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 THE SWITZERS.
 
 MR. DIXON'S WORKS. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 n. 
 NEW AMERICA. 
 
 in. 
 FREE RUSSIA. 
 
 IV. 
 
 SPIRITUAL WIVES. 
 
 V. 
 
 HER MAJESTY'S TOWER. 
 
 Library Editions of Mr. Dixon's Historical Memoirs 
 
 JOHN HOWARD, called The Philanthropist, and 
 
 WILLIAM PENN, Founder of Pennsylvania, 
 
 are in the Press, and will shortly appear.
 
 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 BT 
 
 WILLIAM HEPWORTH DIXON. 
 
 LONDON: 
 HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 10 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 1872. 
 
 AH Righlt reterved.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 tiunoewais and Walden, Printers, 
 
 CMtle St. Leicester Sq. 
 
 <u
 
 
 TO 
 
 THE RT. HON. W. E. FORSTER, M.R, 
 
 THIS PICTURE OF 
 
 A FREE PEOPLE 
 
 IS 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
 M r>r*r^f^mf\
 
 PEEFAOB. 
 
 ' In from Vevey V hails an English voice at Neuf- 
 chatel, where trains from Vevey and Lausanne 
 meet trains from Bern and Zurich on their way 
 to Paris. 
 
 'Yes; and you from Bern?' replies a New- 
 York voice. 
 
 ' From Bern. You had a good time V 
 
 ' Yes ; it rained Niagara ; but the lakes are 
 lovely and the mountains absolutely grand.' 
 
 ' Saw anything of the Switzers V 
 
 'Eh? You mean the boys who lead your 
 mules, and cook your meals, and tie you up in 
 ropes ? Not much. Somehow, you hardly notice 
 them. Why not ? Well, now you ask me why
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 I think it is because they are so quiet, and get 
 on with what they have to do so well.' 
 
 * These people, when you come to know them, 
 are as much worth study as their alps and lakes.' 
 
 ' Indeed ! Then tell us all about them.' 
 
 6 St. James's Terrace, 
 
 New Year's Day, 1872.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. MOUNTAIN MEN 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 II. ST. GOTHARD . 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 III. PEOPLING THE ALPS 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 rv. THE FIGHT FOR LIFE 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 V. RAIN AND ROCKS . 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 VI. TEUTON AND CELT . 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 VII. THE COMMUNES 
 
 
 
 62 
 
 VIII. COMMUNAL AUTHORITIES 
 
 
 
 71 
 
 IX. COMMUNAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 
 79 
 
 X. CANTONS AND HALF- CANTONS . 
 
 
 86 
 
 XI. CANTONAL RULE 
 
 
 
 99 
 
 XII. CANTON ZURICH 
 
 
 
 109 
 
 XIII. PURE DEMOCRACY . 
 
 
 
 119 
 
 XIV. A REVOLUTION 
 
 
 
 130 
 
 XV. POPULAR VICTORIES 
 
 
 
 140 
 
 XVI. THE LEAGUE . 
 
 
 
 150 
 
 XVII. THE FEDERAL PACT 
 
 
 
 159 
 
 XVIII. JESUITS 
 
 
 
 169 
 
 XIX. PILGRIMAGE . 
 
 
 181 
 
 a2 
 
 

 
 X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XX. 
 
 CONVENT AND CANTON 
 
 
 
 192 
 
 XXI. 
 
 ST. meinrad's cell 
 
 
 
 203 
 
 XXII. 
 
 FEAST OF THE ROSARY 
 
 
 . 
 
 214 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES 
 
 
 
 226 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 conflict of the CHURCHES 
 
 
 
 237 
 
 XXV. 
 
 SCHOOL . 
 
 
 
 
 247 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 DEMOCRACY AT SCHOOL 
 
 
 
 
 254 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 GENEVA 
 
 
 
 
 262 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 SCHEME OF WORK . 
 
 
 
 
 274 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 SECONDARY SCHOOLS 
 
 
 
 
 285 
 
 XXX. 
 
 SCHOOL AND CAMP . 
 
 
 
 
 296 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 DEFENCE 
 
 
 
 
 306 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 THE PUBLIC FORCE 
 
 
 
 
 317 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 IN THE FIELD. 
 
 
 
 
 327' 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 OUT AGAIN 
 
 
 
 
 340 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 A CROWNING SERVICE 
 
 
 
 
 349
 
 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MOUNTAIN MEN. 
 
 ' We are a folk apart, we mountain men,' a Switzer 
 says a Switzer who has seen the world, and 
 learnt in many lands to know the ways of man 
 and nature as we watch the sun go down behind 
 a screen of domes and peaks. ' What say you. 
 Sister Agnes ; are we not a folk apart V 
 
 A Nun from Sion, in the Canton Yalais, with 
 a ruddy cheek and pair of southern eyes, this 
 Sister Agnes is a pilgrim of the season, on her way 
 to Meinrad's Cell, the famous chapel of Our Lady 
 of the Anchorites in Canton Schwyz. She is the 
 chance companion of a day. We found her sitting 
 at a wayside cross ; we took her up, for she was 
 sore of foot and slight of frame. While we were 
 
 B
 
 2 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 dining at an inn, she wandered to the ice-caves, 
 lost her way, and fell. At length we found her, 
 weak with pain, and brought her to this moun- 
 tain-pass. 
 
 An Engineer from Bern, a man of thirty-five, 
 with bearded chin, broad brow, and pair of cold 
 blue eyes, the Switzer is on public duty in 
 these mountains ; armed with rule and chain, with 
 drill and mallet; to interrogate these crests, to 
 tap these rocks, to span each beck and fall, to note 
 each curve of alp, and try if science cannot find 
 some means of saving the great wreck of life and 
 land below, by guiding, and controlling at their 
 sources, the St. Gothard floods. 
 
 Fair types of South and North, of Celtic and 
 Teutonic Switzerland, are these companions of the 
 way ; the girl from Sion and the man from Bern ; 
 one warm and feminine, with a drooping brow, 
 and eyes that wait on nature and solicit saintly 
 help ; the other strong and masculine, with head 
 thrown back, and eyes that peer into the granite, 
 and rely on man's own wit and strength. The girl, 
 with rosary dangling from her girdle, is a servant 
 of the Cross ; the man, with mallet in his lifted 
 hand, a genuine son of Thor, 
 
 Too busy with her thoughts to answer him,
 
 MOUNTAIN MEN. 3 
 
 the Nun, her eyes bent steadily on the west a 
 sky all amber, blush and blue runs nimbly 
 through her beads, while words, inaudible to man, 
 appear to part her lips in prayer. 
 
 ' Just note,' he adds, a touch of pity in his 
 tone, 'how far we are a race apart. We have 
 no kings, no subjects ; every man is free. We 
 have no noble class, no pauper class, no standing 
 army, no official church. We have no language of 
 our own. We have no common code. We have 
 no public debt. No man among us owns the best 
 part of a canton, as a Russian prince the best part 
 of a province, and an English duke the best part 
 of a shire. Nine men in ten are owners of the 
 soil they graze and plough.' 
 
 ' You are a race apart !' 
 
 ' The earth on which we build and plant is 
 not a stretch of vineyards, orchards, cornfields, 
 pastures, dropping towards the sea on every side, 
 with hardly any break of waste. We dwell among 
 the crags and clouds. Our flats are mostly water 
 and our slopes are mostly ice. Your plains lie 
 basking in the summer, while our heights are 
 swept by storm. Your river-beds are loam ; our 
 river-beds are grit. You dreamers by the water- 
 side have but to wait on Nature, while we
 
 4 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 watchers by the mountain-side must take her 
 gifts by force/ 
 
 * It is by natural law that mountains make 
 the mountain men ? ' 
 
 ' How else ? Man acts on Nature in his way, 
 as Nature acts on man in her way, till the two 
 great spirits of the earth grow hke each other, 
 even as a man and wife who live in peace grow 
 like each other year by year. Among the vines 
 and olives in Italian gardens men are soft, poetic, 
 phosphorescent ; no less full of fire than they 
 are fond of change. Among the pines and larches 
 of Yalaisian glaciers men are hardy, patient, 
 dumb ; as slow to fume and flash as they are 
 hard to bend and break.' 
 
 ' Yea, some are hard to bend and break !' 
 sighs Sister Agnes, who has told her beads, and 
 now sits looking into space. 
 
 ' As men in plains take up a drift and ply,' the 
 Engineer goes on, * so men on mountain-tops take 
 up a drift and ply. Our drift is to be silent, sleep- 
 less, prompt ; for we lie down with danger at 
 our doors, and we must rise to meet it when the 
 moment comes. At dusk you see a cottage on a 
 shelf of rock ; a hut in which the shepherd chums 
 his milk ; a bit of soil in which he grows his
 
 MOUNTAIN MEN. 5 
 
 herbs ; a patch of grass on which his heifers 
 browse ; a simple cross at which his urchins 
 pray. At dead of night a tremor passes 
 through the 'mountain side ; a slip of earth takes 
 place ; a cry which no one hears rings up to 
 heaven. At dawn there is a lonely shelf of rock 
 above, a desolate wreck of human hopes below.' 
 
 ' We strive too much,' again sighs Sister 
 Agnes, bending to his tale : ' we fight for earthly 
 things when we should give our minds to heavenly 
 things. What are we doing in this Year of 
 Pilgrimage ? Preparing to bore holes through 
 living rocks, and ride .to Rome in railway trains, 
 when he who is the father of all Christian men 
 is held a prisoner in his house by disobedient 
 sons ! ' 
 
 * You folk who live in flats and hollows,' says 
 the man of science, glancing at the Nun with 
 curious smile, ' build towns, in which you dally 
 with the graceful arts; while we, who cling like 
 hmpets to our rocks, raise chalets far and wide, 
 from which we tend our flocks, in which we find a 
 shelter from the fiery clouds. You have the fig, 
 the citron, and the vine ; we have a treeless waste, 
 with long, coarse grass, and mosses which the goat 
 and chamois dare not crop. Dame Nature nurses
 
 6 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 US to different ends. To you is given the genius 
 to construct the marble fane, the royal castle, and 
 the fretfal town ; to us, the timber chapel, the in- 
 dustrious household, and the lowly thorpe/ 
 
 ' A little lowliness of heart would do us good,' 
 exclaims the Nun the golden sunset on her face 
 ' if we could only learn to know our place, and 
 give to Heaven the things of Heaven!' 
 
 A smile that seems to say if ever smile has 
 meaning 'I should like to kiss that nonsense 
 from your lips,' plays roiuid his delicate mouth 
 and sparkles in his cold blue eyes. A moment 
 afterwards he adds : 
 
 ' In every zone, so far as I have seen, the 
 mountain races are a free, a pastoral, an un- 
 changing people. Men who come from cities find 
 us rough, and fancy we are dull All mountain 
 races love the past ; suspect new words, new 
 things, new men; and harden like the hills in 
 which their lives are spent. Their fundamental 
 laws are few and slowly formed ; as slowly formed 
 as they are stoutly held. A hill-tribe stands upon 
 their ancient ways.' 
 
 * God and His angels are the same for evermore,' 
 responds the Nun. 
 
 ' Turn where you list, and take the lesser with
 
 MOUNTAIN MEN. . 7 
 
 the greater heights ; the crests of Snowdon and 
 Ben Nevis, through the Pyrenees to Monte Negro 
 and the Julian Alps ; in every zone you find 
 this rule the mountain -people stand aloof from 
 what is new and strange, while those who live on 
 plains and by the sea, are apt to change their laws 
 and creeds from year to year. The hill-tribes of 
 Judea kept their covenant, while the tribes of 
 Jordan and Esdraelon fell away. Those Modes 
 who never changed a law, .descended from the 
 Caspian alps ; those Greeks who sought new 
 things from day to day, were dwellers by the 
 iEgean sea.' 
 
 ' You think the sea has much to do with man's 
 desire for change ?' 
 
 ' It is the cause. A man who looks on water 
 grows Hke water, and a man who looks on alps 
 grows like an alp.' 
 
 'Yet, tell me, is it not the rule that alpine 
 tops are barren of great men V 
 
 * It is so. Let the worst be said that can 
 be said in truth. No prophet ever comes from 
 mountain-top ; no poet, thinker, warrior of the 
 foremost order, comes from mountain-top. All gifts 
 of hand and tongue, all services of art and science, 
 are in less demand with us than in the streets
 
 8 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 of busy towns, where every one is seeking after 
 something new, and chiefly for his personal good. 
 We know it ; nay, we make it so.' 
 
 ' You do not want great men in your republic V 
 ' No ; we want good men, not great men. In 
 our system, what you call great men can have no 
 part ; they would disturb us, perhaps destroy us. 
 A republic is a league of equals, not a com- 
 pany of general officers and men-at-arms. A great 
 man is a monarch. If a Caesar should arise among 
 us, we might have to kill him. In his craft, each 
 man among you strives to be the first, and you 
 applaud his efforts, even when they fail. You 
 like a man to be a duke. Your maxim is, be 
 first in your own class. Such maxims are not 
 ours : we have no ducal spirit in these alps. 
 We are a band of brothers, but without an eldest 
 born. Our rule is All for each, and each for all 
 the oath of Griitli our unwritten code. All 
 teaching has with us this end in view, that no 
 one shall grow up into a man till he has learnt 
 to rank the public weal above his private gain.' 
 
 * We set the peace of earth above the grace of 
 Heaven,' observes the Nun. 
 
 * You train your youth,' the Bernese engineer 
 proceeds, * by contrast and contention ; we by
 
 MOUNTAIN MEN. 9 
 
 sympathy and mutual help. You urge each 
 scholar to surpass his fellows ; we forbid all 
 effort to disturb the line. You like to see one 
 lad above his class, for you have put your trust 
 in dukes and chiefs. We notice such a thing 
 with pain, and try to make our boys regard each 
 other in the school-room as their right and left 
 hand files. Your method brings out special 
 strength, and makes one giant to a hundred 
 dwarfs. Again, you take but scanty notice of 
 the weak ; you dote on strong majorities : and 
 push your brethren who are weak in number, 
 to the walL You have the conqueror's spirit 
 in your camp. You seek opinions which are 
 strong, and clothe those strong opinions with the 
 garb of public law. We have a tender feeling 
 for the weak. We break the force of our pre- 
 vailing wind by groynes, by dykes, and by 
 dividing walls ; that is to say, by giving to 
 each Canton and each Commune in our country 
 separate and substantial powers ; to every Canton 
 equal votes, to every Commune local life. You 
 see we are a folk apart ! '
 
 10 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 ST. GOTHARD. 
 
 The sun is sinking on a cloud of summits as we 
 pace the road which, winding up the Siedeln alp, 
 and vaulting over by the Furka, weds the two 
 great valleys of the Bhone and Reuss, and brings 
 the Simplon pass into connexion with the Got- 
 hard pass. 
 
 A mist is rising in our front from horn and 
 glacier, from the Grimsel ridges, from the Gelmer 
 snow-fields, from the Handeck falls, a mist which 
 swells the solar disk and turns the flame to fire. 
 Athwart this thickening haze the light is flashing 
 into lengths and streams, and the white clouds 
 above these lengths of light are roUing into 
 curves and crowns. The colours melt and deepen 
 as we gaze. A moment since the tints were 
 amber, rose, and blue ; but while we speak that 
 amber bums to gold, that pink grows crimson, 
 and that blue is purple, brown and black. Afar off*.
 
 ST. GOTHAED. 11 
 
 in the Bernese Oberland, two pyramids of earth, 
 the Schreck-hom and the Finster Aar-hom, 
 part these ever-widening waves ; two dark and 
 mighty cones, which tower above the highest 
 wreaths of cloud. 
 
 Our right is bounded by the Rhone glacier ; 
 a scarp of frozen ice ; here rough with shales 
 of slate, there dark with drifts of dust. So near 
 us lies this shining fall that we can peer into 
 the rents and watch the play of green and rosy 
 hght within them. Down below, the surface 
 of the glacier has been smoothed and rounded 
 by the noon-day heat ; along our level it is 
 jagged and broken by the midnight chill. A 
 ravine passes to our left a sombre ravine, which 
 ascends the ridge on which the Muttbach feeds ; 
 and over this dark parting of the ridges rise 
 the Mutt-horn, Shaf-berg, Tell Alp, Saas-horn ; 
 while beyond these peaks, and partly hidden 
 from our sight, extend those granite walls which 
 press the summer back upon Italian lakes. Below 
 these masses, in the groove between the Mutt- 
 horn and the Grimsel, flow the waters of the 
 Rhone here lost to sight among the rocks, 
 there flooding out among the trees and fields 
 past Oberwald and Obergestelen, then through
 
 12 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 long green reaches, lit with roof and spire sweet 
 notes of life and home in the stern desert of 
 an alpine night. Up north and west, above 
 the Grimsel, spread the crests and gulfs to 
 which no spring, no autumn, ever comes; a realm 
 where it is always either frost or fire ; where 
 chain is laid on chain, and peak is piled on 
 peak ; with domes and falls of ice, with sweeps 
 and drifts of snow, and pinnacles of rock too 
 sharp for either flying mist or driving rain to 
 clutch. Beyond the Grimsel stretch the Gauli 
 glacier, the lesser and the greater Grindelwald 
 glaciers, the Kander glacier, the two Aar gla- 
 ciers, the Lotschen glacier, the Munster glacier, 
 and the Aletsch glaciers, hanging on the sides 
 and dripping at the feet of secondary alps ; while 
 high above these seas of ice roll up vast fields 
 of granulous snow, too high for sun to melt ; 
 and over these white fields, the humps and teeth 
 of Jungfrau, Wetter-horn, and Monsch, with yon 
 twin pyramids of earth, the Schreck-hom and 
 the Finster Aar-hom, which divide the flashing 
 lines of light as though they stood in arms, 
 two mountain kings, to guard their brides and 
 captives from a bold, crusading sun. 
 
 Yet nobler than such wintry masses, and
 
 ST. GOTHARD. 13 
 
 to larger use and purpose, swells the group of 
 heights on which we stand the crown of the 
 St. Gothard chain, the central range of Europe, 
 where her valleys run to meet each other, whence 
 her rivers rise and flow to east and west, and 
 over which the Frank and Teuton pass to 
 Lombardy, wliile the Italian climbs towards 
 Germany and France. 
 
 This central group of the St. Gothard chain, 
 like other mountain systems, has her trough, 
 her platform, and her cardinal peak. 
 
 Her trough is Urseren the Uri valley once 
 an alpine lake, like that of Wallenstadt in form 
 and size, but lying in a loftier bed. The lowest 
 hamlet in this hollow stands four thousand and 
 six hundred feet above the sea. A green but 
 treeless basin, into which the snow comes down 
 with the September chills, and nestles in the 
 clefts and gullies till the latest day of June, 
 this trough is watered by the Reuss, a stream 
 which, rising near the Furka, brawls past Re Alp, 
 Hospenthal, and Andermatt, until it issues from 
 the trough near Teufelstein. Some firs creep 
 meekly up St. Ann's an alp round which the 
 last few flights of the St. Gothard road wind 
 up but they are dwarfed in size and thinned
 
 14 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 in mass by the exceeding cold. Some herdsmen, 
 guides, and muleteers, who live by aiding people 
 on their way, have built in Urseren the thorpes 
 in which a passenger finds food and fire. 
 
 Her platform is not sharply marked by 
 nature ; for the ridges flow into each other, 
 and the ravines break these ridges here and 
 there as at St. Gothard, Six Madun, the 
 Devil's Bridge, and Langis Grat ; but still, 
 an oval, somewhat roughly drawn, with Re 
 Alp for a central point, would sweep the 
 edges of this platform. Draw a line from Rhone- 
 stock by the Gersten-horn, across the valley of 
 the Rhone to Saas-hom and Lucendro, round 
 the Lago Sella to Six Madun, and thence to Toma, 
 Aldez, Siiisen, Teufelstein, and by the Batzberg 
 and the Spitzberg, through the Winter glacier 
 to the Rhone-stock. In this oval, seven miles 
 wide and fourteen long, are crowded peak, and 
 source, and pass. Tlie Rhone weEs out below 
 the Galen-stock ; the Rhine flows downward from 
 the Toma lake; the Reuss goes rattling past 
 the Siedeln Alp ; the Toccia starts beneath 
 the Saas-hom ; the Ticino drops from Lago 
 Sella. All the greater lakes are fed from this 
 one crown of earth : Lake Constanz from the
 
 ST. GOTHARD. 15 
 
 Six Madun ; Lake Leman from the Galen-stock ; 
 Lago Maggiore from the Sasso di Gottardo. 
 Three drops of rain, delivered from one drifting 
 cloud, might fall into the Khone, the Toccia, 
 and the Rhine, and after filtering through 
 Lake Leman, Lago Maggiore, and Lake Constanz, 
 might run forward on their several ways into 
 the sea, past Avignon, Cremona, and Cologne. 
 
 Her cardinal peak is Galen-stock the peak 
 now towering on our right a fount of light and 
 beauty in this sombre realm, which ancient shep- 
 herds, coming up the valleys of the Rhone and 
 Reuss in search of fortune, called the Pillar of 
 the Sun. He is the Saul of the St. Gothard 
 group above the tallest of his brethren : Gersten- 
 hom, Lucendro, Mutt-horn, Spitz-berg, Six Ma- 
 dun though all these mountains are of Anak 
 breed. Three glaciers hang about his hoary 
 neck and shiver down his sturdy sides ; the 
 Tiefen glacier on his northern flank, the Siedeln 
 glacier on his southern flank, and the Rhone glacier 
 (which has many feeders) on his western flank. 
 These glaciers drip by different ravines, and de- 
 scend to different seas. Above his summit floats 
 a canopy of cloud, from under which at times 
 leap fire, and wind, and hail, those rival demons of
 
 16 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 this upper air, which shake and daze the earth 
 in their plutonic and magnetic strife. About his 
 feet, low down among the ruts and wrecks of ice, 
 lie caves of wondrous beauty and uncounted 
 wealtL Three years ago a cave was entered by 
 this Tiefen glacier, when the noblest crystals in 
 the world were found. The rock was topaz. 
 Fragments lay about in heaps, each broken piece 
 a hundred pounds, two hundred pounds, in 
 weight. Some fifteen tons of topaz were removed 
 from this great hiding-place of nature in a single 
 year. What sage can count the marvels yet in 
 lurking near this pillar of the Sim ? 
 
 There spent at last the fiery orb is gone! 
 Dark domes of cloud are rising round his couch. 
 A faint green tinge still charms the upper sky, 
 and specks of silver touch the highest peaks ; but 
 all the raviaes at our feet are veiled, and all the 
 secondary alps are lost to sight. At such a time 
 one feels how poets in the guise of shepherds, 
 with an eye on straying goat and heifer, learned 
 to call this central point of their converging 
 tracks the pillar of the Sun. This peak is still a 
 coronet of fire. 
 
 Far down, in either of the valleys in our front 
 and rear, as far as Biel in front, as far as Ander-
 
 ST. GOTHARD. 17 
 
 matt in rear, the herdsmen raise their eyes at 
 sunset and at sunrise towards this signal in the 
 clouds, the first to catch, and last to hold, that 
 radiance which is light and life to man. At Biel 
 you see the villagers come out, long after sunset 
 in their narrow trench, to watch the glowing 
 tints die oif this point, and augur from the depth 
 of gold the fortunes of another day. At Ander- 
 matt the rustics turn to it at dawn, while yet 
 the roadway up the Ober Alp, the ruined tower 
 of Hospenthal, the fringe of forest on St. Ann's, 
 are buried in profoundest gloom. Above Ee Alp 
 and Biilen-stock there is a flash, a star, a comet, 
 which expands and colours to a pinnacle of 
 flame. It is the pillar of the Sun, the central 
 peak of the St. Gothard group.
 
 18 
 
 CHAPTEE III 
 
 PEOPLING THE AMS. 
 
 ' We mount and mount/ the Bernese adds as 
 we return into the chalet, numb with cold, 
 but deep in the great question as to how these 
 alps are crossed and kept ; ' we rise each year, 
 and soon the summits will be crowned/ 
 
 Excelsior ! 
 
 A man who finds a pass and plants his 
 foot upon a peak, secures that pass and peak. 
 A second follows where he led ; his trail is 
 worn into a track. Then guides and porters 
 come to ply their trade. A shed is built, 
 a cross set up ; in time that shed becomes 
 an inn, that cross becomes a spire. A deed 
 once done is easy to repeat. It is the first 
 step only that is hard to face. When Whymper 
 scaled the Matter-horn, and fortune took four 
 lives as fine, all Europe shuddered at the tragic 
 tale ; and he who came down victor from the
 
 PEOPLING THE ALPS. 19 
 
 rocks, would never front that task again. Yet 
 he had shown the way, and three days after 
 his ascent, and while the bodies of the dead 
 were still unfound, four guides went up and 
 gained the perilous cone. Next year came two 
 ascents, and in the one next after, five. Now 
 boys and girls go up that cone in sport. A 
 week ago, two English damsels clambered to the 
 ledge from which poor Hudson fell. Already 
 there are hints of future roads. One track is 
 worn from Zermatt up the German front ; another 
 from La Breil up the Itahan front. Two-thirds 
 of the way from Zermatt to the peak, a hut has 
 been erected by the guides. You find there 
 wood and wraps, with pans for warming food, 
 and shelter from the sudden storm. A few 
 years more, and what is now a lonely hut will 
 be a pleasant, populous inn. 
 
 A man in search of food and fuel gains some 
 ledge, and caps it with his hut and fence. The 
 scrub is fired around him, and the tarns are 
 drained of their abundant ooze. As Nature owns 
 her master, she retires before him step by step. 
 The glacier drips and wastes, the snow-fields melt 
 to mist, the larches creep beyond his axe, and plum 
 and walnut flourish where those larches lately grew.
 
 20 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Not long ago, you found the firs and larches at 
 Sierre, in Canton Valais ; now you have to seek 
 for them at Brieg. A vine will sprout to-day 
 where pines would hardly cling some years ago. 
 At Pontresina com is grown ; at Chiamut com is 
 also grown ; and yet the lower of these alpine 
 hamlets stands as high above the sea as Cader 
 Idris would be piled upon the head of Skiddaw. 
 Two hundred years since Rigi was an un- 
 known solitude. Old writers never name this 
 mountain, though its beauty was the same in 
 olden times as now ; from base to kulm a 
 dream of scenic and botanic wealth ; with snowy 
 ridge and slope above, with oleander, fig, and 
 balsam near the water edge. At Vitznau, in the 
 first week of October, when the Btirgen-stock 
 and Ennet-hom are white with winter, grapes are 
 hanging from the frames, and flowers and fruits 
 are in Sicilian wealth and waste. On shelves 
 of rock grow walnuts, and above them fir and 
 larch. At Kaltbad there are ferns ; and over Kalt- 
 bad sloping grassy alps ; and then a stretch of 
 snow-field to the kulm, with its unrivalled view 
 of mountain, lake, and plain. Yet all this beauty 
 is for man a thing of yesterday. The first who 
 mentions Eigi was a seeker after rare and lovely
 
 PEOPLING THE ALPS. 21 
 
 plants. He only wandered at her base and by 
 the edges of her shining lakes. He left the Schei- 
 deck and the kulm alone, as heights too poor for 
 him to name. Some cattle, straying up the hill, 
 drew shepherds after them, when huts were built 
 for shelter, and a citizen of Arth, a hamlet on 
 Lake Zug, erected for these lonely men the Chapel 
 of Our Lady in the Snow. This chapel of Our 
 Lady made the Rigi famous ; for miraculous cures 
 were heard of far and wide ; and pilgrims came 
 from Altdorf and Luzem to pray for health. A 
 flight of thirteen stages as on Carmel led from 
 Unteres Dachli to Our Lady's shrine ; at every 
 stage a pilgrim knelt and prayed, and took in 
 mountain air, and felt himself a better man. In 
 time, the cloisters, and the hospice, and the chapel 
 of St. Malchus, were erected on the Rigi slopes ; 
 but years on years elapsed before a hut was built 
 for travellers near the kulm. Not until 1848 had 
 any one the courage to erect an inn. This inn 
 was but a small affair, and yet the landlord's 
 neighbours thought him mad. His house was 
 much enlarged in 1856 ; and fifteen years later 
 we are driving railway engines almost to the 
 chapel of Our Lady in the Snow. 
 
 ' You mark,' observes the Engineer, * how we
 
 22 THE SWITZEBS. 
 
 are climbing up. No sooner is that railway engine 
 up the Rigi than a plan is laid for throwing it 
 across the ridge, and down the other face, to 
 Goldau, with a branch to Arth. Five years ago 
 the passage from Luzern to Meyringen was by 
 a bridle-path across the Briinig ; now there is a 
 mountain-road, with busy traffic, and a scatter 
 of good houses to the highest woods. But we 
 are not content with such a road. We mean to 
 have a railway line across the Briinig pass, and 
 perhaps a branch to that black lake in which, 
 according to the legend, Pilate drowned himself 
 Already surveys have been made ; a year hence 
 men will be at work with spade and pole ; and 
 in a httle while the iron horses will be tearing 
 past Brienz and Unterseen for Thun. You know 
 the Schynige Platte below the Faul-hom, with 
 its famous glimpse of Lauterbrunnen and the 
 Grindenwald. It is a level higher than the Bigi- 
 kulm. Among my papers are the plans for a 
 new railway to the summit of this Platte, and 
 surveys for a branch hne to the Faul-horn ! 
 Three years hence that line wiU be at work.' 
 
 'Ah me!' sighs Sister Agnes, shrinking from 
 the Engineer, whom she is ready to regard as 
 one possessed, 'we kick this dust about our
 
 PEOPLING THE ALPS. 23 
 
 feet and fancy we are taking heaven by storm ! 
 More fit that we should fall upon our faces and 
 confess our sins !' 
 
 ' You nurse the spirit of your pilgrimage,' I 
 venture to remark. 
 
 * Do not,' she says, with downcast eyes, ' be- 
 lieve that all of us are mad with this vain pride 
 of life. Some souls are found, even yet, who 
 will not sell their birthright in the future hea- 
 vens for such a mess of herbs. A short time 
 hence will be our Festival <^ the Bosary. Come 
 over into Canton Schwyz, and meet the pilgrims 
 at Our Lady's Shrine.' 
 
 ' In no long time,' retorts the Engineer as 
 fervent in his science as the Sister in her faith 
 * our ridges will be pierced, our lakelets will be i 
 drained At three great centres we are tapping 
 through the granite walls ; the Splugen, the 
 Lukmanier, the St. Gothard ; in a dozen years 
 the railway trains will roll from Hamburg and 
 Vienna through these mountains on their way 
 to Rome. Here rims the road from London to 
 Brindisi, Cairo, and the Indian seas. A straight 
 line drawn from London to Bologna passes 
 through the hospice of St. Gothard, and a bee 
 line is the pathway for an iron horse. Already
 
 24 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 we are turning to our lakes in search of land. 
 Before the Dutch drew Haarlem, we had drained 
 the floods from Linth and Giswyl, and had won 
 five hundred acres from the lake of Lungem. We 
 have a scheme for lowering the too high levels of 
 the Jura lakes, arresting inundations of the Aar, 
 and bringing the vast marsh of Seeland under 
 spade and plough. Five million francs are voted 
 for this purpose by the League. But local jealousies 
 step in. Each Canton and each Commune has 
 some petty cause to serve ; but some dark night 
 a flood will drown them into reason, and a 
 hundred thousand acres will be gained. Our 
 lakes should yield a million acres. Leman might 
 be lowered one-third. Such lakes as Sarnen, 
 Sempach, Lowertz, Greifen, may be drained away.' 
 ' Your science figures out the work of ages.' 
 * Pardon me, of years. Why, men now living 
 knew a time when there was not one road for 
 wheels across these alps. It is not easy even yet to 
 keep an open road upon the Furka, which is higher 
 than the Gemmi and St. Gothard passes ; for 
 the snow lies deep about this chalet till the 
 end of June. Some seasons it is later : in the 
 middle of July this year the depth was twenty 
 feet. These sheds, from which the shales are
 
 PEOPLING THE ALPS. 25 
 
 carried once a-week, are but of yesterday. Not 
 long since you could walk from Oberwald, in the 
 Rhone valley, to Re Alp in the Reuss valley, and 
 scarcely find a shelter from the storm. A dismal 
 hut stood near the glacier now it is a good hotel 
 but not a second house was to be seen. The 
 refuge near the Tiefen glacier was not built, and 
 now you have a road from Brieg to Chur, across 
 the Furka and the Ober Alp, with an hotel at 
 every turn/ 
 
 ' You put your engineer before the monk,' says 
 Sister Agnes ; * yet methinks the saints came up 
 into these heights before the men of science found 
 their way.' 
 
 * My sister, you are right,' replies the Engineer ; 
 ' for Gothard was a saint, and Carlo Borromeo was 
 a saint.' 
 
 The early monks were engineers, path-finders, 
 inn-keepers, and guides. The hunters who came 
 up erected huts of refuge, like the huts on 
 Zermatt now the hut of logs or stones, without 
 a keeper, lending you a shelter from the sudden 
 storm, the darkening night, and the bewildering 
 snow, but nothing more no fire, no food, no 
 rest, no help. Some monk comes up, intent on 
 flying from himself and from the world. He
 
 26 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 lights a j&re, prepares a couch, and brings in 
 stores of bread. The refuge is a hospice, and 
 the keeper is a holy man. What then? Some 
 helper in his kitchen, with an eye to gain, erects 
 a shed outside the walls, provides more dainty 
 fare and lodging, and invites the passer-by to 
 taste his food and test his beds. The hospice is 
 an inn. We find these several stages on the 
 summit of St. Gothard, where the refuge, hos- 
 pice, and hotel stand side by side. Some refuges 
 may pass at once into the stage of inns. Below 
 the Tiefen glacier, stands a refuge, where you 
 groom your horse and drink good Veltner wine. 
 A man has come to live there who is not a saint, 
 and in another season he may offer you a dinner 
 and a bed. A few miles farther down you find 
 a hospice at Re Alp, in which live Father Hugo ' 
 and a troop of girls. That house is called a 
 hospice : but in wane and waiting-maids you 
 might mistake it for a merry country inn. 
 
 ' This Father Hugo,' laughs the Bernese, 
 * is our Friar Tuck. Your fine old Capuchins are 
 dying off; their trade is passing into other 
 hands. The dogs have had their day.' 
 
 The Sister drops her head and tells her beads. 
 
 At first this climbing up is hard, but men
 
 PEOPLING THE ALPS. 27 
 
 get used to what is hard, and when their spirits 
 are in tune, the task is easier than it seemed 
 at first. When Bahnat clomb Mont Blanc the 
 effort all but killed him. Every step he took 
 was strange ; the unseen perils chilled his veins ; 
 and when he came down, sore and scorched, he 
 sank into his bed. The doctor roused him by a 
 word. He, too, would scale the mountain. Bal- 
 mat rose at once, drew on his boots, and faced 
 the danger with a hghtened heart. Next year 
 De Saussure followed, with a village in his 
 wake ; and after them came all the world, who 
 filled the valley with their presence, up to Col 
 de Balme. The Montanvert, the Fl^g^re, and 
 the Mer de Glace, grew famous. Sheds were 
 raised, and guides were trained, to serve the 
 climbers. Near the Montanvert one Blair, a 
 Scotchman, built that hut, from which the poet 
 Gothe looked upon the Sea of Ice. Not only 
 Chamounix, but SaJlanches, Servoz, and Argen- 
 ti^re, feel the shock of a new life. Schools, 
 churches, and hotels spring up. Each col and 
 glacier has a separate inn. The Tete Noir is 
 rounded ; the Hotel de Cascade is opened ; and 
 the gorge of the Trient bridged. New tracks are 
 opened up Mont Blanc, and a descent is found
 
 28 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 towards Italy. Young damsels clamber to the 
 top, and now the feat is little but a jest and 
 show. A frame of planks was taken to the 
 Grands Mulets not eighteen years ago. It was 
 supposed to be a feat ; and now there is a scatter 
 of stone houses on the several roads ; one house 
 on the Aiguille du Goiiter ; two houses on the 
 Grands Mulets; inns at Pavilion, La Balma, 
 Chapin, Mottet ; chalets at Ferret, Forclaz, and 
 the AUee Blanche. 
 
 'It is a fight for life,' the Bernese man of 
 science cries ; ' but men have won it, and will win 
 it to the end. In no long time there will be inns 
 at Grands Mulets, and in a hundred years the 
 summit of Mont Blanc may be a town.'
 
 29 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FIGHT FOR LIFE. 
 
 This fight for life is not uiifrequently conducted 
 to the death. Man cannot climb so high, but 
 some great charge of wrath seems hanging over 
 him ; a beetling crag, a stream of stones, a 
 cataract of ice, a moving field of snow ; and 
 higher yet than these wild demons of the earth, 
 those still more ruthless spirits of the air the 
 flash that rends his roof, the wind that strips 
 his trees, the flood that drowns his land. 
 
 Against each messenger of ill, a man must 
 hold a separate watch the avalanche, the light- 
 ning, and the deluge ; and must learn to brave 
 each danger when it comes, alike by flush of noon 
 and in the dead of night. 
 
 ' When we have won a field from natiure,' says 
 the Engineer, * we carefully entrench the ground, 
 and try to hold what we have gained against her,
 
 30 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 even though she hurls her avalanches on our 
 heads.' 
 
 ' Your science tells you how to cope with 
 avalanches V 
 
 ' For the most part yes. But in these moun- 
 tains, men are so perverse ! By right no ava- 
 lanche should ever fall on thorpe and field. If 
 such an evil comes upon us, it is much our 
 fault ; but people who believe in saints and not 
 in science take no trouble to protect themselves 
 against the sliding weight. They leave their 
 safety to the saints, and winter takes them in 
 her shroud of snow.' 
 
 'They leave themselves defenceless by their 
 want of thought in cutting down the pines V 
 
 ' The man who breaks his flail to boil his kettle 
 is a sage compared to men like those of Selva, 
 Cumiasca, and a hundred hamlets in these Celtic 
 alps. These peasants burn the props that shore 
 their house. In cutting down the pine- woods, 
 they entreat the avalanche to crush them. Think 
 of Selva buried in the snow three several times 
 and every time by her own act and deed.' 
 
 Midway from Ober Alp to Sedrun, in the Fore 
 Rhine valley, lies this thorpe of Selva ; an ItaHan 
 village, as the name implies ; a group of thirty
 
 THE FIGHT FOR LIFE. 31 
 
 houses, more or less ; a small white chapel nestling 
 in the cKff ; a scratch of green stuff growing in the 
 flints ; a strip of pasture running by the stream ; 
 and hanging overhead a fringe of firs. Above 
 the village, towers the Milez Alp, sheer up into 
 the air a thousand feet. This Milez is connected 
 with the Crispalt, an enormous field of snow, 
 from which the dry and granulous flakes roll 
 down in streams. The village houses, built of 
 logs, are strongly knit, and every shingle on the 
 roof is weighted with a sUce of rock. 
 
 A crisp and lightsome people dwell in Selva ; 
 rustics of Italian type, with ruddy flesh, dark hair, 
 and tawny hands ; a folk who read no books, who 
 see no papers, and who boast no arts, excepting 
 how to feed their kine and press their cheese, to 
 sing their village songs and dance at village feasts. 
 You find in Selva as in every other Commune 
 schools and books ; but these things are exotics in 
 the land. The schools are poor, the books are 
 lives of saints. The Pater has his office, and some 
 patriot in a bigger hut may have a copy of Pro- 
 fessor Condrau's journal, the Gazetta E-omonscha. 
 Condraus journal, printed in the neighbouring 
 town of Dissentis, is dear to Celtic patriots ; 
 for the Professor sets himself to show that the
 
 32 . THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Teutonic Switzer is a sort of Kindli-fresser, who 
 devours the children of his fellow Celts. No 
 other books and papers trouble the repose of 
 Selva ; for these southern people are not weighted 
 with much care of life. They only want to eat 
 and drink, to court and wed, to feel the love of 
 wife and child, to hear that God is with them, 
 and to sleep at last among their sires. Their ways 
 are old-world ways. They never miss an office 
 in their church. They speak that peasant Latin 
 which was heard in the Campagna ere Augustus 
 reigned in Rome. Their houses have a rustic 
 reek, their thoroughfares a southern grime. Not 
 only in their swarthy fronts and flashing eyes, 
 but in their jewelled ears, both men and women 
 have a menace and a memory of those ancient 
 homes, from which they came into these alps as 
 masters of the world. 
 
 These men of Selva love their valley with a 
 languid and abiding love. The strips of grass 
 are scant ; the hauls of trout are rare ; the 
 sheaves of grain are few. The valley is too 
 narrow for much grass, the flood too rapid for 
 much trout, the country-side too damp and lofty 
 for much com. For Selva, low as she may look 
 if you peer down upon her from the Ober Alp,
 
 THE FIGHT FOR LIFE. 33 
 
 stands higher in the list of hills than Snowdon 
 would be with Ben Nevis on her back. But 
 still these Celtic rustics, with their ancient 
 farming skill, contrive to coax from her ungrate- 
 ful soil some golden sheaves. A patch of ground 
 is chosen with a southern face ; a troop of 
 yoimgsters pick it clear of stones ; a bank of 
 scrub and logs is made to wall it up ; and when 
 the seed is thrown into the soil, a groyne of slabs 
 and stones is thrown along the higher rim, 
 but slant-wise from the alpine scarp (as we in 
 in England groyne the sea), to turn all floods of 
 rain and rolling earth and stones aside- The 
 shoots are never high, the ears are never full ; 
 but when the air grows chill at noon they cut 
 the stalks and tie them up on frames of wood 
 to dry. Com ripens fast when it is cut. 
 
 A brisk and antique race, with Celtic fire and 
 indolence, these rustics would be poor and merry 
 on their lofty perch, were not the Milez alp 
 and Crispalt horn above them, charged with 
 seas of snow and ice. They live beneath these 
 wintry ledges as their countrymen near Naples 
 Hve beneath the fiery cones. A heavy fall of 
 snow is doom. The shoulder of the alp gets 
 overcharged; the lower edge gives way; the upper 
 
 D
 
 34 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 crest obeys the slide ; and then the great white 
 Death comes down on roof-tree, chapel, field, and 
 flock. 
 
 'Why don't you quit the thorpe ?' you ask 
 a peasant who has seen his hut destroyed three 
 several times. 
 
 * We cannot quit the spot,' he says r ' it is 
 our home ; the land is ours ; where should we 
 find another place?' 
 
 ' The world is wide, this valley of the Rhine 
 is long. There must be other alps to graze;' 
 
 ' But none like Selva. Here we live in peace. 
 We keep our laws and customs ; speak our 
 native tongue, and have no fear of chop and 
 change. If we go down to Trons we meet the 
 Germans ; if we go to Ilanz we shall find the 
 heretics. We stick to Selva while she sticks 
 to us.' 
 
 * But you have sometimes thought of changing 
 quarters?' 
 
 ' Only once ; and only part of us were minded 
 to remove. I was a youngish man ; my lad, now 
 driving yonder team, was in his crib ; but old men 
 who could speak of things ere I was born, all 
 said it was the biggest slide of snow yet seen 
 at Selva. All our cottages were crushed. Our
 
 THE FIGHT FOR LIFE. 35 
 
 church was buried in the snow, and nearly all 
 our goats and cows were swept into the Rhine. 
 No lives were lost, for we had notice of the 
 fall in time ; but everything except our lives 
 was gone. When we could venture to the wreck, 
 we stood upon a field of snow. We dug into 
 the heap by chance, for no one knew exactly 
 where his cottage lay. All marks had perished 
 in that common grave. At last we found the 
 church, and then we opened out our trenches 
 right and left. It was a trying task; for as 
 we cut our lanes the sides fell in and blocked us 
 up. But worse was yet in store for us. In spring 
 the snow began to melt by day, and freeze again 
 by night. The surface soon became one sheet 
 of ice. Our hamlet was a glacier, with the drip 
 and rot of ice above whatever of our house- 
 hold stuff had not been crushed and spoiled. 
 When we could count our loss, some restless 
 people said we must remove from Selva, seek 
 a home elsewhere, and leave our grounds as 
 pastures. Nay, they sent to Chur and Bern, 
 and begged for leave to go their ways. For 
 once the Bernese folk were right ; they said we 
 must remain at Selva, and the younger men were 
 glad to find it so.'
 
 36 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 ' Then you rebuilt your houses 1 ' 
 'Roughly, as you see; but still they serve. 
 The wind gets through the slits and cracks, but 
 peasants cannot live in palaces. We raised our 
 little church. "We planted on this alp yon hedge 
 of pines, and put up prayers to Mary and the 
 Saints. Since then we have been spared.' 
 
 His tale is true, excepting as to why the 
 peasants would not move, and how the planting 
 of the Milez alp was done. So soon as news of 
 that great avalanche came to Bern, an engineer 
 was sent to see the ruins and report upon their 
 cause. That cause was but too clear ; the rustics 
 had been cutting down the pines, each woodman 
 for himself, until the screen of forest was too 
 weak to hold the weight of snow. The Federal 
 Council put no veto on the plan for settHng in 
 another place ; the Council had no power to stop 
 them if they wished to go ; but, like so many 
 Communes in these Celtic alps, they came with 
 cap in hand for money, and the Federal Council 
 could not satisfy their greed. When they had 
 brought this ruin on their fields, they asked the 
 Government to turn their losses into gains. To 
 go elsewhere they wanted such and such round 
 sums. The Commune said it was too poor to
 
 THE FIGHT FOR LIFE. 37 
 
 move ; the Canton that it was too poor to help. 
 An engineer, who came from Bern to look at 
 the affair, reported that the Federal Council 
 might contribute so and so. The Selvians 
 would not take so small a gift ; they built 
 their houses frailer than before ; and then the 
 Federal Council planted this new pine-wood on 
 the Milez alp. Siace then the village has been 
 safe ; and every Selvian thinks he owes that 
 safety to his saints. 
 
 Below us, in the Rhone valley, on the road 
 from Oberwald to Ulrichen, stands the thorpe 
 of Obergestelen, which has suffered more than 
 Selva in the upper Bhine. The place has 
 often been destroyed by snow-slides, storms 
 of rain, and atmospheric fires. Two days ago 
 a peasant pointed out to me a grave in which 
 are laid the ashes of eighty-four persons, male 
 and female, killed by one avalanche in a single 
 night. Three years ago, this village was con- 
 sumed by fire. It was a hot September after- 
 noon ; the men were on the mountains with 
 their herds ; some women and the children 
 only were at home. A sultry mist lay on the 
 thorpe, from which a cloud of smoke was seen
 
 38 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 to rise. The herdsmen hurried down the slopes ; 
 but now a liot wind rose and drove the flames 
 across the narrow streets. In two hours all 
 was over. Out of sixty-eight houses and a 
 hundred and twelve out- buildings only three were 
 saved. The church was charred and rent ; the 
 sheds in which the peasants dwelt were cinders ; 
 and the village streets and gardens made a desert. 
 Hardly any one had a roof-tree under which 
 to lay his head. Some wandered wildly to and 
 fro. One body went to Ulrichen, a second 
 marched on Oberwald. These sought relief at 
 Rekingen, and those at Goschinen and Miinster. 
 Others threw themselves among the ruins of 
 their homes ; and two poor creatures sat them 
 down in their dismay and died. 
 
 Yet Obergestelen is rebuilt once more. And 
 not as Selva is rebuilt a little frailer than 
 before. She is rebuilt of rock. A man of science 
 came to see the wreck ; his science told him 
 that her only safety lay in stone ; and Ober- 
 gestelen, now laid out in streets, with houses 
 built of stone, is free in future from all fear 
 of fire. 
 
 ' Teutonic,' nods the Engineer ; ' Obergestelen
 
 THE FIGHT FOR LIFE. 39 
 
 is Teutonic Selva is B-omonsch ;' and having 
 given this hint, he smiles, as though the last 
 word on that subject has been said. 
 'Ave Maria!' sighs the Nun.
 
 40 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RAIN AND ROCKS. 
 
 A FLOOD of rain may tiy men's natures on these 
 heights more sternly than a slide of snow, and 
 even than an atmospheric fire. An avalanche, 
 a conflagration, overwhelms a single thorpe ; 
 such floods of rain as drench these central alps 
 may sweep a hundred miles of valley bare of 
 house and tree. 
 
 One night, three years ago, a few days after 
 the great fire which lapped up Obergestelen, 
 the gates of heaven were opened on this moun- 
 tain ridge. It was a Sunday night. The day 
 had been of sultry warmth, and all the summer 
 had been strangely hot. No snow lay near the 
 Furka. Slopes that commonly retain their white- 
 ness through the year were, brown and bare. 
 The Siedeln glacier shrank behind the Furka 
 horn ; the foot of the Rhone glacier was a shoal 
 of earth and sand ; in all the lateral gulleys
 
 RAIN AND ROCKS. 41 
 
 there were becks and falls ; and never, in the 
 memory of men, had such a melting of the 
 permanent ice been known. Not once, but 
 many times, the Bhone had broken through 
 her dykes. The Reuss, the Rhine, and the 
 Ticino had been swollen, and dams constructed 
 in these rivers had been loosened in a hundred 
 joints. At length the clouds discharged their 
 burden on the earth. 
 
 A flash a roll of thunder and the rain 
 came pattering on the rocks. Descending from 
 the Furka, from the Thierberg, from the Tiefen 
 glacier, the waters leapt into the road at Re Alp, 
 drowned the fields at Hospenthal, destroyed the 
 roads and water -works at Andermatt, and, 
 gathering fury as they roared past Teufelstein, 
 smote the strong town of Amstag, where the 
 Kastelen drops into the Reuss. A blow, the 
 dyke gave way. The waters surged into the 
 garden, sucked through walls, and washed out 
 herbs and fruit-trees with the soil in which they 
 grew. A house began to float. The inmates 
 cried for help ; but night and storm were round 
 them, with a roar of falling rain, of hurrying 
 floods, of crashing forests, and of parting roofs ; 
 and as the timbers strained the roof fell in. A
 
 42 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 second and a third house followed, and the 
 beams, dashed downwards, added to the wreck. 
 At Silinen the waste was wide and stern ; 
 the town was all but washed away ; roads, 
 bridges, farmsteads, gardens, all went madly down 
 into the lake. This hamlet was the greatest 
 sufferer from that fall of rain ; her loss being 
 reckoned by the Federal engineers at a hundred 
 and twenty thousand francs ; but Erstfeld, lower 
 down the stream, a poorer place, and one in 
 which the land is tilled by peasant owners, had 
 a deeper part in the despair. A hundred rustics 
 lost their all that night. 
 
 A dozen lateral valleys of the Beuss bring 
 torrents to the lake the Evi, Tief, and Schachen, 
 for example, all of which fell into and inflamed 
 the flood. Near Attinghausen stronger dams 
 were built. Few rivers in the world can match 
 the Reuss in fall ; in thirty miles this river drops 
 five thousand feet. A deluge, therefore, may be 
 always coming ; and the river-banks at Atting- 
 hausen, Altdorf, Seedorf, and Fliielen have been 
 strongly dammed On Sunday night the floods 
 were stronger than these powerful works. A 
 breach was made at Attinghausen in the dyke ; a 
 second breach soon followed, and the waters ran
 
 RAIN AND ROOKS. 43 
 
 out screaming through the fields. At evening, ere 
 the storm began, the lake was very low ; a long, 
 hot summer having sucked it up to an unusual 
 depth ; but when the daylight came the church- 
 yard and the inns were aU below the water lines. 
 
 In Canton Uri only, five hundred persons lost 
 a great part of their worldly wealth ; and even 
 the Federal engineers computed that the cost of 
 that one night of rain, in this short Uri valley, 
 was about five hundred thousand francs. 
 
 But cruel as the ravage was in Canton Uri, 
 it was greater in the Valais and Graubiinden. 
 In Ticino it was worst of all. 
 
 Val Blegno, in Ticino, is a mountain passage 
 of peculiar beauty. Nestling in between the 
 peaks and crests of Scopi and La Bianca, where 
 the roads are very steep, the cascades spring 
 from ledge to ledge amidst a crowd of pretty 
 modem chalets and the ruins of an ancient world. 
 For here and there, among the vineyards and 
 the chestnut - groves, you come upon some 
 Romanesque tower. As usual with a Latin 
 people every perch of ground belonging to the 
 rustic has been turned to use as either garden, 
 paddock, or plantation ; and as usual also with 
 a Latin people every patch of wood belonging
 
 44 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 to the Commune has been cut away. Few hollows 
 in this chain of alps can show more contrasts 
 than the Blegno. Vines are grown on frames, 
 and melons in the courtyards ; chestnut-trees and 
 walnut-trees abound, the fruit of which the 
 peasants roast and vend ; but high above the 
 nooks in which these fruit-trees thrive, with 
 garden, church, and house, is seen a mass of 
 rock, a thousand feet in height, without a bush 
 from base to crown, although the heights above 
 are capped with meadows of unmelting snow. 
 
 For many weeks before that Sunday night, 
 while it was hot and dry at Chur and Brieg, 
 much rain was falling in the Blegno, and the 
 water-ways were greatly worn and torn. Then 
 came the night, when shepherds who were sleep- 
 ing in the mountains, say, that rain fell, not 
 in showers but sheets, and that the solid earth 
 was shaken by the weight. All valleys on the 
 slopes of the St. Gothard were invaded by the 
 floods. From seven to ten o'clock the storm 
 increased in noise and fury. As the lightning 
 flashed and thunder broke, enormous streams of 
 water rolled down every rift and scoop. The Campo 
 and the Compietto were two roaring torrents. 
 Camha was a cataract. From Olivione to Bianca
 
 RAIN AND ROCKS. 45 
 
 nearly all the dams gave way ; the bed, so deep 
 before, was raised by the accumulating sand and 
 stones, till meadow lands which lay on either 
 bank were swept. At Aquarosso, Dongio, and 
 PoUeggio, lands, and trees, and soil were carried 
 off hke so much dust. Whatever stood in front 
 of that descending rush, as dykes, walls, bridges, 
 houses, mills, and stables, fell into the stream. 
 In many parts the waters left their usual beds 
 and leapt by garden walls and private paths 
 into the hamlets, filled the cowsheds and the 
 dairies, underflowed the beams, and lifted the 
 strong habitations off the earth. Enormous slabs 
 of rock were hurled into the valleys, and an 
 engineer from Zurich found one fragment of a 
 thousand cubic feet. 
 
