The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1877-10-25

Board, and, at the same time, abollshe
/ the officer of President or Chief Magl:
0 tratc, and absorbed the powers of tn
. office into those ofthe Legislative Body
: How this system of legislative aggran
: dlzement would operate if adopted II
the American Republic, is not hard L
predict nevertheless, it works well il
this small country, Of simple-minde'
and observation-disclosures, where brings,
|, Hobbies, and Credit-Mobilier schemes
are unknown.
! The Swiss Government is unique il
another respect Its legislative pro
cecdings are conducted and recorded IL
three languages, German, French, anC
Italian, -corrcsponding 10 the three
races which compose the population Of
tho Republic; but the Germans consti
tute the great majority OF the inhabi
tants. In the census returns of 1850, il
was ascertained that 3S4, SCI families
spoke German as the mother-language,
1878 French, and 30,293 Italian bu,
all the educated persons can speak
French. When Frenchman makes a
speech in the Swiss Congress, all the
Germans and Italians can understand
him perfectly, bnt they generally reply
in their own languages, which, the
French rnembers not understanding the
official interpreter states the substance
OF it in French. All bills, reports, and
resolutions are written in tho three
tongues, and, the journals are kept in
the same way, and tho laws and proc.
lamations are printsd iE the three Ian.
guages.
Not only in race and language are the
people divided into three divisions, but
in religions also: First, Calvinism sec.
ond, Catholicism; third, Rationsiism.
The educated class IS generally belong to
the latter. But tho census returns omit
them, enumerating l,566,347 as Protest
ants, !, 0e4, 1863 as Romanists, and l. 500
as Jews total, 2,669,l47. The French
and Italians are nearly all put down as
Catholics while the great mass of the
Germans are Prntestants, and are the
ruling element OF the Republic they &C.
cupy most of the good land, aud possess
the greater portion Of the wealth of the
country, owning most of the manufac-
tories and the railroads, and the greater
part Of the bank stock and other proflta-
BILE interests.
There are no titles Of nobility recog-
nized by law in Switzerland. Primo
geniture, entails, special privileges, and
titles of nobility, were all overthrown
and swept away by the revolution of
l847, and abolished by law in the Con.
stitution OF l84S. Jesnitism was expelled
from the Republic ut the same time, and
"A free-school system introduced to fill
tho vacuum. But, as the enforcement Of
tho school law was lett to tho action of
the authorities OF each Canton, it has re.
suited that, in the Ultramontane Can
tons, the priests have nnllifed the Con-
stitutional provision, and popular ignor-
ance is almost as dense as it was q quar-
ter Of a century ago, before the adoption
or the Constitution Of 1913. The only
thing taught by the clericals is dogmat-
10 catechism, to which lately has been
added Papal intallibility. But, in the
other Cantons, which are Protestant or
"mixed," popular education has made
great progress. The Prussian system
Of instruction ia fully adopted and ap.
piled, and the whole mass of the people
in these CantOns have become quite we'll
educated, and newspapers, books, and
circulating libraries abound, 80 in Ger.
many. 1t was this hostility of tho priests
TO popular secular education which
chiefly caused tho recent amendment to
the Swiss Constitution. Under the
now provisions it is made the duty of
the General Assembly TO enforce secular
education in all the schools of Swi;zcr-
land. The priests made desperate eff
fort TO defeat the new Constitution when
it was submitted TO popular vote for rat
last April; but it was carried
by two-thirds majority, having receiv-
cd 100000 votes ont Of 500, 900 that were
cast.