Juste Olivier, “_Vivons de notre vie_,” have sunk into the hearts of a number of writers who, under their own public alone, are cherishing and seeking to reproduce the life about them, dwelling especially upon those local and traditional phases which they feel daily to be giving way before the march of progress.

[93] The winds, refrigerated in their passage over fields of ice and snow, meet there a warm aerial current coming from the plains of Italy.

[94] Longfellow’s “Hyperion.”

[95] Virgil.

[96] The Rhone is made to serve useful as well as æsthetic purposes; the great water-power of this river has been utilized by diverting that part passing on the left of the island into a canal, which conducts the water into a building containing twenty turbines, with four thousand four hundred net horse-power; this power is utilized in a variety of ways, from running sewing-machines to supplying power for an electric light plant; it is an enterprise very profitable to the municipality of Geneva.

[97] See Chapter on “Constitution.”

[98] In the Canton of Vaud, a short distance back from the lake is _Avanche_ or _Avanches_, the ancient capital of Helvetia; near this place the Helvetians were defeated by one of Vitellius’s lieutenants, and “many thousand were slain and many sold as slaves, and after committing great ravages the army marched in order of battle to _Aventicum_, the capital of the country.” (Tacitus.)

[99] The first steamer on a Swiss lake was the “Guillaume Tell,” in 1823, on the Lake of Geneva.

[100] Whirlwinds of snow, or _tourmentes_ (known in the Grisons), are tossed aloft by the gale, like the sandy vortices of Africa formed by the simoom; they are dangerous by blinding the traveller and effacing the track.

[101] On this passage of Helvetian history, there is a poem of exquisite beauty, by Mrs. Hemans, the “Record of Woman:”

“Werner sat beneath the linden tree, That sent its lulling whispers through his door, Even as man sits, whose heart alone would be With some deep care, and thus can find no more The accustomed joy in all which evening brings, Gathering a household with her quiet wings.”

[102] This place is evidently a fragment, some seventy-five or one hundred acres, that has fallen from the mountain, and, lying between the lake and the rocks, it offered a good point of rendezvous.

[103] It is a curious fact that Schiller made Franz, the hero of his “Robbers,” say, “In order to become a finished rascal one must have a certain national bent; he must live in a certain climate and breathe a certain rascally atmosphere; so I advise you to go into the Grisons, for that is, in these days, the Athens of pickpockets.” Schiller was obliged to apologize, the Council of the Leagues threatening to withhold the money they had promised to lend the Duke of Wurtemberg if the offending poet was not punished; he also received an order “never to write more of the same.”

[104] In 1796 there appeared in New York an opera in three acts, adapted by William Dunlap from a dramatic performance published in London in 1794, called “Helvetic Liberty.”

[105] A rude weapon much used by the early Swiss, consisting of a club ending in a massive knob, with spikes protruding in every direction so as to suggest the name of “morning star.”

[106] Although it is alleged that five similar feats to Winkelried’s are on record in Swiss history, only one is recognized and commemorated by the Swiss. In the village square of Stantz is a marble group representing Arnold Winkelried in the act of pressing the Austrian spears into his heart and holding them down, while a second figure pushes forward to take advantage of the gap.

[107] The Æneid, vi. 660.

[108] At the art exhibition held in Bern this year (1890) there were forty plaster models of statues of William Tell competing for the one it is proposed to erect at Altdorf, 150,000 francs having been appropriated for that purpose.

[109] Lamartine.

[110] The Aar is perhaps the most interesting water system in Switzerland, especially if we include its great tributaries, the Reuss and the Limmat. Rising among the metamorphic wilds of the Finsteraarhorn, thundering through the granitic dikes of the Grimsel, breaking its way to the Handeck, and plunging in mad career over the falls, it dashes on to the clear profound of Brienz, to the softer beauties of Interlaken and Thun, and, after watering the fertile table-lands of Bern, receives the sister waters of the Reuss and Limmat, which it carries, in one dark-green flood, into the main artery of the Rhine.