 The feature of that fearful night in Blegno 
 was descending slips of earth and rock. In 
 Val Soglia, all the tracks were covered by these 
 falHng masses. In Semiona and Malvagha, 
 several persons lost their lives. One hamlet, 
 that of Cumiasca, was a tragic scene. Some 
 fifteen houses occupied a grassy slope, from which 
 the rustics had completely stript the pines. That 
 Sunday night these rustics went to bed, as 
 alpine rustics do, at sun-down ; but were soon
 
 46 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 awakened by the elemental war. They are not 
 very brave, at best, these Cumiasca Celts ; and 
 roused at dead of night, in utter darkness, in 
 the midst of drenching rain, and with a roar of 
 falling stones about their ears, they rushed into 
 the open road, took counsel of each other's fears, 
 and turned their faces to the mountain wall. 
 Great blocks of stone were tumbling from the 
 skies. Some fugitives were struck and killed. 
 Some lost their senses, and returned to what had 
 been their homes ; the rest roamed madly up and 
 down the gorge all night. In all some twenty 
 persons lost their lives. 
 
 When morning came, the few who had sur- 
 vived their fellows tried to find their houses. 
 Not a shed was standing in its place. They 
 looked upon the wreck, and thought it must be 
 all a dream. How could a single night have 
 stript them so ? A heap of earth and stones lay 
 over what had yesterday been Cumiasca. Full a 
 quarter of the villagers were dead, and nearly half 
 of those who had not perished in the night were 
 crazed. What could they do in face of such a 
 trial ? Each one looked into his neighbour's face 
 for hope, and found no comfort. In a body they 
 sat down upon the earth and wept.
 
 RAIN AND ROCKS. 47 
 
 The engineers who came from Bern to help 
 them, were astonished by their broken spirit, as a 
 worse calamity than even the destruction of their 
 homes. The men were patient in their misery ; 
 supporting loss of food and fuel with a resignation 
 truly southern ; but they could not front the 
 facts and rise to overcome them at a bound. In 
 turns they moped, and cursed, and cried. They 
 threw themselves before their saints. They told 
 the engineer they had no hope, and could not 
 make an effort to begin the world afresh. Some 
 houses, only partly covered by the rubbish, could 
 be recognised ; but not a man in Cumiasca had 
 the heart to clear them out. Yet men and 
 women were gentle in their ways. No begging 
 was perceived, and every one seemed pleased with 
 what was given him from the common fund. 
 
 It was the same elsewhere on the Italian side. 
 The League came in with work, as well as money. 
 AU the roads were injured ; some of them were 
 stopped. The people of whole villagesiwere called 
 upon to clear these paths men, women, children 
 ^-every one who could raise a pick and move a 
 stone. The men were armed with spade and 
 axe ; the women carried lengths of rope ; and 
 while these men were levelling the road behind in
 
 48 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 single files, some thirty women moved in front of 
 them and tugged the greater fragments to one 
 side. The little ones were made to pick up 
 stones, according to their strength. Soon every- 
 one was got to work once more, and with re- 
 turning labour came the courage to confront their 
 altered lot. 
 
 ' These trials,' says the man of Science, who 
 was in Ticino in that day of trouble, ' are a legacy 
 from those saints.' 
 
 The Nun lifts up her eyes. 
 
 ' These fellows dream and dawdle when they 
 ought to stand about their guns ; supposing, if they 
 only shut their eyes and gape, that San Gennaro 
 and San Carlo will protect their sheds and fields. 
 They will cut down their woods, and will not dam 
 their streams. We came one day into PoUeggio, 
 which had suffered from the floods. . . .' 
 
 * But not so much as she deserved,' cries Sister 
 Agnes, with a flush of Celtic fire in her moist eyes. 
 * Of all the sins in this bad Canton of Ticino, that 
 of Polleggio is the worst. Some hamlets only 
 drive away one priest ; Polleggio drives away from 
 her a school of priests. You say the saints have 
 sent these chastisements of storm and rain. You 
 may be right, though in a better sense ; for Hea-
 
 RAIN AND ROCKS. 49 
 
 ven, though it may suffer long, must overtake the 
 guilty ones at last.' 
 
 ' Your Church affairs are not my study/ says 
 the Engineer; 'but still one knows that in the 
 general rising of Ticino, not against their bishop 
 only, but against the Holy See as his abettor, 
 these rustics of Polleggio have not borne a leading 
 part. The seminary for priests, established in their 
 neighbourhood, was closed by public acts/ 
 
 ' It is the same to God,' exclaims the Nun. 
 
 ' Are you aware,' the man of Science turns to 
 me and asks, ' how much this folly of the rustic 
 Communes costs the League ? A hundred thou- 
 sand francs a-year for cones and shoots. Last year 
 we voted fifty thousand from a special fund. These 
 francs are spent in planting trees ; and from my 
 studies of the forests I can say the money is not 
 much. Ten milHon francs are needed to restore 
 the forests on these central alps alone ; six 
 millions more should be expended on the minor 
 alps. Nor is the money all our charge. These 
 Communes draw upon our time, our patience, and 
 our science. If we left these Celtic clowns to 
 chop and burn another twenty years, our hills 
 would be as bare as those of Greece.' 
 
 ' Can you prevent this waste by Federal law V 
 
 E
 
 50 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 * Not yet : in six months we shall have the 
 power. Such woods are Communal woods. A 
 Commune is a small republic, with indefinite 
 rights ; and as the Cantons shrink from trench- 
 ing on the Communal ground, Bern only can pro- 
 vide a cure. Already we have made one step. In 
 granting aid to sufferers from the recent floods we 
 bound the villagers to whom we paid our money 
 to replant their woods. Our next step is to strip 
 them of their power to fell and burn. Such people 
 are not fit for freedom. To be free, a man must 
 first be master of himself; and these poor things 
 would burn a larch to roast a pan of nuts. All 
 mountain forests will be brought within the scope 
 of Federal law. These rustics must be startled 
 from their sleep. An ofiScer from Bern will soon 
 be at their doors, to let them know that if they 
 choose to roast their nuts with pine and larch they 
 must not drown the lands of people in the vales. 
 We shall protect these folks against their saints.' 
 
 'Adieu!' says Sister Agnes, rising from her 
 bench, her cheek aghast with fear and rage. 
 
 'Adieu!' the Bernese laughs, with his cold, 
 careful eyes upon her, and the mallet in his 
 upraised hand, as though in such a cause he was 
 prepared to smite the rock of Bome.
 
 RAIN AND ROCKS. 51 
 
 ' Adieu !' I add, * but we shall meet again.' 
 
 * At Meinrad's Cell in Canton Schwyz V 
 
 * Yes ; at the Festival of the Rosary. Adieu ! 
 I shall be there, and count the pilgrims at Our 
 Lady's shrine.'
 
 52 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 TEUTON AND CELT. 
 
 'A Teuton finds his Celtic neighbour hard to 
 take V 
 
 ' It is so/ says the Bernese ; ' but we know 
 our man, and how to deal with him. It is a 
 kind of game. You have to use him well a 
 little more in word than fact and then to wait 
 his mood, with now and then a hint, thrown out 
 as though it were by chance, that he is weak 
 while you are strong, that he is naked and 
 adoze while you are armed and on the watch. 
 He has his noble flights, our Celtic friend ; and, 
 like poor Sister Agnes, he can fling himself 
 away. We must indulge him, for we want an 
 outpost at our enemy's Hues. Two Celtic nations, 
 France and Italy, are the foes we dread ; and it 
 is well for us to have a sweep of country in our 
 front, from Basel to Lugano, occupied by Celts. 
 But how are we to keep these borders free ? In
 
 TEUTON AND CELT. 53 
 
 one of two ways only : we may keep them by 
 the strong hand, we may keep them by the just 
 hand. We have tried both systems, and have 
 found the cost of justice less than that of force. 
 Not long ago Teutonic Switzerland was lord of 
 all the rest. Bern ruled in Canton Vaud ; 
 Geneva was her vassal. Upper Valais, peopled 
 by the Teuton, ruled in Lower Valais, peopled 
 by the Celt. Yal Leventina and the circles of 
 Lugano and Bellinzona were but conquered pro- 
 vinces of .the League. Neufchatel found her 
 centre of poHtical life in Bern. But in revenge 
 of nature, we, the old free citizens of Bern, 
 became the vassals of some noble houses, which 
 had gained hereditary power as officers and 
 satraps in our subject states. What should we 
 gain by putting out our strength once more ? 
 Our Celtic brethren would protest. Suppose 
 we answer that the law is with majorities ? 
 They fly to arms ; we crush them ; but' our 
 League of freemen dies a violent death. Oui' 
 actual state is better than such triumph. We 
 must take the evil and the good together, even 
 though we fret against the separate Cantonal 
 vote, and fume most sorely at the Communal 
 local life.'
 
 54 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 In mere extent of surface Celtic Switzerland 
 is nearly equal to Teutonic Switzerland ; but when 
 we count the people there are only thirty Celts to 
 every seventy Teutons ; and the thirty Celts are 
 scattered into three distinct and hostile camps. 
 One camp is Gallic, one Romonsch, and one Italian. 
 
 ' We come into these hills to-day/ observes 
 the Teuton, ' as our fathers came a thousand 
 years ago ; we come from Lombardy, from 
 Swabia, and from Burgundy; we meet on these 
 high crests around the Ober Alp, the Furka, 
 ai^d the Sasso di Gottardo and we try to push 
 each other down the slope. We Teutons bear 
 our language to the summit of each pass. The 
 Celts, too, bring their language to the summit 
 of each pass. Our language is High German in 
 the colleges, Low German in the streets. Their 
 language is of more variety than ours. We 
 speak the Allemannic idiom mainly, as our kins- 
 men speak it in the Rhineland, from the quays 
 of Rorschah to the gates of Metz. They speak 
 three several forms of Latin French, Italian, 
 and Romonsch ; French in the Rhone system, 
 Itahan in the Po system, Romonsch in the Inn 
 system, and in the upper portion of the Rhine. 
 
 The Federal Hall in Bern has a department of
 
 TEUTON AND CELT. 55 
 
 Statistics, where one of the most learned statists 
 of our time, Max Wirth, sits brooding over lists ; 
 for counting people and arranging facts is an 
 essential function of the state ; and Wirth is 
 said to know not only every goat and cow, but 
 every tree and almost every blade of grass, in 
 Switzerland. Some mornings spent in this depart- 
 ment of Statistics has enriched me with a world of 
 useful facts. 
 
 The Switzers were enumerated, they and their 
 belongings, on the first day of December last. 
 Not many strangers are in Switzerland so late, 
 and of the strangers who are noted in the lists as 
 such (in number, 13,852), the greater part are living 
 in the land. The totals are : 
 
 Population in December, 1870. 
 
 Males. 1,305,670 
 
 Females ". . . . 1,364,675 
 
 Total . . . 2,670,345 
 
 Excess of females over males, 59,005. 
 
 This excess of female life is rather more than 
 in surrounding countries, and is not explained by 
 what is held to be the cause of our disparities of
 
 56 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 sex in England emigration of the single men. 
 A second schedule gives us these results ; 
 
 Number of FamiHes . . . 557,820 
 
 Number of Houses . . , . 390,318 
 
 The families are small for countries which are 
 mainly tenanted by a Teutonic race. 
 
 Two points are to be noted in these figures ; 
 first, the number of persons in each Family ; and 
 next, the great excess of Families over Houses. 
 On the average for all Switzerland, a Family con- 
 sists of less than five members : father, mother, 
 and three children; while the average of other 
 countries of Teutonic race is six and seven. The 
 village system, as in Russia, tends to check the 
 natural rate of growth. In counting roofs, we 
 find the number of Families in great excess of 
 Houses ; very near a third part of the whole. 
 
 Excess of Families over Houses . . 167,502 
 
 The village system, as in Russia, tends to check 
 the growth of separate roof-trees. 
 
 The number of households is in large excess of 
 the number of houses in which they have to hve. 
 Every third family must dwell beneath a roof-tree 
 not its own.
 
 TEUTON AND CELT. 57 
 
 In Languages we find : 
 
 
 
 Families speaking German 
 
 
 384,561 
 
 Frencli 
 
 
 134,183 
 
 Italian 
 
 
 30,293 
 
 Romonsch , 
 
 
 8,759 
 
 Englisli 
 
 
 19 
 
 Dutch, Polisli, 
 
 Magyar, 
 
 
 Russ, and Spanish (one each) 
 
 5 
 
 FamiKes . 557,820 
 
 The first four groups are native, and require 
 to have their separate books of law. It would 
 be something if each idiom had a Canton or a 
 group of Cantons to itself; but such is not the 
 rule, and hardly the exception to a rule. In each 
 of tbe twenty-five Cantons and Half-cantons you 
 hear German spoken, but in none of these exclu- 
 sively. In nineteen Cantons and Half-cantons 
 you hear French ; in some but little, and in others 
 much, but not in one exclusively. In twenty- 
 one Cantons and Half-cantons there is some 
 Italian, if not much ; but no one Canton speaks 
 Italian exclusively. The Romonsch idiom is less 
 widely spread, yet E-omonsch may be heard in 
 twelve several Cantons as a native speech. There 
 are, of course, some zig-zag and concentric lines of 
 language. German, which is heard in every Can- 
 ton of the Bund, maintains a large predominance
 
 58 TBE SWITZERS. 
 
 in Zurich, Bern, Luzern, and all the upper Can- 
 tons, with the one exception of Graubtinden. 
 French is the prevailing tongue in Neufchatel, 
 Geneva, Valais, Vaud, and Fribourg ; but in Vaud 
 and Fribourg German is the language of a strong 
 minority of the people close upon a third. Ita- 
 lian has its chief seats in Graubtinden and Ticino ; 
 in the first of which Cantons nearly nine thousand 
 families speak Romonsch. This Kustic Latin is 
 the only language in the country which is dying 
 out. Italian, French, and German grow with the 
 growth of population more or less. The increase 
 in the last ten years stands thus : 
 
 Increase in the number of families speaking 
 
 Italian 1,596 
 
 French 10,745 
 
 German 17,496 
 
 Romonsch is failing ; giving way to German, 
 which is taught in every public school. In 1860 
 there were 8882 families in the country speak- 
 ing Romonsch; in 1870 there were 8759. Grau- 
 btinden is the modem Babel. In this mountain 
 Canton dwell some twenty thousand families 
 speaking as returned below : 
 
 Speaking German . . . 9328 famihes. 
 
 Romonsch . . . 8715 
 
 Italian . . . 3000 
 
 French ... 29
 
 TEUTON AND CELT. 59 
 
 The differences of race are mostly those of 
 language, but not always. In the twenty-five 
 Cantons and Half-cantons there are : 
 
 Of Teutonic race . . . 2,000,000 souls. 
 Of Celtic race . . . 670,000 
 
 The two great races hold their natural lines ; 
 the Northern ^ races nearly all the north, the 
 Southern races nearly all the south. But two 
 exceptions to the law are visible, one exception 
 in the Rhone valley; a second exception in the 
 Rhine valley. Up to Sion the Rhone is Celtic ; 
 at Sierre it is mixed ; and higher up the stream 
 is wholly Teutonic. Up to Chur the Rhine is 
 German, but in Ilanz it is mixed, and higher up 
 the stream is Romonsch. "What cause has 
 brought this contradiction to a natural law ? The 
 structure of these mountain walls. The valley 
 of the Rhone is long and narrow. France has 
 but one opening into it beyond the passage at 
 Villeneuve, the high and lateral entry from Cha- 
 mounix by the Forclaz. Only through these 
 gorges can the Gauls from Burgundy and Savoy 
 pour into the Yalais ; but in passing up the 
 river, they are met in front, and taken on the 
 flank, by Teutons coming by the Furka pass 
 from Andermatt, the Grimsel pass from Mey-
 
 60 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 ringen, the Gemini pass from Unterseen, the 
 Col du Rawyl from Thun, the Sanetsch pass 
 from Gsteig and Saanen. Met by these descend- 
 mg masses, they retire on Sion, where they 
 hold their ground, and keep the forms of Latin 
 life. Five passes through their mountains make 
 the Teutons masters of the Upper Rhone. But 
 Nature, which has given the Teuton access to 
 his neighbour's river, has denied him access 
 to his own. From Ober Alp to Trons, in the 
 Fore Rhine valley, there is not a chamois trail 
 across the northern heights. From Trons and 
 Flims there rise two bridle paths ; near Ilanz 
 is an opening to the Panix ; but these paths are 
 high and hard to climb; while on the southern 
 bank a dozen easy roads lead in and out of the 
 Italian valleys ; roads from Albula, from Stalla 
 from Spliigen, from Bernardina, from Olivone, 
 from Val Piora and from Airolo. Thus, a counter 
 march to what has given the upper waters of 
 the Rhone to men of northern race, has given the 
 upper waters of the Rhine to men of southern 
 race. A Teutonic colony has pushed towards 
 Italy ; and if they have not crossed the ridge, 
 these colonists hold the mountains to the top. 
 They own the hamlets of the Rheinwald and
 
 TEUTON AND CELT. 61 
 
 the pastures of Averserthal. Some German 
 thorpes are circled by a foreign population, like 
 the German colonies in Russia. One such thorpe 
 is that of Bosco, in Ticino. St. Martin and 
 Obersaxen are Teutonic thorpes. 
 
 'You see/ the Bernese adds, as we go over 
 all these curious facts, ' we are an odd amalgam 
 of all races and all creeds. We speak Italian, 
 Romonsch, French, and German. We are Luthe- 
 ran, Calvinist, Catholic, Israelite. We are Latin, 
 GaUic, Low Dutch, High Dutch, Hebrew. We 
 are not a nation, even as we are not a people. 
 We have Communes, Cantons, and Half-cantons, 
 but as yet we have no Switzerland. A Switzer 
 has his Commune, but he has no country. You 
 will hear in Bern that we are twenty-five repub- 
 hcs, but in truth we are five hundred republics ; 
 every one of these republics with a local life 
 and independent claims. Our Communes were 
 republics once, and have not whoUy lost their 
 sovereign rights.*
 
 62 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 THE COMMUNES. 
 
 When Bourbaki, rapidly recoiling from the gates 
 of Belfort and the guns of Manteufel, tumbled 
 over into Canton Neufchatel, the Swiss Society of 
 PubHc Usefulness a rich and patriotic body 
 snatched the moment (Monday, Feb. 20, 1871) 
 when eighty thousand French troops were scat- 
 tered far and wide among five hundred Com- 
 munes ten in one place, forty in a second, 
 seventy in a third to give the fugitives some 
 lessons in the art of being free. 
 
 These strangers were repubhcans, but not as 
 Switzers are republicans. The French Kepublic, 
 under which they served, is One and Indivisible. 
 She sweeps away all barriers, landmarks, and 
 distinctions. She erases history. She hates the 
 names of hamlet, city, province ; will not hear 
 of Breton, Nizzard, Gascon ; rolls a level over 
 the rough soil of France, and makes one family
 
 THE COMMUNES. 63 
 
 of the tribes and nations she has gathered to her 
 flag. She has one head, one heart, one hand, in 
 which her thought, her blood, her force, reside. 
 She is impatient of provincial rule, and finds in 
 unity the principle of her life. These strangers 
 knew so little of the Switzers, as to fancy that 
 a French and Swiss repubhc were the same 
 affair. They dreamt, that on a proclamation at 
 the Hotel de Yille in Paris, the Jura mountains 
 feU for ever; that in fact, if not as yet in form, 
 the Swiss republic was absorbed by France. 
 
 It was regarded as a work of public useful- 
 ness to clear their brains of all such notions ; 
 to inform these strangers of the actual truths ; 
 to show them how a Swiss republic differs from 
 a French. 
 
 A little book, a souvenir of Switzerland, was 
 printed by the Bernese press ; containing, in the 
 simplest words, a true account of what the Swiss 
 republic is the Commune, Canton, and Confeder- 
 ation with the rights which every Switzer holds 
 by birth. A copy of this book was given to 
 every soldier of the French republic quartered 
 m a Swiss hamlet ; and it might be well if 
 such a souvenir of Switzerland were given to 
 every stranger coming to the alps. Swiss life
 
 64 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 is not a simple thing. These villagers and 
 burghers have the art of being free ; yet not 
 the art of being free as men in England and 
 "America are free. A Swiss republic has more 
 likeness to an American republic than a French ; 
 but there are points in which the League of Can- 
 tons differs utterly from the United States. Some 
 days ago, a liberal orator, when speaking at Ver- 
 sailles, declared that France desires to have a 
 form of government such as people find at Wash- 
 ington and Bern. How all the journals in this 
 country laughed! *Are we the same?' they 
 asked in mockery ; * we, who build the whole of 
 our political edifice on the Commune a founda- 
 tion utterly unknown in the United States V The 
 Switzers know their country better ; and by this 
 time thousands of Bourbaki's troops are able to 
 instruct the French. 
 
 The integer of Swiss political society is not 
 the individual, not the household, but the Com- 
 mune. 
 
 In the passing hour this name of Commune 
 stinks in many nostrils with the reek of powder 
 and petroleum ; and in ears disposed to catch at 
 sounds, the very word suggests a dance of death. 
 A fire breaks out in the Rue du Rhone, Geneva.
 
 THE COMMUNES. 65 
 
 The wind is very high; the fire brigade is slow; 
 and house by house, the conflagration spreads, 
 until it nears the lake. Vast crowds of people 
 fill the streets ; the civic guards turn out ; the 
 councillors of state are on the ground ; and in 
 the noise of shouting crowds, and falling roofs, 
 and roaring winds, the flames are mastered and 
 repressed. Next day, an article appears in the 
 Paris Gaulois, dated from Geneva, hinting that 
 this fire is not an accident, that agents are em- 
 ployed, and that Geneva will be burnt as Paris 
 has been burnt. This evidence is given. A per- 
 son in the crowd, his name not known, is heard 
 to cry, ' Bum the aristocrats Long live the 
 Commune ! ' Being seized by well-dressed people, 
 he is shielded by a mob of working men, and 
 gets away unhurt. At once the Journal de 
 Geneve rephes that no such scene occurred. 
 Jules Klein, the correspondent of the Gaulois, 
 answers that he heard the words and saw the 
 man arrested and released. The words were 
 Vive la Commune ! Klein is justified by facts. 
 Then comes the culprit with his word ; he is 
 a Genevese, one Etienne Perrudet, who ran to 
 help the firemen, and assisted at the pumps 
 from midnight until dawn. On leaving off", he
 
 Q6 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 meets some firemen from Boage, a village near 
 Geneva, whom he greets with cries of Vive la 
 Commune de Boage ! Some persons, hearing 
 only half his greeting, lay their hands on him, 
 but when the firemen tell these persons what 
 has passed, they break into a laugh and send 
 him to his breakfast with a merry shout ! 
 
 But though the Commune smells just now of 
 fire and ashes, yet the thing itself is old, and 
 almost sacred ; for the Commune is a part of our 
 most ancient record, part of our Bible history and 
 of our human life. In Oriental countries it is still 
 familiar to men's eyes and thoughts ; and if our 
 western world is leaving it behind as finding no 
 more use for it the Commune still exists as a 
 political and social form, in every country of the 
 rising sun, from Bussia, Palestine, and Egypt, to 
 the farther kingdoms of the East. 
 
 In the United States, they take the individual 
 man as unit, and all pubhc franchises are vested 
 in that individual man. The individual votes. 
 In England we are apt to treat the household as 
 the unit, and to vest the franchise in the house. 
 With us the roof-tree votes. In Russia they re- 
 gard the individual and the family as fractions of 
 the Commune. There the Commune votes, pays
 
 THE COMMUNES. 67 
 
 taxes, fills the ranks, divides the soil, and exer- 
 cises magisterial power. In Switzerland the 
 Commune has an almost equal rank. A Com- 
 mune has its own estate ; the land on which the 
 people who compose it live. In olden times, this 
 land was held in common, as such land is held in 
 Russia now ; but much of it has passed from 
 public custody into private hands. Yet every 
 Commune owns some land, some wood, some 
 water-right, in common fee. These riches are 
 the Communal fund, in which each member of 
 the Commune has an equal share. 
 
 Some thinkers of the highest class contend 
 that this Swiss village system is a great success. 
 ' Observe my country,' says a voice, to which one 
 cannot choose but listen ; ' what is there to see ? 
 Free speech, free roads, free trade. You meet no 
 soldiers in our streets. You are not troubled by 
 police. We have no viUage parson, and no country 
 squire. Our towns are orderly, our hamlets clean. 
 Our schools, our mills, our forests, are alive with 
 people, every child and every man of whom is as 
 a lord unto himself This order of our people 
 has the order of our Communes for its natural 
 source.' The Swiss Society of Public Usefulness 
 declare, in the souvenir given to Bourbaki's
 
 68 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 troops, ' Our laws proceed from this great prin- 
 ciple, that our institutions are truly free and 
 popular only in so far as our Communes are free/ 
 The Commissioners appointed by the National 
 Council to revise the Federal constitution say, in 
 their report (May 5, 1871), 'The liberty of the 
 Swiss Commune is justly considered as the school 
 and cradle of our political liberties.' 
 
 Swiss Communes are not modelled, like the 
 E/Ussian Communes, on a single type. In Canton 
 Geneva there are forty -four Communes ; in Grau- 
 biinden there are two hundred and five Com- 
 munes. In fact, these Communes differ very 
 much in size, in form, in wealth, in rules. In 
 some Cantons they are open ; but in many 
 Cantons they are closed. In some the craft and 
 calling of a member is a capital point. In others, 
 birth is prized ; not blood, as in a country ruled 
 by nobles, but a birth-right in the soil a pre- 
 ference given to Bernese Teuton over Swabian 
 Teuton, to a Yalaisian Celt over a Savoyard Celt. 
 In some religion is a test. Some Communes 
 claim no higher powers than may be exercised 
 in England by a trading company a bank, a 
 railway, or a joint-stock farm. Such easy bodies 
 may be found by hundreds in the richer and more
 
 THE COMMUNES. 69 
 
 prosperous Cantons, Zurich, Aargau, Vaud, and 
 Bern. But many of the Communes claim the 
 rights of independent states a right to cut 
 down trees, to injure dykes, and open gaming- 
 houses at the pubhc cost. Such difficult bodies 
 may be found in plenty in the poorer and more 
 ignorant Cantons, Valais, Appenzel, Graubtinden, 
 and Ticino. 
 
 Yet, in these varieties, there is a common 
 life. Each Commune is a small republic, with 
 her free and equal members, her assembhes, 
 ballots, and debates, her mayor and coimcil, and 
 her Communal lists. 
 
 A Communal Assembly is the whole body of 
 members properly convened in either market, 
 public-house, or open field ; where they can make 
 their by-laws, and elect a council and a mayor. 
 These officers must be chosen from the Ust of 
 citizens who have a right to vote. As women 
 have no votes, they are not called upon to serve. 
 In every village, lists are kept, and every member 
 has his name inscribed. Inscription is his proof 
 of citizenship. Each member has the same rights 
 as every other member. No precedence is allowed. 
 In Switzerland there may be families as old as 
 any in the empires on her borders. Not a little
 
 70 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 of the proudest blood in Europe flows from castles 
 on these alps. The Austrian Kaisers come from 
 Habsburg, in the Canton Aargau ; and the Ger- 
 man Kaisers draw their line from Neufchatel. 
 But the oldest families are like the newest ; they 
 must stand on living merit, not on long descent. 
 No thought is given to birth. All families, a 
 Switzer holds, are of an equal age and equal 
 rank. 
 
 These citizens, who may be woodmen, goat- 
 herds, weavers, what not, name the mayor and 
 council of the Commune from their body, and the 
 officers thus selected are the sole authorities in 
 the place. They must be five a mayor and four 
 citizens ; in larger villages they may be ten. 
 Much work falls on them, which they cannot 
 shirk. They serve two years at least, and may 
 be kept in office six. No man is free to either 
 serve or not as suits his mood ; the Commune 
 must be served. A man selected by his equals 
 takes his spell of office, as he takes in earHer 
 days his spell of school, and in his later day his 
 spell of camp.
 
 71 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COMMUNAL AUTHORITIES. 
 
 The cares which fall upon these village rulers 
 are of many kinds. 
 
 A mayor and council are the fathers of the 
 Commune; nothing can be done without their 
 leave. In countries where the Commune is un- 
 known, in which the mayor and council are 
 replaced by squire and curate, every one is free 
 to act as he thinks well, and eat the fruit of 
 what he plants ; but in a Commune, men are 
 guided by the mayor. A school-boy who has 
 been expelled for sloth or surliness can only be 
 admitted to his class again by intervention of 
 his mayor. A goatherd who has fallen in love 
 with village maiden, cannot wed his lass without 
 permission from his mayor. 
 
 These peasant magistrates have charge of the 
 estate. They watch the roads and streets, they 
 keep the fountains running, they observe who
 
 72 THE SWITZER8. 
 
 comes and goes each day, they guard the fields 
 from torrents and the sheds from fire, they see 
 that children walk straight home from school, 
 they send on tramps, and write and keep the 
 communal lists. They make and execute the 
 local rules. They say which pines are to be cut, 
 which roads must be repaired, which torrents 
 should be bridged. They hold the poor fund and 
 drive away such persons as they find unprofitable 
 members of their guild. 
 
 The poor have claims, not only on the lands 
 and forests held in common, but on certain 
 funds which have been set apart as poor funds, 
 and on all the charities of a Christian land. 
 A Commune may be very poor some Communes 
 in Graubiinden and the Valais say they are 
 extremely poor but even in Graubiinden and 
 the Valais there is nothing like a settled pauper 
 class. These Communes will not let a pauper class 
 grow up. A sot, a sluggard, and a fool, must 
 tramp. They have no room for such a man, 
 nor can he skulk into a hole and hve upon 
 their earnings like a rat. They smoke him out ; 
 they take him to the village mayor ; they tell 
 him he must try some other place. They hint 
 that either France, or Austria, or America, would
 
 COMMUNAL AUTHORITIES. 73 
 
 be his field. If he is slow to see their drift, 
 they help him with a few plain words. At last 
 he sees that he must trudge, and then they pay 
 his fare to Paris, to Vienna, to New York. This 
 fare may be a hundred francs, three hundred 
 francs, five hundred francs ; but down it goes 
 upon the nail ; the wastrel packs his trap ; the 
 Commune shakes him off for good and bad. 
 
 The mayor and council have to build the 
 primary schools, to seek the teachers, to inspect 
 the class-rooms, to enforce the rules and regu- 
 lations, to prevent disorder, to preside at festivals 
 and promotions, to instruct the careless parent 
 in his duties, to supply the means, both moral 
 and material, for attaining and preserving the 
 highest character for their village schools. 
 
 A man of any craft and creed may claim to 
 have his part in any Commune where he dwells ; 
 but then this Commune is the judge of whether 
 she will grant his prayer or not. She can refuse 
 his claim and give no reason why. Before she 
 listens to his suit at all, she asks him for a proof 
 of his nationaHty, a certificate of his good life 
 and manners, evidence of his ability to support 
 himself and his belongings, testimony that he has 
 not lost his civic rights by condemnation in a
 
 74 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 court of law. Such proofs are scanned with 
 jealous eyes. Though nothing may be found 
 against the man, his suit may be rejected by the 
 village sires. In any case there will be money 
 to pay down ; but money is not all in all. 
 Paternal governors are hard to please. They 
 may not like his looks ; they may dishke his 
 creed. A dwarf, a cretin, or a cripple, would be 
 turned adrift by any communal mayor without 
 a word. In many parts religion is the primary 
 test. Among the nimble, jealous, and artistic 
 folks of Neufchatel and Vaud, engaged in making 
 clocks, a Jew would have no chance. Among 
 the stolid, picturesque, and hardy folk of Appen- 
 zel-inner-Rhoden, tending kine and making cheese, 
 a Lutheran would have no chance. A right of 
 settling where he likes, of changing his abode 
 from year to year, and striking root in any 
 mountain side, is not a right to which the Swit- 
 zer, free as he may call himself, is bom. 
 
 This name of Switzer, borne so proudly in 
 all foreign countries by the men who own it, has 
 a meaning for the stranger which it hardly bears 
 at home. A man of English blood first thinks of 
 himself as being an EngUshman, then as being 
 a Londoner, and only in the third degree as
 
 COMMUNAL AUTHORITIES. 75 
 
 being a Paddingtonian. A man of Swiss descent 
 reverses this arrangement. He is first (say) a 
 Wiesbacher, then a Bernese, afterwards a Swdtzer.- 
 He is conscious of an overmastering law. * We 
 move,' explains the Swiss Society of Public Use- 
 fulness in their souvenir, * from low to high ; 
 the Commune is the centre of our Hfe ; and 
 there can be no true development of liberty 
 except so far as it proceeds from the Commune 
 from the centre to the circling lines.' 
 
 A Switzer's right of settlement on his native 
 soil, though urged in many quarters, is not 
 popular in any Commune. Five or six attempts 
 to get the Cantons to adopt the general principle 
 that a Switzer has a right to settle where he 
 pleases in the territories of the League have 
 failed i the last attempt so lately as five years 
 ago. The leading Cantons Zurich, Bern, Luzern, 
 Geneva press the doctrine ; but the smaller 
 Cantons, Uri, Valais, Schwyz, and the two Half- 
 cantons of Unterwalden, will not yield. Appenzel- 
 inner-Rhoden will admit a CathoHc to her Com- 
 munes, but she shuts her gates on every Lutheran 
 and on every Jew. 
 
 A Commune is in part a guild, with common 
 property in trust ; in part a congregation, with
 
 76 ' THE SWITZERS. 
 
 a common faith in charge ; and the religious 
 question weighs with some far more than any 
 thought of worldly goods. In every case the 
 entry of a stranger is regarded as a privilege 
 the only privilege existing in this pure democracy 
 and, like all privilege, is an affair of sale. 
 Some Communes have a tariff, which is fixed by 
 the assembly, and deposited with the mayor ; a 
 tariff raised or lowered according to the market 
 in such things. 
 
 In Communes like Lausanne and Bern, which 
 own large tracts of land and forest, prices may be 
 high ; from fifty to a thousand francs, according 
 to the age and sex, the country and condition, of 
 the stranger coming in. A boy pays more than a 
 girl ; a married man pays more than a single man ; 
 a foreigner pays more than a native. In the Com- 
 mune of Lausanne, the tariff has been lowered this 
 autumn ; not without a serious fight in favour of 
 the Commune as against the citizen. In older 
 times, the Communes of Lausanne regarded 
 Bernese, Ziirichers, and other Switzers, in the 
 light of strangers, and the charge for their ad- 
 mission was the same as for admitting Russians, 
 French, and Danes. It was suggested by M. Pidon, 
 one of the commissioners of revision, that the
 
 COMMUNAL AUTHORITIES. 77 
 
 privilege of a lower price enjoyed by citizens of 
 Canton Yaud should be extended to all citizens 
 of the Swiss League. At first his views were 
 hooted down, as tending towards a red republic ; 
 for in Canton Vaud, a Commune is the strong- 
 hold of conservative opinions ; but a patriotic 
 spirit was created by the recent war which gave 
 M. Pidon unexpected strength. He placed the 
 Swiss Idea under vivid Hghts ; and in the end 
 his motion was adopted by the Council Friday, 
 Nov. 3, 1871, was a great day in the Commune 
 of Lausanne ; for on that day a Bernese and a 
 Ziiricher were accepted by the Vaudois capital as 
 something nearer than a Russian and a Dane. 
 
 The tariff of the Commune of Lausanne now 
 stands : 
 
 For Yaudois and other Switzers. 
 Head of a Family . . 500 francs. 
 
 A Married Son . . . 350 
 An Unmarried Son . . 150 
 A Daughter . . . 75 
 
 A double rate is fixed for foreigners : 
 
 For Non-Switzers. 
 Head of a Family . . 1000 francs. 
 
 A Married Son . 
 
 . 700 
 
 An Unmarried Son 
 
 . 300 
 
 A Daughter 
 
 . 150
 
 78 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 The open fine on marriage is not the least curi- 
 ous item in these Usts. A married man pays seven 
 hundred francs for self and wife. An unmarried 
 man pays three hundred francs ; an unmarried 
 woman pays a hundred and fifty francs. A 
 bachelor and spinster pay together four hundred 
 and fifty francs against seven hundred paid by 
 a wedded pair.
 
 79 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 COMMUNAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 This fine imposed on married couples coming into 
 any Commune is no wliimsy of a village mayor 
 and council, but tlie offspring of a settled policy 
 in all the Communes for checking a too rapid 
 growth. A married couple may have children; 
 children mean more mouths to feed ; and, in the 
 failure of parental care, these mouths may come 
 upon the Communal funds. So married couples 
 are not wanted in the Commimes ; if they seek 
 to enter they must pay an extra fine. A guild 
 with property in common has an obvious interest 
 in diminishing the claims upon that property. 
 The natural enemies of such a guild are married 
 people, who may bring new mouths into the 
 world ; and therefore married people are dis- 
 couraged from applying for admission to the Com- 
 munal mayor. 
 
 A cold and jealous eye is bent on any one
 
 80 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 within the Commune who may hint that he would 
 like to marry. Every obstacle is raised that can 
 be raised. In many Cantons a man can only 
 marry on the license of his mayor, who may 
 decline to grant such license when circumstances 
 offer him a fair excuse. The man may be too 
 young or he may be too old. He may be halt 
 or blind ; he may be deaf or dumb. He may be 
 crazed in mind; and some old bachelor mayor 
 may think the wish to marry very good evidence 
 of craze. He may be poor. The girl he seeks 
 may not be of his Canton. He may have a 
 dubious character in his village. Any reason will 
 suffice. A case is now before the Federal Council 
 on petition. Alois Arnold is a peasant, living in 
 his Commune of Attinghausen, in the Reuss 
 valley, near to Altdorf, in the land of WiUiam 
 Tell. Six years ago this peasant fell in love 
 with Genevieve Guebey of Onnion, a hamlet in 
 Savoy. Having gained the girl's assent, he 
 claimed a hcense from his mayor to marry her. 
 The mayor was not in mood. He put the peasant 
 off from time to time ; he raised objections more 
 or less insulting ; and when pressed to go into 
 the detail and decide upon the Hcense, said 
 he would not move a finger till the girl had
 
 COMMUNAL GOVERNMENT. 81 
 
 paid into his hands a sum of five hundred and 
 seventy-three francs. Then Alois took the law upon 
 himself. Retiring for a while from Attinghausen 
 and the land of Tell, he went to live in Savoy, 
 near his promised bride, and married her at Onnion, 
 where the priest made no inquiry for a Hcense 
 from his mayor. Alois was merry in his new abode ; 
 but Savoy is not Uri; and at length his heart 
 began to yearn for his old garden on the Reuss. 
 He came, he showed his marriage lines, he took 
 his wife to mass ; but no one in the hamlet would 
 receive her as an honest woman, or admit his 
 children to their rights of birth. He waited on 
 the mayor ; he offered to pay down all fines 
 inflicted by the Cantonal laws on an Uranian 
 who may take a stranger for his wife. The 
 mayor repelled him. Then he went to Altdorf, 
 where the Cantonal Council was in session ; but 
 the Cantonal Council would not interfere. Such 
 questions come up every day ; in every Commune 
 there is some unhappy Genevieve ; and if they 
 meddled in the fray at Attinghausen, they must 
 vex their soids with every wandering shepherd's 
 love affairs. Then Alois came to Bern, and threw 
 his story into the great group of facts suggesting 
 a revision of the Federal law. 
 
 o
 
 82 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Another case. A friend of mine is waiting for 
 a train at Biel. A crowd of peasants from the 
 Commune of Diesbach, in the neighbourhood of 
 Biiren, come upon the platform, shouting, shiver- 
 ing, sobbing, like a mob of girls. A young man 
 and his bride are with them, who are also crying ; 
 for the pair are starting on a journey to the 
 western world a journey not of their own seek- 
 ing, but imposed on them by a paternal mayor ; 
 and these poor countrymen, in pity for their exile, 
 come to see them off. Paternal government in 
 Diesbach, where the man was born, dislikes to 
 see him marry, for the wretch is suffering from 
 an epileptic fit ; and village fathers feel that he 
 and his may be a burthen to their Commune at 
 some future day. The bride, too, has her miseries 
 of the Commune ; she belongs to Brtigg, and 
 Briigg is tired of her, for she is poor, and has an 
 infant three years old. The mother and her 
 child were found one morning sleeping on a bank, 
 with some small articles in a bag for sale. What 
 could a fatherly mayor suggest, except that they 
 should seek their fortunes in some other place ? 
 To marry her, and cast her out, together with 
 her infant child and epileptic husband, into space, 
 would cost some hundred francs. The money was
 
 COMMITTAL GOVERNMENT. 83 
 
 paid do\'ii, the pair departed, and the peasants, 
 kinder than their lords, have come with them to 
 Biel, where they will start for Paris, on their 
 way to Havre and New York. 
 
 * It is a shameful sight,' a citizen of Biel ex- 
 claims ; ' these Communes sell their children I ' 
 
 ' Never mind all that,' replies the woman ; 
 *buy a box of matches, please!' And then the 
 train rolls out of Biel. 
 
 ' It is a burning shame,' remarks the citizen 
 of Biel ; * the country must step in ; these pea- 
 sant mayors and councillors have no heart !' 
 
 The functions of these village sires are not 
 defined by law. Each Commune in Graubiinden 
 claims to be an independent state. Not long ago 
 such villages as Trons, Dissentis, and Ilanz, 
 exercised the power of life and death. It is not 
 long since Andermatt lost her gallows and her 
 right to hang and quarter. In the Valais there 
 are Communes which regard themselves as sepa- 
 rate states. One such commune, that of Saxon, 
 sold a few years since the right to keep a 
 public gaming-table for a certain sum. A com- 
 pany, the Cercle des Strangers, bought some 
 ground, laid out a garden, built a pretty house,
 
 84 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 with dancing-room and card-room all complete. 
 The gamblers and the courtesans of Europe 
 flocked to Saxon. Saxon found the sin pay 
 very well ; and when the world cried out against 
 her for the shame she brought on Switzerland, 
 the mayor and council snapt their fingers at the 
 men of Bern and Zurich. They were acting in 
 their right. Four million francs were spent on 
 Saxon by these strangers ; every one was richer 
 for the outlay; and the money that enriched 
 him came from Paris, Moscow, and Madrid, not 
 Bern and Zurich. Why should Bern and Zurich 
 interfere ? 
 
 As the world elsewhere is closing all such 
 places, agents are about the Valais tempting 
 other Communes by the chink of gold. These 
 agents want a place with mineral springs ; a pretty 
 place it should be, and an idle place it must be. 
 They have been to Monthey, in the Yal dTllies, 
 as well as other Communes on the railway lines ; 
 lint not, as yet, with much success ; for pubHc 
 i idignation has been roused ; and mayors decline 
 to bring the tempest on their roofs. But Saxon 
 k3eps her tables open; pleading that if harm is 
 done, it is to strangers, not to her own people ;
 
 COMMUNAL GOVERNMENT. 85 
 
 that if gambling is immoral, there are many in- 
 dustries about a kursaal which an honest man 
 may ply. 
 
 The cantonal authorities are slow to move 
 against a Commune in their district ; and by 
 law the Canton, not the Confederation, is the 
 actual State.
 
 86 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CANTONS AND HALF-CANTONS. 
 
 The Canton is the State. 
 
 Few jurists hold with the mayor of Saxon 
 that any part of Swiss sovereignty resides in 
 a Commune. Jurists of all sections, whether 
 Celtic or Teutonic, whether Catholic or Evan- 
 geUcal, whether Conservative or Radical, admit 
 that Swiss sovereignty resides in the Cantons. 
 When the members for these Cantons meet in 
 Bern, with certain forms, and in a single room, 
 they hold this sovereignty in common ; but they 
 bring it into Bern, they do not find it here; 
 and when they leave this town they carry it 
 with them to their several homes. 
 
 In speaking roundly one would say there are 
 in Switzerland twenty- two Cantons, which are 
 marked officially and in order, thus : 1. Zurich ;. 
 2. Bern ; 3. Luzern ; 4. Uri ; 5. Schwyz ; 6. Unter-
 
 CANTONS AND HALF-CANTONS. 87 
 
 walden ; 7. Glarus ; 8. Zug ; 9. Fribourg ; 10. Solo- 
 thurn ; 11. Basel; 12. Schaffhausen ; 13. Appen- 
 zeU ; 14. St. Gallen ; 15. Graubiinden (Romonsch, 
 Grischa French, Grisons) ; 1 6. Aargau ; 1 7. 
 Thurgau ; 18. Ticino ; 19. Vaud ; 20. Valais ; 
 21. Neufchatel; 22. Geneva. This arrangement, 
 though historical, does not correspond to the 
 historical growth ; for Zurich, now the heart and 
 brain of the republic, was very far from being 
 the original founder of the League. That glory 
 lies with Schwyz ; here marked as number 5. 
 Schwyz gave her name, her genius, and her 
 flag, to the Alliance. From Schwyz we get the 
 name of Switzer ; the connexion of religion with 
 democracy ; the pure white cross upon the 
 blood-red field. When Tell was tending kine 
 at Biirglen, on the Uri slopes, there were no 
 Switzers save the men of Schwyz. Tell never 
 called himself a Switzer. Tell was a Uranian, 
 and his Canton Uri. Schwyz had gained in 
 war for she was ever stout in fight the flag 
 she lent her allies of the League. Three other 
 Forest Cantons, Uri, Unterwalden, and Luzena, 
 were in the League while Zurich stood outside 
 a feudal and imperial town. But Zurich was a
 
 88 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 rich and powerful city, and the moment she 
 adhered to the Alhance she assumed in it the 
 leading part. Bern followed her, and shared 
 her power. Luzern, as chief of the four Forest 
 Cantons, claimed an equal rank. As soon as any 
 Federal Council met, this council sat by turns 
 in either of these capitals two years in each. 
 But Zurich and Luzern have each given up the 
 claim to rank as capitals ; and now the President, 
 the Council, and the two Assemblies, find a per- 
 manent seat in Bern. 
 
 Three of these twenty-two republics Basel, 
 Appenzell, and Unterwalden ^have been separated 
 into rival halves ; each half-republic keeping her 
 own share of sovereign power. Basel is divided 
 into Basel-stadt and Basel-land ; Appenzell into 
 Appenzell- outer -E-hoden and Appenzell -inner - 
 Bhoden ; Unterwalden into Unterwalden ob-wald 
 and Unterwalden nid-wald. 
 
 These nineteen Cantons and six Half-cantons 
 form the Swiss League. Each part is equal to 
 each other pait, in spite of variation as to 
 size, to numbers, and to wealth. The differ- 
 ences are very great. According to the census 
 taken on the first day of December, 1870, the
 
 CANTONS AND HALF-CANTONS. 
 
 89 
 
 population and the mileage in each Canton and 
 Half-canton stood 
 
 1. Bern 
 
 2. Zurich 
 
 3. Vaud 
 
 4. Aargau 
 
 5. St. GaUen 
 
 6. Luzern 
 
 7. Ticino 
 
 8. Fribourg 
 
 9. Valais 
 
 10. Neufchatel 
 
 11. Thurgau 
 
 12. Graubiinden 
 
 13. Geneva 
 
 14. Solothurn 
 
 15. Schwyz 
 
 16. Schafihausen 
 
 17. Glarus 
 
 18. Zug 
 
 19. Uri . 
 
 HALF-CANTONS. 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 501,875 
 
 284,477 
 
 229,596 
 
 198,731 
 
 191,039 
 
 132,154 
 
 119,312 
 
 110,536 
 
 97,409 
 
 95,563 
 
 93,260 
 
 92,793 
 
 89,416 
 
 74,636 
 
 47,728 
 
 37,650 
 
 35,223 
 
 20,986 
 
 16,095 
 
 I.Basel-land . 54,051 
 
 2. Basel-stadt . 47,124 
 
 3. AppenzeU-outer-Rhoden 48,765 
 
 4. Appenzell-inner-Rhoden 11,926 
 
 5. Unterwalden-ob-wald, 14,437 
 
 6. Unterwalden-nid-wald, 11,711 
 
 SQUABE MILES. 
 
 2615 
 
 659 
 1226 
 
 538 
 
 781 
 
 480 
 1082 
 
 632 
 2016 
 
 308 
 
 384 
 2706 
 
 110 
 
 292 
 
 358 
 
 118 
 
 265 
 91 
 
 418 
 
 166 
 15 
 
 102 
 61 
 
 186 
 
 112 
 
 2,656,493 15,721 
 
 The rending of full Cantons into Half-cantons 
 is the work of party feuds ; in one place springing
 
 90 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 from political causes, in a second from religious 
 strife, and in a third from wrangles about wood 
 and grass. 
 
 From 1501, when Canton Basel joined the 
 League, to 1831, the city ruled the country dis- 
 tricts ; for the town was wealthy, learned, pros- 
 perous; a seat of commerce, with a university, 
 a minster, and a bridge across the Rhine. Some 
 families in the town were noble; many families 
 in the Canton kept a feudal state. These families 
 held the reins, and being chiefly Cathohc and 
 Conservative, they drove the farmers of the Jura 
 districts into arms. Not once, but many times, 
 the peasantry surrounded Basel ; now and then 
 they hung a burgomeister ; but the craft and 
 money of the citizens sulBficed to save their 
 city. When the storm of 1830 spread from 
 Paris towards the Bhine, these farmers of the 
 Jura rose once more ; the Federal troops were 
 called into the Canton; and, in 1833, an Act 
 of Separation was effected, so that in the future 
 Canton Basel was to be divided into two Half- 
 cantons ; into Basel-stadt, with Basel for her seat 
 of government ; and Basel-land, with Liesthal for 
 her seat of government. Each moiety sends a 
 deputy to Bern ; the city a conservative deputy,
 
 CANTONS AND HALF-CANTONS. 91 
 
 the country a democratic deputy armed with 
 half a vote ; and as these deputies vote on 
 opposite sides in nearly every question, Canton 
 Basel is in practice disfiunchised by her domestic 
 broils. 
 
 The Appenzells were parted into sections long 
 ago; so long ago as 1597; and wholly on account 
 of their rehgious feuds. The fore-alp districts, 
 dropping towards the Lake of Constant:, listened 
 to the great reformers, while the mountain dis- 
 tricts, climbing towards Hoch Sentis, clung to 
 their ancestral church. These fore-alp districts 
 were inhabited by weavers of Teutonic race ; those 
 moimtain-sides were held by shepherds of a 
 mixed descent, in whom the Eomonsch blood was 
 rich and red. A fight ensued, which wasted many 
 villages and cost the Canton many Hves ; but 
 after years of mutual injiuy, these kites and 
 crows grew weary of their strife. Each side 
 felt sure it could not break the other ; as the 
 mountaui coimtry was too rugged for the low- 
 landers to scale and keep; the lowland hamlets 
 were too many and too populous for the moun- 
 taineers to force and hold. A line was there- 
 fore drawn between the shepherds and the 
 weavers; each consenting to withdraw beyond this
 
 92 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 line, and afterwards to live in separate camps. 
 The League was asked to sanction this partition ; 
 and the names of AppenzeU-outer-E-hoden and 
 Appenzell-inner-Rhoden were bestowed on these 
 Half-cantons. Evangelicals were to live in Ap- 
 penzell-outer-Rhoden, with the hamlet of Trogen 
 for their seat of government. Catholics were to 
 live in AppenzeU-inner-Khoden, with the hamlet 
 of Appenzell for their seat of government. So 
 these two Half-cantons send their deputies to 
 Bern, in which their two half- votes are mostly 
 thrown away^ since they are cast into opposing 
 scales. 
 
 Unterwalden was divided into sections long 
 before the Reformation, and in fact before the 
 League itself was formed. A forest caUed the 
 Kemwald cuts this Canton into two unequal 
 parts, the Ob-wald (over-forest) and the Nid-wald 
 (under-forest) ; and so early as the twelfth century, 
 the herdsmen who were separated by this forest 
 quarrelled, fought for mastery, and, faihng to 
 achieve decisive victory on either side, agreed 
 to live in peace, each section with a capital, a 
 code, a government of its own. Unterwalden- 
 ob-wald placed her capital at Samen, by the 
 Lake of Sarnen, in the upper valley. Unter-
 
 CANTONS AND HALF-CANTONS. 93 
 
 walden-nid-wald placed her capital at Stanz, 
 midway between the western Aa and eastern 
 Aa. When Unterwalden joined the league of 
 Forest Cantons she retained this old division ; 
 so that each Half-Canton is represented in the 
 Federal Council by half a vote. 
 
 This tendency of Cantons to divide and cross 
 each other is not dead. For years past Fribourg 
 has been threatened with disruption on her 
 western frontier, and the utmost care is needed 
 to preserve the pubHc peace. A people differing 
 as to race and creed, to speech and occupation, 
 have been thrown together in this Canton Fri- 
 bourg ; Celts and Teutons, Protestants and 
 CathoHcs, engineers and shepherds ; each with 
 habits and opinions which the other loathes as 
 so much spume and spawn tossed upward from 
 the burning lake. One portion of the Canton is 
 entirely GaUic, with a population holding liberal 
 views in politics and evangelical views in church 
 affairs. A second portion of the Canton is entirely 
 German, with a population holding ultramontane 
 views in church and state. The town of Morat, 
 on the Lake of Morat, is the liberal centre ; while 
 the town of Fribourg, on the Sarine, is the 
 ultramontane centre. In devotion to this party.
 
 94 THE SWITZEES. 
 
 Fribourg bears away the bell from Sion and 
 Luzern. She built a palace for the Jesuits. She 
 gives a home to the Society of Pio Nono. She 
 was foremost in the Separate League. She has an 
 ultramontane CounciL She lends herself to every 
 movement of the priestly orders. Evangelical flesh 
 and blood can hardly stand such blind devotion to 
 the Church ; and hence the enemies of Kome desire 
 to break this Canton into halves : one fraction 
 having Fribourg which has never raised, they say, 
 an arm for freedom as her seat of government ; 
 the second fraction having Morat ^which, they say, 
 is glorified in history as her seat of government. 
 By such a spht the hberal party would obtain a vote 
 in Bern. The new republic would be liberal, Pro- 
 testant and French ; and Catholic Fribourg's vote 
 would be destroyed by the Protestant Morat's vote. 
 
 The Federal Council dare not open this great 
 subject of dispute. A plea of difierence in religious 
 faith is urged in several Cantons in St. Gallen, 
 in Graubiinden, in Geneva, and in Aargau 
 where the population is more equally divided by 
 the two confessions than in Fribourg; and the 
 Council dares not brave a piibhc conflict on such 
 dangerous ground. 
 
