Chapter I: Preface

This book is based upon notes of studies and observations during four years of diplomatic service in Switzerland, made, at the time, with eventual publication in view. There is no attempt to treat the subjects embraced, or rather touched upon, in any historical sequence, but, by brief hints and random suggestions, to seize the principal and interesting features of the country and its institutions, the people and their characteristics.

The comparative method correlated with cause or effect is used in the chapters on the government and administration, national and cantonal. Many familiar facts in Swiss history, and experiences had by the United States, are introduced to show their relation to and effect upon certain political ideas. In fact, all through the Swiss federal polity and that of the United States run not only parallels of illustration, but lines converging to and pointing out essential truths in popular government.

Dating from the “Eternal Covenant” of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, concluded in 1291, under all vicissitudes of government and constitution,--with radical varieties of character, occupation, religion, language, and descent,--love of liberty and a passionate devotion to the republic have characterized the people, with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” the great objects of government, federal, cantonal, and communal. During this period of six hundred years the smallest free commonwealth and the oldest federal republic in the world presents a valuable stock of political experience.

It is very difficult for a stranger to discover all that is remarkable in any country, and perhaps as hard to treat of so many different subjects with such care as to omit nothing that is material. The utmost endeavor, at least, has been used to be exact, and an effort to give a more complete view of the modern state of the country than has yet appeared. There is no design in the “Introduction” to write even an historical outline; it is not necessary to the purpose of this work; but only to relate such general facts, as to its former state, as may serve to discover the causes which gave rise and birth to the present Confederation.

Where references to national and local laws or ordinances and leading historical events are necessary, partial repetition has been deemed preferable to directing the reader to previous citations.

As the Swiss, in different Cantons, speak different languages with several distinct idioms, there is necessarily a great diversity of nomenclature; the aim has been to follow that locally prevalent, and especially in the designation of the Cantons by their German, French, and Italian names.

The writer has had frequent recourse to the following authorities: “The Swiss Confederation,” by Sir Francis Adams and C. D. Cunningham, London; “The Federal Government of Switzerland,” by Bernard Moses, San Francisco (these two books are of recent date, supplementing each other well, and constitute the only systematic and valuable publication in English on the constitutional history and public law of Switzerland); Woolsey’s “Political Science,” Woodrow Wilson’s “The State,” Freeman’s “History of Federal Government,” May’s “Democracy in Europe,” “Encyclopædia Britannica,” Reclus’s “The Earth and its Inhabitants,” furnish briefer but valuable accounts. Elaborate works in German and French consulted are Bluntschli’s “Staats und Rechts Geschichte der Schweiz,” Dubs’s “Das öffentliche Recht der schweizerischen Eidgenossenchaft,” Droz’s “Instruction Civique,” and Magnenat’s “Abrégé de l’Histoire de la Suisse.”

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. PAGE
INTRODUCTION 9

CHAPTER II.
THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 35

CHAPTER III.
THE FEDERAL ASSEMBLY 65

CHAPTER IV.
THE FEDERAL COUNCIL 85

CHAPTER V.
THE FEDERAL TRIBUNAL 104

CHAPTER VI.
THE CANTONS 123

CHAPTER VII.
THE LANDSGEMEINDE 148

CHAPTER VIII.
THE REFERENDUM 164

CHAPTER IX.
THE COMMUNES 174

CHAPTER X.
CITIZENSHIP 191

CHAPTER XI.
LAND LAW AND TESTAMENTARY POWER 209

CHAPTER XII.
MILITARY SERVICE AND ORGANIZATION 226

CHAPTER XIII.
EDUCATION 253

CHAPTER XIV.
TECHNICAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 277

CHAPTER XV.
INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE 299

CHAPTER XVI.
PEASANT HOME AND LIFE 324

CHAPTER XVII.
NATURAL BEAUTIES AND ATTRACTIONS 353

CHAPTER XVIII.
WILLIAM TELL 391

CHAPTER XIX.
BERN 411

CHAPTER XX.
SWITZERLAND THE SEAT OF INTERNATIONAL UNIONS 430

CHAPTER XXI.
SWITZERLAND AND THE EUROPEAN SITUATION 450

POPULATION AND SOIL, CENSUS, 1888 469

MONEY, WEIGHTS, MEASURES 469

CENSUS OF 1888 470

ORDER AND DATES OF THE ENTRY OF THE TWENTY-TWO CANTONS
INTO THE CONFEDERATION 471

APPENDIX 473

THE SWISS REPUBLIC.

CHAPTER I.