[111] The market for fowls has one feature worthy of imitation everywhere. In the centre of it stands a man with a miniature guillotine, who for one centime (a fifth of a cent) will behead the fowl, and it is done deftly and free of all bloody exposures; the fowl is firmly held and muffled to prevent outcry, the decapitation instantaneous, the falling of the head and bleeding concealed, and when life is extinct and flow of blood ceases, the fowl is nicely wrapped in paper by the executioner and replaced in the market-basket; it is certainly a humane substitute for wringing off the neck.

[112] Means weather-peak, and it is an established barometer in its neighborhood.

[113] The western wing of the Bernese Alps presents broad pyramidal masses of a flattened character. The eastern wing exhibits a complete contrast in its tapering obelisks and rocky minarets, in its serrated crests and numerous horns.

[114] _Alpenglühen_, or sunset-glow, is an exception to the general laws governing the disappearance of the sunlight by the gradual rise of the earth’s shadow; it is a kind of second or after-coloring in the snowy masses, making them stand out from the dark background, though the general light is constantly diminishing. The peaks are illuminated till the sun is from 20° to 30° below the horizon; then the general clearness diminishes, but on the western horizon is a clear segment of 8° to 10°; but as the air has much less reflecting power than the snowy mountains, the latter begin to be lighted up again. This second lighting may be so great that the mountains appear to be actually illuminated by the sun.

[115] Since this was written and placed in the hands of the publishers Congress has passed and the President approved a copyright bill, aimed at securing reciprocal protection to American and foreign authors in the respective countries which may comply with its provisions. While the measure which has become a law is not entirely satisfactory to the friends of international copyright, and must be regarded as experimental as to its ultimate results or workings, all of its advocates feel that it is a huge instalment of justice, and a gratifying victory gained for the indorsement of the principle of international copyright. In answer to an inquiry addressed to Mr. A. R. Spofford, Librarian of Congress, as to the effect of the law on the relation of the United States to the Bern Convention, he has kindly made the following statement: “Under the rather uncertain (not to say ambiguous) meaning of Sec. 13 of the Act of March 3, 1891, two things seem to be necessary before a foreigner can be entitled to copyright in the United States: (1) His government must be one that already grants copyright to Americans (by law or international agreement) on the same terms as to its own people; (2) the President must certify by proclamation the fact just cited.

“Whether the new law was intended to be at once applicable to the authors of all nations who were parties to the Berne Convention of 1885-86; whether the Executive of the United States has authority now to accede to this convention, and join the International Union under the provisions of Article XVIII.; whether this would require the concurrent action of the President and Senate; or, finally, whether an act of Congress would be required (as Great Britain had to pass an act through Parliament to make that country a party to the Berne International Union), all these appear to me to be open questions, owing to lack of precision in the Act of March 3, which was passed in a crowded state of the public business, and not fully digested by a committee, especially with regard to the Berne Convention.”

[116] An international arbitration agreement has been drafted by the nations of North, South, and Central America, and a copy has been sent to each European government, extending an invitation to signify their adherence to its provisions. The President of the Swiss Confederation has submitted to the Federal Assembly this pan-American treaty, with a recommendation that Switzerland accept the invitation given by the late International American Conference.

[117] Adams and Cunningham, “Swiss Confederation.”

[118] Though without a sea-coast or a ship, Switzerland has recognized rights even on the sea as a neutral nation; the treaty of Paris of 1856 respecting neutral flags, neutral goods on vessels of belligerents, and blockades, was also entered into by the Swiss government in the same year.

[119] A hide cut into shoe strings was made to surround a principality under a bargain to buy,--_Taurino quantum possent circumdare tergo._

[120] The annexation of Alsace-Lorraine was really a violation of what is the sound basis of the principle of the sacredness of nationalities; a violation of the sacredness of self-government.

[121] This term is employed to denote the seven nations which were parties to the Treaty of Berlin,--viz., England, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, and Turkey.

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.