 Each Canton and Half-canton is a separate
 
 CANTONS AND HALF-CANTONS. 95 
 
 state, complete witHn itself, enjoying rights and 
 offices derived from no exterior source, and holding 
 various powers which she inherits from the past, 
 and has not yet surrendered to the League. Not 
 long ago each Canton had a separate coinage, 
 and the raps and bats of one were not a legal 
 tender in the next. Not long ago each 
 Canton had an agent in Vienna, E-ome, and 
 Paris ; and the greatest potentates sent ministers 
 to Samen, Schwyz, and Zug. Each Canton 
 claimed to treat with kings, and recognise all 
 sovereign acts. For many years the Half-canton 
 of Appenzell-inner-Rhoden would not recognise 
 the French Revolution of 1830, and Louis Philippe 
 was dethroned and dead before his agents in the 
 Canton could obtain a hearing from their shep- 
 herd hosts. 
 
 Not long ago each Canton kept a custom-house 
 on every road, and manned a tower at every 
 bridge, at which to levy rates. Each load of 
 grass and butt of wine, each sack of com and 
 pound of cheese, that passed her boundary was 
 taxed. AU fish that floated to her net was prize. 
 Not long ago each Canton raised an army of her 
 own, equipped and moved that army as she pleased, 
 and lent her troops for hire to princes who could
 
 96 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 pay, to Kings of France and Naples, and, still 
 later, Popes of Rome. These several marks of 
 sovereignty have been surrendered to the League. 
 The cantonal mints, the cantonal embassies, the 
 cantonal customs, and the cantonal armies all 
 these things are gone. Two remnants only of 
 these sovereign powers remain : the right to levy 
 certain rates on wine, called ohmgeld, at the 
 frontiers of each Canton ; and the right to keep 
 on foot a half battalion of three hundred men. 
 
 Though stripped of these old marks of 
 sovereignty, each Canton has a separate constitu- 
 tion, capital, and government. Each Canton has 
 a parHament, a court of justice, and an execu- 
 tioner. Each Canton has the power of life and 
 death. Each Canton makes and executes her 
 laws. 
 
 Some Cantons fix the age at which a man 
 begins to vote at twenty ; others at eighteen ; 
 and one at least as low as sixteen. Where 
 they have parliaments, the members of these 
 parhaments are chosen by universal voting in 
 the ballot-box. Each citizen is constrained to 
 give his vote. A full majority of the votes 
 recorded are required for an election. Every 
 man is free to stand as candidate ; every man
 
 CANTONS AND HALF-CANTONS. 97 
 
 is qualified to act as President ; and every man is 
 paid for service to a public cause. 
 
 Each Canton has a separate criminal code ; and, 
 even when the codes are pretty much the same 
 in neighbouring Cantons, the procedure is unlike. 
 Glarus and Unterwalden have no regular codes 
 of criminal law; what passes in their courts 
 for codes of law is old tradition, based on either 
 clerical usages or ancient German rules. In Uri, 
 Schwyz, and Unterwalden, certain crimes are 
 punished by exposure in the pillory, by flogging, 
 and by penance in the church. But these old 
 forms of punishment are falling into disrepute. 
 Geneva and the Jura districts have the penal 
 codes of France. In Zurich, Aargau, Thurgau, 
 and some other Cantons, modem codes have 
 been adopted. Basel-stadt and Basel-land have 
 different penal laws. The Appenzells have also 
 different penal laws. But every Canton in the 
 League displays some zeal in her amendment 
 of the penal codes. In Zurich, Neufchatel, and 
 Fribourg, capital punishment has been abo- 
 lished ; and in other Cantons, which have not 
 abolished capital punishment, the guillotine is 
 substituted for the axe and sword. In Canton 
 Bern the peasants cannot reconcile themselves
 
 98 . THE SWITZERS. 
 
 to letting murderers escape with life ; for in 
 the Oberland, where roads are bad and hamlets 
 spare^ the highway-robber, they contend, is only 
 to be daunted by the fear of death from adding 
 murder to his other crimes.
 
 99 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CANTONAL RULE. 
 
 Some Cantons rule themselves by means of parlia- 
 ments, .and some by means of popular votes ; but 
 every Canton rules herself. 
 
 About one half the Cantons and Half-cantons 
 have no parliaments in the legal sense of words ; 
 and thinkers of much weight in democratic 
 circles hold that government by means of deputies 
 is on the wane a stage of growth from which 
 the world is passing into one of higher form. 
 
 At first, these thinkers say, you have Paternal 
 Rule ; then Royal or Imperial Rule ; then 
 Aristocratic or Parhamentary Rule. In what, 
 they ask, does government by representatives, 
 differ from government by counts and dukes? 
 The voter has a right to choose his master, 
 and obey that master's law. He has no right 
 to rule himself. Beyond these methods Hes a 
 higher law a final stage of growth self-
 
 100 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 government in its noblest reach and simplest 
 form where every man is legislator, judge, and 
 king. 
 
 Four groups are noted in these Swiss re- 
 publics : first, a group which claims to be a 
 ParKamentary Democracy ; a second group which 
 claims to be an Absolute Democracy ; a third 
 group which claims to be a Mixed Democracy ; a 
 fourth group which claims to be a Pure Democracy. 
 In the first group stand Geneva, Vaud, Luzem, 
 Fribourg, Aargau, Basel-stadt, Schafihausen, 
 Neufch4tel, Ticino. In the second group stand 
 Uri, the two Appenzells, the two Unterwaldens, 
 Glarus, Schwyz, and Zug. In the third group 
 stand Graubiinden, Bern, Thurgau, Valais, Basel- 
 land, St. Gallon. Zurich stands alone in repre- 
 senting pure and perfect government, according 
 to the newest democratic lights where every 
 man is legislator, judge, and king. 
 
 In each of the first group of Cantons that 
 of Parliamentary Democracy a council, called 
 the Grand Council, is elected by the voters 
 having civil rights ; that is to say, by males 
 who have attained the legal age, and have 
 not lost their rights by either emigration, 
 idiocy, or crime. The voting is by ballot. This
 
 CANTONAL RCTLK 101 
 
 Grand Council names a smaller body, called a 
 State Council ; and these two chambers choose, 
 according to a form laid down, a President, who 
 bears the title of Avoyer, Landammann, or 
 Burgomeister, to conduct the government and 
 execute the laws. A meeting of these mem- 
 bers is the Cantonal Assembly. From their 
 decisions there is no appeal. The three estates 
 of President, State Council, and Grand Council, 
 exercise the sovereign power. 
 
 Geneva is a fair example of this ParHamentary 
 group. In 1847, a movement in the streets, 
 which led to some hot fighting round the Hotel de 
 Ville, upset the old baronial constitution of 
 Geneva, with its close, aristocratic guilds, and 
 its restricted pubHc suffi-age. Every Genevese, 
 male in sex, and twenty-one years old, ac- 
 quired a right to vote for members of the Grand 
 Council When he has cast his vote into the 
 urn, his functions cease. His Grand Council, 
 consisting of one representative for every group 
 of six hundred and sixty- six inhabitants, elects 
 a State Council of seven persons, who may hold 
 their offices ten years, and then are free to 
 serve again. Some serve for Hfe ; but any of 
 these members may be censured and removed
 
 102 THE SWITZERS, 
 
 by popular vote in the Grand Council. Such a 
 vote is rare. A feudal tone prevails in the State 
 Council, in which Antoine Carteret plays a lead- 
 ing part. Geneva has a rich and powerful burgher 
 class, who claim a, lofty ancestry, and talk of 
 Conrad's barons as we English boast of William's 
 knights. These burghers own the mansion of La 
 Treille, the Terrace, and the Rue des Granges. 
 Their wealth enables them to live without the 
 cares of trade. They give themselves to art and 
 books, and send into the world such specimens of 
 their order as De Saussure, Neckar, Be CandoUe, 
 and De la Rive. This class is rooted in the soil ; 
 and no amount of fighting in the streets can 
 reach the rocks from which they grow ; for learn- 
 ing, fame, and riches are original elements of 
 public power. Geneva, therefore, is a Parlia- 
 mentary Democracy, with a list of governing 
 famihes, from which the citi^ien of twenty, with 
 his rifle and his vote, enjoys the faculty of 
 choosing who shall rule him at the Hotel de 
 Ville. 
 
 In the second group of Cantons that of Ab- 
 solute Democracy the whole body of registered 
 citizens meet in primary assemblies once a-year, 
 to choose their magistrates, to quell disputes.
 
 CANTONAL RULE. 103 
 
 to vote fresh taxes, to condemn offences and 
 offenders, and to pass new laws. This primary 
 assembly gathers on a summer Sunday it is 
 always on a Sunday in some open place a 
 field, a market, or a grove. The voters come 
 in arms. Each man is scrutinized by jealous 
 eyes, and if his right to vote be challenged 
 he must prove it on the spot. Such proof is 
 easy to an honest man. What Commune is he 
 from ? Who are his witnesses ? A Commune 
 is a regiment, divided into companies and sec- 
 tions. Every man is counted in the rank and 
 file. If any one is absent he is missed ; and an 
 intruder on the regiment will find in it no vacant 
 place. The Cantonal Assembly is an army, not 
 a mob. Unless a man be either pauper, bank- 
 rupt, criminal, or tramp, he has a right to vote. 
 If he should prove to be a rogue a fellow with 
 no civic rights it may go ill with him ; the 
 rogue is lucky to escape with life and limb. 
 These primary assemblies of th Canton are 
 extremely picturesque. 
 
 Take Uri as example of this second group. 
 The men of Uri, CathoKc and Teutonic shep- 
 herds, carriers, guides, inn -keepers, foresters, 
 with here and there a chamois - hunter, give
 
 104 THE 8WITZERS. 
 
 their franchise into no man's keeping. They 
 remember Walter Fiirst and William Tell. At 
 every turn they see some record of the times 
 when they were crushed like serfs and rose like 
 men. What they have won by daring hand they 
 mean to hold with sleepless eye. They give no 
 council power to make and mend their laws, but 
 lodge their sovereign right in the assembled 
 Communes. 
 
 Not a rifle shot from Biirglen, in the Schachen 
 Thai, where Tell was bom, and where his chapel 
 stands beside a bridge across the Schachen, 
 and between the road and river lies a meadow, 
 which for ages past has been a field of council 
 for the men of Uri. Once a-year (first Sunday 
 in the month of May, while yet the snow is 
 often on the ground, and blocks of ice are roUing 
 down the Reuss), the Landammann of Uri rides 
 from Altdorf with a cavalcade ; some cantonal 
 troops with bands of music and the flag a huge 
 bull's head ; some beadles clothed in black and 
 yellow; and two ancient Switzers carrying on 
 their poles two bufialo-homs, the antique cogni- 
 zance of Uri From the upper Reuss pour down 
 the men of Andermatt and Wasen ; through 
 the Maderaner Thai come out the men of Bristen
 
 CANTONAL RULE. 105 
 
 and Stossi ; by the Schachen Thai march in the 
 men of Biirglen and Spiringen ; across the Reuss 
 arrive the men of Seedorf and Attinghausen. 
 Every man in Uri, twenty years of age, and 
 wearing neither monkish hood nor priestly frock, 
 is bound to show himself this day. A stage is 
 thrown up in the council field ; the buffalo- 
 horns are raised ; a bugle sounds the assembly ; 
 and the Landammann takes his seat. This session 
 of a single day begina An usher reads the 
 list of matters to be done. Some regiment 
 is to be raised in strength ; a road is to be 
 made, a torrent dyked, a forest thinned ; some 
 tax is to be laid ; an officer is to be punished ; 
 perhaps some law is to be changed. Each orator 
 is called upon to speak. His plan is heard 
 and judged The vote is open, given by show 
 of hands. One scheme finds favour and another 
 not. The losing cause has no appeal When 
 every vote is taken, and the business of the 
 day is done, these kings of Uri slake their thirst 
 with beer, pull down their stage, and wend their 
 several ways towards home with patriotic pipe 
 and song. 
 
 Graubiinden is a fair sample of the third 
 group ; that of Mixed Democracy. This Canton
 
 106 THE SWITZEKS. 
 
 is a mixture of original sort ; for out of ancient 
 Greece and modern Caucasus, no rival can be 
 set against it for varieties of race and creed, of 
 law and speech. The country has no name, 
 nor is her nickname of the Grisons known at 
 Chur. She calls herself Grau-biinden League of 
 Grey Coats ; Gottes-haus biinden League of 
 Holy Church; Zehn Gerichtes-biinden League 
 of Ten Courts. But half her people never use 
 these names. These people are of Celtic race 
 and speak a southern tongue. To them the 
 leagues are Lia Grischa, Lia de Ca De, and 
 Lia dellas desch Dretturas. In and out among 
 the piue- woods and cascades, these northern men 
 and southern men are mingled ; here a Celtic 
 village and a Boman porch, there a Teutonic 
 hamlet and a Gothic spire. The Celts are mainly 
 CathoHc, the Teutons mainly Protestant ; but 
 creeds are not defined by boundaries of race and 
 speech. Dissentis is Catholic ; Ilanz is Pro- 
 testant ; Chur is mixed. The Lutherans of Chur 
 are traders living in the lower town ; the 
 Romanists are rich proprietors, who dwell within 
 the precincts of the Bishop's court. In all, this 
 Canton has some forty thousand Catholics to 
 fifty thousand Protestants ; but they are too
 
 CANTONAL RULE. 107 
 
 much mixed In towns and villages to live apart, 
 like Basel-stadt and Basel-land. 
 
 In dropping from the Ober Alp to Chur, you' 
 pass a line of feudal and ecclesiastical remains ; 
 old castles on th^e heights, old abbeys in the flats ; 
 and everywhere you find some trace of ancient 
 counts and knights. At Dissentis, you have the 
 Benedictine abbey now a school for boys; at 
 Chur, you find the Ccwivent of St. Lucius, now a 
 cantonal school ; at Dieni, Castelberg, and Trins, 
 you see the ruins of old fortresses ; at Laax and 
 Chur, you note old houses, carved with coat and 
 shield. 
 
 For ages this wild region was the prey of 
 counts and knights, who trampled on the serfs, 
 and men who were not serfs, until the villagers 
 sprang up, and formed a rustic league in every 
 district for defence. These district-leagues ex- 
 tended into circles, and while every hamlet chose 
 to rule itself, with only scant regard to what 
 occurred elsewhere, the pressure of events com- 
 pelled the rustics to extend their bands. Three 
 greater leagues were formed in time : (1) the Grey 
 League (Grau-biinden from the peasant's home- 
 spun), with its seat in Trons ; (2) the Church 
 League (Gottes-haus bund), with its seat in Chur ;
 
 108 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 and (3) the Ten Courts' League (Zelm Gerichtes- 
 biinden), with its seat iu Mayenfeld. In name, 
 these rustic leagues have past away; but they 
 remain in spirit and in fact. The Canton is 
 divided into fourteen districts, thirty-nine circles, 
 two hundred and five communes. Each circle 
 is a separate republic. Chur is called the 
 capital ; and here the deputies of the circles meet. 
 The Council sits in secret, and conducts the public 
 business with unsparing hand. But then these 
 deputies have to march in harmony with the 
 general will They must not lay a tax, they 
 must not change a law, without the popular 
 assent. All matters of importance are remitted 
 to the districts, and a public vote of peasants 
 may upset the wisest plans conceived in Chur. 
 
 Of Pure Democracy the one example yet is 
 Zurich ; and the case of Canton Zurich must be 
 treated as a thing apart.
 
 109 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CANTON ZURICH. 
 
 A BRIGHT old city on a fresh green lake white 
 houses nestling in the midst of trees ; quaint 
 streets, arcades, and spires ; grim minsters look- 
 ing down on shop and stall ; wide quays and 
 bridges, piers and water-mills ; old convents, walls, 
 and towers ; new colleges, hotels, and railway- 
 lines ; the records of a thousand years, the 
 fancies of a passing day ; a church of Charles the 
 Great, a palace of the modem arts; one river 
 leading from the lake ; a second river rushing 
 from the hills ; around you mounds and crests, 
 here rolling outward to the Adlis-berg, there 
 straining upward to the Albis chain ; each hill 
 with vineyards at her base and village belfry on 
 her top ; and in the front, beyond the stretch of 
 sliining lake, a rugged line of alps, all swathed 
 and lit with snow is Zurich city, capital of
 
 110 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Zurich Canton, and a paradise of learning and of 
 learned men. 
 
 Some natives speak of Zurich as the Swiss 
 Athens ; men who live in books and have their 
 hearts inflamed with ancient Greeks. For Zurich is 
 the centre of a Switzer's intellectual life. Among 
 her Hterary and artistic circles, she can boast 
 academies of art and music ; institutes of science 
 and of law ; botanic gardens, pubHc libraries and 
 museums ; a society of public usefulness ; a Grlitli 
 club, an Alpine club, a reading club, a natural- 
 history club ; societies of commerce and of agri- 
 culture ; many hospitals, retreats, asylums ; a 
 society of antiquities; a public garden on the 
 lake ; a theatre ; a temple of freemasons ; many 
 Church unions ; and a hundred colleges and 
 schools. The University is here ; the Polytech- 
 nic is here ; the anatomical school is here ; the 
 cantonal schools and burgher schools are here. Yon 
 shining edifice on the slope, above the Heretics 
 Tower, is a palace of the practical arts. This block 
 abutting on the minster is the ladies' school. 
 Those buildings in the tulip-trees are secondary 
 Schools. In the Virgin's quarter, near the Town 
 Hall, stand the city schools for boys. On every 
 side, in almost every street, you find a school ; a
 
 CANTON ZURICH. Ill 
 
 primary school, a secondary school, a supple- 
 mentary school ; day schools, evening schools ; 
 schools for the blind ; schools for the deaf and 
 dumb (all models of their kind) ; industrial 
 schools, commercial schools, linguistic schools : 
 yes, schools of every sort and size, excepting 
 actual pauper schools. For Canton Zurich has no 
 paupers bom and bred ; no paupers known and 
 labelled aa a class apart. Some poor she has ; but 
 they are few in number ; not, as with ourselves, a 
 s;tate within the State. 
 
 A prosperous country stretches round the city 
 and reflects her life ; a Canton small in si2:e com- 
 pared with Bern, Graubtinden, Vaud, and Valais ; 
 but teeming with a brave, enduring race ; a people 
 full of labour, song, and fight; a little rough in 
 speech and hard in style, as men who know 
 their worth are apt to be ; yet patient in 
 their strength, disposed to work with nature, 
 not against her laws. The land is lovely in 
 itself, and made more lovely still by art. Fair 
 lakes are brightened by the works of man; by 
 latteen sail and puff of silver cloud, no less than 
 by the cheery range of garden, chalet, wood, and 
 spire. Low hills are tamed to vineyards, while 
 the higher grounds are fat with fruit. Above
 
 112 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 tkese knolls, on which the grapes and medlars 
 seem to ripen against nature, start the bergs and 
 spits aU green with wood ; and straining up their 
 sides, and flowbig from their feet, broad belts of 
 pasture land, on which vast herds of cattle range to 
 browse. So far as art can reach, these mountain 
 slopes are cleared and fenced for use. A craft, a 
 will, a strength, but seldom seen in man's affairs, 
 are noted in this Canton ; not in one part only, and 
 in one thing only, but in every part and every 
 thing alike. The climate is not good. The average 
 warmth is lower than in Kent. Sharp winds 
 sweep down the gullies and across the lake. Yon 
 peaks are noted for their wintry storms, and one 
 great breadth of alp in front of Zurich bears the 
 name of Windgeile screaming wind. The soil 
 is poor and gritty ; three parts pounded rock 
 to one part vegetable mould. Yet when the best is 
 made of it, how much that best can do ! Observe 
 the peasant's shed, the pastor's porch, the farmer's 
 field : how clean that shed, how bright that porch, 
 how orderly that field ! You see no heaps of 
 mess, you smell no hidden filth. Each article is 
 in its place ; and order reigns by virtue of some 
 natural law. These roads are wide, these bridges 
 strong, these waters fenced. The snows melt
 
 CANTON ZURICH. 113 
 
 rapidly in Canton Zurich ; yet the floods, being 
 guided and contained by dykes, roll down their 
 beds, and through their overflows, without much 
 hurt ; while in some neighbouring and neglected 
 Cantons they are dashing mills to pieces, drown- 
 ing goats and sheep, and tearing forests from the 
 ground. In small things and in great you find 
 these proofs of active thought and ready hand. 
 Just peep into this bit of ground; a common 
 garden, with the usual herbs and roots, the usual 
 flowers and seeda Each bed, each tree, each 
 plant, is treated by itself, as though it were 
 a child. Observe how every branch is pruned, 
 how every leek is watered, and how every 
 gourd is trained You need not marvel at the 
 cherries on that tree. Here in the comer climbs 
 a vine. The summer heat is on her leaves, 
 and what a promise of the blood-red grapes to 
 come ! 
 
 The country aU round Zurich is a garden, 
 watered by innumerable springs and lakes. These 
 springs and lakes are trained, with Oriental craft, 
 to flow about the orchards and potato-fields. 
 Though mostly built of stone, the farms are 
 painted of a cheery yeUow, pink, and white. These 
 walks are planted, and these roads well kept. Each 
 
 I
 
 114 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 house appears to stand in its own grounds. No 
 poor are to be seen about the roads, save here and 
 there some Swabian tramp, some Savoy beggar, 
 or some pilgrim to St. Meinrad's cell No Ziiricher 
 is homeless ; hardly any Ziiricher is poor. In 
 driving on these roads, you hear at every turn the 
 song of life and work ^the woodman felling trees, 
 the milkmaid bringing home her pail, the cobbler 
 stitching at his stall, the miller grinding at his 
 wheel all chirping at their task the live-long 
 day. The secret of this gracious look of things 
 in Canton Zurich is, that every man enjoys an 
 independent place. 
 
 These labourers have an interest in the soil 
 they till No ballast for a man like that of having 
 a httle earth his own about his feet. These 
 rustics own the cottages in which they live the 
 ground on which they toil. Though peasants 
 bom and bred, they understand their rights. 
 They have been long at school, and know the 
 history of their canton and their country. Every 
 man among them has been taught his civic duties 
 has been schooled and drilled into a man. 
 A child, he conned his lessons in the Virgin's 
 quarter of the town ; a youth, he marched and 
 wheeled on the parade ; a man, he casts his vote
 
 CANTON ZURICH. ^ 115 
 
 in the electoral urn, and scores his bull's eye 
 at the Wollis Hofen butts. 
 
 Each peasant owns, besides his house and field, 
 a rifle and a vote. 
 
 No sleepy hollow, where a shepherd feeds his 
 flock, a craftsman plies his trade, without one 
 thought beyond the summer heat and winter 
 cold, is Canton Zurich; but a fierce and busy 
 agora, in which all news are searched, all ques- 
 tions put, all answers canvassed in their length 
 and depth. The heat of life is felt in every 
 vein. All forces here seem vital forces ; pulse 
 and brain beat time together ; and the hearts of 
 men dilate with the abounding tides. Democracy 
 is not a name a form of words a label on a 
 book of laws ; it is a fact. Each unit in 
 the body politic is a living force. At dawn, 
 a man gets up to work ; while sitting at his 
 loom he thinks ; some grievance in the code 
 arrests him ; he imparts his fancy to a neigh- 
 bour ; in a week a new discussion may arise. 
 A thousand projects agitate men's minds, and 
 keep them in a state of civic health ; from 
 Federal questions down to Communal questions, 
 ajid from problems of the church and state 
 to trifles of the streets and stalls. But
 
 116 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 most of all, men talk and fight about political 
 forms. 
 
 In one sense, Canton Ziirich is conservative. 
 She clings with limpet-like tenacity to her main 
 ideas her republican faith, her Federal duty, 
 her religious life ; but in a lower plane she is 
 of revolutionary cities the most revolutionary. 
 Every twenty years, or so, she sets about revising 
 her fundamental pact. Men yet living can re- 
 member five or six fundamental laws in Ziirich, 
 from the semi-feudal constitution overthrown in 
 1831, to the new and perfect system of democracy 
 set up in 1869. 
 
 Some forty years ago, some Feudal families in 
 Ziirich, boasting of descent from ancient vogts 
 and bailiffs, held the whip ; an aristocracy of 
 wealth and learning, fenced about with privilege 
 and immunity, and holding by the right of birth 
 aU avenues to poHtical power. By a set of public 
 movements, and with scarcely any bloodshed in 
 her streets, these Feudal families were displaced. 
 It is the genius of the Ziiricher to gain his ends 
 by short and easy steps. A man of order, he 
 contents himself with action in the polling- 
 booths. One day he gains a point ; another 
 day he gains a point. In time his revolution
 
 CANTON ZtlRICH. 117 
 
 has been made, and public order has not been 
 disturbed. 
 
 The University was in the lower town, in old 
 monastic lodgings, dreary, small, and dark. The 
 Liberals wished to plant it out on open ground, 
 in sunshine, on the crest, where every eye could 
 catch a glimpse of it. The Feudalists would have 
 no change ; the Liberals beat them, and the Uni- 
 versity was removed. 
 
 Old walls and towers surrounded, cramped, 
 and closed the town. The Liberals wished to 
 puU them down, to let in air and Hght, to 
 build a railway station near the city gates, to 
 fill the ditch, and turn the glacis into terraces 
 and schools. The Feudalists opposed this 
 change ; the Liberals beat them, and the walls 
 came down, excepting only two or three old 
 towers retained as picturesque memorials of the 
 past. 
 
 The constitution was too feudal in its character 
 to please a democratic people holding guns and 
 votes. A public meeting was convened in 1867 
 to ask for a revision. What the Liberals wanted 
 was a more direct relation of the voters to the 
 government ; a right to choose the State Council 
 as well as the Grand Council ; a veto on financial
 
 118 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 projects ; and a larger influence over churcli and 
 schooL The Feudalists protested ; but the Libe- 
 rals beat them on appeal, and then the Cantonal 
 constitution was revised.
 
 119 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PURE DEMOCRACY. 
 
 In the Pure Democracy set up by her new con- 
 stitution, Zurich left behind her old principle of 
 Parliamentary Rule, and ceased, so far as Cantonal 
 objects are concerned, to be a representative state. 
 Her government is now direct. The people name 
 their officers ; the people choose their judges ; 
 and the people make their laws. The deputies 
 are clerks, not kings. Each voter has a share, 
 direct and visible, in pubhc acts. He hires a 
 servant, in his deputy, to report on such and such 
 a case, and draft a bill in such and such a sense. 
 But he invests this servant with no plenary 
 powers. In all affairs of consequence he gives his 
 vote with his own hand and tongue. He only is 
 the sovereign prince, and in his sphere he only 
 reigns and rules. 
 
 In front of the new constitution of Canton 
 Zurich stand these words : * The People of
 
 120 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Canton Zurich, in the exercise of their sovereign 
 rights, give themselves the following constitution.' 
 
 Sixty-five articles succeed in groups. 
 
 The first group articles 1 to 18 deal with 
 PoHtical Principles. 
 
 1. The public power resides in the whole body 
 of citizens, not in any part of it. This pubHc 
 power is used directly by all citizens having civic 
 rights ; and indirectly by such citizens as may 
 be either chosen officers of state, or hired as 
 servants of the State. 
 
 2. All citizens are equal, in a legal and 
 political sense, unless deprived by law of civil 
 and pohtical rights. Article 18 defines the causes 
 for suspending civil and poHtical rights, as lunacy, 
 degrading crime, fraudulent bankruptcy, and re- 
 ceipt of public alms. 
 
 3. Speech is free ; printing is free. The 
 right of meeting and associating is guaranteed. 
 No Hmit can be put upon this freedom of 
 speaking, printing, meeting, and associating, other 
 than such as springs from the rights enjoyed by 
 all. A true statement, pubhshed with an honest 
 motive, is not to be regarded as a libel by the 
 courts of law. 
 
 4. The State defends all honest private
 
 PT7RE DEMOCRACY. 121 
 
 rights. The State may sei^e in case of public 
 need ; but compensation must be given ; the 
 details settled in the proper courts. 
 
 5. The punishment of death is abolished. 
 Chains and manacles are forbidden in the public 
 jails. The criminal laws are to be softened. 
 
 7. A man's personal liberty is secured. No 
 man may be arrested save on proper warrants, as 
 prescribed by special laws. Imprisonment for debt 
 is abolished. No means of forcing a confession 
 are allowed. The state must satisfy in money 
 any injury done to a citizen by false arrest. 
 
 8. A man's house is his castle, only to be 
 entered either by his own consent or by a legal 
 writ. This legal writ must specify the object of 
 the visitation, and the extent to which it may 
 be carried. In case of public danger these re- 
 strictions are not binding ; but the officers must 
 answer for their acts. 
 
 10. Every public functionary is responsible 
 to the Canton and the city, as well as to private 
 persons, in accordance with the law. 
 
 11. No office can be held for life. Authorities 
 must be renewed in block and not in parts. 
 Father and son, two brothers, father-in-law and 
 son-in-law, two brothers-in-law, may not serve
 
 122 TELE 8WITZERS. 
 
 together on any administrative board, nor on any- 
 judicial bench. A member of the Council is 
 chosen for three years. An oflS.cer is chosen, and 
 a functionary is appointed, for three years. A 
 judge is named for six years ; and a notary for 
 the same. 
 
 13. Election of officers is by ballot, whether 
 the election is in Canton or in city. Munici- 
 paHties may also use this form of voting. 
 
 14. Settlement is free. Any Switzer, on 
 performing certahi legal acts, may fix himseh in 
 any place, and get the local rights of citizenship. 
 A Commune can only charge a moderate enter- 
 ing fee. No higher taxes can be levied on a 
 stranger than on natives. A refusal to admit 
 a claimant must be justified by evidence that 
 his ways of life are dangerous to public morals. 
 If a settler is expelled, this act of rigour must 
 be justified by evidence that his presence is a 
 danger to the State. 
 
 15. Civil marriage and clerical marriage are 
 placed on the same legal ground. No fees are 
 to be paid to either pastor, priest, or mayor. 
 
 16. A man enters on the enjoyment of his 
 dvic right with the close of his twentieth year. 
 These civil rights include the faculty of contracting
 
 PURE DEMOCRACY. 123 
 
 debts, of voting at elections, and of serving in 
 any public office. 
 
 A second group Articles 19 to 27 deal 
 with Economical Principles. 
 
 19. Every one must pay his rates. Com- 
 munal and burgher property is taxed. An income- 
 tax and property-tax are laid on an ascending 
 scale. Small fortunes are exempt. The tax on 
 property may be doubled on the greater income. 
 Lands and goods inherited are taxed on a pro- 
 gressive scale, according to the distance of re- 
 lationship and to the sum bequeathed. Large 
 fortunes are abominable in a pure democracy. 
 No corporate body is exempt. The tax on salt 
 is to be lowered. No fresh tax of any kind is to 
 be put on common articles of food. 
 
 21. All crafts are open, saving in so far as 
 they are limited by law. Any one can practise 
 a profession. Art, science, industry, and trade 
 are free to all. 
 
 22. The Communes have charge of the poor ; 
 the State assists in case of need. 
 
 23. The State approves and aids co-operative 
 societies, resting on the principle of self-help. 
 Laws are made for the protection of working 
 men.
 
 124 THE SWITZEKS. 
 
 25. The State assists the Communes to repair 
 the roads. 
 
 26. The State controls all railway lines. 
 
 27. The State provides an outfit for the men 
 who join the Cantonal flag. 
 
 A third group articles 28 to 36 deals with 
 Popular Rights. 
 
 28. The people, with the help of the Cantonal 
 Council, chosen by themselves, assume the legis- 
 lative power. 
 
 The people vote on every bill proposed to 
 them, and either make it law or cast it off. 
 From this decision there is no appeal. The 
 people have a right to offer measures for debate. 
 The people may demand first, the passing of a 
 new law ; second, the amendment of an old law ; 
 third, the full and absolute cancel of a law. 
 These rights are to be used according +o the 
 legal forms. 
 
 A single person may propose a bill, and 
 send it to the Cantonal Council ; if a third 
 part of that Council should support his view, 
 the subject must be laid before the people for 
 decision. When a private person sends a question 
 to the Cantonal Council for debate, he has a 
 right to come before that Council to explain
 
 PURE DEMOCRACY. 125 
 
 his views, if twenty-five members think he should 
 be heard. 
 
 Five thousand voters may insist on putting 
 any question to a popular vote. A number 
 of Communal meetings, representing five thou- 
 sand voters, may insist. The Cantonal Council 
 must return their question on the paper. 
 No delay will be allowed. In every case the 
 Cantonal Council have the right to offer an 
 opinion on the bill proposed, and, if they 
 choose, may place before the people a counter- 
 project of their own. 
 
 30. A popular vote takes place in every spring 
 and autumn. Every act must be submitted to 
 the popular wiU. No act is legal till it has 
 been sanctioned by this pubhc poll. In urgent 
 cases, the Cantonal Council may propose to take 
 an extra vote. The Council may submit a bill 
 in one of two forms, either as a whole, or part 
 by part. The voting is by ballot in each Com- 
 mune ; every citizen is bound to cast his card 
 into the box. A man must answer. Yea or Nay. 
 All matters to be voted on must be printed 
 and dispersed a month before the poll is held. 
 An absolute majority of voices makes or mars. 
 
 31. The Cantonal Council shape the public
 
 126 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 bills, command the public force (except so far 
 as it is under Federal obligation), execute the 
 laws, elect their officers, and exercise the right 
 of mercy. 
 
 32. A Councillor, as public officer, receives 
 a daily stipend, with a sum of money for 
 expenses. 
 
 36. The two members of the State Council 
 who are sent to Bern must be elected by the 
 people, forming for this Federal act a single 
 district. The members of the National Council 
 who are also sent to Bern must be elected (as 
 they were under the old constitution) by the 
 people, forming for this purpose a single district. 
 These two elections must be held at the same 
 time. The service of these Federal delegates is 
 for three years. 
 
 A fourth group articles 37 to 55 deals 
 with the Administration. 
 
 37. The Executive Power consists of seven 
 members, called a Council of Government. 
 These governors are elected by the people, form- 
 ing one electoral district, at the same time with 
 the Cantonal Council. 
 
 38. These seven governors appoint a President 
 and a Vice-president for a year.
 
 PURE DEMOCRACY. 127 
 
 39. No man having an appointment with 
 a fixed salary can be a governor. 
 
 41. The governors appoint a public pro- 
 secutor. 
 
 A fifth group articles 56 to 61 deals with 
 Crime and Justice. 
 
 56. A judgment of the law-courts cannot 
 be set aside. The Cantonal Council have the 
 power of mercy ; but the administration cannot 
 modify the verdict given. PoHtical crimes, in- 
 cluding press offences, must be tried by jury. 
 Courts of arbitration are allowed. 
 
 A public officer is charged with process in 
 a case of debt. 
 
 A sixth group articles 62 to 64 deals with 
 PubHc Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs. 
 
 62. The general education of the people, 
 and the republican education of the citizens, 
 is the business of the State. In order to in- 
 crease the professional and productive power 
 of all classes, the Cantonal schools are to be 
 extended and improved. The training must 
 be better, and the period of instruction longer. 
 The Universities and colleges are to be brought 
 into more perfect harmony with modem life. 
 Their scientific character must be retained ; and
 
 128 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 they must be connected in their courses with 
 the Cantonal schools. 
 
 Primary instruction is obligatory and gra- 
 tuitous. The State, together with the Com- 
 munes, will supply the funds. The Communes 
 have the management of primary schools, assisted 
 by a district School Board. 
 
 63. Liberty of faith, of worship, and of 
 teaching, is established. Civil rights and civil 
 duties have no dependence on rehgious creeds. 
 No force (as excommunication) can be used 
 against communities or individuals. The Na- 
 tional Church (that is to say, the Evangehcal 
 Church), and other rehgious corporations, rule 
 themselves within the law and under the supreme 
 control of the State. 
 
 64. The Church Communes elect their own 
 pastors, and the School Communes their own 
 teachers. The State endows the pastors, and 
 she pays a portion of the teacher's salary. 
 These pastors and these teachers are elected 
 to their functions for a term of six years; at 
 the end of which they may be re-elected if 
 the people choose. This rule applies to the 
 E-omanist Communes, not less than to the Evan- 
 gehcal Communes.
 
 PURE DEMOCRACY. 129 
 
 The seventh group article 65 deals with 
 the subject of any future revision of the con- 
 stitution. It is provided that the people may 
 at any time, according to the legal mode, revise 
 this fundamental pact, either in the mass or in 
 any of the parts.
 
 130 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 A KEVOLUTION. 
 
 In tiie struggles of tlie Radical party with the 
 Feudal party, following the adoption of this pact, 
 Johannes Sieber, until then a man unknown, came 
 quickly to the front, took up the popular flag, 
 and made himself at once a type of the new era, 
 and an incarnation of the radical cause. 
 
 Johannes Sieber was the master of a village- 
 school at Uster, on the Greifen lake, some dozen 
 miles from Zurich. Uster was a feudal hamlet, 
 now it is a weaving station. On the knoU. above 
 the weavers' houses rise the remnants of a castle, 
 which are turned to use as court-house, jail, 
 and inn. A tower, on which the weavers 
 drink their beer, commands the lake below, 
 and in the distance sweeps the peaks and crests 
 of Schwyz. Near by a group of factories 
 frets the sky, and smoking chimneys overtop 
 both feudal tower and Gothic spire. In Uster,
 
 A REVOLUTION. 131 
 
 Sieber was employed in teaching rustics how to 
 read and sing. Like nearly all his class he was 
 a politician of advancing views. His school was 
 in the shadow of that ancient pile ; a living 
 proof that victory is with the popular cause. 
 He was no learned pundit ; he had taken no 
 degree ; but he was full of speech and pluck ; 
 and, more than all, he had the sense to see that 
 this great struggle of the popular and conservative 
 parties turned upon the public schools. 
 
 'You see the fruit, but not the root,' my 
 host explains to me, as we are driving past the 
 Cantonal schools ; ' these youngsters streaming 
 from the steps are like the vines on yonder 
 waU ; they flourish in our soil, but draw their 
 being from a distant source. We Switzers are 
 not poets and inventors ; we are homely folk ; 
 but then we know a good thing when we see 
 it, and are quick to try if it will suit us. I 
 am not an old man yet ; but in my youth you 
 might have passed from Basel to Ticino and 
 not have seen a decent public school.' 
 
 * You have not let the grass grow where 
 you tread.' 
 
 * Not only is our scheme of State instruction 
 new, it is Germanic, and not Latin, in its origin.
 
 132 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 its spirit, and its plan. We date our university 
 in Zurich from an early time ; but in that early 
 time the church was always in a teacher's mind. 
 A teacher seldom thought of civil Ufe. He 
 was a priest ; he wished to make his pupils 
 priests. His school was part of some rehgious 
 house ; some priory, some abbey, where the ruler 
 was in holy orders. His instruction was devoted 
 to a single purpose. Priests required some let- 
 ters, and they got some. Girls required no 
 letters, and they got none. Females had no 
 chance of learning how to read and write, except 
 through private means and at enormous cost. 
 A man who wished his girls to learn was forced 
 to hire a priest and lodge him in his house.' 
 
 * The change came on, you think, with the 
 revolt from Bome?' 
 
 * With Martin Luther. Bome was pagan in 
 her spii'it. She would never give her system of 
 instruction to all classes. Luther was our source 
 of civic life. He was the first to claim that pubHc 
 teaching should extend to all ; to rich and poor, 
 to male and female, and to bond and free. Yes, 
 Luther is the father of democracy. He, more 
 than any Switzer, shaped our politics and framed 
 our laws.'
 
 A REVOLUTION. 133 
 
 In England, Luther's efforts in the cause of 
 education are not known so well as his attacks 
 on Rome. He meant to build a new world on 
 the ruins he was making ; and the world he 
 wished to raise was one of right and reason, not 
 of simple trust. He wanted men to read and 
 think, assured that men who read and think will 
 never drop into a stagnant faith. All men, he 
 therefore said, must learn to read. It is the 
 business of society to see that none fall off and 
 lose their souls for lack of light. He taught the 
 two great doctrines of the democratic party that 
 female education is of equal moment to the State 
 with male, and that the State should force all 
 citizens to attain a certain grade in either public 
 schools or private schools. 
 
 * The fruit is here, the root is yonder,' says 
 my host. * We know the truth ; our system is 
 Germanic ; and we feed it daily from the parent 
 source. Although we are a nation of school- 
 masters Pestalozzi was born in Zurich yet our 
 leading lights are German. Pestalozzi, FeUen- 
 berg, and other Switzers have been great in de- 
 tail, not in principle. Our great reformers come 
 from the original source. We start with Luther, 
 and we end with Scherr.'
 
 134 THE SWITZEES. 
 
 Scherr who is Scherr, some reader asks, that 
 he should stand in line with Luther ? Scherr is 
 not a man of name, and yet his work was good 
 and he performed it well. In Zurich he is dearly 
 loved. As Luther gave to public teaching a popu- 
 lar spirit, Scherr endowed it with a popular form. 
 Scherr is the actual founder of the system now 
 prevailuig in Canton Zurich; and in no slight 
 measure is the author of her wealth, intelligence, 
 and fame. She loves him all the more that she 
 was cruel to him while he Hved, and torn with 
 anguish for him when he died. 
 
 Bom in the small village of Hohenrechberg, in 
 the kingdom of Wiirtemberg, Thomas Scherr re- 
 ceived his training in the pubHc school, and feel- 
 ing a vocation for the teacher's office, studied 
 pedagogy as an art, and got appointed to a desk. 
 His fame soon spread abroad; for he was not a 
 teacher only, but a special teacher, with ideas of 
 his own. Promoted to the mastership of a deaf- 
 and-dumb institution, he arrested wide attention 
 by his plan for teaching mutes to speak. At 
 twenty-four he came to Zurich, where the state 
 of education was below the mark. Here he got 
 appointed to the BHnd School, which he tho- 
 roughly reformed, and with such full approval of
 
 A REVOLUTION. 1 35 
 
 the city that the Government increased his school 
 by adding to it a department for the deaf and 
 dumb, in order that his theories of teaching might 
 be fully tried. Before that day the time was 
 1825 to 1836 aU teachers of the deaf and dumb 
 had been content with the opinion of De TEpee 
 and the Abb^ Sicard, that the only way to teach 
 a mute is by the hand. Watson in England, 
 Heinicke in Germany, Clerc in the United States, 
 were followers of that method. Scherr had other 
 thoughts. No man, he found, is naturally 
 mute. A child is dumb because he is first deaf, 
 and does not hear articulate sounds. But may 
 he not be taught articulation through the eye ? 
 Scherr thought he might. He dropped the finger- 
 alphabet, and tried to teach his pupils to articu- 
 late in letters, syllables, and words. Articulate 
 sounds are formed by breathing through the 
 lips and teeth, along the palate and the tongue, 
 and aU the movements of these organs, while the 
 sounds are issuing, may be see7i. A little care 
 and patience, and the pupil imitates these move- 
 ments, and acquires the gift of speech. A double 
 end is gained; for while he learns the art of 
 breathing words, he also learns the art of reading 
 them. A class of mutes who can distinguish
 
 136 . THE SWITZERS. 
 
 what the master says can also trace the accents 
 on each other's lips by sight. The power of 
 interchanging thought, if not so rapid as in men 
 with all their senses, is complete. A great success 
 attended Scherr. Some pupils learned to speak 
 with ease, and many learned to speak a bit. In 
 six years he had made his ground so sure that, 
 when the Canton wished to frame a better code, 
 he was elected to the Education Council, and 
 intrusted by that Council with the task of draw- 
 ing up a general law. 
 
 Public codes are common now, for every 
 Canton in the League has framed a public code ; 
 but in the days of Scherr such things were new 
 and strange, and the Feudal party, urged by 
 Dr. Bluntschli (one of the aristocrats whose 
 ancestors had governed Zurich long before she 
 joined the Forest Cantons), led the innovator an 
 uneasy life. 
 
 Scherr wished this business of education to 
 be made a business of the State. He held that 
 every one should go to school, that every village 
 should provide a school, that every citizen should 
 take his share in managing a school, and that the 
 parents should be pressed to visit and inspect the 
 school He wished to see the school a home, and
 
 A REVOLUTION. 137 
 
 hoped to call the family spirit to his help. To 
 him no subject was so serious as the school He 
 meant the worid to see things as he saw them ; 
 and he hoped by means of public festivals to 
 bring the highest interests of the Canton on the 
 pubhc schools. 
 
 One part of his reform the Canton put in force 
 without delay. The want of Zurich was the want 
 of Europe teachers who were fit to teach. Ex- 
 cept in Germany, no such artists in tuition could 
 be found ; and Scherr proposed to found a training 
 college near the city, where selected youths, of 
 either sex, might be instructed id this difficult 
 and important art. 
 
 Four miles from Zurich city, on a slip of vine- 
 yard mirrored in the waters, stands the pretty 
 thorpe of Kiisnacht. In this pretty thorpe his 
 training college was erected. Three years later 
 Kiisnacht was a place of name and fame, and 
 men from every part of Europe flocked to see 
 the master at his work. An impetus was given 
 to teaching in all countries ; more than all in the 
 Teutonic Cantons of the League. As teacher, 
 Scherr was very great. His lessons on the foi-ms 
 of speech, and on the graces of expression, were 
 remarkable for neatness, brilliancy, and point.
 
 138 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 With boys and girls he had a vast success ; his 
 manner was convincing, and his power of illus- 
 tration and comparison was endless. Scherr was 
 happy in his work, and aU, except the Feudal 
 party, who were open enemies of public educa- 
 tion, were extremely proud of ScheiT. 
 
 The wider grew his fame, the sharper grew 
 his pain. A cry rose up against him that he 
 wished to ruin trade by driving every boy and 
 girl to school. A hundred manufacturers de- 
 clared that they would have to close their shops. 
 They could not carry on their works. Their 
 industry would perish, and their capital be lost. 
 If Scherr were suffered to go on they must re- 
 move their mills to Cantons where such fools 
 were not allowed to tamper with the laws of 
 trade. They might be driven away to France. 
 
 Scherr answered that the city was extending 
 on aU sides ; five hundred new houses were being 
 built ; the streets were cleaner, quieter than of 
 yore ; the port was filled with an increasing fleet 
 of boats ; and thousands of foreign artisans were 
 coming to the town for work. New public build- 
 ings were commenced ; the ancient walls were 
 overthrown ; new terraces and gardens rose on 
 either side the lake. New book-shops opened.
 
 A REVOLUTION. 139 
 
 Singing-clubs were formed. A theatre was built. 
 Some fine hotels were added to the town. The 
 Dom was put into repair. A higher spiritual 
 plane was reached. 
 
 The Feudal party were convicted, not con- 
 vinced ; and when the next reflux of passion 
 brought them into power, they wreaked their 
 hatred on the man, although they were not strong 
 enough to stay his work. Scherr died in exile 
 from the Canton he had made liis own. 
 
 Johannes Sieber seized the golden chance. 
 A master of a school like Scherr, he found the 
 liberal sentiment was with his class. The name 
 and cause of Scherr were dear to all ; and Sieber 
 wrote that name, that cause, upon his flag. The 
 Liberals took him for their leader, and the fight 
 being won, they carried him from his desk at 
 Uster into Government House in Zurich, where 
 he holds, under the Pure Democracy, the two 
 chief offices of this Canton President of the 
 Council, and Director of the Education Board.
 
 140 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 POPULAR VICTORIES. 
 
 Some articles in the newest Zurich code arrest 
 the eye at once, as being the latest phase of 
 democratic hope and faith. Two points have 
 been established in this fundamental pact: (l) 
 the Relation of the People to the State, and (2) 
 the Relation of the People to the Church. 
 
 The people have assumed all powers. Great 
 Councils and State Councils are no longer what 
 they were, and party government is swept away. 
 No parhaments meet to choose the rulers and to 
 make the laws. Canton Zurich is herself a par- 
 liament. These Zurich people choose their 
 governors as American people choose their presi- 
 dents by one direct and universal vote. Seven 
 governors are elected at a . single poll. A 
 governor can only stay three years in office ; he 
 must then retire ; and it is not supposed that
 
 POPULAB VICTORIES. 141 
 
 / 
 
 lie will stand again. The spirit of the pact is 
 change. 
 
 In the sphere of legislation this reserve of 
 powers is more complete than in the sphere of 
 government. No act is vaHd till the people have 
 pronounced their verdict. In theory this refer- 
 ence to the people (Referendum) is a kind of veto, 
 like the vetos exercised in monarchies by kings 
 and queens ; in practice it is something more 
 than kings and queens can claim. The right is 
 absolute and imperious. A right of veto is no 
 more than that of raising an objection, more or 
 less, of days or months. It gives no power to 
 modify a bill ; it gives no power to substitute a 
 bill. It is a pure negation. But a Zurich voter 
 is an autocrat. He has a right, not only to 
 reject, but to propose. He may suggest a bill; 
 and, by assent of certain of his fellows, can insist 
 on having his proposal laid before the Canton. 
 Every Ziiricher enjoying civil rights is a member 
 of the national parliament, by which his rulers 
 are elected and his laws are made. A Ziiritjher 
 is commoner, peer, and king in one. 
 
 More curious than this reference to the 
 people in affairs of state, is the position taken 
 up by pure democracy towards the church.
 
 142 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 In England, France, and Italy, the radicals 
 are mostly though not all in favour of a 
 thorough separation of the church and state ; 
 but such is not a Ziiricher's idea; for in this 
 republic men perceive, not only that religion is 
 a part of public life, but that the church is 
 an integral portion of the state. To drive the 
 church away from the state is not to over- 
 throw the church. These Switzers understand 
 that a state church is a Lay church. To cast 
 away the church as something alien to the 
 state and civil life, is to abandon aU control 
 of the most vital force and passion in the human 
 heart. 
 
 These radicals hold on, therefore, to the doc- 
 trine of a National Church. Being EvangeHcal 
 in opinion, they declare the Evangelical Church 
 to be the National Church. All forms of worship 
 are allowed ; all forms of worship recognized 
 by the Canton are endowed ; all congregations 
 regulate their own affairs, within the law 
 and under state control Each Commune 
 chooses her own priest and pastor for a term 
 of years. 
 
 A church so ruled presents to them the very 
 model of a national and democratic church.
 
 POPULAR VICTORIES. 1 43 
 
 When Sieber, carried into office on the crests 
 of this pacific revolution, came to live at Govern- 
 ment House, he found himself opposed by two 
 strong parties iii the city ; first, the Feudalists, 
 whom he had beaten at the poll, and the Pro- 
 fessors, whom his victory seemed to threaten in 
 their chairs. 
 
 In Radical creeds no article is held with firmer 
 faith than that which says, no public office should 
 be held for life. In every Canton of Switzerland 
 this article is urged against appointments in the 
 pulpits and the schools, no less than in the 
 principal offices of state. If you would have 
 the best men in the best places, say the Radi- 
 cals, you must change them often. Sieber, as 
 a Radical leader, sent to Government House in 
 order to complete the changes introduced into 
 the Cantonal code, proposed a bill to amend 
 the laws appointing teachers and professors to 
 their posts. 
 
 The old laws gave such posts for life, without 
 regard to changes in the men, the methods, and 
 the means. No reason, say the Radicals, can 
 be given for such a rule, which came into existence 
 through the church and not the state. The doc- 
 trine, once a priest always a priest, impHed, once
 
 144 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 a teacher always a teacher, while the teacher and 
 the priest were one. But now that rule is changed ; 
 a priest is not a teacher, and a teacher not a priest. 
 A layman has no sacred privilege to plead. He is 
 a man, as every citizen is a man ; and what was 
 suffered in the cleric, who received his mandate 
 from a spiritual power, need not be suffered in 
 the laic, who derives his mandate' from a tem- 
 poral power. All liberal Ziirichers desire a 
 change, not only for the public good, but for 
 the good of teachers and professors. But the 
 teachers and professors are of different minds 
 respecting Sieber's plan. The teachers are in 
 favour of a change, and Sieber is no other than 
 their mouthpiece on the Board. No art, they 
 urge, stands still, and that of teaching is a swiftly 
 growing art. From Fellenberg to Scherr the dis- 
 tance is immense. A man who holds liis post for 
 life has no inducement to excel; good teachers 
 have no chance against bad teachers ; and im- 
 provements in the method have to wait for years. 
 They, therefore, pray the Council to declare by 
 law that every desk and chair in Zurich shall be 
 held for some fixed term of years say two years, 
 four years, six years and shall then be filled 
 again by pubHc choice. Who can question the
 
 POPULAR VICTORIES. 1 45 
 
 sincerity of persons pleading for reform against 
 their seeming interests ? All these teachers held 
 their posts for life. Their prayer is granted, 
 and the teachers will in future hold their desks 
 six years. At every term a fresh election 
 must take place; and every teacher in the 
 Canton hails this verdict as a victory for his 
 class. 
 
 The great professors take another line. These 
 learned persons Hve on higher planes, and have 
 no personal objects to attain by public strife. 
 Engaged in work which will not perish with the 
 hour, they turn with some disdain from what is 
 passing in the streets, to ask of what is new 
 in Bunsen's crucible and what is written in the 
 latest book by Mill. They live in their own 
 world a high, serene, and prosperous world for 
 them well fed, well housed, and easy in their 
 minds. Not so the teachers of a lower grade. 
 A teacher, with a cottage, garden-plot, and thirty 
 pounds a-year ; his home an alpine valley, with 
 no outlet to the world ; his fortune, like his 
 home, without a second hope ; is likely to be 
 swayed by popular passions, to indulge in dreams, 
 to fancy he has wrongs, to enter into contests 
 which excite his blood, and, if successful, bring
 
 146 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 him to the front. A great professor cannot rise. 
 He is a duke ; he walks in purple ; nay, he 
 wears the crown. To be elected on the Council 
 would be loss of rank. What a republic can do 
 for such men as Kinkel, Vogelin, Gusserow, Behn- 
 Eschenburg, and others, has been done. A 
 teacher, like Johannes Sieber, fagging in his 
 village school at Uster, finds that public life 
 has many charms and chances. What has such 
 a man to lose ? What he may gain is proved. 
 A village teacher may become a Governor, may 
 preside at Council meetings, and may live at 
 Government House. 
 
 Such rising of the lower ranks against the 
 higher is regarded by the University men with an 
 unfriendly eye. ' Good sort of man, this Sieber,' 
 they remark, ' if he would only keep his place ; 
 but a Director of the Board of Education why, 
 the fellow has not taken his degree ! ' When 
 Sieber comes to live at Government House, the 
 great professors whisper to each other, 'Why, 
 this fellow wants to be our master, and he has 
 not taken his degree!' The fact is certain, and 
 the learned men wax high in wrath. 
 
