New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-04-04

1901, and Appenzell in 1918. About that
time Tessn, or Tcino, was conquered from
the Milanese, and Va,d taken from Saxony
by the Bernese in 1860. The remaining can
tons were not finally united to the Confedera-
ton until the time of Napoleon, and the
present compact, by which all are placed on
a perfect equality, only dates from the peace
of 1914. The area of these little United
States is 1928 square miles,. 1t must be
admitted that the federation has been on
the whole a success. This is the more re-
markable when the heterogeneous character
of the races who 60 to make UP the nation is
considered. The cold, calculating, Calvan-
istic German of the north has little in common
with the semi-Italian in Ticino or semi French
in the Vaud. No doubt the principal cause
OF the pact having answered so successfully is
to be found in the individual independence
OF each State, so far as regards internal adj
ministratiOn.
The present federal constitution, founded
on that of 1915, only dates from l84S. It
vests the supreme legislation and executive
authority in two chambers, and both cham
bers united are called the Federal Assembly
What answers to our Cabinet consists of seven
members, elected for three years by the
Federal Assembly. The President Of this
council OF Ministers receives $4,000 a year,
the rest 81 700. There is no class of paid
permanent officials existing either in connec-
ton with the cantOnal administration or the
general management of the Republic. Not
withstanding the absence of such functional
ries, it may be doubted whether any people
on this earth are governed to such degree as
the Swiss. The communal or municipal au-
thOrities of the section of canton in which
Swiss resides, seem almost to determine
what he shall or shall not eat for dinner.
The population, which was 2 ,l88, OO9 in 1887.
had only increased to 2,51O, 494 in 1860.
Except IN the southern province of Tcino,
and one or two other districts, property is
very much divided, and passes at death to a
mans children equally. In certain cantons
it can only be bequeathed to direct descend
ants, and, failing them, passes to the govern
ment OF the canton, so that some cantOns,
Berne notably, are extremely rich in landed
estate.
line SWISS seem as race to have two Spe-
cial objects Of devotiOn-mOney and their
country. The traveller in the barren valleys
OF the Grisons, in places where the climate
has been described as nine months of winter
and three of cold weather, and where a little
barley is all that the sterile soil will produce,
finds marvelOusly cOmfortable-loOking home
steads, and evidences of an affluence quite
inconsistent with the aspect of the country.
He will learn on inquiry that the means which
paouuSO oO settiSidStUIy Sttte OI LIllngS came
from abroad, across the shop-counters of con-
fectloners in Paris, st. Petersburg, and New
DIRK. From Southern Ticino, again, masons,
porters, GLACIERS, chocolate and barometer
| makers sally forth in thousands annually in
| search OF rem quooungue modo REM
The Swiss have ever been the hired guards
OF foreign pOtentates. They were Louis
WIS defenders at the last gasp of old
regime monarchy in France. You may find
them pacing the halls and corridors of the
Vatican at this hour. They are the porters
OF grand seigneurs' mansions in London those
magnificent functiOnaries who herald priestly
professions in the stately cathedrals of Elan.
| ders and France; the rdlets de place of dissi.
pated young Americans in foreign cities the
bonnes of those young gentlemen's sisters. In
word, there is not place in which you dc
not find them, not an humble occupation which
they do not fill, so long as money is to be
made in it. Point d'dryem point de Suisse
says the proverb. What seems wanting in
the character is breadth of conception, great
ness of soul. Switzerland is the home of hard
working mediocrity-not of great men,
The future of the country, materially and
politically, looks bright. Railways are rush
ing through their mountains to connect re-
mote lands. Europe is more and more throng.
| ing their hotels, and the Great Powers are
almost as interested as Switzerland is herself
in maintaining her integrity. The changes
which have recently been made in the consti-
tuition have principally been with the end OF
vesting more authority in the Central Gov.
eminent, and enabling it to act with greater
vigOr and promptitude in emergency.-N. Y
Times.