 Much trouble grows between the city and 
 the University. For several years a course of
 
 POPULAR VICTORIES. 147 
 
 winter lectures has been given by great pro- 
 fessors in the city haU ; a course on special 
 subjects, treated in a popular style. These lec- 
 tures have been weU received ; the public pay 
 six francs a seat to hear them ; the city lend the 
 haU ; the lecturer gives his service ; and the money 
 taken at the doors is paid in lump to the authori- 
 ties of the University and Polytechnic for the 
 adornment of their common pile. Much painting 
 on the walls, and many figures in the niches, are 
 required to clothe the public rooms with beauty ; 
 and the funds which come from lecturing keep an 
 artist at this work. Last winter this delightful 
 course was stopped, to the regret of every class 
 alike professor, citizen, and stranger in the town. 
 When men like Kinkel lecture on the arts, when 
 men like Keller lecture on the water-folk, the 
 "world is glad to hear them, and the course is 
 sure to pay. Why are they stopped ? ' It is 
 the war in France,' says one ; 'It is the small- 
 pox,' says another. There is something in the 
 air; the moon comes nearer to the earth; the 
 spheres are out of tune ; the pulse of party life 
 is strong ; men cannot act together ; and the 
 city and the University retire into their several 
 camps. But time has laid this strife ; and
 
 1 48 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 in these present winter months the learned men 
 have stooped once more from their Olympian 
 heights. 
 
 The fact is, they are heating Sieher and the 
 democrats. Unlike the teachers, these professors 
 will not yield on what the new and pure re- 
 puhhc holds to he a cardinal doctrine that of 
 short appointments to all pubHc seats. Some 
 hate this principle of Reference to the People ; 
 but the matter does not touch them closely, and 
 they yield to it with some reserve. Subjecting 
 chairs of Greek and Hebrew, chemistry and ma- 
 thematics, to a popular vote, renewed from time 
 to time, appears to them absurd. This demo- 
 cratic principle is apphed at the Polytechnic, 
 where the chairs are only held six years. The 
 great professors fear it may invade the University, 
 and empty half the higher seats. They will not 
 yield to Sieher s project, and the Radical party, 
 rather than distiurb a University which is their 
 noblest pride, consent to strike this article out 
 of Sieber's bill. 
 
 Amended so far, Sieber's bill is law. Professors 
 in the University are the only officers of the new 
 republic, who retain their posts for life. On every 
 other class on Pastor, President, Captain, Coun-
 
 POPULAR VICTORIES. 149 
 
 cillor the new and pure republic exercises sove- 
 reign power. Each officer must yield his place, 
 and take his chances of a second choice. Was 
 it not said just now that a professor in the 
 University of Zurich is a duke ?
 
 1,50 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE LEAGUE. 
 
 The Swiss League consists of twenty-five repub- 
 lics ; nineteen Cantons, six Half-cantons ; which 
 agree for certain purposes, mainly of defence, to 
 form a single commonwealth, with one assembly, 
 one executive power. 
 
 This League of Cantons is a growth of time. 
 Before the thirty-three famous patriots met in 
 Griitli to exchange their pledges, acts of union 
 had been signed by some of the Cantons, and the 
 very words of Griitli, ' All for each, and each for 
 all,' had been exchanged by them on oath. Luzer^.. 
 had signed an act of mutual help with Bern, an 
 those who signed that act were called Con 
 panions of the Oath. In 1291, Canton Schwyz 
 and Canton Uri formed a league with the Half- 
 canton of Unterwalden-nidwald, to which the 
 second Half-canton, Unterwalden-obwald, after- 
 wards adhered. They took the vow of ' All for
 
 THE LEAGUE. 151 
 
 each and each for all/ Sixty days after the 
 swearing of this oath of friendship, Canton Zurich 
 entered into union for defensive purposes with 
 Canton Schwyz and Canton UrL All these acts 
 of union cleared the ground for what was soon 
 to be an actual League. 
 
 At GriitH, a secluded field below the SeeHs- 
 berg, in Canton XJri, thirty herdsmen, stout of 
 heart and strong of limb, were brought in 1307 
 by three good patriots Werner Stauffacher of 
 Canton Schwyz, Walter Fiirst of Canton Uri, and 
 Emi of Melchthal, Canton Unterwalden to en- 
 gage each other, by the pledge of * All for each 
 and each for all.' They swore to rise against 
 their tyrant, to destroy his castles, and to free 
 their Cantons from the Austrian yoke. As Schwyz 
 became the theatre of war, the world outside first 
 heard of these confederates as the Switzers. When 
 Morgarten made the name and flag of Schwyz 
 illustrious, the other Cantons were not sorry to 
 accept her name and banner for their infant 
 League. 
 
 Both name and banner are of unknown origin. 
 The name of Schwyz has been derived from swine, 
 from snow, and many other words. The flag was 
 once a blood-red field ; the cross was won in fight.
 
 152 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 but whether in defence of Pope or Kaiser is a 
 subject of dispute. The better story seems, that 
 certain men of Schwyz went out to serve the 
 Emperor Conrad in his wars. They bore with 
 them a blood-red flag. In every fray that blood- 
 red flag was seen in front, and Conrad watched it 
 with a soldier's eye. When the imperial armies 
 moved on Burgundy, these troops marched with 
 them ; and in one of the assaults of Hericourt 
 they roused his martial admiration to so high a 
 pitch, that he bestowed on them the right to 
 quarter on their blood-red field his own imperial 
 arms the pure white cross. 
 
 Morgarten fought and won, the herdsmen met 
 in Brunnen, and renewed, in 1315, the League 
 already sworn by them eight years before. In 
 1332 Luzem became a member; and in 1351 
 Zurich joined them, bringing in her train the 
 neighbouring towns of Zug and Glarus. Two 
 years later this confederacy was joined by Bern. 
 For upwards of a century and a quarter (1353- 
 1481) these eight Cantons Zurich, Bern, Luzem, 
 Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus, Zug com- 
 posed the League ; but in this centiuy and a 
 quarter, Sempach, Nafels, Grandson, Morat, gave 
 the simple mountaineers a taste for war. They
 
 THE LEAGUE. 153 
 
 broke into Aargau, Thurgau, and Ticino, and 
 annexed these countries to the League, but not 
 as members of a free and equal commonwealth. 
 The conquerors were all but nobles, and the con- 
 quered race were all but serfs. 
 
 In 1481 they took in Fribourg and Solothum, 
 as ninth and tenth Cantons. Afterwards they 
 occupied St. Gallon by a Federal force. In 1501 
 Basel and Schaffhausen were admitted, as ele- 
 venth and twelfth Cantons ; and a dozen years 
 later Appenzell, a portion of the occupied country 
 of St. Gallen, was accepted as the thirteenth 
 Canton. For upwards of two centuries and 
 three quarters (1513-1798) these thirteen Can- 
 tons formed the League. 
 
 As yet these Leaguers had no ftindamental pact. 
 Each Canton kept her sovereign rights in full ; 
 made peace and war, coined money, sent her 
 ministers to king and pope, and exercised the 
 faculties of life and death. She only joined her 
 sisters when their common frontiers were assailed. 
 The Leaguers had no code, no capital, no executive 
 power. When conferences were needed, they were 
 called at either Bern, Luzem, or Ziirich ; but the 
 deputies conferred, decided, and returned ; each man 
 to get his Canton to accept what they had done.
 
 154 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 In fact, the League was nothing but a group of 
 states connected by a treaty of alliance, and the 
 name of Switzer nothing but a form of speech 
 occasionally heard in foreign camps. 
 
 The actual origin of the League, as now exist- 
 ing, must be traced to France. 
 
 In 1798 the French, as friends of liberty, 
 broke into Switzerland, upset the Cantonal 
 governments, and framed a new republic on the 
 last French pattern, one and indivisible. They 
 took away the national name and flag. The 
 countries of the League became Helvetia, and 
 her flag three stripes of yellow, green, and red. 
 They took away the primary assemblies. In 
 their zeal for uniformity, they split some Cantons 
 into pieces, and they patched up several Cantons 
 into one. Bern was divided into four Cantons 
 Bern, Aargau, Oberland, and Vaud. Ticino 
 parted into Canton Lugano and Canton Bellin- 
 zona. Fribourg became Canton Sarine-et-Broye. 
 The two Appenzells were swept away in favour 
 of Canton Sentis. Glarus was lost in Canton De 
 la Linth. Zug, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, 
 were abolished at one stroke ; and Canton Wald- 
 statten occupied their places on the map. They 
 introduced a fundamental pact, a common code
 
 THE LEAGUE. 155 
 
 of laws, a tree of liberty, and a French directorate 
 of police. No student, mapping out ideal com- 
 monwealths, can fail to see how logical these 
 new arrangements were. As a reward for setting 
 up this new republic, one and indivisible in name, 
 and equal in her several parts, the friends of 
 freedom seized Geneva and Neufchatel. ^ 
 
 But an ungrateful people rose against these 
 friends of Hberty, and after blood was shed in 
 twenty fights, the French renounced the task, so 
 difiicult for them, of teaching men who had been 
 free five hundred years, the art of managing 
 their own afiairs according to their actual wants. 
 These old republicans could not be taught the 
 beauties of a new republic one and indivisible. 
 The Bernese people burnt their tree of hberty ; 
 the citizens of Glarus would not take the name 
 of Linthers ; Zug and Uri could not act in union ; 
 and the men of Schwyz would not replace their 
 ancient flag. * Leave them alone,' Napoleon said ; 
 and they were henceforth left alone. 
 
 In 1803 the modem League was formed. 
 Old names, old banners, and old peasant parlia- 
 ments, were aU restored, and districts which had 
 long been held as subject lands were taken in 
 as members of the League. St. Gallen, Aargau,
 
 156 
 
 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Thurgau, Ticino, Vaud, were now accepted as free 
 Cantons, and became the equals of Luzem and 
 Bern. The three repubHcs of the Upper Rhine 
 country were admitted as a fifteenth Canton, 
 with the name of Graubiinden. For his services 
 in this affair Napoleon seized the Valais, which 
 he occupied and annexed to France ! 
 
 In 1814, on the faU of France, the Valais was 
 united to the League ; Neufchatel and Geneva 
 also ; the last-named Canton much enlarged in 
 size by the addition of Carouge. 
 
 The order, names, and dates, stand thus : 
 
 1. 
 
 Zurich 
 
 . 1351 
 
 12. 
 
 SchaflFhausen 
 
 . 1501 
 
 2. 
 
 Bern 
 
 1353 
 
 13. 
 
 Appenzell 
 
 . 1573 
 
 3. 
 
 Luzem 
 
 1332 
 
 14. 
 
 St. Gallen 
 
 . 1803 
 
 4. 
 
 Uri . 
 
 1307 
 
 15. 
 
 Graubiinden 
 
 . 1803 
 
 5. 
 
 Schwyz 
 
 1307 
 
 16. 
 
 Aargau 
 
 . 1803 
 
 6. 
 
 TJnterwalden 
 
 1307 
 
 17. 
 
 Thurgau . 
 
 . 1803 
 
 7. 
 
 Glarus 
 
 1352 
 
 18. 
 
 Ticino 
 
 . 1803 
 
 8. 
 
 Zug . . 
 
 1352 
 
 19. 
 
 Vaud 
 
 . 1803 
 
 9. 
 
 Fribourg . 
 
 1481 
 
 20. 
 
 Valais 
 
 . 1814 
 
 10. 
 
 Solothum 
 
 1481 
 
 21. 
 
 Neufchatel 
 
 . 1814 
 
 11. 
 
 Basel 
 
 1501 
 
 22. 
 
 Geneva 
 
 . 1814 
 
 To find a capital for these repubHcs was no 
 easy task. Each Canton has a capital of her 
 own the centre of her public life but no 
 great city overtops the rest, and draws them 
 into moving round her by her mass and weight.
 
 THE LEAGUE. 157 
 
 By flux of speech some tiny towns are dignified 
 as cities, such as Sion, with four thousand souls ; 
 as Chur, with seven thousand five hundred souls ; 
 and Fribourg, with ten thousand souls. Even 
 Bern and Zurich would be tenth-rate towns in 
 England and America. Geneva is the largest 
 town in Switzerland, with forty -two thousand 
 souls. The second town is Basel, of the size of 
 Birkenhead. With all her glories, Zurich is but 
 half the size of Coventry. In truth, this country 
 is a commonwealth of hamlets, not of towns. 
 
 When Canton Zurich joined the League, her 
 only rival was Luzem. Luzem was on the forest 
 lake, accessible from every part, while Altdorf, 
 Schwyz and Stanz He inland from the water's 
 edge. Luzem was walled and safe, and therefore 
 fit to be a capital of the League. But Zurich 
 was a larger city, with a richer trade, a stronger 
 wall, and a more energetic people. She became the 
 centre of activity, though not the seat of govern- 
 ment. When Canton Bern came in, the city of 
 that name was sometimes used for conference. 
 Luzem was also used ; and thus, fi:om ancient 
 times, three cities of the League acquired the 
 rank, if not the name, of capitals. The League, 
 reformed in 1814, adopted these three cities as
 
 158 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 her seats of government ; the President and 
 Chamber sitting in each Canton for a couple of 
 years, and then migrating to the next in turn. 
 This system lasted from the year 1814 till the 
 war of 1847, when, taught by serious trials that 
 a country must possess one centre, and one centre 
 only, Zurich and Luzern gave up their claims, 
 and Bern became a fixed and central capital of the 
 League.
 
 159 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE FEDERAL PACT. 
 
 Although this League of Cantons has sur- 
 vived a hundred monarchies, and never ceased to 
 be a union of republics, she has lived through 
 many forms in her five hundred and seventy- 
 five years of pubUc life. She has been feudal, 
 clerical, imperial, radical, by turns. So long as 
 she has had a Federal Pact, the business of 
 her pubhc life has been to study and amend 
 that Pact. Old men can recollect the constitu- 
 tions overthrown in 1798; the constitutions 
 overthrown in 1803 ; the constitutions over- 
 thrown in 1814. Young men remember the con- 
 stitutions broken through in 1846 ; the new 
 constitutions of 1848 ; the revision of 1866. All 
 these amendments of the Federal Pact are to be 
 taken as the signs of life and growth. In 
 every stage of her historical growth, the League 
 has been in arms against the Cantons and the
 
 160 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Communes on behalf of general rights ; those 
 interests of a citken, which lie beyond the proper 
 sphere of local laws and customs. With the 
 League are lodged the first conceptions . of a 
 Switzer and a Switzerland. In Zurich there are 
 only Ziirichers, in Geneva there are only Genevese. 
 A Cantonal code knows nothing of a Switzer and 
 a Switzerland outside ; and hence the League 
 is charged witj the great duty of converting 
 her conceptions o*^ a Swiss citizen and a Swiss 
 Commonwealth into actual facts. 
 
 A man may have some rights beyond the 
 limits of his Canton and his Commune ; and a 
 man may lose his claim to call on either Canton 
 or Commune to protect him in his rights. 
 
 A Switzer is supposed to be a member of some 
 Commune, in which he is to live and die. Till 
 lately, nineteen out of twenty Switzers followed 
 this old rule, and never left the hamlets of their 
 birth. That system is extremely favourable to 
 simplicity, to permanence, to inter-marriage, and 
 to cretinism ; but in the face of opening roads, 
 with steamers on the lakes and tunnels through 
 the alps, it is not easy to maintain this patriarchal 
 system. Men will rove in search of fortune ; and 
 by roving they will lose their Communal rights.
 
 THE FEDERAL PACT. 161 
 
 But loss of Communal rights will not deter a man 
 from seeking bread beyond his village ; and of 
 recent years a movement has been noted by ob- 
 servers which, if quickened in the coming years, 
 must part the population into two great camps 
 the citizens with Communal rights and the citizens 
 without Commimal rights. Already the propor- 
 tion of citizens who have no Commimal rights is 
 great ; as some think perilously great ; for these 
 men are a class apart, who have no common 
 interest with their feUows, and know no other 
 countiy than the League. For them the League 
 is fighting, and has always fought. It claims 
 for them the name of Switzer, and a right to 
 settle, with a clear and equal vote, in any part 
 of Switzerland as they can do in Canton Ziirich, 
 under the new and pure repubHcan law. 
 
 A man is supposed to marry in his Commune ; 
 but a stranger has no right of Commune ; and a 
 citizen with Communal rights may wish to take 
 a wife elsewhere. The case of Alois Arnold is a 
 common case. Here comes a conflict of the coiuts. 
 A stranger's marriage may be either good or bad, 
 according to the local law. Some Cantons use 
 the civil form, while others use the clerical form. 
 The Catholic Cantons, as a rule, consider civil 
 
 M
 
 162 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 marriage as no other than concubinage ; and per- 
 sons hving under such a union as no better than 
 adulterers. In such Cantons divorce is not 
 allowed, and marriages of persons who have been 
 divorced in other Cantons are declared illegal 
 and immoral. On the other side, a member of 
 a Commune cannot take a wife unless his mayor 
 and council give him leave ; and if he marries in 
 another Canton, these authorities of his village 
 may assoil the honour of his wife, and rob his 
 children of their birthright in the soil. Confusion 
 in his dearest interests wounds the citizen, and 
 scandals irritate the courts of law. A woman who 
 is recognised in Bern as an honourable wife may 
 be rejected by society in Stanz and Altdorf as 
 a concubine. For man and wife in such a case 
 the League is fighting, and has always fought. 
 It claims for them the right to marry when and 
 where they please, without consulting either vil- 
 lage priest or parish mayor. 
 
 A man is bound to join the standard of his 
 district, and receive his drill and training with 
 his neighbour ; but experience proves that since 
 the military art acquired so high a form, it is not 
 wise to leave this driU and training to the several 
 Cantons, some of which neglect their work, while
 
 THE FEDERAL PACT. 163 
 
 others do that work extremely well. A better 
 method is required; and as the pubHc safety is 
 the highest law, the League desires to place the 
 drill and training of all citizens on a common 
 plan, and under the direction of a single board. 
 
 Evangehcal and Teutonic Switzerland is bent 
 on having a general law on settlement, on civil 
 marriage, and on military training. Catholic and 
 Teutonic Switzerland is not so warm about these 
 rights ; some Cantons stand aloof, and some 
 oppose the project of reform. In Celtic Switzer- 
 land the flame of opposition bums at fervent heat. 
 Vaud does not like revision of the pact. Her 
 Communal properties are vast, and she imagines 
 that revision will compel her to admit the Bernese 
 settlers, who are very nimierous in her hamlets, 
 to a share in all these village gifts. But Yalais 
 takes the lead in opposition ; Yalais, which has 
 set up gaming-tables ; Valais, which is always 
 asking alms in Bern. This Canton feels that she 
 has everything to lose by giving up her Cantonal 
 and Communal rights. Ticino is too languid for 
 resistance ; but she does not yield her privilege 
 of incapacity with grace. The Appenzells and 
 Unterwaldens want to walk their ancient ways. 
 
 At present there is no great fear of violent
 
 164 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 change ; but the revision will be made in favour 
 of the citizen and the League. All changes in the 
 Pact except when France bestowed on Switzer- 
 land a new repubHc have been guided by his- 
 torical lights ; yet, every change from 1814 down 
 to 1871, has taken something from the Commune 
 and the Canton, and bestowed it on the citizen 
 and the League. 
 
 The Pact is written in three chapters. One 
 chapter treats of Political Principles ; a second 
 chapter treats of PubHc Authorities ; and a third 
 chapter treats of the Revising Powers. 
 
 In Chapter I. these general principles are 
 laid down : 
 
 The twenty-two sovereign Cantons form the 
 Swiss League. Their objects are to defend the 
 country, to maintain peace and order, to protect 
 rights and liberties, and promote the common 
 good. All Switzers are equal before the laws. 
 No Canton is allowed to form political alliances 
 with other Cantons and with foreign states. A 
 power to make treaties and to declare war is 
 lodged with the Federal authorities ; but the 
 League is not allowed to keep a standing army. 
 Every Switzer is a soldier, armed and drilled, and 
 when the Council call him, he is bound to serve.
 
 THE FEDERAL PACT. 165 
 
 Each Canton furnishes her tale of men ; a first 
 line called Elite, a second called Reserve, a third 
 called Landwehr. In the field, a Federal corps 
 must have the national flag. The League collects 
 all customs at the frontier, coins all monies, 
 regulates all railways, telegraphs, and posts. 
 Letters may not be opened. A man can exer- 
 cise political rights in no more than one Canton. 
 Free exercise of reUgion is guaranteed. The 
 press is free. The right of petition is admitted. 
 Citizens may form associations, so long as there 
 is nothing dangerous to the state in either the 
 ends pursued or the means employed. Death 
 penalties for political crime are abolished. The 
 League can expel foreigners who compromise the 
 pubhc safety. Jesuits, and societies affiliated to 
 the Jesuits, cannot be received in any part of 
 Switzerland. 
 
 In Chapter II. these general rules are given : 
 Supreme authority is in the Federal Assembly. 
 This Assembly is composed of two sections (like 
 the American House of Representatives and Se- 
 nate) called the National Council and the Council 
 of States. Apart, each section has a power defined 
 by law ; together, they are sovereign, and their 
 acts beyond appeal. They vote without instruc-
 
 166 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 tions from their clients ; they are representatives 
 in the highest sense. Each section chooses its own 
 president and vice-president ; and when they sit 
 together, they elect the Federal president, the 
 Federal council, the Federal judges, the Federal 
 chancellor, the Federal representatives, the Federal 
 general, and the Federal chief-of-staff. They make 
 war and peace. They pass laws. Subject to a 
 popular veto, they revise the fundamental pact. 
 The number of the National Council varies ; every 
 twenty thousand souls in the population having 
 a right to send one member ; that of the Council 
 of States is fixed at forty -four ; each Canton 
 sending two members, each Half-canton one mem- 
 ber, to the board. AU representatives are paid; 
 in one house from the Federal funds, and in 
 the other from the Cantonal funds. A right of 
 voting for his member vests in every Switzer 
 twenty years of age ; a right of serving as such 
 member vests in every Switzer who is not a 
 pastor, priest, or monk. Executive power is 
 lodged in a Federal Council of seven members, 
 named for three years by the Federal Assembly 
 in a common sitting. Any Switzer eligible for 
 the National Council may be chosen as a Federal 
 councillor, whether he is an ordinary councillor
 
 THE FEDEEAL PACT. 167 
 
 or* not. The President is named for a single year, 
 and cannot occupy his seat a second year. These 
 Federal councillors are paid ; they must not follow 
 any other calling while they serve the League. 
 In Chapter III. these powers are taken : 
 The Federal constitution can be revised at any 
 time. Revision must take place according to the 
 legal forms. If either branch of the Federal As- 
 sembly should propose revision, and the other 
 branch refuse, the question must be put to popu- 
 lar vote. If fifty thousand Switzers, having civil 
 rights, demand revision, and the Chamber will not 
 yield, the question must be also put to popular 
 vote. A clear majority decides the matter. When 
 a constitution is revised by the National Assembly, 
 it must be submitted to the people for their sanc- 
 tion, and will have no force until accepted by a 
 clear majority of citizens, voting man by man, and 
 also by a clear majority of Cantons voting state 
 by state. 
 
 There is scant need to say that such a system 
 gives an influence to the smaller Cantons in ex- 
 cess of their natural and financial force. This 
 power comes down to them from ancient times, 
 and in the hour of scientific justice (such as 
 that of 1798) it would be swept away. In all
 
 168 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 political struggles Uri counts as much as Bern, 
 and Ziirich finds her vote annulled by that of 
 'Zug. 
 
 These minor States are Catholic, and many 
 of their people Ultramontane. As the battle of 
 the moment rages round the CathoHc standards 
 mainly as the purpose of the Liberal party is to 
 back the League against the Catholic Cantons 
 as the object of revision is to break the spell 
 now exercised by priests and Jesuits over school- 
 room, camp, and council, in these tiny Cantons 
 every soldier of the church is up in arms against 
 revision of the fundamental pact. Once more the 
 Jesuits are astir. Once more a pilgrimage is 
 preached. Once more the pulpits breathe the 
 note of strife. A memoir on the CathoHc case 
 against the Liberal party is prepared by Gaspard 
 Mermillod. The Band of Pio Nono, a society of 
 pious souls, is called to witness for the truth. All 
 Switzerland is agitated by the church.
 
 169 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIL 
 
 JESUITS. 
 
 
 
 * They cannot take away our right of speech/ a 
 Jesuit says, his pale, meek face aglow mth 
 inner light, as we descend into the streets of 
 Fribourg, where a gathering of the Catholic party 
 has been called. 
 
 Although the Jesuits as an Order, with their 
 schools and churches, with their presence and 
 supremacy, are not allowed by law to root them- 
 selves in any Canton of the League, the members 
 of this Order come and go like any other strangers, 
 whether Jews or Turks ; and in the passing year 
 a time of trial for their church they swarm in 
 every town, from Basel to Lugano. They are 
 watching the Old Catholic movements ; they are 
 wrestHng with the Badical papers ; they are egging 
 on the Cantons to resist the introduction of civil 
 marriage ; they are fighting for the spiritual 
 powers against the civil powers ; they are con-
 
 170 THE SWITZEES. 
 
 tending for amendments in the fundamental pact ; 
 and they are holding up to public sympathy the 
 image of a persecuted and infallible Pope. 
 
 'These men can seize our goods/ the Father 
 adds ; ' can strip us of our right to teach ; can 
 turn our convents into mills and barracks ; can 
 expel us from our native land. They hold the* 
 sword, at present ; yet, with all their might, they 
 cannot hinder us from meeting to petition, and 
 from interceding with the saints.' 
 
 ' But are not many of your opponents 
 Cathohc?' 
 
 * Not one. They are not Christian. Nay, 
 they curse that noble name, as Satan and his 
 angels curse it in their flaming pit. Five years 
 ago they struck the name of Christian from two 
 articles in the fundamental pact. They left it. in 
 one article ; and now they are erasing it from 
 that. If they could bum the churches and 
 behead the priests, they would. All churches will 
 be taken in their turn the first, that Church 
 which stands upon a Hving rock.' 
 
 This gathering of the church is called, in 
 name, to celebrate the founding of the Band of 
 Pio Nono, but in truth to rouse the public 
 mind against the fundamental pact. The Band
 
 JESUITS. 171 
 
 of Pio Nono is a league of pious souls, who 
 wish to help the Pope with pence, to scatter 
 tracts about the villages, and work against the 
 Liberal press. Herr Theodor von Scherrer is the 
 president of this body ; but the Jesuits who 
 have called this meeting have another end in 
 view. 
 
 The Jesuits love this city on the Sarine ; 
 first, because it is their ancient seat ; and 
 next, because it is a town in which the age 
 and people of the crusades still exist. Luzem, 
 the other Jesuitic capital of Switzerland, has 
 been invaded by the stranger, and has learned 
 to care for money, bridges, banks, and public 
 gardens, more than for this ancient Order, and 
 the church they serve. The wayside cross is 
 disappearing from her streets. A railway-engine 
 drowns her vesper-bell. No beggars wait for 
 pottage at her convent-doors. Few men now 
 doff their caps to priest and nun. No crowds 
 of women follow the viaticum with downcast 
 eyes and quivering lips. A Catholic Council, it is 
 true, still occupies the Rathhaus ; but a Catholic 
 Council in Luzem is not so pliant as this Order 
 likes. Luzem has grown too fat for a submissive 
 town. The grace of poverty has left her; and
 
 172 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 her lines of chestnut-avenues, steamboat piers, 
 and new hotels, rise up in evidence against the 
 latest gospels brought by them from Rome. 
 Some warning reaches them from day to day. 
 Eugene, Bishop of Basel, asks Professor Her- 
 zog, of the seminary of Luzem, to make a 
 pubhc declaration of the Pope's Infallibility. 
 Eugene's diocese extends beyond Luzern, and 
 Herzog, therefore, is canonically subject to him. 
 What is the result ? Herr Segesser, though 
 a Catholic, gives notice to the State Council 
 of a motion to protest against the inter- 
 ference of a Cathohc prelate with the duties 
 of a Catholic priest ! In Fribourg there is no 
 such spirit. Since the Jesuits came to dwell 
 in Fribourg, now three centuries ago, the 
 town has been their own. When all the 
 world made war upon them, Fribourg was 
 their refuge and defence. She was the last to 
 fiend them out; she was the first to call them 
 back. In 1847 she fought for them, and had 
 her children slain for them. Driven out again, 
 suppressed by law, and banished as an Order 
 from Swiss soil, she still regards them as a band 
 of martyrs, keeps their convent on this height 
 untouched, and longs to see them back in their
 
 JESUITS. 173 
 
 old place, if only she might have them back 
 without a civil war. She is not game enough 
 to fight. But as to voting, listening, Hghting 
 lamps, and burning Bengal fire for them, she 
 will go any lengths. Etienne Marilley, Bishop 
 of Lausanne, whose see extends to Fribourg, is 
 a man of vigour silent, humorous, circum- 
 spect who keeps his house in order and his 
 flock in trim. This bishop may be said to rule 
 the town, since no man can be either mayor or 
 councillor till Etienne nods assent. The govern- 
 ment is ultramontane. All the officers of state 
 are members of the Band of Pio Nono. Priests 
 are made inspectors of the public schools. An 
 order of nuns, the Ursulines, affiliated to the 
 Jesuits, and directed by a Jesuit father, is re- 
 ceived into the city in defiance of the funda- 
 mental law. No strangers come to live in Fri- 
 bourg. When the bridge is crossed, the organ 
 heard, the Jesuits' convent seen, the Bathhaus 
 visited, a traveller hurries on to Bern. Few 
 strangers rest beyond a night; one good hotel 
 suffices for their wants. No roads are made, no 
 avenues planted, to entice them ; and in many 
 parts the city keeps a something of that quaint 
 and feudal aspect which it wore when Louis of
 
 174 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Savoy dashed into the Rathhaus, seized the thir- 
 teen German patriots, and struck their heads off 
 in the Place Saint George. 
 
 Two thousand deputies, at least, have answered 
 to the Jesuits' bidding ; come to dine and listen, 
 since they dare not draw the sword. They make 
 no secret of their mood, for Switzers are not silent 
 when their hearts are full. Their voices are for 
 war. ' The time has come,' exclaims the chan- 
 cellor of Solothum, ' when we must preach a 
 crusade!' Here, he holds his breath an instant, 
 for the word upon his Kp means civil strife ; 
 and then adds, slowly, * Not an armed crusade ; 
 arms are not within our reach ; but in its stead a 
 crusade of the Cross.' 
 
 This crusade has begun. A Capuchin monk, 
 one Father Hilaire, is our Peter Hermit. Tall, 
 ascetic, furious, he attracts all eyes and takes all 
 ears by storm. Attacking modern progress in 
 general, and the Old Cathohc party in particular, 
 he exclaims ' First liberty, then liberalism, then 
 license. There is a Pagan HberaHsm ; there is 
 also an heretical liberalism ; and there is also a 
 Cathohc Hberalism. This last is worse than all 
 the rest. The Holy Father has pronounced it 
 dangerous to the souls of men. What does it
 
 JESUITS. 1 75 
 
 mean? Luther is the father of modem liberal- 
 ism and modem impiety, and one of his dis- 
 ciples, Guizot, has the folly to declare that the 
 church should only speak to heart and mind, and 
 not appeal to actual force. I tell you that the 
 state is a father, and a father knows that he 
 must use the rod. These liberals prate of kind- 
 ness and persuasion, but the Holy Scriptures tell 
 us not to spare. St. Francis got a whipping for 
 his fault : it was his first fault and his last. The 
 state must use, not arguments, but whips. Stand 
 fast, I bid you, to the church : you have the 
 truth ; and truth will make you free.' 
 
 At a dinner given to the Swiss bishops in the 
 Mercers' tavern, near the church of St. Nicolas, 
 this picture of a militant church is touched by 
 more than one episcopal orator. * No one,' says 
 Etienne Marilley, leading off replies to a toast 
 of ' The Swiss Prelates,' ' can equal your bishops 
 in desire to stand by their several flocks in 
 this conflict ; and if it should become necessary 
 to throw themselves into the breach, and pay 
 with life for their devotion to the cause of truth 
 and justice, your bishop will be the first to do 
 it.' Shouts of rapture greet this note of coming 
 war. Marilley pauses ; something seems to strike
 
 176 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 him ; something perhaps of comic in this tavern 
 boast of readiness to die ; and turning to his 
 reverend brother, Gaspard Mermillod, he adds : 
 * Now he shall speak- : you know how eloquent 
 he is ; his tongue is looser than my own il a 
 la langue mieux pendu que moi/ 
 
 Bishop Mermillod takes up the martial tone, 
 * Your bishops give no half support to any 
 cause in which they are engaged ; you may rely 
 upon their watchfulness and courage in this 
 coming shock of foes. Remember who commands 
 us in the hour of strife. Our General-in-chief is 
 the Holy Father ; but in battle, every soldier 
 must be at his post, and no less credit falls upon 
 the rank and file than on the captains. Fribourg, 
 which has borne so long her witness for the 
 truth, now leads the van. Inspu'ed by her, 
 Luzem will join our ranks, and then the whole 
 of Catholic Switzerland will rally to the church.' 
 Abbot Wicky springs upon his feet to give a 
 toast of 'War a holy war!' His face is flushed 
 and red, Ms words rush from him fast and fierce. 
 'Our Lord has told us He brought war into the 
 world. St. Paul could boast that he had fought 
 the good fight. Indifierence will not do. If any 
 one of my flock were to neglect his duty at the
 
 JESUITS. 177 
 
 polling-booth, I would refuse to grant him abso- 
 lution from his sins. No, no ; this day is not a 
 time to talk of peace. I give my toast, A war- 
 a holy war.* In place more fitting for a bishop 
 to be heard in than a tavern, Mermillod still 
 sounds the clarion. 'When we are gone,' he 
 cries, in one of his great bursts of eloquence, 
 that almost sets the coUege close on fire, 'im- 
 partial history will paint four figures on the 
 canvas of our time ; four figures, standing out 
 distinct in form and high in Hght, amidst the 
 gloomy shadows of the past; a kaiser leaning 
 on a cannon at Versailles, an emperor yielding up 
 his sword at Sedan, a soldier-king caressing his 
 moustache and riding into Rome ; and over these 
 three figures, blessing them with lifted hands, the 
 calm, majestic figure of Pius the Ninth, commit- 
 ting a renewed and happy kingdom of the church 
 to his successor Pius the Tenth/ 
 
 At night, the city is aflame with lamps. The 
 bridge, the Place St. George, the streets and 
 terraces, are crowded with excited priests not 
 dining at the Mercers' tavern. On the Schon- 
 berg stands a cross of coloured lamps. The 
 chapel of Loretto is a wreath of stars, with Pio 
 Nono in the centre, writ in fire. At Diessbach
 
 1 78 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 there are rockets, Bengal lights, and detonating 
 balls. Some strangers, lingering on the terrace 
 of the Zahringer Hof, make witty and annoying 
 jokes about this pious crusade ; but by ten 
 o'clock, these revellers have gone to bed ; and we 
 are left with the autumnal stars and silent city, 
 to compare opinions on a warm day's work. 
 
 * You hope to influence the revision by these 
 meetings?' 
 
 ' Yes,' replies the Jesuit, * we may hope to do 
 so ; but our trust is not in deputies and lawyers ; 
 else these jesters who have left us would be 
 wholly in the right. Our trust is in the higher 
 powers. You recollect the state of things a few 
 years after our great founder's death. We came 
 to Canton Fribourg, to revive and to restore our 
 faith. We had a cruel fight, but we endured and 
 won. Once more, we shall endure and win ; but 
 we shaU not address the jurists and the doctors ; 
 they are useless to us, even when we win them ; 
 and we never win them to our side till we have 
 won their masters.' 
 
 * Masters ! who are they V 
 
 ' The people, those who delve and drive, 
 who weave and spin, who plough and plant; 
 the porters, shepherds, masons, drovers, boatmen,
 
 JESUITS. 1 79 
 
 foresters, and guides. These are tlie men we 
 seek; for it is only through such men that 
 changes in the world are made. A few days 
 hence, a separate meeting of these classes will be 
 called in Fribourg, in the name of Cantonal sove- 
 reignty and freedom of instruction, to protest 
 against revision of the fundamental pact in any 
 other than a strictly Catholic sense. This meeting 
 will protest against the Federals sending any man 
 at any time, and under any pretext to report 
 upon a Catholic school. They will protest against 
 a law for closing pubhc schools to priests and 
 nuns. They will protest against the cry for sepa- 
 rating church and state. They will demand three 
 great concessions from the League : the first, 
 that Catholic parents shall have the free choice of 
 teachers for their boys and girls ; the second, that 
 every Commune shall have the right to send her 
 children to religious schools ; the third, that in- 
 stead of separating church and state there shall be 
 a closer bond of school and church, teacher and 
 priest, grammar and catechism, science and God. 
 Our people have a right to ask for such things ; 
 and when people in this country ask in earnest, 
 they can hardly be denied.' 
 
 'But something more than this demand for
 
 180 THE SWITZEES. 
 
 freedom of instruction lies behind ? You are ex- 
 pecting to return?' 
 
 ' We ask that restoration as our right. We 
 do not seek a privilege for ourselves ; we ask that 
 all rehgious bodies, known and authorised by 
 the Catholic church, be tolerated and received 
 in Switzerland, like other corporations. We be- 
 Heve in prayer. The church is passing through 
 a bitter time ; but as the clouds grow darker, 
 we shaU brace our sinews up to meet the storm. 
 We call upon the Virgin day and night. We 
 go on pilgrimage, and seek for courage at Our 
 Lady's shrine.'
 
 181 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PILGRIMAGE. 
 
 On pilgrimage! Alert but dusty, we attain the 
 chapel called the Ecce Homo, where the path 
 from Goldau through the pine-trees strikes the 
 road from Schwyz to Rothenthurm. A priest 
 from Bellinzona and myself are wending by those 
 bridle-ways that pilgrims love, towards Meinrad's 
 Cell. This chapel gained, the priest kneels down 
 before the cross to say his prayers. 
 
 St. Meinrad is a name in the poetic roll of 
 saints, and idlers hear of him, and of his cell, in 
 many a song and play. His shrine was famous 
 at an early time : 
 
 Von alien Wandiem am dem deutschen Land 
 Die liber Meinrad's zell . . . 
 
 Yet we are not going up this dusty road for 
 Schiller's sake. We have a present purpose in 
 our joiuney ; one of us to pray for hght and 
 
 M
 
 182 THE SWITZEES, 
 
 help, the other to observe the force and passion 
 of the strife. 
 
 All Christian countries have their sacred 
 places, which to pilgrims not robust enough in 
 faith for greater doiQgs, have to stand for Beth- 
 lehem, Nazareth, and the Holy Sepulchre. Italy- 
 has Loretto ; Greece, Mount Athos ; Russia, Solo- 
 vetsk ; Germany, Cologne ; Spain, Compo'stella ; 
 France, St. Denis ; England, Walsingham ; se- 
 lected places, owned and blessed of God, in 
 which a sinner, groaning under weight of sin, 
 may spend some moments of his life with holy 
 men and in the midst of holy things. At 
 Meinrad's Cell Einsiedeln, Anchorite's seat a 
 pious Switzer finds a spot like one of these ; 
 a spot which God has marked and sanctified ; 
 a spot of supernatural light and grace, with 
 sacred forests and miraculous waters ; in the 
 midst of which the Virgin and her Son have 
 deigned to build their house and consecrate their 
 holy spring. 
 
 A noisy beck, the Aa, is at our feet, deep down 
 among the stones and pines. Beyond this ravine 
 springs the Mostelberg. It is a classic and his- 
 toric scene, alive with noble names and noble deeds. 
 Below is Steinen, where the old Landammann,
 
 PILGRIMAGE. 183 
 
 Werner Stauffacher, lived; a little lower still is 
 Schwyz, the capital of Canton Schwyz, with her 
 twin prongs of rock. Above are Sattel, with 
 the chapel of Morgarten, and the ridges of that 
 famous alp. To right and left, in front and rear, 
 each crest and thorpe recalls some memorable 
 name and day. 
 
 ' You call this country free,' the priest ob- 
 serves, on rising from before that wayside cross. 
 'Although a Switzer born and bred, I am not 
 free to say my prayers in Switzerland's most 
 favoured church! The fact is so. Our Radicals 
 in Ticino have decreed that no one shall go out on 
 pilgrimage beyond his Canton. I am forced to 
 break that law in going on my duty to Einsiedeln. 
 It is only on our flag we bear the Cross.' 
 
 This priest is young and fierce; his southern 
 blood inflamed by what he calls his personal wrong. 
 By law, as he contends, he is the parish priest 
 
 of B , a village near Locarno, blest to his 
 
 appointment by his bishop, but expelled alike 
 from church and commune by a Radical mayor, 
 supported by a squad of Cantonal troops. 
 
 ' These Radicals not only check our right of 
 pilgrimage, but in a month or two will strike the 
 name of Christian from our public code.'
 
 184 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 ' But such erasure is no consequence of Radical 
 opinions. Look at Zurich. There the Radicals 
 are masters of the Canton ; they have made a new 
 republic ; but they have not separated church and 
 state, and have not struck the name of Christian 
 from their pubhc code/ 
 
 ' In Zurich the majority are Evangelical, and 
 for the passing moment Radicals and Evangelicals 
 fancy they have found a common enemy in Rome. 
 Yet even in Zurich, as in Aargau and in Thurgau, 
 they have seized our convents and our convent- 
 funds/ 
 
 * By regular course of law.' 
 
 * No course is regular that robs the Church. 
 These mjuries are done in face of the most solemn 
 pubhc acts. Our ancient constitutions guaranteed 
 our convents in the mixed Cantons, such as Zurich, 
 Bern, and Basel. In the constitutions of 1803 
 and 1815 our convents were protected by the 
 League. In 1848 these guarantees were dropped ; 
 but not with our consent ; and since that dreadful 
 year, our convents, abbeys, and foundations, have 
 been made the prey of Radical and Evangehcal 
 majorities" in every market-town. You call that 
 regular course of law the passion of a rude and 
 guilty mob ! To us, majorities are not divine.'
 
 PILGRIMAGE. 185 
 
 ' Are not the men who carry on these conflicts 
 with the church of Kome, her children, men like 
 Keller, Landammann of Aargau, Curti, Landam- 
 mann of St. Gallon, President Anderwert of 
 Thurgau, and Professor Miinzinger of Bern ? ' 
 
 ' Our children sin through ignorance. They 
 think the church an enemy to their civic freedom ; 
 she who is their steadfast friend. They never 
 dream how much our country owes the church. 
 Our goods, our laws, our towns, our liberties all 
 these are of her friendly gift. We had our church 
 before we had a Commune ; we had our Commune 
 ere we had a Canton ; we had our Cantons long 
 before we had a League. AVhat would you call 
 the glories of our land V 
 
 * Zurich, Luzern, Geneva, and St. Gallen.' 
 
 *You are right; and all these towns are 
 offshoots from the church.' 
 
 No man can say the priest is wrong, and many 
 of these pilgrims toiling up the cliffs towards 
 Meinrad's Cell, preserve traditions in their songs 
 y and usages of old dependence on the cloister. 
 I Ziirick lived in her Lady-abbesses. ' Luzern de- 
 pended on the Abbots of Murbach. Geneva was 
 indebted to her bishops ; and St. Gallon owed her 
 name to a famous saint. The pasture-lands were
 
 186 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 occupied by nuns, the alpine tops were tenanted by- 
 monks. From Basel to Sion, nearly every town 
 of moment was the property of some great abbey, 
 chapter and cathedral. Sion held of her bishop ; 
 St. Maurice of her abbot. Solothum depended on 
 the chapter of St. Ursus Munster ; and Schaff- 
 hausen on the abbots of All Saints. The nuns of 
 Zurich planted Uri, and the monks of Murbach 
 planted Unter-walden. Even Schwyz, though 
 many of her people were free peasants of the em- 
 pire, was a sort of appanage of the church. Large 
 tracts of Schwyz were claimed by the Prince-abbot 
 of Einsiedeln ; though the men of Schwyz refused 
 his rents, and when he used the weapons of his 
 cloth against them rushed upon his convent, stole 
 his cattle, and profaned his shrine. 
 
 ' The world is arming more and more against 
 the Church,' the Father from Ticino adds; 'yet 
 since the day of Pentecost, the world has never 
 stood in greater need than now of spiritual grace. 
 It may not come, though hearts are straining 
 for an outward sign. You see these children 
 of the sod; these aged men, who look to find 
 their graves ere long ; these boys and girls, with 
 brows unseamed by care ; these young men and 
 young women, in the pride of health ; the men of
 
 PILGRIMAGE. 187 
 
 every grade, from priest and banker down to 
 groom and guide ; the women of all ranks, from 
 nun and teacker down to kitchen wench and 
 nurse. All these are going up to Meinrad's 
 cell. But who is Meinrad, that these folks 
 should care for him? What brings them from 
 their distant homes? What lifts them over pass 
 and lake ? Who bids them slake their thirst 
 at Meinrad's fountain? You can count them 
 now by scores ; at Biberbriicke they will swell to 
 hundreds ; in the convent square they will expand 
 to thousands. Why are they afoot ? No earthly 
 purpose draws them up into these wastes. No 
 church is to be robbed, no Jesuit to be hunted 
 down. No popular parHament is to be held. 
 Yet nowhere in these Cantons will you match 
 the concourse of all classes at Our Lady's shrine. 
 Why have this rustic and his wife come down 
 jfrom Andermatt, a hundred miles of mountain 
 road on foot? To eat and drink, to lodge in 
 dainty rooms, to spend a joyous and mercurial 
 day ? They dream of no such pleasiu-es. They 
 are coming on the soul's affairs. Not meat and 
 wine, but grace and light, are what they seek. 
 In asking for a blessing, they are quickened by 
 an impulse more than human to go out and find
 
 188 THE SWITZERS. ^ 
 
 it in some holy place. If tender and poetic 
 fancies haunt their dreams, these longings are 
 a spiritual, not a mortal growth. They seek 
 for peace, and they will find it in the house of 
 God.' 
 
 The passing season is a Pilgrim's Year. In 
 every season there are crowds of devotees at 
 Meinrad's CeU ; but never has the church been 
 tried as now; and never has Our Lady's shrine 
 been thronged as now. In every town the Jesuits, 
 and the ultramontane priests who back them, 
 have been preaching pilgrimage. All sacred 
 enterprises open with a visit to some saint. A 
 pilgrimage prepares the mind to dare and suffer. 
 All the deputies who troop to Rome, both clerical 
 and lay, are counselled by the Jesuits to return 
 from Italy by way of Canton Schw;)''z. All 
 through the summer and the fall, a stream of 
 English lords, of Belgian counts, and Austrian 
 barons, have been dropping cards on Abbot 
 Heinrich "Schmid, and kneeling at the hour of 
 vespers in Our Lady's shrine. 
 
 'These pilgrimages serve a worldly and poli- 
 tical end?' . ^ 
 
 * In one sense yes. We seek a change. 
 We cannot bear the pressure of events. Take
 
 PILGRIMAGE. 189 
 
 my own Canton of Ticino. By our fundamental 
 law the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church is 
 recognised as teaching the rehgion of the state; 
 yet see what they are doing in the face of that 
 undoubted pubHc law. Our radicals have seized 
 the Catholic colleges at Ascona, Mendrisio, Bellin- 
 zona, and Lugano. They have interrupted the 
 education of our priests ; they have driven 
 away our vicars from their churches ; they have 
 robbed our bishop of his rights ; they have sup- 
 pressed the seminary of Polleggio ; they have 
 set up excommunicated priests. They laugh at 
 protests from our spiritual chief, and interdict 
 his visits to the churches on om- soil.' 
 
 * He is a foreign prelate, is he not the 
 Bishop of Milan and a subject of the King of 
 Italy r 
 
 ' A bishop yes ; a subject no. He is a 
 shepherd of the Universal Church, which sees no 
 frontier lines in Christian states.' 
 
 ' But is there not a law a Federal law of 
 1859 which interdicts, in every part of Switzer- 
 land, the exercise of episcopal jurisdiction by any 
 foreign bishop?' 
 
 ' Yes ; there is a law ; and that bad law is but 
 another of our wrongs. Those Radicals in Bern are
 
 190 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 like our Radicals in Ticino. First, they rob the 
 Church, and then they pass , biU to make their 
 plunder lawful spoil. Our Council in Ticino were 
 before the men of Bern. They made a law, in 
 1855, by which they took away our bishop's right 
 to choose his priests and vicars. They bade some 
 six or seven laymen, ignorant of the service, to 
 conduct our Church affairs : to do as they might 
 choose with hospices and convents ; to appoint 
 ecclesiastical dignitaries ; to install our clergy in 
 their charges ; to erect new parishes where they 
 liked, and even to suppress old parishes according 
 to their mood. Nay, more ; they gave the mayors 
 and councils shepherds, porters, grooms a right 
 to send away their village priests, and set up others 
 in their seats. It is rebellion in the church. 
 The bishop and the Pope are equally defied. In 
 future, every act and edict of the spiritual powers 
 are to be laid before the Canton for approval ; if 
 approval is refused, such acts and edicts are to 
 have no force. A priest is bound to read in 
 church all edicts of the civil powers. If any 
 priest should act on orders sent to him from 
 either Home or Milan, he is smitten by a fine, 
 which may be five fi'ancs, fifty francs, five thou- 
 sand firancs. What man dare do his duty to his
 
 PILGRIMAGE. 191 
 
 bishop under such a threat? Some persons try 
 to keep their conscience clear ; but if they rise 
 against the excommunicated priests set up in 
 divers places by the state, a bugle sounds to 
 arms, the troops are set in motion, and the rifle 
 stops all argument with a bang.' 
 
 * Ticino, though a Catholic Canton, seems to 
 be in plain revolt against her Church V 
 
 * It is in actual schism. Our bishop dares 
 not come into his diocese. Our celebration of the 
 month of Mary is prohibited. A woman is con- 
 demned and fined for singing the Canticles of 
 the Virgin. Our wish to celebrate the Papal 
 jubilee is refused. A pilgrimage to any shrine 
 beyond the Canton is forbidden, so that no man 
 from Ticino can, according to his local law, be now 
 upon his way to Meinrad's Cell. Is it not clear 
 that we require a change of heart and soul ? To 
 bring about this change of heart and soul, we 
 preach the Pilgrim's Year.'
 
 192 
 
 CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 CONVENT AND CANTON. 
 
 At the small village of Altmatt, which was once 
 the border town of Canton Schwyz, defended by 
 some earthworks from attacks by the Prince-abbot 
 of Einsiedeln, and is now a Httle weaving thorpe, 
 we quit the road and climb the mountain side. 
 A pilgrim always keeps the ancient tracks, and 
 this old pathway up the Katzenstrick was worn 
 in ages long ago by knights and shepherds in their 
 frequent raids and frays. 
 
 An hour of easy idling brings us up from 
 Altmatt ^to the top ; a table-land of green and 
 lonely pastures, where the Convent herds were 
 wont to feed. Behind us rise the broken and 
 irregular ridges of Morgarten; name as sacred 
 to a Switzer as Mount Zion to a Jew. 
 
 ' You may imagine,' says the priest, on pausing 
 to look backward, * that the glory of Morgarten 
 springs directly from the oaths of GriitH and the 
 deeds of Tell. We priests are not all Austrian
 
 CONVENT AND CANTON. 193 
 
 in our passions ; and, in spite of Kopp and Rilliet, 
 may agree with every shepherd on these mountain' 
 slopes, that Tell was once a Uving man ; but 
 Griith oath and Altdorf apple have but scant 
 connexion with the day of which some Switzers 
 feel so proud. Morgarten was the fruit of an 
 indecent raid and an atrocious theft. These men 
 of Schwyz are always men of Schwyz. They 
 prate of freedom much, but what they mean by 
 freedom is a right of making free with other peo- 
 ple's goods. Their spirit has descended, like their 
 banner, to the League, which only robs our con- 
 vents now, as in an earlier day this Canton 
 robbed St. Memrad's CeU.' 
 
 In early times the abbots of Einsiedeln, 
 princes of the Empire, held their lands in sove- 
 reignty, protected by the church and by some 
 noble knight the Graf von Rapperschwyl and 
 Duke of Austria mainly ; while the men of 
 Schwyz, affecting to be peasants of the empire, 
 would not own the sway of a religious house. 
 All efforts to subdue them only made them worse. 
 No frontiers could be fixed between the Convent 
 and the Canton. They were said to run across 
 these pasture lands along the Katzenstrick, and 
 when the convent cows and horses strayed into 
 
 o
 
 194 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 disputed fields, the shepherds caught and stole 
 them. Angry words roused angry blood. The 
 abbot claimed the country, and the rustics an- 
 swered they were free and always had been free. 
 
 Frei war der Schweitzer von TJralters her. 
 
 They owned no master save that emperor to 
 whom the knee of king and serf alike was bent. 
 The abbots of Einsiedeln, princes of the empire, 
 with the habits of their class, replied that they 
 had charters from the emperor which would prove 
 their claims. The men of Schwyz were not 
 allowed to see these charters, and when they 
 raised a cry against being spoiled, the abbot 
 struck them with a thunder-bolt from Bome. 
 
 A year before the battle of Morgarten threw 
 a lurid light into these Swiss defiles, Johannes, 
 Baron von Schwanden, Canton Bern, was reigning 
 abbot ; a deceitful, grasping man, who coveted his 
 neighbour s field, and built himself a fortress on 
 the Lake of Zurich, as a refuge from the crowd of 
 enemies whom his crimes raised up. No Austrian 
 bailiff, in his wantonness of power, put out his 
 hand in a more ruthless spirit than this Bene- 
 dictine prince. He laid the country under inter- 
 dict ; he closed the churches, stopped the rites of
 
 CONVENT AND CANTON. 195 
 
 baptism and confession, and prohibited the sacra- 
 ments of marriage and viaticum. When the 
 afflicted people asked by what authority he laid 
 them under interdict, he told them he was acting 
 under briefs from Rome. 
 
 The men of Schwyz, excited and indignant, 
 came from mass into their primary assembly at the 
 feast of the Epiphany (1314), to hear the news, 
 and see what could be done. Werner Stauffacher, 
 Landammann of Schwyz, presided at this meeting, 
 and the question rose in what way they could 
 see these Roman briefs and charters which were 
 said to be at Meinrad's Cell. Should they not 
 march upon the abbey, and obtain a sight of them 
 by force ? This proposition took the crowd. A 
 raid upon that stronghold of their enemies might 
 pay them well. If it were boldly planned, and 
 quickly done, a raid might yield them more than 
 briefs and charters, even if such briefs and charters 
 should be found. The monks were rich ; their 
 stables full of horses, and their pastures fat with 
 kine. These monks were sons of dukes and 
 coimts, who made their Benedictine skirts a 
 cloak for every vice. Their castle on the Lake 
 of Zurich stood beyond the reach of simple shep- 
 herds, but the abbey of Einsiedeln lay at hand,
 
 196 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 not three hours' inarch from Schwyz. Much 
 fiery speech was used, and then a vote was taken 
 for a march that Sunday night. At once they sent 
 off scouts to stop the roads, lest news of what was 
 in the wind should reach the monks. They called 
 each citizen to his flag, and being armed already 
 they were quickly on the march by Rothenthurm 
 and Altmatt towards this Katzenstrick. 
 
 E-udolf von Rudegg, Rector of the seminary 
 of Einsiedeln, wrote a poem on this raid of 
 rustics, full of quaint and picturesque details. 
 Rudegg calls his work * Capella Heremit ; ' and 
 in the latter part of this quaint piece he paints 
 the night surprise. 
 
 * All at once,' he writes, * in the midst of dark- 
 ness the convent bell rings out a note of danger ; 
 but we are too late to fly ; the enemy has posted 
 his men on every side. Each one of us endeavours 
 to leave his cell and gain the sanctuary in the 
 church, which he supposes that even these robbers 
 will respect, but it is only in the upper chamber 
 of the belfry that one feels assured of finding a 
 place of safety. Some of us run among our ene- 
 mies, who make us prisoners ; some resist this cap- 
 ture and are threatened by the mob with instant 
 death. The chief, however, calls his company, and
 
 CONVENT AND CANTON. 197 
 
 setting them to watch the captive monks, prevents 
 the rogues from going into any more excess.' 
 
 This presence of the Landammann might have 
 warned the fathers that the business was more 
 serious than a raid on flocks and herds, had 
 any of these learned nobles known the name of 
 Werner Stauffacher, and the existing temper of 
 the men of Schwyz. But none of these proud 
 monks had stooped as yet to learn the commonest 
 facts about those peasant neighbours who were 
 soon to be the burthen of a hundred songs 
 the talk of every court and city from the Tiber 
 to the Thames. The Rector had not heard of 
 Werner's name. 
 
 So soon as the invaders seized the place, 
 they sought in every room, in every press, for 
 papers. All the books they found were burnt. 
 Accounts and psalters were destroyed in heaps ; 
 but the pretended bulls and charters were not 
 found ; a fact which E-udegg feels he must ex- 
 plain away by saying that the abbot had bestowed 
 them in some secret chest. This abbot was at 
 Pfaffikon, his fortress on the lake. 
 
 ' Our Convent,' says the Rector, who was hiding 
 in the belfry, ' is delivered up to pillage. Every- 
 thing is seized, the sanctuary doors are chopped
 
 198 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 with hatchets, when the ornaments, the sacred 
 vessels and the priestly robes become the spoil of 
 wretches, who trample under foot and scatter to 
 the winds, not only bones of martyrs but the con- 
 secrated bread . . . When dayhght comes, the foe 
 draws round the belfry, armed with burning torch 
 and bar of iron, ready to assault and make 
 the fathers yield. The porter of the Convent 
 throws himself into the narrow stair, and tells the 
 fathers he can hold it with his axe, since only one 
 invader can come in at once ; but they declirie this 
 offer of defence, as not becoming monks, and put 
 themselves into the hands of God. On meeting 
 with no obstacle to their advance, the enemy en- 
 ter in, but we receive them in the words of 
 peace. " You need not fear," says one of them, 
 " our chief has given us orders only to take your 
 persons and your goods." Happy to know the 
 worst, we follow them without a word. They 
 lodge us in a separate house, which is our jail. 
 But now another band arrives, and finding nothing 
 more to eat and drink, these men grow riotous, 
 and ask to have their share of plunder and of 
 prisoners. Such a row breaks out! At length, 
 the chief calls in his men, and gives his orders for 
 the march. The aged and the sick are left behind.
 
 CONVENT AND CANTON. 199 
 
 Three groups are formed ; a group of monks, a 
 group of servants, and a group of cattle ; and the 
 word to march being given, these columns move, 
 although the women of the village rend the air 
 with screams, and call on Heaven for help, on 
 seeing their husbands driven away with us. In 
 ciuwling up the Katzenstrick, we all knock up, 
 and I am fain to He and rest, but that a rider 
 bids me hold on to the tail of his mule. Having 
 crossed the ridge we come down into Altmatt, 
 where we halt. Our Convent servants, at a cost 
 of so much money, are released. For us, we are 
 detained as prisoners in the house of Werner 
 Abacker, where we lie five days, until the Land- 
 ammann comes to carry us down the road to 
 Schwyz. The monks are made to go on foot. 
 The priests have horses ; but our singing-master, 
 dressed in his official costume, cannot get his 
 boots, which are enormous, into the stirrups. So 
 his legs hang down, in which ridiculous way we 
 pass through laughing crowds, into the streets of 
 Schwyz. On stopping at the Communal house, 
 the mayor and councillors dispute what shall be 
 done with us ; and during this debate, the c\xr6 of 
 Schwyz obtains permission of the Landammann to 
 offer us a good repast. At night, the Landammann
 
 200 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 comes to tell us we are placed under guard oi 
 Peter Jocliolf, which alarms us much ; this 
 fellow, the wickedest man in the town, has 
 no compassion. Nine of us, seven monks and 
 priests, and two laymen, the Intendant and the 
 porter, are left with him to sup. We sup on 
 tears, and when we rise from table, having eaten 
 nothing, the women, who are far worse than the 
 men, attack us with their cries "It is too good for 
 them ! These monks who have unjustly smitten us 
 with excommiuiication, and snatched the nurture 
 from our mouths ! They ought to suffer as they 
 make us suffer, and to bear the penalties of their 
 misdeeds ! " Six weeks they keep us in our narrow 
 jail, and then they take the porter and Intendant 
 to another house. Soon afterwards we beg to send 
 a messenger who may prepare the means of our 
 enlargement, and the Landammann, after speak- 
 ing with the elders, lets him go. This deputy, 
 Rudolf von Wunnenberg, sees the Graf von Tog- 
 genburg and the Graf von Hapsburg, and procures 
 from them two letters of intercession to the Lan- 
 dammann of Schwyz. In three days after Wun- 
 nenberg's return, a primary assembly meets ; our 
 pardon is pronounced ; and we are free once more. 
 The cur^, who eleven weeks since had made us
 
 CONVENT AND CANTON. 201 
 
 sit down at his table to distract our thoughts, 
 now gives us a splendid feast in sign of our joy- 
 ftd deliverance. Having done credit to his meat 
 and wine ^his wine is very good ! we start to seek 
 om* abbot, who is so much overcome on seeing us 
 alive and safe that tears roll down his cheeks. 
 He serves us up a copious banquet, and he passes 
 round the table ample cups. Thus comforted with 
 meat and wine we let the time sHp by with very- 
 joyful hearts.' 
 
 These monks being men of noble birth, the 
 shame of their imprisonment was widely felt. 
 One captive was a Graf von Regensberg. A 
 second was a follower of the Graf von Hapsburg. 
 Nearly all the monks were knights and barons. 
 Hardly were these noble monks at home before 
 they laid an interdict once more on Canton 
 Schwyz ; and called upon the House of Austria 
 to maintain their curse, not only in the land of 
 Schwyz, but in the lands of every one who dared 
 to help it. Austria leaped into the saddle ; 
 rode up to Morgarten ; and recoiled as from a 
 wall of solid rock. 
 
 ' Two steps and we shall see St Meinrad's 
 Cell,' exclaims the priest. We leave the pasture- 
 lands behind, and skirt the edges of a pine-wood.
 
 202 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 ' Down the steep, a little in advance, we see some 
 rustics on their knees, and throwing up their 
 hands in prayer. *They catch the towers, not 
 yet in sight for us,' the father cries. ' There 
 there V and down he sinks upon his knee. 
 
 Far out in front extends a green, uneven 
 valley, closed by sombre hills ; a bottom rich in 
 grass and water, and of width unusual in these 
 rugged glens. A road winds through the valley, 
 passing many a house and church, till it is lost in 
 a rough nest of sheds and shingles, lying at the 
 feet, though with respect and distance, of a 
 strange and princely pile. This edifice closes up 
 the valley with enormous towers and wings, and 
 looks in soHtary grandeur like some fragment of 
 an alpine crest enchanted into sacred forms. This 
 edifice is the Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln, 
 with the fine basilica of Our Lady of the An- 
 chorites ; rising from the gentle hill, which was 
 St. Meinrad's cell and tomb, a convent no less 
 striking in her natural loneliness and visible 
 beauty, than she is in her historic fame and 
 busy daily life.
 
 203 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 ST. meinrad's cell. 
 
 St. Meinrad's Cell has grown into a clmrcli, an 
 abbey, and a town. 
 
 An open space, like that of the Piazza of San 
 Pietro on a smaller scale, divides the sacred edifice 
 from the town ; a wide and windy open space, in 
 which a hundred thousand pilgrims might have 
 room, in one of their great festivals, to kneel 
 before the banner and the cross, as these are 
 carried past them by a line of priests and nuns. 
 
 This open square has more than passing hints 
 of Eome. The abbots who conceived the work 
 were princes of the Holy Koman Empire, and 
 the builders kept their faces firmly fixed on 
 Rome. The convent and the church are 
 Romanesque; the esplanade, the statues, and 
 the steps Italian. Everything within them, and 
 about them, has been planned and executed in 
 the Roman spirit. In the centre of this square a
 
 204 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 fountain drips and sings ; a flight of stairs leads 
 up to the basilica ; and two arcades of stone 
 sweep round a portion of the front, in modest 
 imitation of Bernini's colonnades. 
 
 Much water must be tasted in this public 
 square. The fountain dripping in the centre, 
 called Our Lady's Spring, is said to be a w6nder- 
 working source. Einsiedeln is a place of miracles, 
 but greater than all other miracles are those 
 effected at Our Lady's Spring. A statue of 
 the Virgin stands below an open canopy, on 
 seven grey marble shafts, and having on the 
 apex an imperial crown, surmounted by those 
 emblems of her queenly rank a globe, a crescent, 
 and a star. A wonder-working source, the pil- 
 grims say it is ; at which the blind are made to see, 
 the dumb are taught to speak, and perishing souls 
 are purified from sin. A legend runs that once 
 upon a time our Lord himself sat down beside 
 this Virgin's spring, as He in other seasons sat 
 by Jacob's well, and having cooled his lips with 
 pure and copious draughts, rose up and left his 
 blessing on the waters evermore. When first a 
 pilgrim comes into the town, he hurries to 
 this fountain in his search of grace. But here a 
 trouble touches him. Instead of throwing out
 
 ST. meinrad's cell. 205 
 
 the water by a single jet, Our Lady's fountain 
 drops it into troughs by fourteen different beaks 
 the beaks of mystic birds and beasts in 
 bronze. From which of these bronze beaks our 
 Savioiu* drank no legend tells. Of fourteen, only 
 one is blessed. To find that one without a guide 
 is hopeless, and the fervent pilgrim, to be sure of 
 drinking from the true one, has to drink from all. 
 
 A little of the nectar will not serve. A little 
 washing will not cleanse from sin. The leper had 
 to dip in Jordan several times. Nor is it well to 
 slight so rare a gift. If you are bidden to a feast, 
 you should not wrong your host by merely smiling 
 at his fare. To thank him for his bounty, you 
 must eat. In passing Jacob's well, no pious soul 
 (supposing that the well has water in it) will 
 be satisfied with a sip ; nor must the pilgrim at 
 Our Lady's Spring be satisfied with tasting of 
 the sacred jet. He ought to take his draught 
 from every beak, and fourteen draughts of water 
 are enough to quench his thirst, although the day 
 be hot, and he has marched a dozen leagues. 
 
 A hundred men and women are about the taps 
 and troughs, each waiting for his turn to drink ; 
 the men and women of all countries and all classes, 
 and arrayed in every costume of the civilized
 
 206 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 earth. An English peeress stands beside a 
 Swabian tramp ; a Belgian count is pressing on 
 the toes of an Italian monk. Old soldiers, 
 market - women, stalwart shepherds, sleek and 
 subtle priests, young mothers with their babies 
 at the breast, and hobbling grandsires, blear of 
 eye and weak of arm, are struggHng for a place. 
 Some people mostly women push their way 
 from beak to beak, all round the fountain, taking 
 each in turn, and therefore certain of the tale ; 
 but others have to cut in here and there, from 
 number two to number seven, from number nine 
 to number twelve ; and these poor souls are 
 puzzled at the end of a long effort as to whether 
 they have drunk from each and all. If any doubt 
 is on their minds, they must begin afresh. 
 
 Yes here is Sister Agnes in the crowd ! Her 
 garb is dustier, and her face more tanned; but 
 in her recognising glance there is a memory of 
 that wayside cross by which she sat, that glacier 
 where she lost her way and fell, that sunset talk 
 from which she turned and fled. She shrinks, no 
 little frightened, from the stout Teutonic dames 
 and lasses, who invade the taps and troughs, and 
 swagging heavy skirts about them, push and 
 shoulder off the weaker fry of pilgrims.
 
 ST. meinrad's cell. 207 
 
 Sister Agnes looks at me and asks, 'Will 
 you not drink the waters have been blessed V 
 
 *Do you accept this legend of the spring?' 
 I ask a Benedictine father, who has joined us 
 in the square. 
 
 'Why not?' exclaims the priest, forestalling 
 what the Benedictine father is about to say ; 
 
 * in every age, at every comer of this holy place, 
 you find a miracle a fire put out, a demon exor- 
 cised, a battle won by prayer, a pest subdued, a 
 maniac cured, a prisoner released, a shipwrecked 
 sailor saved, an inundation stopped, a withered 
 hand restored, a dumb man taught to speak, a 
 bilious fever cooled, a paralytic healed then, 
 why not trust a miracle at Our Lady's 
 Spring ? ' 
 
 *It is not written in our books,' the calmer 
 Benedictine father adds. *We have a list ot 
 supernatural graces on our record; they extend 
 through many ages, and these graces have 
 not ended yet, we trust ; but in these special 
 acts of providence we find no record of our 
 Saviour's visit to this spring.' 
 
 * Your list is incomplete,' the priest exclaims ; 
 
 * you leave out all your greater miracles ; though 
 these are certified by holy men, and recognised
 
 208 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 as true in Rome. You drop the miracle of 
 Meinrad and the ravens ; nay, you drop the 
 miraculous dedication of Our Lady's shrine/ 
 
 St. Meinrad was of noble race. His father, 
 Berthold of Hohenzollem, sent him as a boy to 
 Reichenau, an island in the Zeller See. A Bene- 
 dictine abbey stood upon that isle. Of this great 
 abbey two of Meinrad's uncles were the chiefs, 
 and here he closed his studies, chose his part in 
 life, and took upon himself religious vows. His 
 youth, his learning, and his noble mien attracted 
 every eye. A small society of monks at Bollingen, 
 on the upper Lake of Zurich, wanting a director 
 of their studies, begged him to accept this office. 
 In his modesty of soul he would have put their 
 offer by, but his superior in the convent laid the 
 duty of acceptance on him. As he passed through 
 Zurich to the upper Lake, he waited on the 
 Lady abbess, who received him with the highest 
 favour, and enriched him with an image of the 
 Virgin and her Child, just large enough for him 
 to carry in his arms and hang upon his convent 
 wall. This image afterwards attained miraculous 
 fame. From Bollingen the youthful Benedictine 
 gazed across the lake, and peering through the 
 lonely hills and forests on her southern borders,
 
 ST. meinrad's cell. 209 
 
 felt a passionate yearning rise within him to 
 ascend those heights and seek in those dark 
 solitudes some spot where he might hide him 
 from the sight of living men. St. John the Bap- 
 tist was his favourite saint, and, like the Nazarite, 
 he would live alone. He crossed the lake, 
 with nothing in his hands except his rule, his 
 missal, and his image of the Mother and her 
 Child. He clambered to Mount Etzel, where he 
 dug a cave and built a cross. But shepherds 
 from the alps and dwellers from the water-side 
 came up to him in search of spiritual light and 
 help ; for Meinrad was a great confessor of men's 
 sins ; and though his rule was strict, and he was 
 plain of speech, yet people flocked to him from 
 east and west. Mount Etzel grew into a busy 
 place, and he began to fear it, as a spot too 
 lovely and too near the world. No hiding from 
 the sight of men on such a hill! Behind him, 
 in the mountains, lay a wild, impenetrable wood, 
 then known to shepherds as the Sombre Forest. 
 Pushing through the firs and stones he came 
 upon a spring of water, and, the spot being rude 
 and lonely, he was minded to accept the sign and 
 dig his celL He built a chapel for his image 
 of the Virgin and her Child ; he fetched his 
 
 p
 
 210 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 missal and his homilies from Mount Etzel ; and 
 he spent his days and years, in this wild nook, 
 in company with two ravens, and engaged in 
 pondering on the sacred mysteries of our faith. 
 A crowd of people foUowed to his cell, where 
 he received and helped them as of yore, until 
 two robbers, whom he took into his cabin, 
 thinking he was rich, laid hold of him, and 
 clubbed him till he died. 
 
 Not finding what they sought for Meinrad 
 left no riches save his book, his image, and his 
 shirt of hair the murderers fled towards Ziirich, 
 followed by the ravens, which pursued them with 
 avenging cries. The murderers could not drive 
 these ravens off At Zurich they retired into an 
 inn ; but the avenging ravens dashed against 
 the windows of their room ; got into it ; and 
 flew upon them tiU the magistrates of Zurich, 
 hearing of this mystery, came up, and caused 
 inquiry to be made. When they were brought 
 before the court, these murderers confessed their 
 crime. 
 
 * That miracle of the ravens is attested by 
 your records,' says the priest ; * you have the 
 ravens on your coat-of-arms.' 
 
 The Benedictine father smiles.
 
 ST. meinrad's cell. 211 
 
 A flock of anchorites soon gathered round 
 St. Meinrad's Cell, and lived in scattered cabins 
 up and down the valley, till St. Eberhard built 
 a church, in which he hung the sacred image of 
 the Virgin and her Child. This shrine was the 
 beginning of Einsiedeln. When the edifice was 
 ready, Conrad, bishop of Constanz, came to con- 
 secrate it ; but on going into the church at night 
 with several of his monks to say a prayer, he 
 was amazed to see the chapel filled with heavenly 
 hght, and Christ, attended by the four evan- 
 gelists, standing at the altar, consecrating it with 
 His own hand and voice. A cloud of angels 
 scattered incense round ; St. Michael led a choir 
 of singers ; while St. Peter and St. Gregory stood 
 behind our Lord. The bishop lay upon the floor 
 in prayer until eleven o'clock next day. Sup- 
 posing that he was asleep, the fathers pulled his i 
 robe, on which he turned and told them all that 
 he had seen. They thought him dreaming still. 
 At last, consenting to proceed with the con- 
 secration, he began the rite, but hardly had j 
 he opened, when a Voice, which filled the church / 
 from crypt to roof, cried, ' Cessa, cessa, firater ! 
 Capella divinitus consecrata est ! ' Then Conrad 
 paused ; a greater one had done his office ;
 
 212 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 and the dedication of Our Lady's chapel was 
 complete. 
 
 * That miracle of the consecration is attested 
 hj your records/ says the priest. 
 
 A pause. The Benedictine father seems con- 
 tent to let the subject drop ; on noting which the 
 priest turns roimd on me with a peculiar shrug. 
 
 ' It was a miracle to need a good deal of 
 attesting/ I remark. 
 
 * It is attested by St. Conrad, who composed 
 a book ' De Secretis Secretorum* about it, by 
 Pope Leo VIIL, by Kaiser Otto, by Ulric the 
 monk, and many others. Leo's bull, in favour of 
 that miracle, has been sustained by Innocent IV., 
 Martin lY., and Nicolas IV. Ten later popes 
 have ratified these briefs of former popes. If 
 testimony counts for anything, that miracle of 
 the consecration of the Virgin's chapel is a well- 
 attested fact.' 
 
 The Benedictine father smiles, but with the 
 faintest spectre of a smile. Again the priest 
 looks round at me, and adds, in somewhat banter- 
 ing tone : * Like Meinrad on Mount Etzel, we 
 have found the world too near us. If we kept it 
 farther off, we should not send so much of Mein- 
 rad's gold to the United States/
 
 ST. meinrad's cell. 213 
 
 St. Meinrad's gold to the United States ! The 
 sneer is based on fact, and thereby hangs a tale. 
 In 1848, alarmed by what was taking place 
 at Fribourg and Luzem, the fathers gathered in 
 their sheaves, and sent a goodly portion of their 
 stock to Indiana, where they built themselves 
 a second and what seemed a safer home. Their 
 farm and church in the United States are man- 
 aged by an English monk. As yet, the fathers 
 have not had to fly ; nor do the faithful at Ein- 
 siedeln care to talk about that property laid up 
 in foreign lands for future use. Such worldly 
 prudence seems to cast some doubt upon their 
 confidence in the Virgin and her Child. 
 
 In crossing the great square again, we 
 notice Sister Agnes at Our Lady's Spring, and 
 help her to secmre her draughts of water. At 
 the fourteenth beck, she drops her beads, and 
 looks a little faint. 
 
 ' Have you to walk so far as the nunnery, 
 In der Au, to sleep ? ' 
 
 * No, not so far. The nights are dark ; the 
 roads are very rough. We are allowed to lodge 
 near by. To-morrow is our Festival of the 
 Rosary. We must be up and stirring long before 
 the dayhght comes.'
 
 214 
 
 CHAPTEK XXIL 
 
 iFEAST OF THE ROSARY. 
 
 Wha-a-ang ! You start in bed. Hollo ! What 
 noise is that ? What shakes the house a strong 
 stone house and breaks your slumber like a shot ? 
 A gun ! How can it be a gun ? What maniac 
 would be firing cannons in a church at dead of 
 night? Some meteor must have fallen on the 
 earth ; some mountain may have slipped into the 
 ravine. Wha-ang ! Again ; what can it mean ? 
 You spring upon the boards ; you dash the window 
 open ; and you peer into the murky void. All 
 gloom of mist, and patter of descending rain. A 
 gust of wind flies at you. Puh ! a flash is on 
 your face a crash is in your ears. A gun 
 assuredly a gun this time ! But why this fury 
 in the silent hours, and on the morning of a sacred 
 day? Can these be men of Schwyz descending 
 from the Katzenstrick once more ? 
 
 You screw the window tight obser\^e that
 
 FEAST OF THE ROSARY. 215 
 
 it is three o'clock and shiver into bed. You 
 close your eyes and try to faU asleep. Five 
 minutes whang ! ten minutes whang ! The 
 walls vibrate, the windows fly, the doors and 
 rafters groan. You wait the shots, and count 
 them ; five, seven, ten whang, whang ! At 
 length you strike a light and ring a bell. 
 ' What's all this row about V 
 
 ' This row,' exclaims the sleepy house-lad ; 
 'don't you know what day it is?' 
 
 'You mean the Festival of the Rosary?' 
 
 ' Yes ; and that is why they fire the guns. 
 It is Our Lady's day.' 
 
 ' But why these guns V 
 
 ' Because it is Our Lady's day. Why guns ? 
 To rouse the sleepers from their beds. No 
 man should miss the early mass on Mary's 
 day.' 
 
 Whang! whang! You rise and dress; for 
 in this narrow valley, closed, on every side with 
 rocks and capped with woods, no mortal ear 
 could close on these awakening guns. Already 
 in the streets below you catch a sound of hurry- 
 ing feet and whispering tongues. Already in the 
 great dim square, between the village and the 
 church, you catch the forms of spectral pilgrims,
 
 216 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 flitting through the rain and crouching at Our 
 Lady's Spring. A light is burning in the 
 church ; and as the final gun explodes, the two 
 tall belfries fling into the darkness such a peal 
 df bells as men will seldom hear from convent 
 tower except in Moscow. All the world is now 
 astir and in the streets ; men, women, children ; 
 soldiers, monks, professors ; bar-maids, nurses, 
 teachers ; huddling through the darkness and the 
 rain to early mass, in answer to that battle-cry 
 of prayer. 
 
 At four o'clock, two hours before the sun will 
 rise, an early mass is given before Our Lady's 
 shrine ; before the image which St. Meinrad carried 
 to his desert cell. 
 
 This image is the subject of a hundred 
 miracles. Three times the church has been de- 
 stroyed by fire, and every time the flames have 
 spared this piece of art. It has escaped the 
 ancient Switzers and the modem French. A 
 Benedictine is not fond of France ; and when the 
 French broke into Switzerland, this church and 
 convent soon became their spoil. The Virgin's 
 chapel was destroyed ; the crowns and plaques of 
 gold were stolen ; and the sacred bones were 
 pitched into a common sink. The image ? Well ;
 
 FEAST OF THE ROSARY. 217 
 
 those Frenclimen took it down ; they found the 
 robes were tinsel, and the stones were false. They 
 carried it to Paris as a relic of the times and 
 countries where a people, not insane, could worship 
 stocks and stones. But when the Benedictines 
 were restored they brought their image with them, 
 not from France, but from the Tyrol ; saying, that 
 the statue carried off to Paris was a false one, 
 made by cunning people, when the fathers fled, 
 for the rapacious French to steal 
 
 A church of ample size, arranged with choir 
 and altar, and adorned with paint and gilding in 
 the newest Boman style, is all a-blaze with lights 
 and thronged with worshippers. In glow of 
 colour and in warmth of life, the scene is 
 Spanish and Sicilian. Above, on groin and vault, 
 on shaft and niche, are saints and angels, ara- 
 besques and flowers, alive with red and blue, and 
 tricked with bars and rims of gold. Below, the 
 floors are rich with monks and nuns, with youths 
 and girls; the men with cloaks and wallets, and 
 the girls with red and yellow skirts. A man is 
 kneeling here and there, but, as in Italy and 
 Spain, the female pilgrims counl as five to one. 
 Two altars in the nave appear to draw more pil- 
 grims than the rest although a pilgrim needs to
 
 ^ 
 
 218 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 take these altars all in turn, lest he should vex 
 some powerful saint. These favourites are the 
 altars of St. Bosary and St. Meinrad, both of 
 which are bright with paint and lamps. Above 
 St. Rosary is painted Jacob's ladder, with the 
 angels tripping up and down, and in a scroll these 
 words of Scripture ' Surely the Lord is in this 
 place.' St. Meinrad is depicted in his desert cell. 
 Each altar has a separate crowd, and in a church 
 so vast each crowd has room to pray apart ; but 
 when the mass commences in Our Lady's chapel, 
 every eye is turned, and every head is bent to- 
 wards this miraculous shrine. 
 
 Our Lady's chapel, dark and sombre, stands 
 * beneath the painted dome, and in the centre of a 
 
 \ painted nave, as those who built it meant that it 
 
 ^j Y should look a tomb in one vast field of flowers. 
 
 ^ ^ A small black shrine, with figures carved in 
 
 J ^ wood and painted white, with open griU in front, 
 
 ^ and two small entrance-doors, this chapel is about 
 
 "Y the size of the Holy Sepulchre. Six lamps were 
 
 ^ once kept burning at the shrine ; each Catholic 
 
 Canton in the League supplying oil for one un- 
 dying lamp ; but now the Radicals are masters, 
 they have let these lights die out for lack of 
 oil. No light is wanting now ; for every pilgrim 
 
 /
 
 FEAST OF THE ROSARY. 219 
 
 has it on his soul to give one dip at least; and 
 every comer of the shrine, from grill to shaft and 
 ledge, is reeking with the stench, and cracking 
 with the heat of melting wax. 
 
 A priest and his assistants stand within the 
 holy place. Around the iron grills and sombre 
 shafts, a mighty throng of pilgrims swarm to 
 pray ; three thousand at the least ; in whom 
 the passions that are more than mortal bum with 
 a mysterious flame. To aU these prostrate souls, 
 the figure of the Virgin is no log of withering 
 pine, all carved and overlaid, but an abiding 
 eidolon, in which the woman without sin has 
 taken up her rest. Except before the Iberian 
 gate in Moscow, where the picture of the Black 
 Virgin of Iberia hangs, my eyes have seen no 
 sight like this before Our Lady's shrine. All 
 passions seem to sway these groups by turn. 
 One instant they are dumb with terror of the 
 burning hghts ; next moment they are wild and 
 loud with the exulting chant. Some beat their 
 faces on the flags ; some toss their arms above 
 their heads; and some cry out in pain and 
 passion, * Mary, Mary ! save us, save us from 
 the deathless pit.' A dozen women start upon 
 their feet and fumble in their skirts for coin.
 
 220 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 ' A light, give me a light ! ' they scream, A 
 church official sells them dips, which they ignite 
 and fasten to the marble shrine, till the funereal 
 chapel is one mass of burning stars. A low and 
 musical voice intones the mass. A . tiny silver 
 bell rings out the points ; and when the host 
 is raised, a gunshot crashes through the aisles, 
 and every heart leaps up. A pause a listening 
 wonder till the echoes die away from choir and 
 vault ; and then a cry of rapture greets that 
 miracle which is renewed from day to day that 
 transformation of the actual flesh and blood into 
 the\ visible bread and wine. 
 
 When mass is ended, every face seems flushed 
 with an unearthly light, as though these pilgrims 
 have been blessed with glimpses of an unknown 
 world. It passes from them in a moment like 
 a smile ; but while it lingers on their brows 
 and in their eyes, these shepherds from the alps, 
 these weavers from the hamlets, are as lovely in 
 their rapture of expression as a brotherhood of -v 
 painted saints.. 
 
 From five to six we loiter in the ample have ; y 
 inspect the votive pfl'erings nailed on door and 
 slung on rail a waxen doll, a bit of half-burnt 
 rag, a daub of some miraculous cure each offer-
 
 FEAST OF THE ROSARY. 221 
 
 ing with an image of the Virgin and her Child ; 
 move forward with the crowd from shrine to 
 shrine, and drop a prayer at each in turn St. 
 Anne, St. Joseph, and St. Benedict in chief ; per- 
 use the list of abbots who have reigned and died 
 here, from St. Eberhard, Count of Franconia, 959, 
 down to the Reverend Celestin Miiller, of Schme- 
 rikon, Canton St. Gallon, 1845 ; including third 
 upon the list St. Gregory, (called a son of Edward 
 the Elder, king of England, brother-in-law of kaiser 
 Otto), in whose person the abbot of Einsiedeln 
 was created an imperial prince. 
 
 At six o'clock the sun rises, and at six o'clock 
 there is a special service for the rising of our con- 
 vent sun, St. Meinrad. In this special service we 
 include St. Eberhard, and the other holy men who 
 aided him to found this temple in a desert place. 
 When this is done, a priest and acolyte repair to 
 one of the side altars, where they chant a verse, 
 and then turn round upon the kneeling crowds, 
 and bless the rosaries which the pilgrims carry in 
 their hands. Some pilgrims take advantage of 
 the priest to get his blessing on a dozen things 
 besides their beads a charm, a crucifix, a bunch 
 of ribbons, nay, a box of toys by holding them 
 in front of him together with the beads. No
 
 222 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 charge is made for blessing these mementoes of 
 Einsiedeln, but a pilgrim who has money in his 
 purse is taught the duty of investing some of it 
 with God. Upstairs there is a passage with a 
 grill, at which a priest is stationed to receive 
 such gifts, and bless the bringers with a special 
 grace. 
 
 At seven o'clock, the abbot, Heinrich IV., 
 comes down into the church, attended by his 
 clergy, and ascends his throne, while three supe- 
 rior priests perform high mass in the grand sanc- 
 tuary ; a picturesque and noble rite, regarded 
 merely as a work of musical and scenic art. Three 
 organs and a band assist the choir ; these organs, 
 raised aloft in singing galleries, are extremely fine 
 in tone. A learned Benedictine, Pater Schubiger, 
 known as author of the ' Roses de Marie,' makes 
 the music, and in part conducts the service. 
 Abbot Heinrich Schmid, of Baar, in Canton Zug, 
 a grave and passive man, with ample face, white 
 hair, and noble aspect, looks the prince which 
 pious pilgrims call him, though his temporal rank 
 and power are gone. The three officiating priests 
 are richly clothed ; the singers are concealed from 
 sight ; and when the host is raised the cannon 
 fired three thousand kneeling figures bend their
 
 FEAST OF THE ROSARY. 223 
 
 temples to the floor, and fling their arms about 
 in ecstasies of pain and bliss. 
 
 At eight o'clock there is a sermon, chiefly an 
 account, in ghostly phrase, of the fifteen mysteries 
 of the rosary. A rosary was a form of prayer before 
 it was a string of beads a form of prayer divided 
 into three parts and fifteen decades so called from 
 each decade retaining ten Ave Marias. To say a 
 whole rosary, with its fifteen Pater Nosters, and 
 its ten times fifteen Ave Marias, is to do a good 
 and perfect work. It is a saving office of the 
 Church ; a solace to the poor, the ignorant, the 
 despised of men ; to those for whom our Lord was 
 sent, from whom He chose his twelve Apostles, 
 and on whom He built his everlasting Church. 
 
 At nine we break our fast ; but soon return 
 from inn and guest-room to the confessional. 
 This confessional, called a Penitentiary, and dedi- 
 cated to the Sinner of Magdala, is a low and 
 vaulted chapel, built among the graves of ancient 
 monks a dark and noisome place, in which a 
 single lamp biuns dimly, and a watery kind of 
 light creeps in through grated openings in the 
 wall A dirge is being howled behind a screen. 
 A solitary priest is serving in the gloom. Dark 
 frescoes, chiefly smoke and fire, adorn the
 
 224 THE SWITZEES. 
 
 roof. Along this chapel of the Magdalen, two 
 rows of penitential chairs are placed for the con- 
 fessors and the pilgrims twenty-eight in number 
 each confessional marked, according to the lan- 
 guage spoken by the ghostly father, as either 
 German, French, or Komonsch. In each a priest 
 is seated, listening to a tale of sin and shame, 
 while troops of penitents are kneeling, rank on 
 rank, each waiting for his call. At some con- 
 fessionals two penitents are busy with one priest. 
 Much practice makes men perfect in all trades, 
 even that of searching hearts. These fathers 
 have no time to lose. They shrive four hundred 
 sinners on an average every day the whole year 
 round. To-day the number to be heard is close 
 upon two thousand souls ; and, let these fathers 
 labour as they may, this crowd of sinners yearn- 
 ing to be cleansed will not be all confessed and 
 shriven before the hour of midnight chimes. 
 
 At three o'clock come vespers in the sanctuary, 
 sung by an invisible choir. At the cry of praise 
 all voices drop, and every one kneels down. First 
 ring the boyish altos, then the men roll in with 
 middle note and bass. All female lips are closed, 
 for in these Cathohc offices a woman has no place. 
 At half-past three o'clock the fathers march in
 
 FEAST OF THE EOSAEY. 225 
 
 ranks along the nave, into the Virgin's chapel, 
 where they chant a special service at her shrine, 
 A pilgrim looks upon this office as the crowning 
 worship of his day. His heart may now be light 
 and glad ; he may have told his sin and got his 
 shrift. His beads and trinkets have been blessed, 
 and in his rapture he is like a little child. Instead 
 of praying, he can praise ; instead of grovelling, he 
 can now adore. When this great act is over, there 
 is still more blessing of the rosaries, along with 
 books and medals, candles, rings, and rolls of wax. 
 At four o'clock we go away to dine, and come 
 again at seven o'clock for complines. It is dark 
 again ; and yet the duties of the Penitentiary 
 are still going on. A gun-shot breaks the mur- 
 mur of a thousand eager tongues. Lay brothers 
 sweep the lights out ; and a crowd of pilgrims 
 turn their faces to the world. Yet many stay 
 behind; and when you steal into the church at 
 midnight you may find some penitents lingering 
 in the Magdalen's vault. 
 
 Q
 
 226 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES. 
 
 ' Yes : we are the last/ says Pater Morel, Rector 
 of the seminary, as we cross the square ; ' the 
 last of our old Order in this country, where we 
 held in former days so many abbeys of the highest 
 class St. Gallon, Muri, Bheinau, Dissentis, and 
 Pfaffers, for example. All these great establish- 
 ments have fallen. We, of Meinrad's Cell, are left 
 alone; it may be, under Providence, for our 
 labour's sake. Who else would take the charge 
 of all these penitents V 
 
 With the sole exception of Einsiedeln, aU the 
 Benedictine abbeys in this country have been 
 seized by orders from the Cantonal officers, and 
 their lands and goods divided by the state, as 
 convents have been seized by orders from the 
 royal officers in Italy and Spain. These abbeys 
 only suffer in the common wreck of all religious 
 houses, whether those of Capuchins, Augustines,
 
 LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES. 227 
 
 Jesuits, or Franciscans. The Switzers want their 
 money, and these Switzers take this money with 
 no more remorse of mind than the ItaHans feel 
 in seizing Rome. 
 
 One instance may be cited. On a spot of 
 land surrounded by the Rhine, and looking over 
 into Baden, stands the great Benedictine abbey of 
 Bheinau ; once a famous seat of learning and a 
 home of all the liberal arts. A school is wanted 
 by the public, and as Bheinau is supposed to be 
 extremely rich, a bill is brought into the Council, 
 authorising the state to close that abbey, turn the 
 monks adrift, and seize their lands and goods 
 for public use. In vain the fathers plead that 
 what they have belongs to Holy Church. In 
 vain they offer to divide their wealth. In vain 
 they ask for leave to found a college, build an 
 hospice, raise the pay of Cathohc priests. The 
 bill is passed, the abbey seized. A sum of 
 3,328,000 francs is taken from the Order, and 
 dispersed as follows : 
 
 To the parish of Rheinau . . 250,000 frs. 
 
 Pensions to dispossessed fathers . 300,000 
 
 Given to Catholic Communes . . 700,000 
 
 Spent on schools .... 2,078,000 
 
 3,328,000
 
 228 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 What is done at Rheinau has been done 
 elsewhere, according to the local need. The 
 great abbey of St. Gallen has been turned into 
 a barrack and infirmary ; that of Dissentis, from 
 which the Prince-abbot, Christian von Castelberg, 
 defied and damned the Swiss Reformers, has been 
 turned into a secondary school for boys. The not 
 less splendid abbey of Pfaffers is a lunatic asylum, 
 and the abbot's palace at Kagatz an inn. 
 
 Five reasons have been given by writers on 
 the Benedictine Order for the favour which sur- 
 rounds the fathers at Einsiedeln : first, the high 
 protection of their Virgin ; next, the grace of 
 their religious calling ; third, the homeliness of 
 their manners; then, the state of their relations 
 with great people ; fiifth, the visible utility of 
 their presence on the spot. 
 
 There is another reason still the poHcy of 
 that homely saw which hints that a wise house- 
 keeper should not kill a bird that lays him golden 
 eggs. 
 
 The porches of the abbey look into the town ; 
 a very curious town ; what Canterbury was when 
 knight and reeve, and clerk and nim, rode into 
 it on pilgrimage with the abbot and the wife 
 of Bath. Einsiedeln is a town of inns and shops.
 
 LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES. 229 
 
 and all ablaze with signs and flags. St. Meinrad 
 has a separate flag from Canton Schwyz, a 
 blood-red field, on which, instead of a simple 
 cross, is limned the Virgin and her Child. St. 
 Meinrad's banner floats from nearly every door 
 and ciU. One line of tall, squat houses fronts 
 the church and belfries ; every house in that long 
 line, save one, a public inn. These inns are known 
 by saintly names St. John, St. Joseph, and St. 
 Catharine ; Holy Anchorites, Three Kings and 
 Cloister Gardens with the Sun, the Forest, and 
 the Peacock. Pilgrims of the wiser sort avoid 
 all inns with saintly names. In rear of these 
 large houses stand a motley grOup of taverns, 
 dropping in the scale of comfort as they back to 
 narrow lanes and courts, untU you find some 
 poorer guest-rooms, where the peasant -pilgrims 
 lodge by tens and twenties in a single room. In 
 such poor rooms the pilgrims pack themselves by 
 night on shelves. The charge is nowhere high; 
 and in these modest staUs it is one penny each, 
 paid down at night before ascending to your shel 
 Much trade is driven in rehcs, pictures, beads, 
 and photographs in crosses, medals, rings, and 
 cotton prints in earrings, candles, books in 
 amulets, gingerbread, and charms as weU as in
 
 230 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 the things that will not keep in sausages, cigars, 
 and schnaps. The street is full of shops, and the 
 arcades beside Our Lady's spring are full of 
 shops. Yet this large Gentile court is not enough, 
 and wings of timber-sheds run off on either side 
 the convent walls, like booths in country fairs, 
 where objects still more trashy tinsel saiuts 
 and wooden dolls are spread along the boards 
 for sale. 
 
 The dealers in these articles of devotion have a 
 bad name in the convent, which these dealers 
 seem to treat as lawful prize, provided for them by 
 then* saints. In fact, the Commune of Einsiedeln 
 claim the abbey of Einsiedeln as their own. They, 
 not the fathers, are, they say, the permanent 
 owners. They are natives of the soil, while many 
 of the fathers are not Switzers bom. The fathers 
 come and go ; the villagers hve and die upon the 
 spot. 
 
 Some years ago, when putting in this claim, 
 the Commune seized the lordship of this abbey, 
 with a great part of the forests, lands, and farms 
 belonging to its lord. An armed band profaned 
 the holy place, and Heiorich Schmid, the abbot, 
 was obhged to yield. The last poor remnant of 
 his princely power was gone ; and henceforth,
 
 LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES. 231 
 
 he and his must keep on terms with village 
 may:or and village council if they wish to live 
 in peace. Where once the abbots reigned, they 
 have to sue ; and men who used to grovel in 
 the dust before their thrones, now take their 
 money and their goods as lightly as a German 
 company levies war- tax on the conquered French. . r^' 
 The Commune feel, however, that they must ^ 
 not go too far ; it would not serve their turn ^^ 
 to drive these fathers from St. Meinrad's CeU into 
 some other place. They might secrete their 
 Virgin once again, and then the tide of pilgrims 
 would be turned another way. 
 
 In seeking strength abroad against these foes 
 at home, the fathers are supposed to turn with 
 too much longing to each rising sun. When 
 kaiser Francis Joseph was a mighty potentate, 
 the monks approached him with a prayer that he 
 would take them under his august protection, like 
 his ancestors the Dukes of Austria. Francis 
 Joseph sent them gracious words, together with 
 his portrait. After Solferino, they approached 
 Napoleon III. Hortense, on making pilgrimage 
 to Einsiedeln, wrote these words : ' I wish to place 
 myself and my infants under the protection of the 
 Holy Virgin.' They reminded him of these good
 
 232 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 words ; he sent his portrait, and a gilded chan- 
 delier. They next approached the Pope, and 
 got his portrait and his blessing. Prussia could 
 not be neglected, Lutheran though she is ; and 
 they contrived to get a small and unobtrusive 
 portrait of her king. But after Sadowa, they 
 felt how much that small and unobtrusive por- 
 trait was unworthy of so great a man. Re- 
 minding Wilhelm that St. Meinrad was a Hohen- 
 zoUem, they succeeded in procuring for their 
 abbey an enlarged and powerful portrait of the 
 kaiser-king. 
 
 Except the pilgrim's mite, the fathers have no 
 visible income to maintain their sacred edifice and 
 conventual buildings other than the proceeds of 
 their schools. These Benedictine schools, of which 
 my host is Rector, have a fame in Catholic homes, 
 like that of Zurich schools in scientific homes. The 
 Reverend Pater Morel is a poet, of the class and 
 rank of our own Southwell. His reHgious reve- 
 ries, mostly turning on the graces and perfections 
 of his Patroness, are read in many cities of the Old 
 World and the New. A copy of his poems lies 
 before me in two volumes, with the imprint of 
 New York. But, like his brethren of a brighter 
 time, he is a man of many sides ; a critic, an
 
 LAST OP THE BENEDICTINES. 233 
 
 historical writer, and an antiquary. In his hands 
 the seminaries seem to hold their own ; two hmi- 
 dred names are on his books ; and yet, in going 
 through the class-rooms, one is struck with the 
 great number of foreign scholars in these famous 
 schools. Not many of the traders of Einsiedeln 
 send their children to the monks. 
 
 A goodly number of these pupils are intended 
 for the priesthood ; but the sciences and arts are 
 widely taught. Much time is given to music in 
 its many branches ; singing, both in solo and in 
 chorus ; playing on the several kinds of horn, pre- 
 siding at the organ, and composing masses, over- 
 tures, and psalms. A thousand years ago, the 
 Benedictines of these districts had a great renown 
 as singers. Pater Schubiger, ex-chapel-master of 
 Einsiedeln, has composed a history of the St. 
 Gallen school of singing from the eighth century 
 to the twelfth. A something of this antique fame 
 remains, and since the Benedictine abbey of St. 
 Gallen was suppressed, this art, like many of her 
 sisters painting, carving, casting, building, has 
 to seek a home in this last refuge of the learned 
 and despairing monks. 
 
 A hundred members make the last society of 
 this illustrious order; seventy fathers, fifteen
 
 234 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 acolytes, and fifteen lay brethren ; in the whole 
 a hundred souls devoted to religious work ; in- 
 cluding all that books and arts can offer to their 
 church. These numbers may not be increased, 
 though the conventual buildings might contain 
 five hundred more. One hundred fathers are 
 supposed to be enough to do what needs be 
 done ; to say the masses, hear confessions, sing 
 vespers, and receive the pilgrim pence. Schwyz 
 rules it so ; and from the Canton there is no 
 appeal. 
 
 All other bodies in this country have some 
 liberty of action. Take the League of Griitli, 
 'the Firing Club, the International, the Society of 
 Public Usefulness ; all these societies, and hun- 
 dreds like them, are allowed to make their own 
 rules, admit their own members, and increase 
 their numbers as they please. The Benedictine 
 fathers at Einsiedeln, though they owned this 
 hamlet long before the name of Schwyz arose, are 
 not permitted by their Canton to receive one monk 
 beyond the hundred fixed for them by law. 
 
 A hundred fathers are not many for the work 
 they have to do. Much farming, gardening, cook- 
 ing, carving, painting, modelling, and the like, 
 must needs be done. Not only have the great
 
 LAST OF THE BENEDICTINES. 235 
 
 basilica and the convent to be kept in order, but 
 a number of dependent shrines demand some care. 
 St. Meinrad's well, a chapel on the road to Biber- 
 bruck, requires some care ; the chapel on Mount 
 Etzel needs some care ; the nunnery In der Au 
 requires some care. Fifteen lay monks are not too 
 many for these various tasks. Nor are these 
 brethren men to waste their time in hedge and 
 ditch. Brother Mannhardt is an excellent carver. 
 He has carved and built an altar-piece, which, in 
 a showy Roman style, is not imworthy of his 
 convent in her better days. Brother Blatter, a 
 professor of design, not only teaches in his class- 
 room, but repairs and ornaments his church. One 
 learned brother has the care of coins and medals, 
 while another takes the stables and the farms. 
 
 A dozen services a-day, not counting the con- 
 fessions, have to be performed in pubhc, with the 
 pomp and awe of Catholic worship. Schools have 
 to be kept, and visits paid. Some study must 
 be done, and many visitors, who take up time, 
 must be received. A band of seventy monks 
 and fifteen acolytes would not seem many for 
 these various labours ; but the service of con- 
 fession is the greatest work of all. If seventy 
 monks had nothing else to do but shrive the
 
 236 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 penitents, they could not lead an idle life. Above 
 four hundred pilgrims kneel to them each day 
 throughout the year; six sinners to each monk 
 the whole year round. 
 
 Yet some of these hard-working fathers find 
 the time to write ; and write such books as learned 
 men can praise. The abbot, Heinrich, has the 
 reputation of a scholar. Pater Brandis has an 
 European name. 
 
 'We are the last,' sighs Pater Morel, as we 
 pass from room to room now echoing to our 
 steps of this magnificent seat of learning. 'Yes; 
 St. Gallon, Muri, Dissentis, were once oiu" rivals 
 in the work of God ; but they are gone the way 
 of instruments used up and thrown aside ; and 
 we of Meinrad's Cell are left to carry on the work 
 alone. We do our best, although it is not much. 
 We try to keep alive some sense of sacred art 
 some love of sacred music some desire for 
 sacred letters in an age devoted to material 
 things. We do our duty, as the task is laid 
 upon us, and we hope to do that duty to the 
 end.'
 
 237 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 CONFLICT OF THE CHURCHES. 
 
 No cause could justify the wrongs the open 
 and intentional wrongs inflicted on religious 
 orders in . this country, but a strong conviction 
 working in men's minds, and driving them to 
 acts beyond excuse on lower grounds, that these 
 religious orders are the foreposts of an enemy 
 planted on their soil. In such a case appeals are 
 vain ; the public safety is the highest law. 
 
 No man with eyes to see can Hve in Switzer- 
 land a month without perceiving that this strong 
 conviction, whether it be right or wrong, is one 
 of the primary forces in all public life. What 
 else has driven the Jesuits from the soil ? Their 
 case is very hard. A man is bom in Bern ; he 
 goes to school in Paris ; he returns in after-Hfe 
 to Bern, with five or six of his old school-fellows. 
 He and they are members of some foreign league 
 or order. No one cares about them. Every Switzer
 
 238 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 is a member of some dozen leagues, societies, and 
 orders native orders, foreign orders, private, 
 civic, and religious orders. He begins by being a 
 member of his Commune, of his Canton, of his 
 League. He is a member of the Sunday 
 Society, the Society of Public Usefulness, the 
 Swiss Alpine Club, the Band of Pio Nono, the 
 Griitli Society, the International, the Society of 
 St. Vincent de Paul, the League of Peace and 
 Liberty, the Federal Shooting Association, the 
 Society of Freemasons. He may be a member 
 also of many local guilds and orders; singing 
 circles, democratic clubs, academies of art, gym- 
 nastic unions, fire brigades, trade societies, anti- 
 quarian and historical societies, and natural-his- 
 tory clubs. A Switzer has organization on the 
 brain. In two Swiss Cantons, and one Half- 
 canton, an inquiry made into the number of 
 societies known, and registered, gives the follow- 
 ing facts : 
 
 In Schaffhausen, 87 Societies to . 35,500 souls. 
 Baselstadt, 126 . 40,683 
 
 Geneva, 220 . 82,876 
 
 In the several Cantons more than four thou- 
 sand orders, bands, and societies are known. 
 These bands and orders are of every sort and
 
 CONFLICT OF THE CHURCHES. 239 
 
 size, with ends the most dissimilar in view. In 
 Switzerland a man may be a Turk, a Jew, a 
 Buddhist, a Confucian. No matter ; if he is a 
 Switzer born he has his natural right; and if 
 he be a stranger in the land, he is protected 
 by the Federal law. 
 
 But if the little band should call themselves 
 Jesuits, down the Canton comes with heavy hand 
 upon them. In Geneva, Jews have built a syna- 
 gogue ; and no one could object if Parsees were 
 to build a temple, and Mohammedans a mosque. 
 But neither in Geneva, nor in any Canton of the 
 League, dare any one erect a Jesuit coUege. If a 
 Switzer joins the Mormons, no one interferes with 
 him; but if he joins the Company of Jesus he 
 foregoes his national rights. 
 
 To pass and to preserve a law which stands 
 in open contradiction to all other laws, there must 
 be stem conviction in the popular mind that 
 Jesuitism and freedom cannot grow together in a 
 common soil. 
 
 * It is a conflict of the world against the 
 church,' the Jesuits cry, on one side in the fray. 
 'It is a victory of the native church against a 
 foreign priest,' reply the Radicals on the other 
 side. The Jesuits urge that every shred the
 
 240 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 world has ever saved from wreck is now at 
 stake ; that learning, order, art, and freedom are 
 about to perish ; and that nothing can redeem 
 mankind but fall and prompt submission to the 
 Holy See. ' You have your choice,' shouts General 
 Castella, in a recent speech to an excited crowd 
 at Bulle, 'of two things one holy water or 
 petroleum !' 
 
 The liberals answer that the world is pushing 
 on, that men are better lodged and fed, that boys 
 and girls are better taught, that pubhc liberties 
 are more secure, with every passing year. They 
 say this progress is the working out of providential 
 laws. A liberal puts an Evangelical district in 
 the scale against a Catholic district such as 
 that of Appenzell-outer-E-hoden against Appen- 
 zell-inner-Rhoden and demands a verdict on 
 the evidence of eye and ear. 
 
 In outer aspect these Half-cantons have the 
 differences of Canton Bern and Canton Valais. 
 In the lower country, though the village may 
 be built of frames, the style is pretty, the ar- 
 rangement neat. A fountain and a running 
 water occupy the centre. Near it stand the 
 village church, the council-chamber, and the 
 primary school. Each cottage has a garden to
 
 CONFLICT OF THE CHURCHES. 241 
 
 itself. A creeper climbs up every stair, and 
 hangs from almost every roof. The click and 
 whirr of looms are heard from every open 
 window, and the little folk go singing on their 
 way to school. The streets are clean, the mar- 
 kets well supplied, and every one you meet is 
 warmly clad. But in the upper country things 
 look poor and bare. Few villagers are seen. The 
 people dweU in scattered huts, with styes and 
 stables on the ground, and sleeping-rooms above 
 them, like the folks in Biscay and Navarre. 
 These huts, though strongly knit, are rudely 
 planned and roughly built. Each herdsman lives 
 apart from all his fellows, whom he only meets 
 at mass, at wrestling-match, and public-house. 
 The lads can read and write, for they are Switzers, 
 subject to the Cantonal law ; but books and 
 journals are unknown among them, saving here 
 and there some lives of saints and popular sheets, 
 containing scraps of old-wives' lore in place of 
 general and exciting news. 
 
 The Protestant Half-canton grows in wealth 
 and numbers, while the Cathohc Half-canton hn- 
 gers on in poverty and weakness ; for the first takes 
 in aU strangers, irrespective of their creed, gives 
 ready welcome to ideas on all subjects, and adopts 
 
 B
 
 242 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 witliout delay improvements in the loom her 
 chief domestic engine ; while the second shuts 
 her gates on all the world on Protestants of 
 every country, and on Catholics who are not 
 natives of the Canton keeps her antique sports 
 and dress, retains her shepherd industries as they 
 existed in the middle ages, keeps her feast-days and 
 her wrestling-matches, feeds on coarse rye-bread 
 and acid curds, and holds in proud contempt the 
 arts by which her neighbours thrive. 
 
 All Cantons of Teutonic race, in which the 
 Cathohcs are in bulk the people, such as Uri, 
 Zug, Luzem, and Unterwalden, are in most 
 things very much like Catholic Appenzell. All 
 Cantons of Teutonic race, in which the Pro- 
 testants are in bulk the people, such as Basel, 
 Bern, Schaffhausen, Glarus, and Thurgau, are 
 in most things very much like Evangelical Ap- 
 penzell. 
 
 In CathoHc Cantons there is one exception to 
 this rule of dirt and dearth the city of Luzem. 
 This city has a bright and cheery aspect, more like 
 Zurich and Lausanne than Altdorf, Stanz, and Zug. 
 This cheery face is not a product of the system and 
 the soil. It is a new and foreign growth. Not long 
 ago, Luzem, the home of priestly rule, the shrine
 
 CONFLICT OF THE CHURCHES. 243 
 
 of mercenary troops, was little better than a fever- 
 bed. The dykes were weak, the waters swelled into 
 the streets, and every flood left pestilence behind. 
 But strangers come into the town, attracted by 
 her beauty, who enrich it with their gold. For 
 them, wide streets are cleared, stone bridges built, 
 fine walks laid out. A line of great hotels ex- 
 tends along the lake. But enterprise without 
 implies some enterprise within. A man who 
 takes much pains to set his house in order soon 
 begins to set his mind in order likewise. Even 
 in Luzern a democratic party has grown up, 
 who hold their own against the priests. 
 
 This conflict of the democrats and theocrats 
 is not confined to the Germanic Cantons. It 
 is equally appparent in the French. In Carteret's 
 report on the Project of Law for Canton Geneva, 
 it came out in stronger terms than any used in 
 Zurich, Bern, and Basel. Every Hberal would 
 be glad to stop all public payments for the 
 Calvinistic chair of theology in Geneva ; but 
 while sums are voted in the Catholic Cantons 
 for the teachinor of a Boman catechism in the 
 primary schools, the liberals of Geneva hold 
 their hands, and keep the chair provided by the 
 Protestant constitution of their city. What is
 
 .244 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 right for one side in the strife is right for all. 
 The principle is one thing, and the practice is 
 another. ' The instruction given by the reli- 
 gious corporations/ says M. Carteret, with a 
 glance at Catholic teaching, 'is not teaching 
 of a kind to form repubhcan citizens worthy 
 of this noble name. These congregations, in 
 a land like ours, where the country makes 
 such efforts to bring a good education to every 
 man's door, can only fill a gap. There ought to 
 be no gap. Their object is to train the young 
 impressionable minds confided to their care into 
 a firm behef that civil life should be subordinated 
 to the church. When that idea gains the upper 
 hand, alas for the people ! One direct and certain 
 means of meeting this great obstacle exists : 
 deprive the religious corporations altogether of 
 their right to teach ! ' But Carteret refrains 
 from carrying out his own suggestion ; seeing 
 that he can only do so in his own Calvinistic 
 Canton, while the Catholic Cantons will not 
 follow in his wake. He therefore leaves the 
 chair of Protestant theology untouched. 
 
 No plan for reconciling these two parties 
 in the Canton can be found. The points of 
 difference He in the essentials, not in the ex-
 
 CONFLICT OF THE CHURCHES. 245- 
 
 temals ; and the systems are at war beyond the 
 power of gods and men to cool their rage. De- 
 mocracy will not give way ; theocracy will not 
 give way. * All men are equal/ runs the liberal 
 creed, which takes no notice of original sin, the 
 fall of man, and the prerogatives of a priestly 
 class. ' Men have no rights,' says Rome, which 
 holds her power from heaven, and scoffs at rights 
 of man ; for men are fallen creatures, lost to 
 grace, and only to be saved by strict obedience 
 to her law. One creed is lay and civil, while the 
 other creed assumes to be divine. The genius and 
 the method are alike opposed; While Bern and' 
 Ziirich lean on Luther and the great reformers, 
 Zug and Altdorf lean on Loyola and the great 
 inquisitors. One system would excite, expand, 
 and quicken thought; the other would subdue, 
 contract, and paralyse it. Zurich frames a code 
 by which it hopes to make the boy a pious, rea- 
 soning, independent man ; while Zug and Uri 
 frame their codes to make the boy a docile, 
 listening, and submissive man. 
 
 Each side has much to say in favour of its 
 rule. 
 
 * Born in a free state,' the liberals say ; ' we 
 have to teach our children how to live, and how
 
 246 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 to keep their freedom. We avoid contention in 
 the schools. We wish our sons to be religious ; 
 but we will not have them quarrelling over 
 creeds. We recognise a Christian life beyond 
 the class-room. Of this Christian life, the love 
 of God, the fellowship of man, the purity of 
 morals, a,re the noblest parts.' 
 
 'All that is only negative,' the Jesuits an- 
 swer. * Your pretence of freedom is a dream. All 
 souls are lost ; and your devices will not save one 
 soul from hell. We dare not trifle with our task. 
 We are appointed to our work by God, and not 
 by man. We cannot ask your councillors, elected 
 by the lost ones, how we are to do our duty. 
 When the blind conduct the blind, they fall into 
 a pit ; and lo, the pit you march towards is the 
 pit of fire ! ' 
 
 This conflict of the churches rages in the 
 schools.
 
 247 
 
 CHAPTER XXY. 
 
 SCHOOL. 
 
 In Switzerland, the primary business of the state 
 is keeping school. 
 
 A School is one of the first things present to 
 the eyes of a Swiss child, and one of the last 
 things present to the mind of a Swiss man. It 
 comes to him in his cradle and attends him to 
 his grave. He could not cast it from him if 
 he would ; he would not cast it from him if he 
 could. ' 
 
 A Swiss child dreams of school as urchins in 
 an English city dream of work. He knows it is 
 his fate in life. He sees his brother and his 
 sister go to school ; he sees them bring their 
 lessons home ; he sees them rise at dawn to learn 
 their tasks. If he is stout of limb and clear of 
 sight, his turn will come, and he must also troop 
 to school On coming to a certain age in some, 
 the age of six, in some of seven his right to stay
 
 248 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 at home, to play at top and make mud-pies, will 
 cease. He is a member of his Commune, and 
 the Commune will not suffer him to hve and die 
 a pig. The school will seize him, hold him fast 
 for years, and rear him into what he is to be : 
 a banker, goatherd, student, tinker, what not ; 
 but in any case it will not lose its grasp until he 
 grows into a man. But then an infant Swiss 
 dreams pleasantly of school, while urchins in our 
 country dream unpleasantly of work. If school 
 is fate to a Swiss child, the vision comes to 
 him iQ likeness of a fairy, not a hag. 
 
 Among the many quaint old fountains in these 
 streets of Bern with heroes, knights, and ladies 
 on the shafts there is a fountain in the corn- 
 market, with an ogre, known to Bernese Httle 
 folks as kindh-fresser children-catcher, look- 
 ing up the street. This ogre has a tooth for 
 boys and girls, and clutches them as they go by. 
 A child is disappearing down the monster's 
 throat ; three children flutter in the monster's 
 wallet ; and a bimch of children twist and wriggle 
 in the monster's belt. That monster will devour 
 them one and all. Grown men dispute about 
 the legend of this ogre in the streets of Bern. 
 One holds him out to be a feudal lord, another as
 
 SCHOOL. 249 
 
 an emblem of the church. A pastor tells me that 
 the ogre who devours his offspring is the E-evo- 
 lution ; and a sharp young student from the 
 neighbouring college whispers he is only Time. 
 But neither man nor boy in Bern imagines that 
 this ogre represents the SchooL A noble lady, 
 sweet of face and firm of purpose, with her arms 
 about the children's necks, would be to man and 
 boy alike the type of SchooL 
 
 The fairest edifice a Swiss can see when he 
 goes out to walk is his village school, his city 
 school, his Cantonal school, according as he hap- 
 pens to reside in country or in town. A jail, a 
 workhouse, nay, a town-hall, may nestle in some 
 comer where a curious eye might miss it ; but 
 school, a college, an academy, is sure to be 
 in sight, the pride of every village slope and 
 every city square. In Zurich and Lausanne, the 
 intellectual capitals of Switzerland Teutonic 
 capital and Latin capital the noblest buildings 
 are the public schools. If we except the Federal 
 Hall at Bern, the Polytechnic in Zurich is 
 the finest edifice in this country ; fine alike in 
 site, proportion, fitness, and display. ' Our 
 children,* says to me a sage professor, 'are so 
 much accustomed to regard the school-house as
 
 250 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 the foremost building in a city, that they fall 
 into the drollest errors when they go abroad.' 
 He tells me, as an illustration of such errors, that 
 some years ago he took his daughter, then a child 
 of ten, to France, and, being at Versailles, he 
 heard her clap her hands, and cry with glee, 
 * Look here, papa ; here is the school-house ! 
 Look !' It was the garden front of that huge 
 pile. 
 
 It is the same, or very near the same, 
 when you are out of town. You walk into 
 some deep and sombre gorge, with jagged 
 heights and foaming torrents, where the pines 
 can hardly cling, a chdlet here and there, high 
 up, on what appears an inaccessible ledge of 
 rock, and near you not a sound, except the 
 crash of falling trees just breaking the oppres- 
 sive monotone of rushing floods. ' No school in 
 such a gorge,' you haply say, when, lo ! a square, 
 white bmlding rises in your front. In England 
 such a thing would be a shooting-box, and 
 here it is a village school In less secluded nooks 
 these buildings are on larger scale. Take that 
 of Samen, Smiling on the bright, green water, 
 stands the finest edifice in the Canton, and of 
 course it is a public school. Wander round
 
 SCHOOL. 251 
 
 St. Gallen ; that St. Gallen which was once a 
 seat of Benedictine learning, and is now the 
 seat of a new trade in lace. One side of the 
 fine public park is occupied by the Cantonal 
 school, a noble edifice even in this land of noble 
 schools. Even at Einsiedeln, the great basilica 
 is fronted by a handsome Communal school. , 
 
 The larger number of these schools belong to 
 
 the Communes ; for in every hamlet where there 
 
 may be twenty boys and girls, the mayor and 
 
 council must provide a school and hire a master. 
 
 Next to the Communal schools in number stand 
 
 the burgher schools, which are supported by the 
 
 towns ; and after these the Cantonal schools, 
 
 which are supported by the state. The Canton 
 
 is the state. As yet there is but one Federal 
 
 school in Switzerland, the Polytechnic in Zurich, 
 
 which has now become for all the world a 
 
 model school of practical life. A great desire 
 
 is felt in Zurich, Bern, Geneva, and Lausanne, 
 
 to found a Federal university of the highest 
 
 class to challenge Bonn and Heidelberg, if not 
 
 Berlin. The Federal constitution gives the power 
 
 to found it ; but, as yet the project has been 
 
 chilled by local jealousies, the fruit of those 
 
 diversities of race, of creed, of speech, which
 
 252 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 make us wonder that a Switzerland exists at 
 all. But several of the Cantons have their 
 universities on a smaller scale, and with their 
 faculties more or less complete. Basel has^ a 
 university. Bern has a university. Zurich, 
 Neufchatel, Geneva, have their own universities. 
 Vaud, Luzern, St. Gallen, and Ticino, each of 
 these Cantons has a separate university. No 
 people in the world can boast of so many seats 
 of learning ia proportion to their number as the 
 Switzers can. 
 
 The festivals and holidays of a Switzer are 
 connected with his life at school. Each change is 
 made the pretext for a feast. On going to school 
 there is a feast ; on leaving school there is a feast ; 
 at every stage of his advance there is a feast. 
 There is vacation feast, assembling feast ; when 
 a new teacher comes there is a feast, and when a 
 teacher leaves there is a feast. The school is 
 made to him by public and by private acts a 
 centre of all happy thoughts and times. It 
 shares the joys of home and the rewards of 
 church. At school a Swiss boy finds his 
 mates with whom he learns to sing and play, 
 to drill and shoot. The teacher is to him a 
 father. With this teacher he will grow into a
 
 SCHOOL. 253 
 
 man, assisted on his way with care and love, 
 unmixed with either fooHsh fondness or paternal 
 pride. With him, and with his mates, the lad 
 will take his country strolls, collecting rocks and 
 plants ; will push his boat across the lake, and 
 dive into the secrets of the ancient water-folk ; 
 wiQ pass by train into some neighbouring Com- 
 mune where the arts are other than he sees at 
 home. All bright and pleasant things are grouped 
 about him; and in after-time, when farm and 
 counter occupy his cares, these class-room days 
 will seem to him the merriest of his life. 
 
 The school, the pupil, and the teacher, are for 
 ever in the pubhc eye. The scholars promenade 
 the streets with music, flags, and songs. All men 
 make room for them salute them glory in them, 
 as the highest product of their state.
 
 254 
 
 CHAPTER XXYI. 
 
 DEMOCRACY AT SCHOOL. 
 
 Attention to his school is not a fixed and formal 
 business to a Switzer, as it might be to a Briton 
 and a Frank, but an unceasing and engrossing 
 duty from his cradle to his grave. The school is 
 with a Switzer always ^as a child and as a man. 
 No sooner has he ceased to be a pupil, than he 
 starts into a principal. The village schools are 
 governed by the villagers, and as a member of 
 his village, be he preacher, woodman, goat-herd, 
 inn-keeper, he must take his share in managing 
 these public schools. He has to build them, to 
 conduct them, and to keep them up. He has to 
 choose the teacher and director, and to pay a por- 
 tion of their stipends from his private purse. In 
 time he is a parent with his little ones to tend 
 and train. Then opens up a new relation to his 
 village schools. He is a visitor, on private even
 
 DEMOCKACY AT SCHOOL. 255 
 
 more than public grounds. Each parent has a 
 right to visit and inspect the school, to see the 
 teacher, and consult the records of his child. 
 Good teachers welcome these parental visits ; for 
 a parley with the father helps a teacher with 
 his child. The circle of his duty is complete, 
 and so a Switzer never can forget his school, 
 and what concerns his school. 
 
 School poHtics are public pohtics. With 
 the church and chapel make the popular poli- 
 tics; but in a Switzer's mind, there is an earlier 
 stage of thought than either church or chapel 
 reaches, and that earlier stage is only to be got 
 at in the school. 
 
 In many Cantons there ^ is some assertion in 
 the fundamental law that the true end of public 
 instruction is to combine democracy with religion, 
 that every boy attending at a pubHc school may 
 grow up into a good citizen and a good Christian. 
 In the law of Zurich it is said, ' The People's 
 schools shall train the children of all classes, on 
 a plan agreed upon, to be intelligent men, useful 
 citizens, and moral and rehgious beings.' In the 
 law of Luzem it is laid down that ' The school 
 affords to every boy and gii"l capable of educa- 
 tion the means of developing their mental and
 
 256 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 physical faculties, of training them for life in 
 the family, in the community, ia the church, 
 and in the state, of putting them in the way 
 to gain their future bread.' In Vaud the law- 
 declares that * Teaching in the pubHc schools 
 shall be in accordance with the principles of 
 Christianity and democracy.' In the law of 
 Thurgau it is stated that * The general aim of a 
 primary school shall be to caU out the power and 
 talents of the children, so as to give them the 
 knowledge and capacity of citizen-life, and to 
 train them to be moral and religious men and 
 women.' Almost every Canton puts a clear an- 
 nouncement of this principle in front the busi- 
 ness of a public teacher is to make his boys good 
 Republicans and good Christians. 
 
 But the rule thus stated in the form of law 
 is subject to revision year by year. The Jesuits 
 and their party put religion first ; and if they 
 had their way would liiake it first and last. 
 The liberals bring democracy to the front ; and 
 some among them, if they had their way, would 
 make it all in all. With us, elections mostly turn 
 on trade, alliances, and policy ; in Switzerland, 
 they mostly turn on school afl'airs ; and hence the 
 fundamental laws are in a stage of ebb and flow,
 
 DEMOCRACY AT SCHOOL. 257 
 
 as the conservative party and the democratic 
 party gain the upper hand. 
 
 In Zurich there was recently a question in 
 debate vsrhich set the city in a blaze. A new 
 girls' school was wanted ; every one allowed it, 
 though a stranger might have fancied there were 
 schools enough. The only question was, in which 
 locaHty the citizens should build that school. 
 Two parties came into the front a clerical 
 party and a liberal party ; those who put re- 
 ligion first, and those who put democracy first. 
 ' Let us build this school for females near the 
 minster,' said the clerical party, *for the female 
 mind is more susceptible than the male ; and 
 if we keep the women, we shall always have the 
 men.' The radical party met them with a counter- 
 cry : * No more connexion of the church and 
 school ; the clergy have no business in the 
 class-room : let us build on neutral ground be- 
 yond the ancient walls, among the vineyards, in 
 the sunshine.' Public poHcy was with the 
 radicals. No groimd was vacant near the min- 
 ster save the public square, and open places are 
 so rare in Zurich that a project for invading 
 one of them with stone and mortar meets with 
 pubhc opposition like a project with ourselves
 
 2'58 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 for trenching on a public park. The war of 
 words grew hot ; elections turned upon it ; till 
 the. clerical party got the sober people, known 
 as jperes de famille, on their side. These fathers 
 said their girls should grow beneath the shadow 
 of the minster ; it was better for them ; it was 
 more respectable ; it was their fate. And so 
 the school was built on the ancient cloisters, 
 round the graves of venerable monks. A sHce 
 of pubhc ground was added from the public 
 square. 
 
 In Bern a new girls' school is wanted. The 
 site must be a fine one ; yea, the very best in 
 Bern. But sites are difficult to find in this old 
 city, where the narrow ridge of ground is occupied 
 from gate to bridge with ancient houses. There 
 are left the pubhc gardens, called the Lesser 
 Bamparts, where the bands perform, the citizens 
 walk, the children play, and strangers watch the 
 SLm set on the Bernese alps. Can any part of 
 this delicious garden be surrendered ? Yes ; for 
 one great purpose, and that purpose only for 
 a school. The site is given ; but when the 
 plans are drawn, it is discovered that some lime- 
 trees of enormous size and matchless beauty
 
 DEMOCRACY AT SCHOOL. 259 
 
 trees which scent the air and cool the patha 
 must be destroyed. A second public pang 
 and they are gone. No pride and glory of the 
 town must stand between a Switzer and his 
 school. 
 
 In Lausanne you find the natives talking 
 much, and wisely, of an inter-cantonal move- 
 ment in support of what is held in certain 
 towns to be 'the just influence' of the French- 
 speaking section of the League. That section is 
 much weaker than the German-speaking section; 
 but in days gone by it held a share of power 
 beyond the value of its numbers on account of 
 its superior learning, energy, and dash. But now 
 the tables have been turned, for German science 
 has beaten French science, just as German arms 
 have subdued French arms. Lausanne is not 
 the literary capital ; that supremacy has gone to 
 Zurich. Geneva is no longer the poHtical centre ; 
 that supremacy has gone to Bern. Fact and fear 
 have roused the Gallic Cantons into crusade for 
 the preservation of their rights. Professor Eugene 
 Rambert, of Lausanne, first sounded the alarm. 
 Professor Bambert lives in Zurich, where he holds 
 the Chair of Literature. Aware of what is going
 
 260 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 on, he sees that ' La Suisse Romande ' is losing 
 ground, 'La Suisse Germanique' gaining ground. 
 He calls his countrymen to arms. A party meet 
 in the Hotel de Ville, Lausanne the men of 
 Neufchatel, Geneva, Vaud, and Valais when 
 the state of things is carefully explained, and a 
 proposal made to found a League of French- 
 speaking Cantons to defend themselves against 
 the ever-increasing German force. But how are 
 they to hold their own? By artifice, corruption, 
 violence ? Not a dream of such things clouds 
 their minds. The meeting sees and says it is a 
 question of the pubhc schools. French education 
 is below the mark it ought to be improved ; 
 and the Soci^td Intercantonale proposes to revise 
 and widen the superior education in the three 
 French-speaking cities of Lausanne, Geneva, 
 and Neufchatel. But how ? By means, says 
 Bambert, of a French University in Celtic 
 Switzerland. Professor Bambert is a native of 
 Lausanne, and he proposes to erect this Federal 
 University in Lausanne. But here creeps in once 
 more the si^ of race. Instead of urging that 
 the three French-speaking cities should subscribe 
 the money and begin the work, these Celtic
 
 DEMOCRACY AT SCHOOL. 261 
 
 Switzers ask their common country in the main 
 Teutonic to provide the means. The League, 
 they say, is rich ; the Canton poor. The Com- 
 munes are already taxed beyond their strength ; 
 the Cantons cannot bear fresh burthens ; let a 
 generous country pay !
 
 262 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 GENEVA. 
 
 A BAND, a line of flags ; much patter of smaU 
 feet, with now and then a swell of fervid song ; 
 some fifteen hundred girls in white ; a troop of 
 magistrates and councillors, pastors, teachers, 
 foreign consuls ; then a second band, with firemen 
 in their casques, and landwehr in their uniforms ; 
 some fifteen hundred boys in line of march ; soft 
 babble of young voices, in the intervals of drums 
 and trumpets. 
 
 Scene the English Garden at Geneva. Time 
 the afternoon of Tuesday, June the twenty- 
 seventh. Group the pupils of the primary 
 schools. Occasion the completion of the half- 
 years school-work. Prizes have been given to the 
 deserving scholars. Lists of those most worthy 
 of such honours have been read aloud. The ma- 
 gistrates of the repubhc have addressed them all 
 in cheery and exciting words. It is a great day 
 in their lives. They are the heroes of one happy
 
 GENEVA. 263 
 
 hour ; and all their faces glow with inner fire. A 
 word is given the bugles sound the lines begin 
 to move ; and soon the EngHsh Garden is behind 
 us. For the last three days the skies have opened 
 all their gates ; this morning brought a pause in 
 the great roar of rain ; and as the heads of co- 
 lumns quit the ground a gleam of sunshine shoots 
 to right and left, and soon the city and the lake 
 are bathed in golden hght. The Canton is agog 
 with joy. All men make way for the procession. 
 ' Ha ! the merry ones ! Good children ! Soldiers 
 of the Lord !' are some of many greetings, as the 
 boys and girls troop forward, pass the quays, and 
 winding by the Molard, up the Rue Corraterie, 
 reach the Electoral Palace, where the magistrates 
 receive them, and regale them. After honest 
 fexe and kindly speech, the children march to the 
 theatre, where conjurors and showmen entertain 
 them ; then to the Plainpalais, where all the city 
 goes to meet them; and a happy day is ended 
 with a wonderful discharge of fireworks, rockets^ 
 wheels, and detonating stars. 
 
 Much glory to the boys and girls ; but glory 
 earned by weeks of earnest work. 
 
 Enter one of the primary schools, from which 
 these children swarm into the streets. A goodly
 
 264 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 edifice clean stairs and passages silence like the 
 hush of summer woods a door that opens to a 
 touch a teacher glad to see you enter children 
 at their desks, and evidently used to strangers 
 coming in and going out ^these things strike the 
 senses first. You look around the class-room, 
 which contains some fifty boys, from six or seven 
 to nine or ten years old. These lads are all so 
 clean and spruce, that you are tempted to ex- 
 claim, * Are these your city Arabs V In Geneva, 
 lying close to Savoy, there are many poor, and 
 some neglected people. Standing at the outlet of 
 three Alpine valleys, she receives into her streets 
 the overflow from Sallanche, fi:om Annecy, from St. 
 Claude ; and if her streets are not so littered with 
 the waste of life as those of Lyons, there are 
 some undoubted Arabs here and there about her 
 cafes and along her quays. 
 
 * Our city Arabs,' says the teacher, ' drop their 
 nature when they come to school. Our laws are 
 strict, and we enforce them with the utmost zeal. 
 Our law declares that every child has a right to 
 come to school ; and his exclusion jfrom the school 
 is felt to be a serious blow for him. We punish, 
 therefore, by refusing him his seat. At six, a 
 boy should come to us of right, and claim his
 
 GENEVA. 265 
 
 place ; but we retain by law a power to strip him 
 of that right. We use this power in cases where 
 the child is not in fault, but where the pubUc 
 good requires a sacrifice of private right as where 
 a child is either deaf, dumb, blind, or idiotic. 
 Children who have not been vaccinated, children 
 who are suffering from diseases, children who pre- 
 sent disfigured and repulsive faces, are excluded 
 After they have got their seats, they may be sent 
 away for bad behaviour in the school, and on the 
 way to school A child is made to feel that coming 
 to the school is like the going to a palace and a 
 church.' 
 
 * But some of them must come in filth and rags V 
 
 * Yes, some ; not many and not long. For 
 dirt is but a habit of the eye, and habits of the 
 eye are quickly changed. "We wash the dirty 
 ones, and send them home with shining skins. A 
 mother gets ashamed on finding that some other 
 woman has to wash her child. The child, too, 
 gets ashamed ; for all the little lads about him 
 are as clean as new-shelled peas. No boy has 
 ever to be washed three times.' 
 
 A stranger's eye can see scant difference in 
 the scholars as to class, since all are trim and 
 tight, and look well fed.
 
 266 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 * Is there much mixture of the various social 
 classes in your Primary Schools V 
 
 ' We have no social classes in our common- 
 wealth.' 
 
 * Of course not. Pardon me. But you have 
 offices and professions, like the outer world. You 
 have, for instance, Councillors of State. Are any 
 of your boys the sons of Councillors of State V 
 
 '1 cannot say so. In some Cantons, such as 
 Bern and Ziirich, you will find the son of a pro- 
 fessor sitting in a primary school with sons of 
 weavers, goatherds, and mechanics. In Geneva 
 it is not the mode. We Latins are democratic 
 in our speeches, and Geneva is to us the centre 
 of all Hberal thought ; but not one member of 
 the democratic party in Geneva will allow his 
 boy to mix with common lads. You think he 
 would deny this statement ? You are right, he 
 would deny it ; yet he does not send his Jean and 
 Henri to the primary school' 
 
 Inquiry proves this teacher to be right in 
 what he says about the freer mixture of all 
 classes in Teutonic Cantons. 
 
 'Your pupils come from every grade?' I ask 
 a Zurich teacher. 
 
 ' Yes,' he answers, ' every grade. This boy
 
 GENEVA. 
 
 267 
 
 is a professor's son. You know his father. He 
 
 is B . The next to him that clever-looking 
 
 lad is a cabman's son.' 
 
 * Professor B has no objection to his 
 
 boy being school-mate to the cabman's son V 
 
 ' No, none. Why should he have ? In coun- 
 tries where you have a privileged class such 
 things may be. With us abihty is the only 
 rank, and men are thrown together in their later 
 life according to the groups they form at school. 
 If A. is equal to B. in learning, he is equal to 
 him in everything that ought to count' 
 
 I take the actual census in one Zurich class. 
 The boys are fifty -two in number, and their 
 ages seven to eight. 
 
 Sons of shopkeepers ... . .21 
 merchants ... .10 
 petty tradesmen ... 4 
 innkeepers .... 4 
 professors .... 2 
 
 Son of a musician 
 an apothecary . 
 an architect 
 a business agent 
 a porter . 
 a day labourer . 
 a clothes-cleaner 
 
 Unclassified 
 
 62
 
 268 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 In talking on this subject to Professor B , 
 
 I find tlie teacher right in substance even when he 
 
 errs in form. Professor B does not exactly 
 
 hold that learning gives the only title to respect ; 
 he thinks that gentle manners and a manly spirit 
 count for something ; but he sees that in a free 
 commonwealth, where power depends on popularity, 
 it is the best thing for a lad that he should grow 
 up with his fellows. 'Mark me,' also adds Pro- 
 fessor B , ' the education that my boy obtains 
 
 in the public school is very good, and is provided 
 for him at the public cost.' 
 
 In the Teutonic Cantons, though the teaching 
 is not better, there is less division of society in 
 the schools. The Teutons talk much less about 
 equality than the Latins ; but the Teutons practise, 
 while the Latins only preach. A Councillor of 
 State in such a Canton as Geneva is an aristo- 
 crat in feeling, though a democrat in flag. He 
 keeps a shop (say) on the Grand Quay ; he owns 
 a villa on the lake; he has a room of. books, a 
 cabinet of wines. He takes an interest in this 
 question of primary instruction. Only yesterday 
 he spoke for upwards of an hour in answer to 
 Professor Vogt; his eyes aglow with light; his 
 tones impressed with zeal ; his passion noble.
 
 GENEVA. 269 
 
 tender, liberal ; yet he sees no need to let his 
 , children mix with those of citizens A. and B., 
 who vend their wares in smaller streets, and are 
 not Councillors of State. His fellows in the 
 Council send their boys to private schools, and 
 he must send his also to a private school. 
 
 * Do tradesmen send their children to you?' 
 
 * Yes ; the greater part. The school is good, 
 and cheap. No private master can pretend to 
 vie with us. What he can offer is exclusiveness 
 a dear and poor instruction, in a smaller house 
 and a less airy place. A man has not yet come 
 to be a true repubHcan if he prefers a private 
 to a pubHc school The higher class of tradesmen 
 send their sons, and these good fellows are our 
 Attic salt.' 
 
 'Your walls and floors and desks are very 
 clean. Your passages and staircase show no 
 scratch and scrawL No bits of paper dot the 
 floors, no splash of ink defaces desk and form.' 
 
 * Our discipline is one of self-respect and self- 
 restraint. We teach our children how to think 
 and act, no less than how to read and write. 
 Instruction is but part of education. If our plans 
 are right, it is in fact the lesser part. We pay 
 QS much attention to the things of life as to
 
 270 THE SWITZEES. 
 
 the tilings of learning. Thus we see to a boy's 
 manners and appearance : how he looks, and how 
 he walks, and how he speaks. We see that he 
 has washed his hands, and that he keeps his 
 papers clean. "We teach him to regard a blot 
 upon his page as worse than even a smudge upon 
 his face. A book befouled with grime is wasted, 
 and our simple habits will not suffer Avaste. 
 Turn over any of these books the books in 
 daily use no leaf is torn, no cover is defaced. 
 The writing-desk, though ink is freely used, is 
 free from speck and spot.* 
 
 * Your boys seem gentle to the touch ; but 
 you must have some rougher types of lad ? What 
 means have you of keeping the unruly spirits in 
 such order?* 
 
 *We expel them. Such a case is rare; in 
 some schools hardly known. A threat suffices 
 to subdue the proudest flesh. In truth, to be 
 expelled from school is only one degree from 
 ruin. Where can the expelled one go? Our 
 laws about exchange of school are very strict. 
 These laws permit a lad whose parent passes 
 from one village to another to exchange his 
 school, but recognise no other cause as giving 
 him a natural right to change. Nor can such
 
 GENEVA. 271 
 
 change be made at all without a special leave, 
 in writing, from the inspector of his district 
 school. A special leave is hard to get. Thus 
 change is rare, and when it comes the cause of 
 it is known ; and so a lad who is expelled must 
 go into a second school with evil name and 
 fame. His course in that new place will not be 
 smooth.' 
 
 'Expulsion is with you a public act?' 
 
 ' Entirely so that is, expulsion in the last 
 degree.' 
 
 ' You have degrees V 
 
 ' Yes, three degrees ; a first, a second, and a 
 third degree. The first is a forbidding of the 
 school ; it may be for a day, a week ; and when 
 the lad returns his parents must come with him, 
 and must promise he shall mend his ways. The 
 second is removal for a longer term ; a month, a 
 quarter, perhaps ; when he can only take his place 
 again by an express authority from either the 
 inspector of his district or his village mayor. 
 The third expulsion is the last. It is a public 
 act. The master and inspector must consent ; 
 the Educational Department must concur. No 
 boy can be expelled from school excepting by 
 this public act.'
 
 272 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 ' Expulsion is your last resource ; but you 
 have other means?' 
 
 * Yes ; many.' 
 
 * Of a moral kind ? Your laws, I think, pro- 
 hibit every form of corporal punishment?' 
 
 ' Our laws are clear upon that point. No 
 bodily pain, no bodily shame, is suffered in our 
 schools. A lad has rights. We cannot stint 
 his food ; we cannot lock him up ; we cannot 
 put him in a corner ; we cannot lay him on his 
 back ; we cannot crown him with a dunce's cap ; 
 we cannot make a guy of him, even thoiigh his 
 parents should request us to employ such means.' 
 
 ' Your discipline is wholly moral V 
 
 'Yes; our means are prizes smiles, good 
 words, good notes ; all leading up to pubHc acts 
 of honoiu", when the more deserving pupils are 
 the heroes of their time. Desire to win a prize 
 has more effect than fear of punishment in keep- 
 ing scholars out of mischief. Pranks take time, 
 and boys who mean to win their prizes have no 
 time to spare.' 
 
 'But now and then some boy offends the 
 rule?' 
 
 'A word, a glance, a call of name, suffice in 
 almost every case. We sometimes have to keep
 
 GENEVA. 273 
 
 a lad an hour in school, when all his fellows 
 have gone home. We sometimes give an extra 
 task to learn. We mark his card ; we let his 
 parents know of his default. In some bad cases, 
 we may keep him in a room apart. If all these 
 methods fail and they but seldom fail we 
 may expel him for a week, a month; and in 
 the last resort we turn him out of school for 
 good and bad.' 
 
 'You never use the rod?* 
 
 *The law does not permit us.' 
 
 * But you have a rod ; it seems much worn 
 about the end V 
 
 'We point with it; and beat the desk with 
 it; and yes we sometimes touch a dull boy's 
 fingers with it.' 
 
 *Do you ever box a lad's ears?' 
 
 * Well, no ; I hardly think so. Not in anger, 
 surely ; we may tickle him by a little slap, but 
 not to hurt him ; just to wake him up. Our 
 discipline is that of steady, daily work. Our 
 yoimgsters have no idle hours. We have abolished 
 mischief with the penalties for mischief Look 
 at our Scheme of Work, and teU me how a lad 
 who has to face it can indulge in prank and play.'
 
 274 
 
 CHAPTEK XXYIII. 
 
 SCHEME OF WORK. 
 
 These Genevese lads are seven years old and 
 upwards. Most of them are eight or ten. 
 
 A few have been at infant-schools. The 
 state encourages such schools, and helps them by 
 a pubhc grant ; but Communes are not forced to 
 found them, and in many Cantons infant-schools 
 are hardly known. The few who may have been 
 at infant-schools have learnt to count, to name 
 their letters, both in type and writing, and to 
 sing their baby songs. All that was play the 
 time has come for work. 
 
 Each child must stay six years at school, and 
 every year, if he does well, should see him mount 
 his ladder step by step. For every year there is 
 a new degree. 
 
 First Degree. 
 The infant stage is past, and in the outset
 
 SCHEME OF WORK. 275 
 
 every lad is thought to know as much as would be 
 taught him at an infant-school. The first degree 
 is tliat of reading, writing, and accounting. He 
 has to undergo a course of pictures on the wall, 
 with object lessons on the diiferent themes. He 
 learns to read and spell a little, and he makes his 
 first acquaintance with a book a simple spelling- 
 book. He now begins to write to copy hooks, 
 rings, strokes, and bars ; to study letters, in the 
 capital form ; and afterwards to set down, from 
 dictation of his master, letters, syllables, and easy 
 words. In arithmetic he studies adding and sub- 
 tracting only. He must copy numbers up to 
 twenty. He must know the figures both by ear 
 and eye, and practise writing them by sound and 
 sight. He learns addition and subtraction up to 
 twenty. In this early stage the singing is of 
 simple sort, and not so much a lesson as a game. 
 
 Second Degree. 
 
 The lessons open with an exercise on moral 
 life, on natural history, on the laws of health, and 
 on historical events. These exercises are to be 
 continued by the master, in all after years, up 
 to the sixth degree. The reading is expected
 
 276 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 to be better, care being given to an exact pro- 
 nunciation of the words. The writing goes from 
 big to middle size, and when the figures grow more 
 easy to the child, he is allowed to try the finer 
 forms. In his arithmetic he makes a stride ; he 
 numbers, adds, subtracts up to a thousand ; reck- 
 ons by the mind, and makes acquaintance with his 
 second book a treatise on addition and subtrac- 
 tion. As he marks his way, the master gives him 
 some examples of multiplication as they stand 
 connected with the rules of addition, now familiar 
 to his eye. A new and most important study 
 stands before him French, his native speech. He 
 has to learn some words each day by heart; to 
 study, copy, and dictate these words. He hears 
 of noun, verb, article, and adjective, and tries to 
 master how these parts of speech are used. He 
 gets some lessons on gender and number ; and con- 
 tinues singing, as before. 
 
 Third Degree. 
 
 In the third degree (besides the exercises on 
 moral life, on natural history, on laws of health, 
 and on historical events) the lad is taught to read 
 a current page, and then the master tells him what
 
 SCHEME OF WORK. 277 
 
 it means. Great care is paid to pronunciation ; and 
 the teacher must explain the use of dashes, dots, and 
 hyphens, on a page of print. The writing is con- 
 tinued in all hands the big, the medium, and the 
 fine. Examples must be written out. The cypher- 
 ing must include addition, subtraction, and multi- 
 phcation, up to any number, with study of the 
 works on these three operations. Simple cases of 
 division, as developed from subtraction, may be 
 given, with problems and exercises of a simple 
 kind. The French is more advanced ; the lad is 
 told to use a vocabulary ; and up to this date a 
 boy's third year at school it is supposed that he 
 has never seen a book of words ! He is now to 
 tackle time and person in his grammar ; and his 
 master is to tell him of indicative and imperative, 
 gender and number, subject and object. He is 
 taught the formation of plurals, and to know a 
 personal pronoun when he sees it. He is intro- 
 duced to feminine and masculine, and taught to 
 see the kinship of an adjective and a verb. He 
 has to face another subject, drawing, which he first 
 encounters in the shape of lines and angles ; but 
 he only has to face it for an hour a week, and with 
 a rule and compass in liis hand. His singing 
 lessons still go on.
 
 278 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Fourth Degree. 
 Exercises on morals, natural history, and laws 
 of health, as usual, current reading, with an ex- 
 planation ; also dashes, dots, and hyphens as 
 before. The reading lessons now include intona- 
 tion ; study and recital of simple pieces ; with 
 questions and replies. The writing is after 
 model and dictation, with copies of invoices and 
 bills. The cyphering includes multiplication and 
 division up to any numbers. The French be- 
 comes more complex : studies in the construction 
 of co-ordinate propositions, auxiliary verbs, the 
 commoner class of irregular verbs, the passive 
 form, and explanations of the adverb, preposition, 
 and conjunction. Learning of words by heart 
 goes on. The drawing must advance some steps. 
 No rule, no compass is allowed ; a printed model 
 is hung up ; and all the pupils copy it as they 
 can. When single lines and angles have been 
 neatly done, a pupil is instructed to combine 
 them into groups. Another subject has been 
 introduced this year geography ; this subject 
 for two hours a-week. Geography is taught on 
 natural lines ; the teacher starts with Geneva, and 
 explains from what is known by sight to what is 
 only known by word. Land and water lead to
 
 SCHEME OF WORK. 279 
 
 continent and ocean, and the general features 
 of the earth's surface are exhibited in lake 
 and alp. 
 
 The singing has become more serious, and a 
 goodly slice of time is now given up to exercise 
 and drill 
 
 Fifth Degree. 
 
 Exercise and current reading as before, but 
 more of it More singing, exercise, and drill than 
 ever. 
 
 The reading lessons are continued, with explan- 
 ations, questions, ,and replies. Much time is 
 given to intonation, also to reading poetry and 
 selected bits of prose aloud. The writing lessons 
 take the form of copying models, and writing under 
 dictation. In his fifth year the pupil commences 
 round hand, of the sort which English boys learn 
 first and then forget. The cyphering begins with 
 practice in the four rules, separately and con- 
 jointly, then proceeds to decimal fractions and the 
 four operations in decimals. Practice continues; 
 mental arithmetic continues ; and the pupils dash 
 at vulgar fractions. French progresses into the 
 abstruser parts of grammar ; and the lessons are 
 on the different sorts of determinatives, the chief
 
 280 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 exceptions to the formation of plural and feminine, 
 the classification of pronouns, the conjugation of 
 verbs, the preposition and the adverb. Exercises 
 in analysis are given. The drawing now includes 
 the outlines of seas and continents, together with 
 such figures as consist of straight lines and curves 
 only. Outline maps are made. The geography 
 takes in the world ; the lessons being three a 
 general view of the five parts of the globe, a 
 special view of Europe, and a fuller view of Switz- 
 erland in her physical aspects. Two fresh sub- 
 jects have been introduced this year geometry 
 and history. In the class of geometry the pupil 
 studies lines, angles, figures, with the measure- 
 ment of plain surfaces. The history is local, fol- 
 lowing the plan pursued in the class of geography, 
 and sets before the boy a picture of his country 
 fixjm the earliest to the latest times. 
 
 Sixth Degree. 
 
 Not to speak of exercises in morals, natural 
 history, the laws of health, and historical events ; 
 not to speak of current readings, with an ex- 
 planation of the use of hyphen, dot, and dash ; 
 the subjects in the sixth degree are eight in num- 
 ber, without counting music, exercise, and drill.
 
 SCHEME OF WORK. 281 
 
 These eight subjects are severely taught ; the lads 
 being twelve years old. 
 
 The reading now consists of exercises in into- 
 nation and declamation ; summaries by voice and 
 writing ; special treatises on history, health, natural 
 history, agriculture (for the coimtry folk), and 
 science as applied to industry for all ; and recita- 
 tions of poetry and selected bits of prose. 
 
 The writing now embraces cursive hand under 
 dictation, models of round hand, copies of pubHc 
 acts, of bills, of letters on business, with specimens 
 in all the styles, big, middling, cursive, round. 
 The arithmetic comprises sums in vulgar fractions, 
 in mixed numbers, some ideas of aliquot parts, 
 the metrical system, the rule of three and applica- 
 tion of this rule to interests, discounts, dividends. 
 The French embraces lessons on invariable words, 
 the principal exceptions to the rules of concord, 
 the participles, the collective nouns, the main 
 difficulties of French syntax. These are followed 
 by a string of exercises ; exercises on the mo- 
 dification which changes in the verb cause the 
 prepositions ; on the general principles of com- 
 position, on the rules of epistolary correspondence ; 
 on common synonymes ; on bad grammar and on 
 slang. The drawing passes from even lines and
 
 282 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 curves into the representation of common ob- 
 jects, houses, men, and boats, and the master 
 gives instruction in perspective, and in light and 
 shade. Objects are copied and models made. 
 The class of geometry employs itself upon the 
 means of measuring surfaces and bodies, with 
 the art and practice of surveying land. Three 
 hours a-week are given to geography ; including, 
 first, a detailed study of Switzerland and the ad- 
 jacent parts of Savoy, Burgundy, and Franche 
 Comtd ; second, lessons on the form and motion of 
 the earth ; third, a general view of the starry 
 heavens. The history consists of courses on 
 national events from 1513 (the first year of the 
 Republic) to 1848 (when the existing system of 
 Confederate Cantons took its form), the constitu- 
 tion of Geneva, and the Federal pact. 
 
 An extra subject that of agriculture is 
 taught in the country schools. A master parts 
 his sixth year into agricultural sessions ; in the 
 first of which he gives instruction on the nature 
 of soils, the different kinds of soil, the art of mix- 
 ing and manuring soil, together with the use and 
 economy of labour ; in the second, he discourses 
 on agricultural implements, on seeds and dried 
 plants, on various cereals, vines, straw, forage,
 
 SCHEME OF WORK. 283 
 
 and the like, with hints on noxious plants and 
 animals, on insects, and the general business of 
 a husbandman. 
 
 To this large list of subjects must be added 
 singing and gymnastics, branches of primary- 
 education which are given in two divisions, and 
 in unison with each other. Both are taught 
 with care, and both with reference to a due 
 development of the physical and the moral 
 powers. 
 
 These pupils in Geneva toil more hours 
 a-year than any one would like to set our 
 boys to toil. A school week in Geneva numbers 
 thirty hoiu-s; a year from forty- four to forty- 
 six weeks. These hours and weeks are those 
 in which the pupil must attend at school; but 
 they are only half the time he is expected to 
 be hard at work. This rule is matter of the 
 strictest law. * All scholars in the primary schools 
 have daily tasks to do at home ; the length 
 and value of which tasks are in proportion to 
 their age.' In rural districts some discretion 
 is allowed the teacher in this matter. Lads of 
 seven or eight may be exempted from these 
 tasks ; but no such weakness is displayed in 
 towns. The task at home is nearly equal to
 
 284 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 the task at school. Inquiry at Geneva and 
 Lausanne has shown me that the hours of study 
 school- work, drill, and home-work are not 
 less than ten, and often rise as high as twelve 
 or thirteen hours a-day. In fine, these Switzers 
 tug at learning as we EngHsh tug at trade.
 
 285 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 
 
 A LAD who passes through his six degrees, and 
 through his extra subjects, in a primary school, 
 with fair success, is not unfit to enter on his 
 course of active life in any of the lower grades. 
 He may aspire to drive a coach, to row a boat, 
 to fell a wood, to guide a plough. His age is 
 only twelve ; the world is all before him ; and 
 more paths than one entice his feet. If he would 
 keep what he has got, and clutch at more, an 
 evening school is open either in his village or a 
 neighbouring village, where, his daily toil being 
 ended, he may follow science to her secret haunts. 
 In evening schools the course of study runs 
 to three ftiU years; the masters are the best 
 that can be hired ; the mayor and councillors 
 take an interest in them ; and a lad who keeps 
 his terms, and finishes his course, will then have 
 had the benefit of being under good instruction
 
 286 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 for at least nine years. He ought to know his 
 subjects well 
 
 If he should aim at higher things, and if his 
 parents can afford to spare him in the early- 
 hours, he goes into a secondary school. A 
 country lad, he finds his secondary school 
 in either his native village or a neighbouring 
 village, always at an easy walk from home. A 
 city lad, he finds his secondary school in the 
 shape of either a college or a special school; 
 but always in a neighbouring street. The means 
 are at his door ; and if he fails to use them, it is 
 not the pubhc fault. 
 
 All pubhc schools for secondary teaching in 
 the Canton of Geneva may be grouped under 
 two heads : the rural scht)ols, the city schools ; 
 each group of institutions framed to meet the 
 wants of those who come to them. The country- 
 schools are mostly union schools. One Commune 
 only that of Satigny has a secondary school 
 for itself. In one case, two Communes Meyrin 
 and Vernier have a school between them. 
 Generally four Communes join in keeping up a 
 secondary school. The forty-two Communes in 
 the Canton of Geneva have twelve of these rural 
 schools among them.
 
 SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 287 
 
 A lad begins his second education at the 
 point where he broke off his first. In entering 
 on his thirteenth year, he finds in front of him 
 three years of toil. A part of these arrange- 
 ments stands the same for boys and girls : to 
 wit, the principles of moral science ; French, 
 with composition and the elements of style ; 
 elocution ; the more important facts in modem 
 history, with reference to the history of Geneva ; 
 common geography, with the use of globes ; 
 meteorology; the elements of physic, natural 
 history, and chemistry ; the laws of health ; the 
 art of writing ; singing. Here lines divide, and 
 the instruction is adapted to the sex. A sepa- 
 rate course is given to boys, on civic duties, on 
 geometry applied to measurements, on agricul- 
 tural science, on the books for a farm ; and exer- 
 cises are provided in drawing common objects, 
 in gymnastics, and in German if the regent 
 is able to teach this language. Girls are taught 
 in special classes, how to cast accounts, to tend 
 plants and flowers, to use the needle, and to 
 keep the house. The girls are also taught the 
 art of treating sick and wounded men. 
 
 One school suffices for both girls and boys ; 
 the boys attending only in the morning, while
 
 288 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 the girls come only in the afternoon. This suits 
 the parents, who could hardly spare their children 
 all at once from work ; and makes one school- 
 house serve for both the sexes. A regent has the 
 general charge. A quarter of the regent's salary- 
 is paid by the united Communes, three-quarters 
 by the Canton. In return these secondary schools 
 are founded when and where the Council of State 
 sees fit. 
 
 The elements of drill begin the very first 
 week of a scholar's course. A teacher sets his 
 pupils in a row ; he makes them stand erect ; 
 he moves their hmbs together; bids them bend, 
 recover, stretch the hands, march, leap, and 
 jump. All kinds of games are practised in the 
 play-ground. Every game that tends to open 
 and expand the chest, to nerve the limbs, and 
 give a carriage to the firame, is studied, and, if 
 need be, introduced. From six to eight a lad 
 is exercised in simple motions of the body ; at 
 the age of nine he learns to hold a pole, to run 
 with ropes, and swing on bars. From ten to 
 thirteen harder things made easy by the pre- 
 vious training are commenced. The lines are 
 formed hke regular squads ; the exercise is but 
 another name for drill. In walking, running.
 
 SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 289 
 
 hopping, every one obeys the word ; whirls, 
 changes front, and halts as he is told. All exer- 
 cise is orderly and rhythmical. Much care is 
 taken with the halting, turning round, and facing 
 to the right or left. The squads are put through 
 many exercises in bending, twisting, reaching, 
 and recovering at the ease. Long jumps and 
 high jumps, every sort of sport on foot, with 
 hanging by the hands and feet from rungs, with 
 chmbing poles and ropes, with bounding from a 
 spring-board, and a hundred games that strengthen, 
 temper, and adjust the frame. 
 
 On leaving one of these rural schools at fifteen 
 years of age, a lad is fit for any post that he is 
 likely to obtain ; is fit to be a waiter, farmer, 
 boatman, forester, and so on ; and is also fit to 
 exercise his public rights to hold his rifle and 
 to cast his vote. For such a lad can read and 
 write, can sing and shoot ; he knows the con- 
 stitution of his country, and can foUow with a 
 free intelligence the politics of his city and his 
 State. Of course he is no scholar, for he knows 
 no Greek and Latin, and his range of language, 
 poetry, mythology, and humanities, is not wide. 
 He has no chance of entering the professions. 
 He cannot hope to be an advocate, physician, 
 
 u
 
 290 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 clergyman, professor. If he means to try a higher 
 flight, he must repair to one of the burgher 
 schools. 
 
 The burgher schools in the Canton of Geneva 
 which may be taken as examples of their 
 fellows are : (1) the College of Geneva ; (2) the 
 College of Carouge ; (3) the Industrial and 
 Commercial School ; (4) the Supplementary 
 School ; (5) the Superior Ladies' School. 
 
 Pupils, whether boys or girls, are subject to 
 preliminary examination, in the presence of cer- 
 tain persons named by the Department of Public 
 Instruction. These examinations are very strict, 
 alike for scholars who have passed through pubhc 
 schools and private schools. Some general rules 
 apply to each and all. No class can be increased 
 beyond sixty pupils ; the year comprises forty 
 weeks at least ; the hours of study in each week 
 are fixed at thirty in summer time, at thirty- 
 two in winter time ; examination in the several 
 branches must be holden once a-year at least ; 
 and a festival of promotion is given at the con- 
 clusion of the summer term. 
 
 The most renowned of these superior schools 
 is the College of Geneva. If our aspirant is a 
 city lad, ambition will induce him to prefer that
 
 SECONDARY SCHbOLS. 291 
 
 school It is divided into two main sections a 
 classical section, a commercial section ; and the 
 boy will enter one or other, as his aim in life 
 suggests. He studies to some end, and takes 
 his course according to that end. 
 
 The course of classical education runs seven 
 years from the age of fifteen to twenty-two. 
 The course includes the principles of morahty ; 
 French, with composition and the elements of 
 style ; the art of making verses ; diction ; Latin, 
 Greek, mythology (clubbed together as one sub- 
 ject) ; the German language ; the salient points 
 of general history and national history ; the rights 
 and duties of a citizen ; ancient and modem geo- 
 graphy ; arithmetic ; caligraphy ; singing ; and 
 gymnastics. All these subjects must be taught; 
 but extra subjects may be introduced, if they 
 are not allowed to interfere with what the law 
 lays down as fixed and regular work. An English 
 eye sees much to note as odd in such a list of 
 subjects. How can composition be regarded as 
 a separate study from versification, and, still 
 more, from diction ? How can Latin, Greek, 
 and Mythology, be treated in a single class ? No 
 Enghsh master dreams of giving lessons on the 
 rights and duties of a citizen. What pubhc school
 
 292 THE SWITZEBS. 
 
 in England teaches writing as an art ? Yet most 
 of these things seem so natural to a Switzer, 
 that he starts when you remark upon them. All 
 French teachers pay attention to their native 
 tongue, and dwell, with an adoring fondness, on 
 its beauty, force, and point. We give our youth 
 to Latin, and a Latin gives his youth to French. 
 The rights and duties of a citizen are themes of 
 daily interest to a Switzer, who must take his 
 part in every movement of the state. A country 
 squire in England likes his son to know a 
 little law, for he may have to judge offenders 
 from the local bench. All Switzers may have 
 magisterial duties to discharge as village mayor, 
 as justice of the peace, as councillor of state ; 
 and thus the rights and duties of a citizen are 
 taught in all the secondary and superior schools. 
 That caligraphy should be studied as a separate 
 branch, by youths of twenty-two, may seem 
 absurd ; but the result is good ; and nearly all 
 these Switzers write in hands which men who 
 run may read. One knows some English hands 
 and those of men the best worth reading which 
 no mortal patience can make out. A young man 
 who has kept his seven years in the classical 
 section of this college should be fit for most
 
 SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 293 
 
 things in his Canton short of a professor's 
 chair. 
 
 The commercial section differs from the classical 
 section in the length and course of study. Six 
 instead of seven years complete the series, and 
 the Greek and Latin tongues give place to 
 English. Every care is given to practical train- 
 ing for office. The course of study runs morals ; 
 French, with composition, elements of style, and 
 literary history ; diction ; the German tongue ; 
 the English tongue for the superior classes ; salient 
 points of general history and national histoiy; 
 the rights and duties of a citizen; mythology; 
 geography, and cosmography ; the history of 
 discoveries ; a brief history of the arts ; elements 
 of poHtical economy ; arithmetic ; book-keeping ; 
 elementary algebra, with logarithms ; elementary 
 geometry and trigonometry, with application to 
 topography ; the elements of physics and me- 
 chanics ; studies in natural history and chemistry ; 
 drawing, with descriptive geometry; caligraphy; 
 singing ; gymnastics. 
 
 At the end of these two courses at the age 
 of twenty -two and twenty-one respectively the 
 pupils who have passed a satisfactory examination 
 receive certificates of capacity, and may then
 
 294 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 proceed to any university and so prepare tliem- 
 selves for the bar, the pulpit, the professor s chair. 
 
 The College of Carouge intended mainly for 
 the Catholic population, who are less instructed, 
 as a rule, than the Calvinistic population has a 
 course of three years only ; corresponding to the 
 first three years in the College of Geneva. 
 Carouge is separated from Geneva by a mile 
 of neutral territory, called the Plain ; but what a 
 difference in the people and the schools ! Carouge 
 is Savoyard, not Swiss. Adjoined to the republic 
 of Geneva, in 1814, for political reasons by the 
 Powers, this town has none of the traditions of 
 Geneva, and her people rank among the least 
 enhghtened members of the League. Laws which 
 suit the Free City do not suit this Catholic 
 suburb. Every rule must be relaxed. The term 
 from six or seven years to three is lowered. 
 The hours demanded in the week are fewer. 
 They may be only twenty-six ; and they are 
 mostly twenty-six. A lad who passes through 
 this college of Carouge is not prepared to enter 
 on a higher course of study, and he cannot hope 
 to win professional rank. 
 
 Here lies the secret of that high predominance 
 which the Calvinistic population of the city
 
 SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 295 
 
 exercises over the Catholic population of the 
 country, even in the face of a majority of 
 Cathohc votes. If ruling force in a repubHc lay 
 in numbers only, and the march of public law- 
 was governed by the polling-booth, this Canton 
 of Geneva should be ultramontane, like the 
 Catholic bishop, Gaspard Mermillod, who rules, 
 as Curd of Geneva, an unruly flock of sheep. The 
 latest census gives the several confessions in the 
 Canton thus : 
 
 CathoHcs .... 48,340 souls. 
 
 Evangehcals . . . 44,138 
 
 Jews 1,001 
 
 Other Sects ... 637 
 
 Mermillod, therefore, has a clear and strong 
 majority of the Canton at his back. The suffrage 
 is universal ; and a clear majority in the polling- 
 booths should give him a majority in the Hotel 
 de Ville. But he has no such power; the 
 better taught minority carries everything before 
 it in the pubHc council and the public press.
 
 296 
 
 CHAPTEE XXX. 
 
 SCHOOL AND CAMP. 
 
 Director Max Wirtli of Bern assures me that 
 no boy, no girl, exists in this Confederation 
 save an idiot here and there wlio cannot read 
 and write. So far as one can judge, Herr Wirth 
 is right, as to the outer side of things. All 
 Switzers seem to be and to have been at 
 school. There must be some exceptions to this 
 happy rule ; exceptions in remote and barren 
 wilds, where nature gives her offspring an embrace 
 like that of wolves and bears. In cities there 
 are no illiterate classes like the savages of Lon- 
 don, Paris, and New York; but in such chasms 
 as break the snowy alps of Schwyz and Uri, 
 where the pine and larch can hardly grasp the 
 rocks, there may be found some unkempt, un- 
 taught boors. Not many, perhaps but some ; 
 enough to show that men are men, and that 
 the sternest rules may fail where nature works
 
 SCHOOL AND CAMP. 297 
 
 against them. More than once, in crossing by 
 the passes of Graublinden, through the Fore 
 Rhine country, I have come on village schools 
 shut up ; and on inquiring at the nearest house 
 of call, have learned that that they are closed 
 for more than six months out of twelve. In 
 siunmer time a lad is on the mountains tending 
 goats ; in winter time his house is buried luider 
 snow. The school is three miles from his door; 
 how can he be expected to attend it every day ? 
 The law may tell him he must go to school. 
 The law soimds well enough in Chiu- ; but who 
 shall fetch him from the Alpine tops, and 
 who unearth him from the falHng snow ? In 
 these secluded mountain troughs the life is 
 hard, the priest is easy, and the village mayor 
 is kind. A peasant mayor can feel for peasant 
 woes ; and though he reads the' law, and talks 
 of putting it in force from day to day, the 
 months sHp by, and Johann is not seen at school. 
 But these exceptions hardly tell against the 
 mass. In looking broadly for results, these 
 Alpine savages may well be dropped. ' We reckon 
 all such waifs and strays as idiots,' Wirth 
 remarks. They need not mar the picture, though 
 they shade it with a little cloud.
 
 298 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 In general terms, all Switzers, male and female, 
 may be said to read and write, to keep accounts, 
 to sing, to shoot, and take a personal and intelli- 
 gent part in what concerns the public weaL 
 
 How much unlike the state of things in 
 England, who shall need to say ? At home, we 
 Enghsh stand outside the lists ; and even in the 
 United States our kinsmen show to disadvantage. 
 Take the census of 1860 in the United States. 
 The figures will astound some persons who have 
 long been saying that if education is neglected 
 on the parent soil, it flourishes abundantly 
 among our sons. How stands the record? In 
 America the number of illiterate men and women, 
 white of skin, and over twenty-one years old, 
 is upwards of a million. The number of illite- 
 rate persons is increasing, not diminishing. In 
 1840 the white-skins over twenty-one who could 
 not read and write were 549,850; in 1850 these 
 illiterates had increased to 962,898 ; in 1860- 
 they had swelled to 1,126,575. If you were to 
 throw in other classes red-skins, black-skins, 
 yellow-skins you would increase this number 
 very much. The yellow-skins and red-skins were 
 not counted in this census, but the black-skins 
 were ; and from this colour only the Department
 
 SCHOOL AND CAMP. 299 
 
 of Education add 1,750,536 adults to the mass 
 of ignorant whites. In all, the States report 
 that they are burthened with a population of 
 2,872,111 whites and blacks who neither read 
 nor write. 
 
 Thus the number of ignorant adults in America 
 of men who read no books, no laws, no con- 
 stitutions, no reports, yet exercise political power 
 is greater than the whole population of Swit- 
 zerland. It may be fancied that these ignorant 
 whites are strangers ; this is partly true, though 
 not to any large extent. The mass of those 
 who neither read nor write are natives of the soil 
 We cite these figures from the census : 
 
 Illiterate white adults, 1860 : 
 
 Native-born .... 871,418 
 Foreign-bom .... 346,893 
 
 But some may dream that this neglect of 
 education in America is partial only; in the 
 ignorant South, in the chaotic West. The tables 
 yield no facts that would support this view. 
 What strikes one most in going through these 
 tables is the uniformity of ignorance in the leading 
 States. Virginia home of Chivalry is the most 
 ignorant State of all ; but North Carolina and 
 Tennessee are not far behind. Bead this tale of
 
 300 
 
 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 grown-up white men and women who (in 1860) 
 could neither read nor write : 
 
 In the State of Virginia 
 
 . 72,000 souls 
 
 
 
 North CaroHna 
 
 . 68,000 
 
 
 >f 
 
 Tennessee . 
 
 . 67,000 
 
 
 } 
 
 Kentucky . 
 
 . 63,000 
 
 
 > 
 
 Indiana 
 
 . 54,000 
 
 ) 
 
 t 
 
 Ohio . 
 
 . 41,000 
 
 3 
 
 ) 
 
 Tlh'nois 
 
 . 38,000 
 
 ) 
 
 ) 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 . 36,000 
 
 i 
 
 y 
 
 New York . 
 
 . 20,000 
 
 Horace Mann asserts that these returns are 
 far below the facts. He takes some pains to show 
 that many persons are returned as able to read 
 and write who are not able ; and he adds no less 
 than forty in the hundred to these numbers, in 
 correction of that false return. He nearly doubles 
 the enormous totals of these ignorant whites. 
 
 Select one State for more exact comparison 
 with Switzerland. Take Pennsylvania as a spe- 
 cial State, in which the care of education has 
 been constant, from the day when Sydney aided 
 Penn to frame a true Republican constitution. The 
 population of Pennsylvania is a Httle over that of 
 Switzerland. The State has 13,936 schools, with 
 815,763 pupils attending them, yet the number of 
 men and women, white of skin, and over twenty-
 
 SCHOOL AND CAMP. 301 
 
 one years old, who cannot read and write, stands 
 in the latest census at 36,000 ! The school law 
 of Pennsylvania dates from 1848, about the time 
 when Switzerland began her educational reform. 
 But many of the townships would not execute 
 the law. A sect who call themselves Economists 
 oppose the State department, and in 1860, when 
 the tables were compared, these ignorant brethren 
 still controlled results. In Switzerland the town- 
 ships have no power to question and postpone the 
 law. These facts and figures on America are taken 
 from a report of the Commissioner of Education, 
 dated Washington, Oct. 27, 1870, and that Com- 
 missioner, Mr. Eaton, has the duty of correcting 
 them if they are wrong. My end in citing them 
 is to suggest, on both sides of the Ocean, what 
 a task is still before us, ere we English get in 
 line with these keen dwellers on the alps. 
 
 The cost at which these great results are pur- 
 chased by the Switzers, is, for them, immense ; but 
 education is their chief affair ; the cost of educa- 
 tion stands in nearly all the Cantonal budgets even 
 before the army, though that army is the national 
 force. The totals for these services in 1 8 70 : 
 
 Cost of Cantonal troops . . . 4,508,901 frs. 
 schools . . . 5,157,756
 
 302 
 
 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Such figures are so startling, in comparison with 
 budgets hke our own, that one is tempted to 
 extract these details from the tables kept in 
 Bern : 
 
 Cost of Cantonal Schools and Armies. 
 
 CANTON. 
 
 1. Zurich . 
 
 2. Bern . 
 
 3. Luzem . 
 
 4. Uri 
 
 6. Schwyz . 
 
 6. Unterwalden 
 
 7. Glarus . 
 
 8. Zug 
 
 9. Freiburg 
 
 10. Solothum 
 
 11. Basel . 
 
 12. Schaffhausen 
 
 13. Appenzell 
 
 14. St. GaUen 
 
 15. Graubiinden 
 
 16. Aargau . 
 
 17. Thurgau 
 
 18. Ticino . 
 
 19. Vaud . 
 
 20. Valais . 
 
 21. Neufchatel 
 
 22. Geneva . 
 
 SCHOOL. 
 
 881,804 frs. 
 1,076,558 
 201,168 
 
 12,106 
 
 14,266 
 
 11,594 
 
 14,789 
 
 12,652 
 160,683 
 101,630 
 455,790 
 109,284 
 
 51,315 
 167,586 
 104,127 
 500,668 
 131,048 
 122,076 
 398,597 
 
 37,503 
 177,097 
 335,445 
 
 ARMY. 
 
 516,449 frs. 
 
 858,839 
 
 212,485 
 
 20,947 
 
 34,886 
 
 23,225 
 
 52,337 
 
 18,805 
 168,497 
 145,008 
 164,450 
 
 77,084 
 
 80,531 
 326,593 
 153.017 
 334,290 
 117,575 
 111,093 
 562,170 
 146,910 
 150,874 
 227,840 
 
 Totals . . 6,157,756 . 4,508,901 
 
 These -fiofiTres show the cost for schools and 
 troops so far as the expense is charged upon
 
 SCHOOL AND CAMP. 303 
 
 the Cantonal budgets, and are safe for contrast 
 
 just so far as they extend. Three other items 
 
 lie outside : (1) The amount contributed by each 
 
 Commune in support of its own primary schools ; 
 
 (2) the amount contributed by the League in 
 
 support of the Polytechnic ; (3) the amount 
 
 contributed by the League in support of the 
 
 Federal army. Wlien the first and second of 
 
 these items have been added to the cost of schools, 
 
 the bill stands thus : 
 
 Cost of Communal schools . . . 5,000,000 frs. 
 ,, Cantonal schools . . . 5,157,756 
 Federal school (Polytechnic) . 287,611 
 
 10,445,367 
 
 I give the roimd figure of five million francs 
 
 as the cost of Communal schools on the authority 
 
 of Herr Wirth. It is the lowest sum that can 
 
 be named. When the third item is added to the 
 
 cost of war, the bill stands thus : 
 
 Cost of Cantonal troops . . . 4,508,901 frs. 
 Federal troops . . . 5,486,396 
 
 9,995,297 
 
 Thus we have it proved, and in official papers, 
 
 that in Switzerland more money is expended on 
 
 the public schools than on the pubHc forces. 
 
 Such a fact is sought in vain elsewhere. In
 
 804 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 London, Paris, and Berlin, war budgets come in 
 
 great excess of education budgets; eight, ten, 
 
 twelve to one, it may be. Look at these 
 
 totals, put into English money: 
 
 Cost of Swiss schools . . . 417,814 
 Swiss army . . . 399,811 
 
 Yet iQ Switzerland every man is drilled and 
 armed, and ready to turn out and fight. Here 
 lies the secret of a cheap defence. 
 
 The truth is that a soldier learns his busi- 
 ness in the school ; not only exercise and drill, 
 the use of arms, the habits of obedience, order, 
 silence, cleanliness, the power to listen and to 
 speak ; but those yet higher duties of a camp, the 
 will to mingle class with class, to act in bodies 
 with a single soul, to put down personal hopes 
 and fears, and seek no object but the public good. 
 *We have to guard the refuge,' says a Federal 
 colonel, as we quit the military school at Thun, 
 where we have seen the Cantonal officers at 
 their tasks 'our forces are but slight; our only 
 strength is that derived from mutual help. Yo\)r 
 rivalries and struggles would not suit us ; for 
 our schools are but the opening to a camp where 
 every man must take his place and find his 
 brethren in the rank and file. You see we are
 
 SCHOOL AND CAMP. 305 
 
 a handful in the midst of powerful nations. 
 How could we maintain our own unless we put 
 forth all our forces ? How are we to get from 
 each and all the utmost measure of his strength V 
 
 ' The answer to that question is the secret 
 of your public life/ 
 
 * My answer is, we get it through the class- 
 room and the drill-ground. In the school we melt 
 our crude metaUic ores ; and in the camp we fuse 
 them into bronze.'
 
 306 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 DEFENCE. 
 
 No armed men are seen about the streets. From 
 Basel to Bellinzona, from Carouge to Rorschach, 
 you may drive through every Canton of the 
 League, and hardly meet one soldier on the road. 
 It is not so around you ; for in every frontier 
 city you encounter men with belt and rifle 
 bright and brisk in one place, low and loafing in 
 another but in every frontier town you find 
 imperial, royal, and repubhcan bands. Bregenz 
 is full of Austrian troops ; Constanz is full of 
 German troops ; Como is full of Italian troops ; 
 Belfort is fall of French troops. Out, on every 
 side of her, the nations are in arms ; in open and 
 professional array of force ; and ready, as they 
 seem, to take the field. She looks defenceless in 
 the centre of this ring of camps. The only folk 
 you see in these free Cantons clothed in uniforms 
 are students coming from the public schools.
 
 DEFENCE. 307 
 
 And yet this League of free republics is not 
 unprepared for war. 
 
 You find no soldiers in the streets, because 
 these Cantons have no separate military class; 
 but every man you see in shop and field would 
 start into a soldier if his bugle called ; a soldier,, 
 armed, equipped, and ready for the march. The 
 groom who feeds your horse may be a corporal ; 
 the doctor who prepares your draught may be a 
 captain of the line. No power is wasted by these 
 Cantons. Every man is trained to face his duties 
 when the trumpet sounds. 
 
 Come with me to a Cantonal drill-ground; 
 that of Zurich, for example. In a broad, green 
 meadow, called the Wollis Hofen, lying at the 
 foot of Uetliberg, the boys of Zurich drill and 
 shoot on summer days. This meadow is an 
 ancient river-bed, now soft and grassy, with 
 a ridge of ground about it, shutting off the 
 lake ; four miles in distance from the Poly- 
 technic and the Cantonal schools. Hither march 
 the boys on certain days with pipe and drum, 
 with ghttering steel and mounted guns ; the 
 linesmen carrying rifles, the artillery wearing 
 swords. Some companies of Cantonal troops are 
 in advance ; going out to practise at the range.
 
 308 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 A group of teachers and professors men whose 
 names are known to Europe Kinkel, Vogelin, 
 and Behn-Eschenburg are with the boys, and 
 will be followed, later in the day, by groups 
 of parents, sisters, and it may be sweet-hearts ; 
 ready with their cheering cries and waving 
 hands, to mark each movement in the field. 
 Arrived at Wollis Hofen, the procession halts, 
 a line is formed, the names are called, the 
 arms and uniforms are noted, and the several 
 companies told off to drill and shoot. 
 
 A little drill suffices for the younger fry ; 
 who march, and wheel, and skirmish, and are 
 then dismissed for play. But play itself is part 
 of drill. These youngsters race and leap, and 
 throw the ball, and try to catch their comrades 
 in a coil of rope. Two swords are stuck into 
 the ground as barriers, and the urchins chase 
 each other round these shining points. 
 
 More work is given to boys of riper age ; 
 the full battalion drill, and firing, company by 
 company, at a range of butts. A volunteer 
 myself, I note with care the doings of these 
 lads, and find in them a good deal to approve ; 
 though much of it is better for the field than 
 for parade. The wheehng is a little loose ; the
 
 DEFENCE. 309 
 
 line is sometimes bent ; and here and there a 
 lad falls out of step. But these are faults of 
 that loose system which the Ziirichers have 
 borrowed from the French. The skirmishing is 
 quick and steady ; the recovery into line alert. 
 Still better is the firing at a mark. I should 
 not like to be a Zouave clambering up a rock 
 with one of these young marksmen of fifteen 
 behind the ledge. 
 
 A park of guns is on the ground. The Can- 
 tonal school-boys form the hne ; the Polytech- 
 nic students serve the guns. Except that many 
 of the lads wear glasses, they have very much the 
 look of youths who will be soldiers by-and-by. 
 A canteen is erected on the meadow, but no sign 
 of drink being close at hand is seen. A thin, red 
 wine is sold to such as want it; but the boys 
 prefer their grapes and apples fruit of which 
 they seem to have abundant crops. One corner 
 of the meadow is enhvened by a band, roimd 
 which the ladies and professors sit; and at the 
 butts a rifle-match is on between two Cantonal 
 shooting clubs. The boys observe this shooting 
 with intense dehght ; a cry of rapture greets 
 each score ; and men of every age from eight 
 to eighty, and of every rank from labourers to
 
 310 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 professors stand together on this Zurich drill- 
 ground, foot to foot, and wrist to wrist, as one 
 may say, in the freemasonry of arms. 
 
 Some cheap and homely prizes canes, and 
 drinking-mugs, and albums are distributed by 
 a city magistrate to such as hare done well. 
 The band strikes up the 'Rhine Watch,' and 
 the youngsters shout hurrah, and toss their 
 caps into the sky. A great professor speaks a 
 few warm words, and then the business of the 
 day is done. A bugle calls, the companies fall 
 in, and homeward march begins. Half Zurich 
 comes to greet us on the quays and in the streets, 
 and having spent ten hours in the open fields, we 
 all feel ready for a frugal supper and a dreamless 
 sleep. 
 
 In every Canton of the League you find such 
 schools of arms as that of WoUis Hofen ; drill 
 and shooting grounds belonging to the State, 
 and reckoned as the necessary adjuncts of a 
 public school. For with a Switzer drill begins 
 as soon as he can stand erect and poise a stick. 
 In many Cantons drill begins at six ; in others 
 it begins at seven ; of course, in very simple sort, 
 as moving at a word, as beating time, as carrying 
 a satchel on the back. At ten the work becomes
 
 DEFENCE. 311 
 
 mare serious ; there is wheeling, skirmishing, 
 recovering, forming squares, deploying into line, 
 and marching both in columns and in files. As 
 they grow up, the pupils drill with arms ; and 
 in the fulness of their teen3 they practise firing 
 at a mark. A field-day in the drill-ground is 
 regarded by the scholars as a play-day. Every 
 one is eager for a prize. The thing itself is no- 
 thing, for the glory is enough. Some magistrate 
 of the republic gives away the prize ; the Can- 
 tonal journal registers the fact ; a hundred friends 
 and neighbours praise the happy shot. To be a 
 marksman in a village is to bear away the palm. 
 Thus every male you meet above the age of 
 seventeen is a soldier, ready in an hour to take 
 the field. 
 
 Four weeks before the war broke out last year, 
 General Dufour addressed from Bern a letter 
 to the French Minister of War, Marshal Le Boeuf, 
 on the defensive forces of his country. Bern is 
 never likely to forget how often and how grossly 
 France has violated Swiss neutrality in her wars 
 with Germany and Italy. She feared that under 
 stress of policy the third Napoleon might imitate 
 the first ; and when the project of a second rail- 
 way through the alps, by way of the St. Gothard
 
 812 THE SWITZEKS. 
 
 group a project warmly backed in Munich and 
 Berlin was rousing France to jealousy, the aged 
 Switzer took his pen and wrote these warning 
 lines to Paris : 
 
 'We have an army, more than a hundred 
 thousand strong, well drilled and armed, sup- 
 ported by a landwehr, numbering very nearly a 
 hundred thousand more. Our guns are ready 
 for the field ; our lifles are as good as we 
 can find. We have our camps for tactics, and 
 our schools for exercise. We have among us 
 many military circles ; but, 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.' 
 
 General Dufour is under rather than above 
 the mark in counting the defensive forces of his 
 country at two hundred thousand men. 
 
 The public force of Switzerland consists of 
 three distinct lines: 1. Elite; 2. Reserve; 3. 
 Landwehr. These are the official limits of the 
 public force ; in actual fact the whole republic 
 is one school of arms. 
 
 A Switzer is officially a soldier from the hour
 
 DEFENCE. 313 
 
 he enters on his twentieth year, and he remains 
 oflB daily a soldier till he enters on his forty-fifth 
 year. From nineteen up to thirty-four he serves 
 in the Elite ; from thirty-four to forty he serves 
 in the Reserve ; from forty to forty-five he serves 
 in the Landwehr, But a Switzer is a soldier 
 long before he enters on his twentieth year, and 
 is a soldier after he has passed his forty-fifth. 
 At fourteen Switzers have been known to fight 
 in line ; and in the civil strife at Fribourg there 
 were volunteers of seventy in the ranks. I hear 
 of one case where an old man was rejected by 
 his captain as too old ; he trudged into another 
 Canton, where he was rejected as a volunteer ; 
 and yet he followed his battalion to the field, 
 and had a brisk encounter with the foe. In case 
 of war against a foreign enemy old men and lads 
 would flock in thousands to their flag. 
 
 No Switzer can escape from service after he 
 attains his twentieth year. In one of these three 
 armies he must find his place. In actual service 
 some exceptions are allowed by law, but not on 
 personal grounds, and only in the interests of 
 the fighting power. No other claim to an exemp- 
 tion can be heard. All members of the Federal 
 Council and the Cantonal Councils ; pastors,
 
 314 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 priests, and masters in the public schools ; some 
 officers of the post, the railway, and the steam- 
 boat service ; are exempt in virtue of their public 
 duties. But the persons so exempted must have 
 had their years of drill and shooting ; they are 
 soldiers out of uniform, and fit for duty, though 
 they are not called upon to act. In case of need, 
 they have the use of arms, and at a press would 
 seize them for defence. And these exemptions are 
 not made for life ; they are not personal, but 
 official ; and they cease the moment office is 
 given up. A priest and pastor may be said to 
 stand apart, because their functions, which imply 
 the rule, are held for life ; but then the priest 
 and pastor may be ordered in their sacred call- 
 ing to attend the Federal armies to the field. 
 AU railway-porters, guards, and clerks are drilled 
 in companies for the important work of transport, 
 and in case of war the district General takes 
 command, not only of the pubHc roads, but of 
 this powerful and efficient staff. Physicians, 
 druggists, and horse-doctors, are relieved from 
 bearing arms, but only if they march in their 
 professional characters, and give the country 
 more than bone and thew. A man who is the 
 only son of a poor widow, or of aged parents.
 
 DEFENCE. 315 
 
 whom he has to keep, may daim to have his 
 service lightened, so that he may not be taken 
 far from home. 
 
 Under the Federal Constitution (voted in 
 1848 amended in 1866 and in 1871) the Federal 
 army is composed of the several Cantonal forces. 
 To the Elite, each Canton must constitute thirty 
 men from eveiy thousand souls ; to the E-eserve 
 fifteen men from every thousand souls. In case 
 of danger, the Confederation may dispose of the 
 Landwehr also, and, indeed, of every male Switzer 
 from the age of nineteen up to forty-five. Nor 
 are these armies all. In war the ranks are 
 swollen by volunteers ; stout lads, who will not 
 wait the legal age for fighting ; grisly men, in 
 whom the patriotic fire still bums. Nor is the 
 female part to be forgotten in an. estimate of the 
 national powers of self-defence. In every public 
 school the girls are trained to take their part. 
 They learn to staunch the flow of blood ; they learn 
 to dress a gun-shot wound ; they learn to nurse 
 the sick. Swiss women have the lessons and the 
 habits that would make them useful in a field 
 of strife. They understand their civic rights. 
 They know some chemistry, and they are quick 
 at sewing, binding, dressing, and such medical
 
 316 , THE SWITZERS. 
 
 arts. If need be, they can marcli in line, with 
 knapsack on their backs, and keep up with their 
 brothers night and day. In a defensive war, 
 they could be used as scouts, as messengers, as 
 nurses, and as teamsters ; in a hundred things 
 they would replace so many men. In fact, the 
 fighting power of Switzerland, for purposes of 
 home defence, is nearly that of all the population, 
 male and female.
 
 317 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIL 
 
 THE PUBLIC FORCE. 
 
 One army in the world is not deceptive in the 
 lists of rank and file. For every Swiss name on 
 paper there is here an active trooper drilled and 
 armed. Nay, more ; the companies and squadrons 
 known at Bern and Thun are stronger in the 
 field than in the books. 
 
 The first army that of the Elite consists of 
 70,088 effective men ; divided into these six 
 branches : 
 
 1. Engineers . 
 
 900 men. 
 
 2. Artillery . 
 
 . 6,513 
 
 3. Cavalry 
 
 . 1,937 
 
 4. Carabineers 
 
 . 4,600 
 
 5. Infantry 
 
 . 55,994 
 
 6. Sanitary service . 
 
 144 
 
 70,088 
 But when these figures are confronted with 
 the Cantonal Hats, a great discrepancy appears ;
 
 318 
 
 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 and, strange to say, the difference is in favour 
 of the League. The Cantonal details show a 
 total force in the Elite of 85,000 men ; some 
 fifteen thousand more than on the books. 
 
 The second army that of the Reserve con- 
 sists of 34,832 efiective men; divided into these 
 seven branches : 
 
 1. Engineers , . . . 
 
 630 men. 
 
 2. Artillery . 
 
 . 4,254 
 
 3. Cavalry 
 
 932 
 
 4. Carabineers 
 
 . 2,460 
 
 6. Infantry 
 
 . 26,448 
 
 6. Sanitary service . 
 
 78 
 
 7. Armourers . 
 
 30 
 
 34,832 
 Comparing these lists in the "War-office with 
 the Cantonal returns, you note a second dis- 
 crepancy in numbers, and again in feivour of the 
 actual strength. These Cantonal details show 
 a total force in the Reserve of 45,000 men ; 
 ten thousand more than in the books. 
 
 These two armies first and second army 
 constitute the Federal Forces, subject to the 
 War Department. By law, each Canton must 
 supply contingents to these Federal Forces ; but 
 instead of faiHng to supply the full amount 
 of their contingents (like some other countries not
 
 THE PUBLIC FORCE. 319 
 
 far off) the Cantons yield their tale of men, 
 and keep a vast reserve of strength at home ; 
 not less than five-and-twenty thousand men. 
 In writing to Le Boeuf, Dufour spoke only of 
 the Federal force the paper army which he 
 counted roundly at a hundred thousand men. It 
 stands a little over this amount. 
 
 Elite of all arms . . . 70,088 men. 
 Eeserve 34,832 
 
 Total Federal Force . . 104,920 
 
 The third army Landwehr is not under 
 Federal control, except in time of war. The 
 Cantons keep the regimental books ; and it is 
 only from the Cantonal reports that one can learn 
 the full amount of strength. The latest Cantonal 
 reports make the full force of the three embodied 
 Swiss armies Elite, Reserve, and Landwehr 
 202,854 men. 
 
 To these large masses must be added aU the 
 Volunteers, both imder mihtaiy age and over 
 military age ; the youths who are already ripe ; 
 the greybeards who are also full of fight. 
 From these two quarters, Switzerland might 
 reckon on another hundred thousand men. In 
 a defensive war, and none but a defensive war
 
 320 THE SWITZERS, 
 
 could ever be proposed, the country could rely 
 upon a fighting force all nearly ready for the field 
 of something like three hundred thousand men. 
 The army is composed of nine divisions, two 
 roving brigades, and twenty-six detached com- 
 panies. One division of artillery, and one divi- 
 sion of cavalry, are in reserve. Each division, 
 perfect in all arms, comprises : 
 
 1. The general staff of the division. 
 
 2. A company of guides. 
 
 3. A company of sappers and miners. 
 
 4. One brigade of artillery, with a park of guns. 
 
 5. Three brigades of infantry ; each brigade of 
 
 three regiments. 
 
 6. One brigade of carabineers. 
 
 7. Three ambxilances (one for each infantry 
 
 brigade). 
 
 8. Two squadrons of dragoons. 
 
 When the Landwehr are not called out, 
 a Swiss division counts ten thousand men, eight 
 hundred horses, eighteen guns. 
 
 The system of recniiting, drilling, and brigad- 
 ing, is that of Prussia, not of France ; a local 
 system, which combines in a brigade the men 
 of one locality ; so that in the camp a soldier 
 feels at home, amongst his friends ; his right and 
 left hand files in service being the neighbours
 
 THE PUBLIC FORCE. 321 
 
 whom he knows and trusts ; the men who would be 
 near him in a snow-drift, at a fire, and in a flood. 
 Each Canton has her drill-ground and her place of 
 arms ; and even those who wish to have one Federal 
 army rather than twenty -five Cantonal armies, 
 would not change this local character of each 
 brigade. A company is a Commune under 
 arms. 
 
 A French republican finds little that is demo- 
 cratic in the composition of this force. The 
 rank and file have no discretion as to when 
 and how they serve. A bugle calls, and they fall 
 in. They have no voice in settling why they 
 march, and whether they shall fight or not. 
 They have nothing to say in the appointment of 
 their officers, and they are not allowed to criticise 
 the orders given. In putting on his uniform, a 
 citizen becomes a soldier, and is subject to the 
 articles of war. The Federal Council names a 
 Commander-in-Chief ; this officer is called his 
 Excellency, like the President of the League; 
 he takes the rank of General, which he gains a 
 right to hold for life. In peace, the League is ' 
 the supreme authority. She makes the articles 
 of war. She founds and carries on the mihtary 
 schools. She summons camps for training and 
 
 Y
 
 322 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 manoeuvres to be formed. She names the staff, 
 and keeps the only patronage in her hands. She 
 orders out the troops, and gives them her di- 
 rections where to march. Except so far as every 
 branch of government must be an outgrovi^th of 
 the popular mind, a Swiss army is an aristocracy, 
 and the directing power bears less resemblance 
 to a Paris Commune than to a Venetian Council 
 of Ten. 
 
 The minister of War (who is, of course, a 
 member of the Federal Council) corresponds with 
 the military authorities of the several Cantons; 
 gives them orders what to do, and how to do them; 
 overhauls their rules and articles ; and assigns 
 the place and time for exercising the divisional 
 troops. He goes to watch these troops afield; 
 inspects their clothes and arms ; and sees that 
 every one is duly lodged and fed. He keeps 
 an eye upon the powder, shot, and shell. He 
 looks to horse and harness, cart and ambulance ; 
 but, most of all, he sees that every gun is clean 
 and sound, and that the gunners know their 
 trade. In time of peace, this minister is nearly 
 as completely master of the Public Force as 
 a commander-in-chief in time of war. 
 
 No jealousy is ever shown by Swiss democracy
 
 THE PUBLIC FORCE. 323 
 
 of these great powers. In fact, the democrats 
 of nearly every shade are clamouring for an 
 increase of these public powers. 
 
 The General Staff consists of one hundred 
 officers of rank ; that is, of forty colonels, thirty 
 lieutenant-colonels, and thirty majors ; with a 
 number, never fixed by law, of captains and 
 lieutenants. There are separate staffs for the 
 Engineers, the Artillery, the Judiciary, the 
 Commissariat, and the Sanitary Service. Staff- 
 appointments are extremely onerous, and only 
 rich men can afford to hold them. Colonels rank 
 with general officers in any other army. They 
 command divisions and brigades, and form in 
 fact the General Staff. Promotion goes by merit 
 only. When the Federal Council want a com- 
 mander-in-chief, they are not bound to think of 
 those who bear the name of general, nor to take 
 a man because he may have been a colonel half his 
 life. No claim of either rank or seniority is 
 heard. They take the best man they can find, 
 and having given him power, they trust him to 
 perform his duty to the state. 
 
 This General Staff conducts the military edu- 
 cation of the people in the higher grades. Each 
 Canton has the charge of teaching in the lower
 
 324 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 grades the rank and file of Infantry and 
 Chasseurs especially the recruits ; the League 
 reserves the duty of instructing the superior 
 arms, the Engineers, the Artillery, the Cavalry, 
 and the Carabineers. For Infantry this period 
 of instruction is at least thirty days; for Chas- 
 seurs at least thirty-seven days. For Engineers 
 the period of instruction is at least forty-two 
 days ; for Artillery and Cavalry the same ; for 
 Carabineers thirty-five days. In after years, the 
 men of the Elite are under arms five days a-year ; 
 those of the Reserve four days ; and those of the 
 Landwehr from one day to two days. The special 
 arms must give a longer time to exercise and 
 study in the field ; but still the time seems short 
 to critics who compare the raw material of a 
 French or an Italian soldier with the Swiss. 
 Such men forget that when a Switzer joins his 
 flag he is a soldier ready made. 
 
 In carrying out her plan of teaching the su- 
 perior grades the art of war, the League has 
 founded six great schools. 
 
 1. A Central Military School at Thun, to 
 which aU officers appointed to the General Staff 
 repair to be instructed in their duties. 
 
 2. A School of Officers at Thun, to which
 
 THE PUBLIC FORCE. 325 
 
 aJl officers appointed to their regiments repair to 
 be instructed in their duties. 
 
 3. A School of Cantonal Instruction, held in 
 Basel, to which the infantry instructors come 
 from every part of Switzerland to learn their 
 duty, undergo inspection, and preserve a com- 
 mon rule. 
 
 4. A School for Young Officers, held at Solo- 
 thurn and at St. Gallen, turn by turn, to which 
 the several Cantons send their youths who have 
 received commissions, and their youths who want 
 commissions. 
 
 5. A Commissariat School, to which is joined 
 a Medical and Ambulance School. This school is 
 generally held at Thun. 
 
 6. A Shooting School, for officers who have 
 to give instruction in their several Cantons at 
 the butts. 
 
 The military centre of the League is Thun, 
 in Canton Bern. The secondary poiuts are Ziirich, 
 Frauenfeld, Aarau, Winterthur, Luzem, Luzien- 
 steig, Colombier, Payeme, Moudon, Bi^re, St. 
 Maurice, and BeUinzona. Since the walls of 
 Basel, Ziirich, Bern, and Geneva, have been 
 levelled, there are no great fortresses in Switzer- 
 land. Three works of caution have been left at
 
 326 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Bellinzona in Canton Ticino, at Luziensteig in 
 Canton Graubiinden, and St. Maurice in Canton 
 Valais, No one thinks of these poor ramparts 
 as defences ; and the only question is, to what 
 extent an enemy, in trying to force a passage 
 through these alps, could count on meeting with 
 a wall of steel and storm of lead in every pass ? 
 
 'We are ready to protect our independence 
 and neutrality, let the storm break on us from 
 whatever side it may.' 
 
 Le Boeuf received these words in Paris on the 
 twenty-sixth of June ; and if the third Napoleon 
 had been dreaming of a raid from Belfort into 
 Southern Baden by the Basel bridge, as many 
 people say, they were in time to make him 
 pause and change his plan. A hundred thousand 
 Switzers on Macmahon's flank would not have 
 been such foes as any French officer could afford 
 to leave behind. Events soon showed Napoleon 
 that the Switzers were in better preparation 
 for campaigning than the French.
 
 327 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 IN THE FIELD. 
 
 The French declaration of war was given in 
 Paris on the afternoon of Friday, July 15. A 
 courier bore the challenge to Berlin that night. 
 A message was despatched to Bern with very 
 curt announcement that the war was morally 
 declared ; and on the Tuesday following, Wilhelm, 
 King of Prussia, answered by a counter decla- 
 ration from Berlin. 
 
 But faster than this message from St. Cloud 
 came into Bern the news that France was 
 moving to the front. On Friday news was 
 wired to President Dubs that France was ready 
 and would fight. That evening President Dubs 
 convened his Council in hot haste. 
 
 Excepting Baden and Bavaria, no country had 
 so much to fear from such a war as Switzerland. 
 She lay between the combatants ; the fighting 
 must be at her doors, and might be on her soiL
 
 328 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 When armies like the conquerors of Solferino and 
 Sadowa rush upon each other, neutral states may 
 chance to get some hurt, even if the great belli- 
 gerents should try to spare them. How could 
 President Dubs feel sure that France would try ? 
 Old Switzers can recall a time when France 
 converted Switzerland into her battle-field, an- 
 nexed the Canton Valais, occupied Geneva, wrung 
 the Bishopric of Biel from Bern, and opened Basel 
 to assault by seizing the strong passes of the 
 Ergolz and the Birse. A Switzer knows by in- 
 stinct that when France is on the war-path, Basel 
 and Geneva are the foremost objects of her pas- 
 sionate desire. 
 
 The Savoy Question was unsettled. By the 
 pubhc law of Europe, certain parts of Savoy have 
 been neutralized, and Switzerland enjoys the right 
 of occupying them in time of war, not only in 
 her own defence, but in the cause of general peace. 
 So long as Savoy was Italian, no one raised a 
 word against this public law. When Savoy passed 
 from Italy to France, the King transferred his 
 province with the rights attaching to it. In the 
 treaty of Turin, it is expressly said, ' The King oi 
 Sardinia cedes the neutralized districts on the 
 same conditions as he held them ; ' and this
 
 IN THE FIELD. 929 
 
 treaty adds that France will come to an under- 
 standing on this subject with the League and 
 with the signatory powers. Napoleon had not 
 kept his word. The Switzers wished this matter 
 to remain within the sphere of public law ; but 
 Paris would not listen to their voice. French 
 pride pretended to be hurt. How could a power 
 like France permit her freedom on her own estate 
 to be controlled by public law ? She must be 
 mistress in her own domain. No use to tell 
 her she had taken Savoy subject to this public 
 law. She was, the sovereign judge of what she 
 might and might not do. She would not listen 
 to the Switzer s plea ; and so this Savoy Question 
 still lay open when the war broke out. 
 
 One hour after the President read his news 
 from France, the Federal Council had agreed 
 to call upon the Cantons to complete their 
 regiments with men, arras, horses, guns, and all 
 the stores and tools required in actual war. These 
 orders had been scarcely sent along the wires to 
 east and west to Basel, Bellinzona, Chur, and 
 Sion ere this Federal Council, quickened by yet 
 fiercer news from Paris, had agreed to call out 
 five divisions of the First Army the Elite ; that 
 is to say, the first, second, sixth, seventh, and
 
 330 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 ninth divisions, which were ordered to assemble 
 in their several Cantons with the utmost speed. 
 Full orders from the War Department followed 
 these despatches to the Cantonal Councils and 
 the Cantonal staffs. The first division, under 
 Colonel Egtoff, was to throw itself upon Basel, to 
 secure the bridge, and occupy the two banks of 
 the Bhine. The second division, under Colonel 
 Salis, was to move on Biel, and to hold the roads 
 and streams from Nidau, Solothurn, and Delemont. 
 The sixth division, under Colonel Stadler, was to 
 rest on Bern, to succour and replace the second, 
 should it prove too weak. The seventh division, 
 under Colonel Isler, was to march on Fruenfeld, 
 take up head-quarters in that town, and send 
 out men to watch the narrows of the Bhine as 
 nigh as Burg. The ninth division, under Colonel 
 Schadler, was to cross by the St. Gothard, from 
 Ticino, drop to Altdorf, and take up their quar- 
 ters in Luzem. 
 
 The men were taken by surprise, if ever Swit- 
 zers can be taken by surprise. An hour before the 
 news from Bern came flashing into Aargau, Thur- 
 gau, Ziirich, and St. Gallen, late on Friday night, 
 not one in fifty knew that war was likely to break 
 out; still less could he imagine that this tug of
 
 IN THE FIELD. 331 
 
 Bonaparte with Bismarck was to call him under 
 arms, and bring his training in the school and 
 drill-ground to a sudden test. Yet every man 
 was ready for the call. 
 
 On Saturday morning it was noised abroad 
 in Aarau that the country was in danger ; that 
 the Federal Council had been sitting through the 
 night ; that men and gims were asked for in hot 
 haste; and that the road to Basel was the line 
 of march. By noon, strong squads of men were 
 falling in before the new Town Hall. The 
 district troops came pouring in. Some companies 
 were quickly formed ; their guns were drawn 
 into the front ; the cavalry rode up ; the sappers, 
 engineers, and guides got ready ; officers were 
 at their posts ; and early in the afternoon the 
 first Swiss troops were on the road. At midnight, 
 as the Basel minster chimed the hour, these men 
 of Aargau marched into that town. On Sunday 
 morning, when the citizens awoke, they found 
 these allies standing on their famous bridge ; 
 they felt that bridge was now made safe; and 
 after service in the church they spent the summer 
 day in helping these brave lads to chant the 
 * Wacht am E-hein.' 
 
 By Sunday night, the first division. Colonel
 
 332 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 EgtofF, and the second division, Colonel Salis, 
 were complete. The sixth and seventh divisions, 
 under Colonel Stadler and Colonel Isler, were 
 advancing, and by Tuesday they were also ready 
 for the field. The ninth division, under Colonel 
 Schadler, was assembling in the south at Bellin- 
 zona. All the five divisions called into the 
 field on Friday night by messages from Bern, 
 were under arms before the proclamation of war 
 was issued in Berlin. 
 
 These five divisions of the first Swiss 
 army, with their batteries of artillery, stood as 
 follows : 
 
 Staff and Guides . 
 
 . ' 104 men 
 
 . 105 horses 
 
 First division 
 
 . 8,296 
 
 . 692 
 
 Second 
 
 . 8,319 
 
 . 632 
 
 Sixth 
 
 . . 7,377 
 
 . 767 
 
 Seventh 
 
 . 7,368 
 
 . 670 
 
 Ninth 
 
 . 5,959 
 
 . 671 
 
 Total . 
 
 . 37,423 
 
 3,541 
 
 These forces were supported by eleven bat- 
 teries of artillery, mounting sixty-six field-pieces. 
 
 When the news that Bismarck had replied by 
 war arrived in Bern on Tuesday night, a sitting 
 of the National Assembly was convened, to name 
 a General for the army and a chief of stafi". All
 
 IN THE FIELD. 333 
 
 sovereign acts are done by the Assembly ; but as 
 every ra ember of the Federal Council is an officer 
 of the Assembly, not a voice was raised against 
 this calling out of troops. The President had done 
 his duty to the League. 
 
 Appoint a General ! Every eye was fixed on 
 General Dufour. This aged warrior fills in Bern 
 the space once occupied in London by the Iron 
 Duke. No name is known hke his in every farm 
 and shop ; and as an act of deference to his age 
 and name the Assembly called him to the chief 
 command. But he declined the burden as beyond 
 his strength. Dufour is eighty-five years old. 
 
 It was not easy to replace him ; for the 
 news which streamed along the wires from Paris 
 grew each hour from bad to worse; and with 
 a man Hke Grammont at the Foreign Office any- 
 thing unseemly and unjust might be expected 
 from the French. In early life Dufour had been 
 a personal friend of Louis Napoleon ; he was 
 known to French marshals as a thorough soldier; 
 and his presence in the field would almost count 
 for a brigade. If Louis Napoleon and his gene- 
 rals were to be entreated, no man could entreat 
 them with the presence f Dufour. 
 
 But, on the other side, the Federal Council
 
 334 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 were not anxious to entreat the French. When 
 Grammont sent them notice that the war was 
 morally declared, expecting them to take an 
 attitude of service to his master, they replied 
 by a decree, announcing that 'any troops be- 
 longing to belligerent states, and whether they 
 be regulars or volunteers, who violate the ter- 
 ritories of the League, will be repelled by force.' 
 They instantly forbade the export of arms and 
 war material, and removed all stores and weapons 
 from their frontier to^vns. They gave instructions 
 to their magistrates to seize deserters and disarm 
 any companies of soldiers on Swiss soil. They 
 raised once more the Savoy Question ; pressing 
 what they felt to be their right and duty at St. 
 Cloud. Napoleon was annoyed ; he would not 
 listen ; he was busy with affairs. They notified 
 the signing powers that they retained their rights 
 intact ; that when they judged it necessary in de- 
 fence of their neutrality and independence they 
 would occupy the parts of Savoy bordering on 
 their lake. This note was laid before Napoleon 
 at St. Cloud. He would not answer them with 
 either yea or nay. 
 
 Alarmed by all these signs of French contempt 
 for what concerned them in their dearest rights,
 
 IN THE FIELD. 335 
 
 the Leaguers turned their faces to the men who 
 were the first afield, the men of Aargau ; from 
 whose ranks they chose an officer of high dis- 
 tinction in his craft, Hans Herzog, Colonel in 
 the Federal army, as their chief On Friday, 
 Herzog came to Bern and took the usual oaths ; 
 on Saturday he was at Olten his head-quarters, 
 and the centre of the Swiss railways where he 
 issued his instructions to the troops. No gun had 
 yet been fired, nor were the Zouaves swarming 
 past the Rhine ; yet every fore-post of the Swiss 
 was pushed into the front. Colonel Egtofi", having 
 occupied the bridge of Basel, struck into the 
 gorges of the Birse and Ergolz, shutting up the 
 two French gateways through the Jura mountains 
 towards the Bhine. Col. Salis marched through 
 Biel, made Delemont his head- quarters, and threw 
 out his wings to Porrentruy and Laufen, close to 
 France. Instead of resting on his arms at Bern, 
 Colonel Stadler marched the sixth division to 
 Munchenbuchsee, and spread his tents along the 
 Emme and the Aar. From Frauenfeld, Colonel 
 Isler moved the seventh division up to Frick, 
 fi:om which he sent out posts to Bheinfelden, 
 near the edge of Basel-land. Colonel Schadler 
 had now come up with the ninth division, and
 
 336 
 
 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 pitched his camps, with Biilach as head-quarters, 
 from the Rhine, the Limmat, and the Toss. 
 One regiment of foot, one battery of guns, one 
 company each of sappers and dragoons, were sent 
 from his division to Schaifhausen. The pubhc 
 forces now afield consisted of the following arms : 
 
 Staff officers 
 
 278 men 
 
 Engineers 
 
 . . 492 
 
 Artillery 
 
 . 2,826 
 
 Cavalry- 
 
 762 
 
 Carabineers 
 
 . 3,427 
 
 Infantry 
 
 ., . 29,538 
 
 37,323 
 
 Such were the forces, such the dispositions, 
 of the Swiss army only three days after war had 
 been declared by Bismarck in Berlin. 
 
 News came to General Herzog, that the French 
 were massing troops at Belfort ; that orders had 
 been sent to seize all carts and carriages in 
 Alsace; and that the farmers of St. Louis, close 
 to Basel, had been told to cut their grain, as 
 camps on an enormous scale were soon to be 
 established near the Bhine. 
 
 No bridge but that of Basel would have served 
 the French to cross by. That of Strassburg was 
 destroyed, and that of Mannheim was beyond their
 
 IN THE FIELD. 337 
 
 reach. His news inclined the Swiss Commander- 
 in-chief to fear that General Douay would be 
 ordered to advance on Basel, and he instantly- 
 prepared his troops on every point for actual 
 war. 
 
 His first care was to organize his staff; his 
 next to park and clear his guns. When these 
 were done, he called the medical chief into his 
 room, and formed two hospitals at each head- 
 quarters one for horses, one for wounded men. 
 He ordered magazines of stores and clothes to be 
 established in his rear, and then pushed up his 
 forces to the front. Isler's division moved to 
 Rheinfelden, and a second portion of Schadler's 
 force was sent to occupy the neighbourhood of 
 Schaffhausen. Plans for a campaign were studied 
 on the theory of a French advance on Baden 
 through the Swiss defiles. The Germans, massing 
 under Maintz, were blowing up their bridges on 
 the Kinzig, in the southern front of Kehl. They 
 must be fearing an attack in force. The Baden 
 roads were stript of men, and every town along 
 the Rhine, from Constanz down to Rastadt, lay 
 exposed to Zouave raids. If France was ready 
 for her spring as every one in Paris vaunted 
 he had only too much reason to beheve that 
 
 z
 
 338 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 she would try to push across his hnes, and take 
 her enemy on his weakest side. 
 
 A troop of engineers dropt down the E-hine 
 from Burg to Basel, studying every pass and 
 point, and leaving companies of sappers at each 
 bridge, with orders and materials to destroy it 
 should an enemy appear in any strength. A staff 
 .of engineers went out to Bruderholz, and drew 
 up plans for fortifying that important point. All 
 railway companies were ordered to report their 
 stock of engines, carriages, and open wagons, 
 which, in case of need, might be impounded 
 for the public service. These returns were quickly 
 made. 
 
 248 railway engines. 
 
 911 carriages with 41,000 seats. 
 1769 wagons ; capable of carrying 11,000 horses. 
 1925 open wagons. 
 
 Five new telegraphic stations were established, 
 and in thirty-four stations service was arranged 
 to be conducted through the night. With every 
 arm prepared for duty, if the duty of resistance 
 should be cast upon him. General Herzog hstened 
 for the boom of coming guns. 
 
 A fortnight passed in silence and amazement. 
 Not a gun was fired in earnest. Not a Zouave
 
 IN THE FIELD. 339 
 
 crossed the Khine. No enemy was seen from the 
 Cathedral tower. 
 
 At length, the thunder broke with peal on 
 peal, and crash on crash. On Thursday, August 4, 
 came Weissenburg ; on Saturday, came Worth 
 and Speicheren ; on Tuesday, August 14, came 
 Courcelles ; on Thursday, Mars la Tour ; on 
 Friday, E-ezonville ; on Saturday, Gravelotte. 
 The storm of war rolled heavily towards the 
 north and west ; and then, all danger to the 
 Cantons having passed away in the Teutonic 
 victories. General Herzog reported that his opera- 
 tions might be closed ; and in accordance with 
 his hints, the camps were raised, the charges 
 drawn, the gallant troops sent home.
 
 340 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXIV. 
 
 OUT AGAIN. 
 
 In dead of winter those who had not served in 
 that campaign were under arms in turn. 
 
 For six clear months from August to Jan- 
 uary, from the battle of Gravelotte to the march 
 of Bourbaki the Switzers were at peace. No 
 one imagined that the German armies would 
 profane their soil. In every question that arose, 
 Berlin was courteous, if not more. 
 
 When the Prussian Minister in Bern was 
 asked if Bismarck would consent to Switzerland 
 occupying Chablais and Fauciny, in accordance 
 with her treaty rights, that Minister replied, 
 * Yes ; occupy them ; we approve.' The point 
 was pressed a Httle more : ' If we should stay 
 there?' 'We should still approve.' At one time 
 there was trouble at Schaffhausen, and the Baden 
 papers called for annexation of that awkward 
 little sHce of German land. ' You are accused of
 
 OUT AGAIN. 341 
 
 wishing for Schaffhausen/ said a member of the 
 diplomatic body to the Prussian Minister in 
 Bern. ' Of wishing for Schaffhausen ! * laughed 
 that ojBScer ; ' in place of trying to weaken 
 Switzerland, we wish to round her off and 
 strengthen her by northern Savoy.' 
 
 With Sedan there came a change. The very 
 day the French republic was proclaimed in Paris, 
 President Dubs held out his hand to her. * We 
 trust,' he said, 'to see the new republic, sister 
 of our own, and bom amidst so many troubles, 
 give to France an honourable peace, and a long 
 reign of liberty.' This haste of President Dubs 
 was strongly blamed, both in the Chamber and 
 the press. Why should a Switzer be the first to 
 speak ? * No doubt,' the President replied, ' we 
 have been swifter than the Cantons would have 
 been ; for instance, Appenzell, which has not yet 
 had time to recognise the government of Louis- 
 Philippe.' But the Federal Council, while ex- 
 changing blandishments with France, were bound 
 to keep an eye on what was being done in Paris 
 and hi Tours. Gambetta would not yield the 
 point of right and law ; and left the Savoy 
 Question open in his selfish interests ; seeing, that 
 if the Germans captured Lyons, it might be
 
 342 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 well for France to have the Savoy districts covered 
 by a friendly State. 
 
 About the darkest time of winter a report 
 arrived in Bern from Tours and Orleans, that 
 a desperate effort would be made to strike the 
 Rhine near Basel. Not a flying column, but an 
 army of a hundred and fifty thousand men, con- 
 ducted, by the dashing and unscrupulous Bourbaki, 
 was to force the Prussian camps, dehver Belfort, 
 sweep across the Bhine, and carry fire and sword 
 into the Fatherland. At first, nobody would 
 accept this news. No soldier in his senses, said 
 experienced officers of the staff, could dream of 
 making such a raid ; but whether he was sane 
 or not, Bourbaki had accepted such a mission, 
 and was on his way towards Belfort and the 
 Rhine. 
 
 Already three brigades of the third division, 
 under Colonel Aubert, were afield round Porren- 
 truy, observing the affair at Belfort, and the lesser 
 matters of the franc-tireurs and Garibaldians on 
 the Lisaine. Colonel Aubert's troops were of the 
 district, men who knew the roads, and were at 
 home among the heaps of falling snow. 
 
 By night and day shght skirmishes took place 
 between the franc-tireurs and German troops.
 
 OUT AGAIN. 343 
 
 Some shells and bullets crossed the line. At 
 Abevilliers and at Croix, small actions were ex- 
 changed ; and in the second week of the new 
 year, were followed by a running fight along the 
 Lisaine, close to Hdricourt and Montbeliard. As 
 skirmish trod upon the heels of skirmish, Colonel 
 Aubert, acting under his instructions from the 
 War Department, which is wisely liberal with 
 such officers, called out the whole array of local 
 troops, and also sent to Bern for further aid in 
 men and guns. 
 
 When President Schenk who had succeeded 
 Dubs ^got certain news that France was march- 
 ing towards the Rhine, he called his Council to 
 confer. Their sitting was not long. Bourbaki's 
 troops must come near Basel ; they would find 
 no other bridge by which to cross the Rhine ; 
 and the temptation to profane Swiss soil might 
 prove too strong for men so desperately pushed by 
 fortune. Everything was to be feared. Schenk 
 hurried up some guns and men from Ziirich, 
 Thurgau, and Schaffhausen. He called into the 
 field two full divisions of the army third and 
 fifth and sent to General Herzog for advice. 
 ' The danger,' wrote that General, * seems to me 
 much greater for the country now than when I
 
 344 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 took the command in July last. I see that one 
 of two things must happen : either (1) that one 
 of the two armies fighting at our doors may drive 
 the other into our territory ; or (2) that one of 
 the two foreign generals, seeking for advantages 
 against his rival which he cannot gain by lawful 
 means, will violate our soil In either case, the 
 forces in the field are much too weak/ The Pre- 
 sident agreed with Herzog. In taking his com- 
 mand once more. General Herzog asked that 
 the fourth division should be called into the field. 
 He also asked for two batteries of mountain 
 guns ; one battery, 26, from Graubiinden, and 
 the second battery, 27, from Yalais. These bat- 
 teries were well prepared for winter service in a 
 district lying under snow. 
 
 On Thursday, January 19, General Herzog 
 quitted Bern to take up his command The 
 troops were new to him, and to each other. Not 
 a man had been in actual camp before that week, 
 and officers, as well as rank and file, had every- 
 thing to learn. On Friday Herzog was at Basel, 
 where he placed his fifth division under orders 
 to secure the bridge, and guard the various pass- 
 ages of the Rhine where pontoons might be thrown 
 across. Despatches followed him from Bern to
 
 ODT AGAIN, 345 
 
 Basel, telling him, in substance, that the Federal 
 Council hoped he would not need to arm the 
 fourth division. Snatching up his pen he wrote, 
 * The fe-ilure of Bourbaki, and the fact that Prus- 
 sian troops are edging his left flank, assure me 
 of the end. The Germans mean to push the 
 French, in either whole or part, across oiu: fron- 
 tier, and to put them out of service for the 
 present war. I therefore beg once more, and in' 
 the strongest terms, for greater levies. If we are 
 to d-o the work that lies before us, we must 
 arm.' On Saturday, he heard of new successes 
 by the Germans on the Lisaine ; whereupon he 
 ordered up his fifth division to the neighbour- 
 hood of Deldmont, while he swung the various 
 regiments of his third division round about 
 Porrentruy. His own head-quarters were to 
 be at Laufen. All his orders given, he was 
 about to mount his horse, and ride to Laufen 
 with his staff, when he received an order from 
 the War Department to repair at once to Olten, 
 where the Federal Minister of War was staying, 
 and explain more fiilly why he wished to have 
 the fourth division out. In fifteen minutes he 
 had satisfied that Minister. Instructions were at 
 once sent out ; and Herzog, going back by train
 
 346 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 to Basel, leapt into his saddle, and departed for 
 Laufen that winter night. 
 
 On Sunday morning he arrived, and having 
 glanced at posts and papers, rode that day to 
 Deldmont. On Monday he pushed on for Porren- 
 truy. The roads lay deep in snow ; but all night 
 long the crisp and silent air was broken by a 
 crash of distant guns. French regiments were 
 forming at Blamont, with eighteen pieces of 
 artillery; a force, as Herzog learnt, which was 
 designed to operate on Delle. The nearest way 
 for them to march on Delle was through the 
 Swiss defiles ; and Colonel Aubert, with the 
 third division, occupied these roads with orders 
 to disarm the enemy should they break his lines. 
 Would they submit to be disarmed ? No one 
 could tell; but if they hesitated at the sum- 
 mons, Aubert was to open fire. 
 
 All Sunday night, all Monday night, the 
 Switzers lay upon the ground and Hstened for 
 the noise of tramping feet. A world of snow and 
 ice was heaped around their camps. The sky 
 was clear, and bright with stars. Blamont was 
 still. Afar off, in the mountain silence, they 
 could catch the throb and cHnk of gims at 
 Belfort ; but the nearer masses of the French
 
 OUT AGAIN. 347 
 
 were all at peace, as though the wintry frost 
 had seized and wrapt them in her silent shroud. 
 
 On Tuesday, Herzog rode along his lines from 
 Porrentruy to Fahy, where he looked across 
 the frontier into AbeviUiers, and from Fahy 
 to Damvant, where he looked across into Bla- 
 mont. Eighteen hundred franc-tireurs were still 
 in Blamont, under Colonel Bourras ; but the 
 Swiss commander, satisfied that these irregulars 
 would not fall upon his posts, returned that night 
 to Porrentruy, in order to be near the centre of 
 events. His staff remained at Delemont in the 
 rear. That night a person came across the 
 border, who reported that the Germans were 
 expecting an attack near Delle. At once the 
 General leapt to horse, and rode to his advanced 
 posts in the mountains, near the French hamlet 
 of Boucourt, from whose outlook he could glance 
 into the roads round Delle. He found his troops 
 in good condition, stout of heart, well armed 
 and clothed, in every point a credit to their 
 flag. Across the border, lay a white and silent 
 land. 
 
 On Thursday morning came in more decisive 
 news. Bourbaki, foiled at every turn, was falling 
 back upon Besan9on ; but the agile Prussians
 
 348 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 were at Dole, between the town of Lyons and the 
 French. Now Herzog ^,w that if this news 
 were true, there was no chance of saving that 
 French army from captivity, except by throwing 
 it across the frontier into Switzerland.
 
 349 
 
 CHAPrEB XXXY. 
 
 A CROWNING SERVICE. 
 
 To General Herzog these results were no surprise ; 
 he had foreseen them from the first ; and yet the 
 vast proportions of the French disaster weighed 
 upon his mind. A hundred thousand men, with 
 arms and guns intact, but wanting food and fuel, 
 shoes and shelter, stood before his little camp. A 
 mighty and victorious foe was pressing on their 
 flank and rear. He could not tell what men so 
 desperate as that broken host might not attempt. 
 His force was under twenty thousand men, and 
 with a border line ta guard extending from the 
 Miinster Thai to Val de Travers ; yet he stood to 
 meet them, if they crossed his borders, with the 
 bearing of a man whose will must be obeyed. 
 
 Two days were spent by him in watching 
 under arms. The cold was very sharp ; the snow 
 lay veiy deep ; and, worse than all, a strong 
 north wind swept down the Jura slopes in
 
 350 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 gusts. He dared not let his men lie still, and 
 while he was compelled to wait events, he 
 moved his troops about the mountain roads, at 
 once to keep them warm and occupy their minds. 
 Both officers and men were equal to their work. 
 His troops were warmly clad and fully fed. At 
 times they had to lodge in scanty sheds, and 
 yet his lists of sick were very low. They marched 
 up heights from which they could peep over into 
 France, now white with winter, and could all 
 but see into the streets of that once famous 
 Hericourt, in scaling which their sires had won 
 the pure white cross. 
 
 On Saturday morning (Jan. 2S) the General 
 heard from Colonel Grandjean, who was stationed 
 at Les Yerrieres with some companies, that the 
 Prussians were at Salins that Bourbaki was at 
 Bouclans, near Besan^on that the French army 
 was disorganised but that many of the officers 
 imagined they could still retreat on Lyons by 
 the mountain roads of Mouthe and St. Claud. 
 Next came despatches from Colonel Aubert that 
 the French were quitting Pont-de-Boide, which 
 they had held in force, and were retreating on 
 St. Hippolite and Maiche. These movements led 
 him to suppose that some large masses of the
 
 A CROWNING SERVICE. 351 
 
 French might get away into the south, and that 
 his troops would only have to deal with broken 
 corps and separated regiments. If this were so, 
 the danger of poHtical conflicts would be lessened, 
 while the fear of isolated fights would be in- 
 creased. To meet these perils he must throw 
 his forces into every ravine leading through the 
 Jura, from the gates of Basel to Geneva, since the 
 wandering bands of French might strike his lines 
 at any point. 
 
 Some orders had been sent to Col. Aubert, 
 when, near midnight, news came in from 
 Col. Grandjean, at Les Verri^res, that Bourbaki 
 had killed himself ; that a hundred and twenty 
 thousand French were near Besan^on ; that the 
 Prussians held the roads at Quingez and St. Vit ; 
 that every hope of falling back on Lyons was 
 abandoned ; and that all these broken hosts 
 would soon be on his hands to fight, if they 
 would not submit to feed and lodge, if they 
 should pile their arms. A journal came by 
 post, with telegrams from Versailles, announcing 
 that Manteufel was driving Bourbaki and his 
 broken troops along the left bank of the river 
 Doubs. 
 
 The facts were clear at last ; for whether
 
 352 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 General Bourbaki was alive or dead of which 
 there seemed some doubt a great part of his 
 army had been caught. That army had no choice 
 but either yield their arms or cross the frontier. 
 Herzog felt that they would cross. At once he 
 made his dispositions, so that every gorge and 
 passage of the Jura should be held in force ; 
 the colonels having strict commands to fire into 
 any body of troops, however large, which hesi- 
 tated at a summons to disarm. 
 
 By long quick marches, such as German troops 
 alone could match, the Swiss brigades were 
 thrown along the range, from Bassecourt to 
 the Sagne. These valleys in the Jura are not 
 rich. A race of miners, quarry-men and charcoal- 
 burners, dwell in villages far apart. Their life, 
 at all times hard, is hardest in the winter months, 
 when every road is buried under snow, and every 
 lakelet is a bed of ice. Yet when these villagers 
 saw the troops march in young fellows who had 
 left their cosy homes in Zurich and Schaffhausen, 
 to defend their native soU from insult they re- 
 ceived them gladly in their houses, set before 
 them what they had of best, and even turned 
 their class-rooms into temporary camps. 
 
 While General Herzog was arranging either
 
 A CROWNING SERVICE, 353 
 
 to receive or to repel the French, Manteufel fell 
 upon the routed army near Besan9on, broke them 
 at a shock, and forced them back into Pontarlier, 
 whence they had one issue only by the gorge 
 of Fort de Joux, which led them straight upon 
 the Swiss frontiers. 
 
 A single road leads out of PontarHer eastward 
 to St. Pierre la Cluse, where it forks out; one 
 prong extending to Les Verrieres and the Val de 
 Travers, leading on to Neufchatel ; the other 
 prong deploying to the right by way of Jougne 
 and Orbe to Canton Vaud. The railway line from 
 Bern to Paris passes by the Val de Travers to 
 Pontarlier, and this railway line being open, it 
 was evident to Gen. Herzog that the French 
 would try to enter by this shorter path. He 
 therefore called in Col. Aubert from the neigh- 
 bourhood of Blamont, swung his right wing 
 round towards Neufchatel, and pushed as many 
 men as he could muster down the Val de Travers. 
 Fixing his staff at Neufchatel, he went in person 
 to the frontier hamlet called Les Verrieres, to be 
 near the broken and unruly French. 
 
 Before liim rose the battlements of La Cluse 
 and Fort de Joux (two strongholds which the 
 French have armed against the Switzers), covered 
 
 A A
 
 354 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 with the wintry ice and snow ; and close behind 
 these frowning batteries lay some eighty thousand 
 Frenchmen, mad with shame and hunger, who 
 might rush at any moment on his guns. As yet, 
 no word had come to tell him in what mood of 
 mind they stood. He drew his forces into line, 
 and waited, under those French guns, to hear 
 what France would say. 
 
 On Tuesday he received a message from Pon- 
 tarlier in the shape of a great train of sick and 
 wounded men, which rolled into Les Verrieres, 
 drew up in the village, and awaited orders to 
 go on. Four hundred men were in this train; 
 but no one was in charge of it no officer with 
 the troops no doctor with the sick. It was a 
 lazaretto emptied on his camp. The train 
 appeared to have been flung at him, as if 
 to try his mettle. Should his feeling get the 
 better of his judgment they might hope to see 
 him yield on other points ; but Herzog was too 
 wise a soldier to give way in what was matter 
 of the highest duty in his station at the sight of 
 pain. Such flinging of their sick and wounded 
 men into another country was a violation of the 
 pubHc law of Europe. Many of these sufferers
 
 A CROWNING SERVICE. 355 
 
 seemed to be afflicted with contagious maladies 
 with typhus, measles, cholera and General Herzog 
 was amazed to think that any staff-officer should 
 order such attempts upon his patience to be made. 
 He sent his adjutant, Colonel Sieber, to the French 
 head-quarters at Pontarlier to protest against such 
 acts, and to demand the instant signing of an 
 article preventing them at any future time. The 
 French accepted his rebuke, excused their negli- 
 gence, and signed two articles of agreement ; one 
 by which they bound themselves not to send over 
 any soldiers who were suffering from contagious 
 maladies ; and a second, by which the Switzers 
 were to arrest all fugitives and deliver them up 
 at the nearest French posts. 
 
 A little after midnight (Wednesday morning, 
 Feb. 1st) General Herzog was requested to receive 
 Colonel Chevals, of the French staff, who came 
 to him in the name of General Clinchant 
 acting for Bourbaki to demand from the Swiss 
 republic food and shelter for a brave and friendly 
 army, which was forced by adverse fortune to 
 seek a refuge on her soil. General Herzog 
 named his first condition ; a complete surrender 
 arms, guns, horses, men and officers. Colonel
 
 356 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 Chevals came with full authority to treat, and 
 the most pressing article was soon reduced to 
 form. It ran : 
 
 Article 1. The French army, seeking to pass 
 into Swiss territory, lays down its arms, equip- 
 ments, and munitions at the frontier. 
 
 But many other things were yet to be ar- 
 ranged ; in all, ten articles had to be discussed ; 
 and these two soldiers sat up all the night re- 
 ducing details into form. At four o'clock came 
 news from Meudon, on the frontier, that heavy 
 masses of French guns were pressing the Swiss 
 Colonel Scherrer and his infantry, as though 
 they meant to push across the frontier in defiance 
 of his arms. At night, these guns had been sent 
 forward from St. Pierre, and in the early watches 
 of the morning an attempt was being made to get 
 them on the other side. At once the General 
 rose, and ordering out a whole brigade despatched 
 them on the instant to repel the French. 
 
 Colonel Chevals saw with what a man he 
 had to deal. By half-past four the treaty was 
 complete. By five o'clock it was accepted and 
 countersigned by General Clinchant, who was 
 waiting in his carriage at the frontier, ready to 
 drive in the moment he had signed his name.
 
 A CROWNING SERVICE. 357 
 
 Hardly was the paper signed before the mul- 
 titude of men and guns came swarming over ; 
 General Clinchant first ; close after him the 
 general staff; and then the troops pell-mell, in 
 broken, tipsy, and disordered ranks. With CHn- 
 chant and the staff drove strings of private car- 
 riages, with blinds and fastenings down. Then 
 rolled in many vehicles : post-wagons, ambu- 
 lances, military chests. Some Switzers were 
 amused, and some were shocked, by what they 
 saw. While not a few great officers had with 
 them actresses, and golden plate, and costly claret 
 and champagne, the rank and file had neither 
 shoes nor over-coats to keep them warm in that 
 high region, that inclement month. * In worn-out 
 shoes, in wooden clogs, and even with their feet 
 bound up in rags, these wretched soldiers had 
 to drag their rifles through the snow ! ' These 
 words are General Herzog's words. At Meudon 
 every man laid down his sword, his fusil, and 
 his cartridge-box ; until the heap of weapons rose 
 into a hill. In all the French gave up two hun- 
 dred and eighty-four pieces of artillery; sixty- 
 three thousand four hundred and twelve fusils ; 
 fifby-tlu'ee thousand seven hundred yatagans ; 
 three thousand and thirty bayonets ; eight thou-
 
 358 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 sand and seventy swords. The powder and the 
 bullets were not weighed and counted. Ten 
 thousand six hundred and forty- nine horses were 
 received. So ignorant were the French officers 
 of their army, that they gave the numbers who 
 came after them at forty-two thousand men. 
 The actual numbers, when the Switzers counted 
 them for food and beds, were 83,301. 
 
 The French came hustling over frozen, tipsy, 
 insubordinate ; all arms in one wild welter ; lines- 
 men mixed with Zouaves ; cavalry riding over 
 guns and gunners ; stores invaded and destroyed ; 
 no rank and step, no time and order ; everybody 
 pushing to the front ; the four great army-corps 
 convulsed into that worst kind of mob, a military 
 mob. ' Your corps must gather to their standards,' 
 cried the Swiss Commander ; ' let your 15th corps 
 assemble at Couvet, your 18th corps at Motier, 
 your 20th corps at Fleurier, your 24th corps at 
 Travers.* General Borel, and other French officers, 
 rode off to make these efforts in the cause of 
 order. Here and there a regiment of the line, 
 and part of the artillery, fell in ; but not one com- 
 pany in five obeyed their captains. When the 
 colonels rode among the crowd, they were re- 
 ceived with yells and curses. Every one accused
 
 A CROWNING SERVICE. 359 
 
 them of incompetence, and charged on them the 
 sufferings and disasters of their troops. With 
 pale, sad visage Borel rode into the Swiss head- 
 quarters to report that in the present temper of 
 his countrymen no voice would he obeyed, unless 
 that voice were backed by visible force. 
 
 Since the French could not keep order, Herzog 
 placed the four French armies under charge of his 
 own officers and troops. Despatching Col. Chouard 
 to Fleurier, Col. Schramli to Couvet, and CoL 
 Cocatrix to Travers with their several regiments, 
 he issued orders that the French should be di- 
 rected on those villages in bodies of a thousand 
 each, pell-mell, as they arrived at Meudon and 
 laid down their arms. These orders were received 
 with murmurs here and there ; but still they 
 were obeyed. A dozen Swiss soldiers with their 
 pieces charged and bayonets fixed, sufficed to lead 
 French columns of a thousand each ; and General 
 Herzog was surprised to find how patient and 
 obedient these French soldiers could be when they 
 saw that they were handled well. * They saw at 
 once,' he says, * whether a troop-officer knew his 
 duty.' Many of the French colonels asked his 
 leave to go at once into the Cantons, separate 
 from their troops.
 
 360 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 A dangerous incident occurred. 
 
 On Thursday evening, late, a Prussian officer 
 of Uhlans rode into La Verrieres, with a letter 
 from the Prussian General Schmeling, addressed 
 to Gen. Clinchant, offering, on the part of Gen. 
 Schmeling, to restore two thousand rifles taken 
 from the French at Chaffbis, on account of some 
 irregularity in the form of capture. General Her- 
 zog gave his help to the accomplishment of a 
 chivalrous act of war ; and CKnchant having 
 gratefally accepted the German soldier's offer, 
 Herzog sent his orders to the forces stationed 
 at the Col des Roches, near Locle, to receive 
 the wagon-load of arms from the Prussian au- 
 thorities. A squad of German soldiers brought 
 this wagon to the Col des Roches, and having 
 given it to the Switzers were returning to their 
 camp, when they were fired upon by franc- 
 tireurs, who had gone out and lay in ambush for 
 them. Some of the squad were killed, some 
 wounded, and the rest made prisoners, by an act 
 of treachery, which Herzog afterwards described 
 as 'a revolting abuse of the asylum offered to 
 the French.' The Switzer in command at Locle 
 was a man of steel. At once he seized the mur- 
 derers, much to their surprise ; at once he sent
 
 A CROWNING SERVICE. 3G1 
 
 the German soldiers back to their own camp. A 
 fever seized upon the French. They thought their 
 franc-tireurs were right ; and as this crime if 
 crime it were was one committed on the soil 
 of France, they claimed to judge them by their 
 local law. To this demand the Switzers were 
 obliged to yield. ' No man/ said General Herzog, 
 with the indignation of a soldier, 'could foresee 
 that a French tribunal would add to the original 
 villany the still higher ignominy of hberating 
 such assassins.' 
 
 This enormous host, demoralised by pride and 
 misery, were received, disarmed, and led into 
 their cantonments by less than twenty thousand 
 citizen troops, without the forfeit of a single 
 life. 
 
 The General who commanded the Swiss army 
 through this crowning service speaks of rank 
 and file with pride, though not without some 
 drawbacks to his praise. The colonels, too, are 
 satisfied with their men. Some Cantons have a 
 quicker aptitude for war than others. Basel, 
 Aargau, Bern, and Zurich, turn out men whom 
 any soldier would be glad to lead. St. Gallen, 
 Thurgau, and Luzem, come next. The men of 
 Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, make good sol-
 
 362 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 diers ; they are hardy, patient, brave ; but badly 
 taught and very poorly armed. In Canton Valais 
 there is but one arm the battery of mountain- 
 guns; in every other branch this Canton falls 
 below the mark. If Canton Vaud is better than 
 Canton Valais, it is still a fact that La Suisse 
 Romande is weaker in the field than even in the 
 school. Canton Ticino is the worst of all ; being 
 bad in every branch alike. Her men are weak ; 
 her arms are old ; her driU is loose ; her ofiicers 
 are dolts. 
 
 The lessons learnt in these campaigns have 
 quickened the desire for a more central system 
 of recruitment and instruction, such as that 
 adopted in the Federal pact. 
 
 Swiss Engineers receive the highest praise from 
 General Herzog, who is not a man to say the 
 word he does not mean. The gunners, sappers, 
 guides, and carabineers, are also highly praised ; 
 except the gunners from Ticino, who are thoroughly 
 condemned. And what about the rank and file 
 these weavers, tapsters, goldsmiths, herdsmen, 
 farmers, what not who are bugled from their 
 beds, and sent into the field, alike in sultry heat 
 and biting frost ? 
 
 'They are a set of riff-rafi",' says a foreign
 
 A CROWNING SERVICE. 363 
 
 soldier, as we sit in Bern beneath the limes, and 
 watch the gold and pink fade slowly from the 
 Jungfrau and the Bliimlisalp ; ' you could not 
 call them soldiers by the side of French and 
 English troops.' 
 
 ' Did you see them when they came back 
 from the Jura mountains?' 
 
 * Yes. Some weeks of camp had much im- 
 proved them. They could walk m step, and 
 hold their heads erect. Their skin was bronzed, 
 their beards were grown, and they could tell an 
 officer of rank by sight.' 
 
 * These fellows have good stuff in them, 
 another foreign soldier says ; ' they know what 
 they are doing ; they can read and write ; great 
 numbers of them speak two languages ; and 
 every man has been a soldier from his youth. 
 They do not know how brave they are. With 
 six months' fighting in the field, these fellows 
 would be able to do anything they liked.' 
 
 'They might be able to defend their homes 
 in case they were attacked,' remarks a Swiss 
 professor with a pleasant irony of voice. * There 
 is another thing these men can do ; when they 
 put up their rifles they can earn their daily bread. 
 Of course, they are not perfect ; and we know of
 
 364 THE SWITZERS. 
 
 many things they cannot learn. You cannot teach 
 them to forget their civic rights ; you cannot 
 teach them to adore a leader ; you cannot teach 
 them to prefer their colonel to their country. In 
 these twenty thousand men you would not find 
 the making of one Csesar, though you might the 
 making of a hundred Wilham Tells.' 
 
 THE END. 
 
 London : Stramoeways and Walden, 28 Castle St. Leicester 8q.
 
 HURST AND BLACKETT'S
 
 13, Great Marlbobouoh Strekt. 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKEITS 
 
 LIST OF NEW WORKS. 
 
 THE SWITZERS. By W. Hepworth Dixon. 
 
 Author of " New America," " Free Russia," " Her Majesty's 
 Tower," &c. 1 vol. demy 8vo. ISs. 
 
 CONTKJJTS : Honntain Men ; St Gtothard ; Peopling the Alps ; The Fight for Life ; 
 Bain and Kecks ; Teuton and Celt ; The Communes ; Communal Authorities ; 
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 Crowning Service. 
 
 THE LITERARY LIFE OF THE REV. WIL- 
 
 LIAM HARNESS, Vicar of All Saints, Knightsbridge, and Pre- 
 bendary of St. Paul's. By the Rev. A. G. L'Estrange. 1 vol. 
 8vo. 158. 
 Among other celebrated persons of whom anecdotes and reininiscences will be 
 found in this work are Lord Byron, Sheridan, Scott, Crabbe, Coleridge, Moore, 
 Rogers, Charles Lamb, Sydney Smith, Talfourd, Theodore Hook, Dickens, Thacke- 
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 Siddons, Madame d'Arblay, &c. 
 
 " The book is a pleasant book, and will be found excellent reading. All those 
 to whom the good name of Byron is dear, to the utmost extent ^f its desert, will 
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 vices ; as regards the latter, there is shown to have been gross exaggeration in the 
 report of them." Athenaeum. 
 
 "This volume is extremely Interesting." Daily yews. 
 
 " Considerable praise is due to the compiler of ' The Literary Life of the Rev. 
 William Harness ' for the completeness with which he has laid before the public 
 the life of one who was an intimate friend and companion of so many eminent 
 men and women, that the record of his career becomes in a measure their history. 
 Mr. Harness was a man of no mean scholarly attainments ; his celebrity chiefly 
 rests upon his Shakspearian researches, but extracts in the present volume from 
 original poetical works show him to have been an elegant if not a powerful writer, 
 and his quoted opinions upon religious and social topics are often pregnant and 
 striking. The most interesting anecdotes relate to his two greatest intimueies, viz., 
 with Miss Mitford and with Lord Byron." Oraphic 
 
 " We are sure that this work will be read with much interest The Rev. William 
 Harness was the friend of Byron, and of almost every literary celebrity of his 
 time. He liked to be about literary men, and they reciprocated that liking. 
 Byron, Miss Mitford, the Kembles, Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Lamb, Rogers, 
 Sheridan, Theodore Hook, Henry Hope, were among his friends ; and the conse- 
 quence of this varied literary friendship is that his life, for richness in biographical 
 details, is surpassed by no recent publication except Crabb Robinson's Diary." 
 TheEcfio. 
 
 " Mr. L'Estrange has done a good deed in writingMr. Harness's lite. Its readers 
 will find it a book full of amusing anecdotes, nor will they regret the time spent in 
 making themselves better acquainted with a man so well worth knowing as Mr. 
 Harness." Qloie.
 
 13, Great Mablborough Street. 
 
 MESSRS. IIUllST AND BLACKETT'S 
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 PRAIRIE FARMS AND PRAIRIE FOLK. By 
 
 Parker Gillmore (" Ubique"), Author of " A Hunter's Adven- 
 tures in the Great West," &c. 2 vols, crown 8vo, with Illustra- 
 tions. 21s. 
 
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 not merely because of Its lifelike dcRCiiptions of open-air life in the vast outlying 
 districts of the American continent, but because it gives an amount of Information 
 of incalculable value to emigrants." Messenger. 
 
 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS: A Narrative 
 
 of Discovery and Adventure in The North Pacific. By Francis 
 Poole, G.E. Edited by John W. Ltndon. 1 vol. 8vo, with Map 
 and Illustrations. 15s. 
 
 " There can be no doubt whatever about the spirit of enterprise and power of 
 endurance with which Mr. Poole is gifted, and much of his book is very exciting 
 reading. Nor are the parts of it which are the leaat novel the least Interesting ; 
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 the Isthmus, with his account of San Francisco and Victoria, will repay perusal. 
 The materials Mr. Poole furnished have been edited by Mr. John W. Lyndon. Mr. 
 I-yndon seems to have discharged his oQce with commendable judgment" Pall 
 Mall Gazette. 
 
 " As a whole the book is Interesting and Instructive, and Its author evidently a 
 pleasant nd a plucky fellow. We can confidently recommend the book to all who 
 wish to form an idea of life and land in those countries in the present, and of their 
 capacity in the future." Athenum. 
 
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 new and easy information about a fertile British possession that is yet waiting to 
 be used." Examiner. 
 
 " A most interesting book, full of stirring adventure and anecdote, told in spirited 
 language." Globe. 
 
 " This very interesting narrative is excellent reading. Mr. Poole has added much 
 that is valuable to the stock of general information." Daily News. 
 
 TURKISH HAREMS & CIRCASSIAN HOMES. 
 
 By Mrs. Harvey, of Ickwell Bury. 8vo, with Coloured Illustra- 
 tions. Second Edition. 1 5s. 
 
 " Mrs. Harvey's book could scarcely fail to be pleasant, for the excursion of 
 which it gives us an account must have been one of the most delightful and ro- 
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 saw all that she did see to the best advantage. She was admitted into Turkish 
 interiors which are rarely penetrated, and, protected by an escort, was able to ride 
 far into the mountains of Circassia, whose lovely defiles are full of dangers which 
 seal them to ordinary travellers. We ciinnot call to mind any account written of 
 late years which is so full of valuable information upon Turkish household Ufa 
 In noticing the intrinsic interotit of Mrs. Harvey's book, we must not forget to say 
 a word for her abUity as a writer." Times. 
 
 " This record of travel is pleasantly written ; its descriptions are vivid, and there 
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 Homes, which to most persons will have the charm of novelty. We take leave of 
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 " Mrs. Harvey records her impressions of Turkey and Circassia in a lively and 
 pleasant manner. The book has many attractions for untravelled readers. It 
 contains the genuine criticisms of an English lady of culture on Eastern manners 
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 the persons she encountered." Examiner.
 
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 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM BEWICK, 
 
 THE ARTIST. Edited by Thomas Landsekk, A.R.A. 2 vols, 
 largo post 8vo, with Portrait. 24s. 
 
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 " Mr. Landseer's account of Bewick's life is altogether interesting. The volumes 
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 character and career of a man who is worth remembering on his own account, and 
 yet iHore on account of the friends and great men with whom he associated. There 
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 Sir Walter Scott, the Ettrick Shepherd, Shelley, Keats, Leigh Hunt, and a score or 
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 " The interest for general readers of this ' Life and Letters ' is derived almost en- 
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 gether with much skill and a great deal of genial tacL The literary sketches which 
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 of romantic and poetical feelings, destined to have a wide acquaintance with all 
 the men of his time best worth knowing, and intimate association with the most 
 gifted and famous among them. His reminiscences are full, lively and interesting. 
 His letters are fuU of charming anecdotes of all the celebrities of the day in litera- 
 ture and ai-t" Chambers' Journal. 
 
 MY EXPERIENCES OF THE WAR BETWEEN 
 
 FRANCE AND GERMANY. By Archibald Forbes. One of the 
 Special Correspondents of " The Daily News." 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. 
 
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 fortunate in being able to give his personal experiences of the principal episodes 
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 NEW V^'OKKSCo7itmued. 
 
 DIARY OF THE BESIEGED RESIDENT IN 
 
 PARIS. Reprinted from " The Dail-^ News." With several 
 NEW LETTERS and PREFACE. Second Edition Revised. 1 vol. 
 8vo. 158. 
 
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 writer which vastly commends him to us." Pall Hall Gazette. 
 
 " The Letters of the Besieged Resident give a lively, minute, and, in the main, 
 very accurate description of affairs in Paris during the four months of its isolation. 
 Other kindred books will soon be published, but this volume is likely to be more 
 valuable than any of the others, and we certainly cannot expect to find elsewhere 
 BO much fulness of detail or such vivid narration of events." Examiner. 
 
 " There is much in this volume of a permanent value, and we are glad to see it 
 given to the world in a permanent shape." Standard. 
 
 FREE RUSSIA. By W. Hepworth Dixon, Third 
 
 Edition 2 vols. 8vo, with Coloured Illustrations. 30s. 
 
 "Mr. Dixon's book will be certain not only to interest but to please its readers 
 and it deserves to do so. It contains a great deal that is worthy of attention, and 
 is likely to produce a very useful effect The ignorance of the English people 
 with respect to Russia has long been so dense that we cannot avoid being grateful 
 to a writer who has taken the trouble to make personal acquaintance with that 
 seldom-visited land, and to bring before the eyes of his countrymen a picture of 
 its scenery and its people, which is so novel and interesting that it can scarcely 
 fail to arrest their attention." Saturday Review. 
 
 " Mr. Dixon has invented a good title for his volumes on Russia. The chapter on 
 Lomonosoff, the peasant poet, is one of the best in the book, and the chapter on 
 Kief is equally good. He gives an interesting and highly picturesque account of 
 the working of the jury system in a case which he himself saw tried. The de- 
 scriptions of the peasant villages, and of the habits and manners of the peasantry, 
 are very good; in fact, the descriptions are excellent throughout the work." Times. 
 
 " We claim for Mr. Dixon the merit of having treated his subject in a fresh and 
 original manner. He has done his best to see with his own eyes the vast country 
 which he describes, and he has visited some parts of the land with which few 
 even among its natives are familiar, and he has had the advantage of being 
 brought into personal contact with a number of those Russians whose opinions 
 are of most weight The consequence is, that he has been able to lay before 
 general readers such a picture of Bossia and the Buasian people as cannot fail to 
 interest them." Athenaeum. 
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF GREECE. By the Right 
 
 Hon. Sir Thomas Wtsk, K.C.B., Late British Minister at Athens. 
 
 With an Introduction by Miss Wyse, and Letters from Greece to 
 
 Friends at Home, by Dean Stanley. 8vo. 15s. 
 " No book that we know gives so just and, at the same time, so enticing a view 
 of Greece a^s she is and as she might be as ' Impressions of Greece.' The introduc- 
 tion by Miss Wyse is an admirable paper. The chapters due to Dean Stanley are 
 delightful" /'o/i Mall Gazette. 
 
 " It is pleasant to meet with a volume of such sterling and lasting interest the 
 joint authors having much valuable information to impart Sir 'Thomas Wyse 
 natarally enjoyed many opportunities of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the 
 manners and customs, as well as the antiquities, of Greece; and his niece "is evi- 
 dently possessed of a power of keen and lively observation, while Uean Stanley 
 completes the volume with a series of graphic and intelligent letters, in that easy 
 and pleasant style for which he is so weU known." Standard.
 
 13, Gbeat Mablborouoh Street. 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 
 NEW WORKS Continued. 
 
 VOLS. III. & IV. OF HER MAJESTY'S TOWER. 
 
 By W. HEPWORTH DIXON. DEDICATED BY EXPRESS 
 PERMISSION TO THE QUEEN. Completing the Work. Third 
 Edition. Demy 8vo. 30s. 
 
 CoMTENTS : A Favonrite ; A Favourite's Friend ; The Coantess of Suffolk ; To tha 
 Tower ; Lady Catherine Manners ; House of Villiers ; Bevolntion ; Fall of Lord 
 Bacon; A Spanish Match; Spaniolizing ; Henry De Vere; The Matter of Hol- 
 land ; Sea Affairs ; The Pirate War ; Port and Court ; A New Bomanzo ; Move 
 and Counter-move ; Pirate and Prison ; In the Marshalsea ; The Spanish Olive ; 
 Prisons Opened; A Parliament ; Digby, Earl of Bristol ; Turn of Fortune; Eliot 
 Eloquent ; Felton's Knife ; An Assassin ; Nine Gentlemen in the Tower ; A 
 King's Eevenge ; Charles L ; Pillars of State and Church ; End of Wentworth ; 
 Laud's Last Troubles ; The Lieutenant's House ; A Political Bomance ; Phi- 
 losophy at Bay ; Fate of an Idealist ; Britannia ; Killing not Murder; A Second 
 Buckingham; Roger, Earl of Castlemaine ; A Life of Plots ; The Two Penns; 
 A Quaker's Cell ; Colonel Blood ; Crown Jewels , King and Colonel ; Bye House 
 Plot ; Murder ; A Patriot ; The Good Old Cause ; James, Duke of Monmouth ; 
 The Unjust Judge ; The Scottish Lords ; The Countess of Nithisdale ; Escaped; 
 Cause of the Pretender ; Beformers and Beform , Reform Riots ; Sir Francis 
 Burdett ; A Summons to the Tower ; Arthur Thistlewood ; A Cabinet Council ; 
 Cato Street ; Pursuit ; Last Prisoners in the Tower. 
 
 * Mr. Dixon's lively and accurate work." TVmes. 
 
 *' This book is thoroughly entertaining, well- written, and instructive." Examiner. 
 
 " These volumes will place Mr. Uixon permanently on the roll of English authors 
 who have rendered their country a service, by his putting on record a truthful and 
 brilliant account of that most popular and instructive relic of antiquity. ' Her 
 Majesty's Tower ;' the annals of which, as related in these volumes, are by turns 
 exciting and amusing, while they never fail to interest. Our ancient stronghold 
 could have had no better historian than Mr. Dixon." Post. 
 
 "By his merits of literary execution, his vivacious portraitures of historical 
 figures, his masterly powers of narrative and description, and the force and grace- 
 ful ease of his style, Mr. Dixon will keep his hold upon a multitude of readers." 
 Illuttrated News. 
 
 "These volumes are two galleries of richly painted portniits of the noblest 
 men and most brilliant women, besides others commemorated by English 
 history. The grand old Royal Keep, palace and prison by turns, is revivitled in 
 these volumes, which close the narrative, extending from the era of Sir John Eliot, 
 who saw Raleigh die in Palace Yard, to that of Thistlewood, the last prisoner im- 
 mured in the Tower. Few works are given to us, in these days, so abundant in 
 originality and research as Mr. Dixon's." Standard. 
 
 "This intensely interesting work will become as popular as any book Mr. 
 Dixon has written." Messenger. 
 
 " A work always eminently readable, often of fascinating interest" Echo. 
 
 " The most brilliant and fascinating of Mr Dixon's literary achievementa" Sun. 
 
 " Mr. Dixon has accomplished his task well. Few subjects of higher and more 
 general interest than the Tower could have been found. Around the old pile 
 clings all that is most romantic in our history. To have made himself the trusted 
 and accepted historian of the Tower is a task on which a writer of highest reputa- 
 tion may well be proud. This Mr. Dixon has done. He has, moreover, adapted 
 his work to all classes. To the historical student it presents the result of long 
 and successful research in sources undiscovered till now ; to the artist it gives the 
 most glowing picture yet, perhaps, produced of the more exciting scenes of national 
 history ; to the general reader it offers fact with all the graces of fiction. Mr. 
 Dixon's book is admirable alike for the general view of history It presents, and for 
 the beauty and value of its single pictures." Sunday IHme*.
 
 13, Great Marlborough Street. 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 
 NEW WOUK^ Continued. 
 
 VOL. I. OF HER MAJESTY'S TOWER. By W. 
 
 HEPWORTH DIXON. DEDICATED BY EXPRESS PERMIS- 
 SION TO THE QUEEN. Sixth Edition. Demy 8vo. 15s. 
 
 Contents : The Pile Inner Ward and Outer "Ward The Wharf Biver Eights 
 The White Tower Charles of Orleans Uncle Gloucester Prison Bules Beau- 
 champ Tower The good Lord Cobham King and Cardinal The Pilgrimage 
 of Grace Madge Cheyne Heirs to the Crown The Nine Days' Queen De- 
 throned The Men of Kent Courtney No Cross no Crown Cranmer, Lati- 
 mer, Eidley White Eoses Princess Margaret Plot and Counterplot Mon- 
 sieur Charles Bishop of Boss Murder of Northumberland Philip the Con- 
 fessor Mass in the Tower Sir Walter Ealeigh The Arabella Plot Ealeigh's 
 Walk The Villain Waad The Garden House The Brick Tower. 
 
 "From first to last this volume overflows with new information and original 
 thought, with poetry and picture. In these fascinating pages Mr. Dixon dis- 
 charges alternately the functions of the historian, and the historic biographer, with 
 the insight, art, humour and accurate knowledge which never fail him when he 
 undertakes to illumine the darksome recesses of our national story." Morning Fost. 
 
 "We earnestly recommend this remarkable volume to those in quest of amuse- 
 ment and instruction, at once solid and refined. It is a most eloquent and graphic 
 historical narrative, by a ripe scholar and an accomplished master of English dic- 
 tion, and a valuable commentary on the social aspect of mediaval and Tudor civil- 
 ization. In Mr. Dixon's pages are related some of the most moving records of 
 human flesh and blood to which human ear could listen." Daily TeJeyraph. 
 
 " It is needless to say that Mr. Dixon clothes the gray stones of the old Tower 
 with a new and more living interest than most of us have felt before. It is need- 
 less to say that the stories are admirably told, for Mr. Dixon's style is full of vigour 
 and liveliness, and he would make a far duller subject than this tale of tragic suf- 
 fering and heroism into an interesting volume. This book is as fascinating as a good 
 novel, yet it has all the truth of veritable history." Daily News. 
 
 " We can highly recommend Mr. Dixon's work. It will enhance his reputation. 
 The whole is charmingly written, and there is a life, a spirit, and a reaiity about 
 the sketches of the celebrated prisoners of the Tower, which give the work the 
 interest of a romance. ' Her Majesty's Tower' is likely to become one of the most 
 popular contributions to history." Standard. 
 
 FAIR FRANCE : Impressions of a Traveller. 
 
 By the Author of " John Halifax, Gentleman," &a. 8vo. 15s. 
 
 " A book of value and importance, and which is very agreeable reading. It i 
 bright and spirited, and evinces as much as ever the acuteuess of perception and 
 the powers of observation of the writer." Post. 
 
 " A pleasant book, conceived in a large, kindly, and liberal spirit" Daily News. 
 
 "This volume will be found pleasan treading." Athenmum. 
 
 " A good book on France is j ust now most welcome, and this is emphatically a 
 good book. It is charmingly readable." Globe. 
 
 " This is a truly fascinating volume. The book has nothing to do with the present 
 crisis. It m La Belle France: Paris, with its quiet churches and its gay carnival 
 crowds, and the old provincial cities like Caen and Chartres that is here described 
 as it was before the black waves of invasion rolled over the land. There is much 
 that is very beautiful and charming in these recollections." Echo. 
 
 " The authoress of this charming volume is well known to the public as a novel- 
 ist, and however critical judgments may vary as to her artistic power, of her 
 purity of tone and freedom from the vicious tendencies of modem fictitious lite- 
 rature, there can |be no question. For our own part, we And her even more agree- 
 able as a tourist than as a novelist She looks at the world with unprejudiced eyes. 
 But the truly pleasant traveller is the man or woman who starts with intent to 
 enjoy the trip, who lo(jk8 at the bright side of everything, and who, writing a book, 
 writes cheerily and gaily. This is precisely what we find in 'Fair France." 
 British Quarterly Review.
 
 13, Gbeat Marlbobouoh Stbeet. 
 
 MESSRS. HuksT AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WOllKS Continued. 
 
 VOL. II. OF HER MAJESTY'S TOWER. By 
 
 W. HEPWORTH DIXON. DEDICATED BY EXPRESS PER- 
 MISSION TO THE QUEEN. Sixth Edition. Demy 8vo. 158. 
 
 Contents : The Anglo-Spanish Plot Factions at Court Lord Grey of Wilton 
 Old English Catholics The English Jesuits White Webbs The Priests' Plot 
 Wilton Court L,ast of a Noble Line Powder-Plot Boom Guy Fawkes 
 Origin of the Plot Vinegar House Conspiracy at Large The Jesuit's Move 
 In London November, 1G05 Hunted Down In the Tower Search for Gar- 
 net End of the English Jesuits The Catholic Lords Harry Percy The 
 Wizard Earl A Heal Arabella Plot William Seymour The Escape Pursuit 
 ^Dead in the Tower Lady Frances Howard Robert Carr Powder Poisoning. 
 
 From the Times: "All the civilized world English, Continental, and Ame- 
 rican takes an interest in the Tower of London. The Tower is the stage 
 upon whicli has been enacted some of the grandest dramas and saddest tragedies 
 in our national annals. If, in imagination, we take our stand on those time-worn 
 walls, and let century after century flit past us, we shall see in duo succession the 
 majority of the most famous men and lovely women of England in the olden time. 
 We shall see them jesting, jousting, love-making, plotting, and then anon, per- 
 haps, commending their souls to God in the presence of a hideous masked flgure, 
 bearing an axe in his handa It is such pictures as these that Mr. Dixon, with 
 considerable skill as an historical limner, has set before us in these volumes. Mr. 
 Dixon dashes off the scenes of Tower histoiy with great spirit His descriptions 
 are given with such terseness and vigour that we should spoil them by any attempt 
 at condensation. As favourable examples of his narrative powers we may call at- 
 tention to the story of the beautiful but unpopular Elinor, Queen of Henry III., and 
 the description of Anne Boleyu's first and second arrivals at the Tower. Then we 
 have the story of the bold IJisliop of Durham, who escapes by the aid of a cord 
 hidden in a wine- jar; and the tale of Maud Fitzwalter, imprisoned and murdered 
 by the caitiff John. Passing onwards, we meet Charles of Orleans, the poetic 
 French Prince, captured at Agincourt, and detained for flve-and-tweuty years a 
 prisoner in the Tower. Next we encounter the baleful form of Richard of Gloucester, 
 and are filled with indignation at the blackest of the black Tower deeds. As we 
 draw nearer to modem times, we have the sorrowful story of the Nine Days' 
 Queen, poor little Lady Jane Grey. The chapter entitled "No Cross, no Cro\vn " 
 is one of the most affecting in the book. A mature man can scarcely read it with- 
 out feeling the tears ready to trickle from his eyes. No part of the first volume 
 yields in interest to the chapters which are devoted to the story of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh. The greater part of the second volume is occupied with the story of the 
 Gimpowder Plot. The narrative is extremely interesting, and will repay perusal. 
 Another cause celebre possessed of a perennial interest, is the murder of Sir 'i'homas 
 Overbury by Lord and Lady Somerset Mr. Dixon tells the tale skilfully. In con- 
 clusion, we may congratulate the author on this, his latest work. Both volumes 
 are decidedly attractive, and throw much light on our national history, but we 
 think the palm of superior interest must be awarded to the second volume." 
 
 Fkom the Athenaeum : " The present volume is superior in sustained interest to 
 that by whicli it was preceded. The whole details are so picturesquely narrated, 
 that the reader is carried away by the narrative. The stories are told with such 
 knowledge of new foctb as to make them like hitherto unwritten chaptera in our 
 history." 
 
 THE CITIES OF THE NATIONS FELL. By 
 
 tho Rov. John Cu&imijjg, D.D., Author of " The Seventh Vial," &c. 
 Second Edition. 1 vol. crown 8vo, 6s. 
 
 Contents: Babylon Egypt Nineveh Tyre and Sidon ^Bashan Jerusalem 
 Rome The Seven Cities of .Vsia Constantinople Metz, Sedan, and Stnisburg 
 Vienna Munich -Madrid Paris Chicago 'l"he City that never Falls The City 
 that comes down from Heaven There shall bo no more Tears Elements of 
 National Prosperity. 
 
 "Dr. Cumming's book will be read by many with advantaga" Graphic
 
 13, Grbat Mablbobouoh SniEsr. 
 
 MESSRS HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WOUKS Continued, 
 
 ANNALS OF OXFOED. By J. C. Jeaffreson, 
 
 B.A., Oxon. Author of " A Book About the Clergy," &c. Second 
 Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. 
 
 CoKTENTS : ^The Cross Keys ; King Alfred's Expulsion from Oxford ; Cliiuns and In- 
 mates; Classical Schools and Benefactions; Schools and Scholars; On Learn- 
 ing and certain Incentives to it ; Colleges and Halls ; Structural Newness of 
 Oxford; Arithmetic gone Mad; Reduction of the Estimates; A Happy Family; 
 Town and Gown ; Death to the Legate's Cook ; The Great Riot ; St Scholastica ; 
 King's College Chapel used as a Playhouse ; St. Mary's Church ; Ladies in Resi- 
 dence ; Gownswomen of the 17th Century ; The Birch in the Bodleian ; Aniarian 
 Rigour; Royal Smiles : Tudor, Georgian, Elizabeth and Stuart ; Royal Pomps; 
 Oxford in Arms ; The Cavaliers in Oxford ; Henrietta Maria's Triumph and 
 Oxford's Capitulation ; The Saints Triumphant ; Cromwellian Oxford ; Alma 
 Mater in the Days of the Merry Monarch ; The Sheldonian Theatre ; Gardens 
 and Walks ; Oxford Jokes and Sausages ; TerrtB Filii ; The Constitution Clnb ; 
 Nicholas Amhurst ; Commemoration ; Oxford in the Future. 
 "The pleasantest and most informing book about Oxford that has ever been 
 written. Whilst these volumes will be eagerly perused by the sons of Alma Mater, 
 they will be read with scarcely less interest by the general reader." Pott. 
 
 " Those who turn to Mr. Jeaffreson's highly interesting work for solid informs^ 
 tion or for amusement, will not be disappointed. Rich in research and full of 
 antiquarian interest, these volumes abound in keen humour and well-bred wit 
 A scholar-like fancy brightens every page. Mr. Jeaffreson is a very model of a 
 cicerone ; full of information, full of knowledge. The work well deserves to be 
 read, and merits a permanent niche in the library." The Graphic. 
 
 "Mr. Jeaffreson is, par excellence, a popular writer. He chooses what is pic- 
 turesque and of general interest * * No one can read these Annals of Oxford 
 without feeling a very deep interest in their varied contents." Atltettteuvi. 
 
 ," These interesting volumes should be read not only by Oxonians, but by all 
 students of English history." John Bull. 
 
 A BOOK ABOUT THE CLERGY. By J. C. 
 
 Jeaffkeson, B.A., Oxon, author of " A Book about Lawyers," " A 
 Book about Doctors," &c. Second Edition. 2 vols 8vo. 30s. 
 
 *' This is a book of sterling excellence, in which all laity as well as clergy will 
 find entertainment and instruction : a book to be bought and placed permanently 
 in our librariea It is written in a terse and lively style throughout it is eminently 
 fair and candid, and is full of interesting information on almost every topic that 
 serves to illustrate the history of the English clergy" Times. 
 
 " Honest praise may be awarded to those volumes. Mr. Jeaffreson has collected 
 a large amount of curious information, and a rich store of facts not readily to be 
 found elsewhere. The book will please, and it deserves to please, those who like 
 picturesque details and pleasant gossip." Pall Mall Oazette. 
 
 A HUNTER'S ADVENTURES IN THE GREAT 
 
 WEST. By Parkeb Gillmobb ("Ubique"). 1 vol. 8vo, with 
 Illustrations. 15s. 
 " A good volume of sports and spirited adventure. We have thoroughly enjoyed 
 Mr. Gillmore's work. It would be difficult to speak in too high terms of his pluck, 
 enterprise and energy " Pall Mall Oazette. 
 
 " An interesting, amusing, and instructive book." Examiner. 
 "A volume of exceeding interest, full of exciting and spiritedly told adventure." 
 Sunday Times. 
 
 A CRUISE IN GREEK WATERS ; with a Hunting 
 
 Excursion in Tunis. By Capt. Townshend, 2nd Life Guards. 
 1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations. 
 "Capt Townshend writes about the foreign lands he has visited with good ho- 
 rn jur and intelligence. His pictures of life in Algiers are vivid and truthful, and 
 his narrative of boar-himting in Tunis is especially worthy of notice." Athenwum. 
 
 8
 
 13, Gbeat Marlbobodoh Stbkbt. 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WOUKS Continued. 
 
 A TRIP TO THE TROPICS, AND HOME 
 
 THROUGH AMERICA. By the Maequis of Lobne. Second 
 Edition. 1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations. 
 
 " The tone of Lord Lome's book is thoroughly healthy and vigorous, and his 
 remarlcs upon men and things are well-reasoned and acute." Times. 
 
 SPIRITUAL WIVES. By W. Hepworth Dixon. 
 
 Fourth Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. With Portrait of the Author. 30s. 
 "Mr. Dixon has treated his subject in a philosophical spirit, and in his usual 
 graphic manner. There is, to our thinking, more pernicious doctrine in one chap- 
 ter of some of the sensational novels which find admirers in drawing-rooms and 
 eulogists in the press than in the whole of Mr. Dixon's interesting work." Examiner. 
 
 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST IN JAPAN 
 
 AND MANCHURIA. By Arthub Adams, F.L.S., Staff-Surgeon 
 R.N. 1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations. 
 
 * An amusing volume. Mr. Adams has acquired a body of interesting Informa- 
 tion, which he has set forth in a lively and agreeable style. The book will be a 
 favourite with naturalists, and is calculated to interest others as welL" Daily Nea*. 
 
 THE SEVENTH VIAL; or, THE TIME OF 
 
 TROUBLE BEGUN, as shown in THE GREAT WAR, THE 
 
 DETHRONEMENT OF THE POPE, and other Collateral Events. 
 
 By the Rev. John Gumming, D.D., &c. Thiid Edition. 1 vol. 6s. 
 
 " Dr. Gumming is the popular exponent of a school of prophetic interpretation, 
 
 and on this score has established a claim to attention. His book furnishes an 
 
 toiBtructive collection of the many strange portents of our day. Dr. Gumming takoa 
 
 his facts very fairly. He has a case, and the gravity of the subject must command 
 
 tiie attention of readers." Times. 
 
 " A. deeply interesting work We commend it to all who wish for able and honest 
 assistance in understanding the signs of the times." Record. 
 
 WILD LIFE AMONG THE KOORDS. By 
 
 Major F. Millingen, F.R.G.S. Svo, with Illustrations. 
 ** A thoroughly interesting work, which we heartily recommend." Examiner. 
 
 MY HOLIDAY IN AUSTRIA. By Lizzie Selina 
 
 Eden. 1 vol. post Svo, with Illustrations. 
 " A pleasantly-written voluma" Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF QUEEN HORTENSE, MOTHER 
 
 OF NAPOLEON III. Cheaper Edition, in 1 vol. 6s. 
 ** A biography of the beautiful and unhappy Queen, more satisfactory than any we 
 have yet met with." Daily News. 
 
 THE LAD YE SHAKERLEY ; bein^ the Record of 
 
 the Life of a Good and Noble Woman. A Cheshire Story. By 
 ONE of the HOUSE of EGERTON. Second Edition. 1 vol. Gs. 
 
 " This charming novelette pleasantly reminds one of the well-known series of 
 stories by the author of 'Mary Powell.' The characters bear the same impress of 
 truthfulness, and the reader is made to feel equally at home among scenes sketched 
 with a ready hand. The author writes gracefully, and has the faculty of placing 
 before others the pictures her own imagination has called up." Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 " The interest of the work is of a kind which is uniqua Fiction has been made 
 to illustrate history in a manner which is at once unobtrusive and powerful" Post.
 
 THE NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HURST & BLACKETT. 
 
 A WOMAN IN SPITE OF HERSELF. By J. 
 
 0. Jeaffreson, author of " Live it Down," &c. 3 vols. 
 
 A FIRST APPEARANCE. By Mrs. Evans Bell. 
 
 3 vols. 
 " The story is gracefully told, and will be read with pleasure." Atlierueum. 
 
 ASTON-ROYAL. By the Author of "St.Olave's," &c. 
 
 3 vols, f/n Feb.) 
 
 BRUNA'S REVENGE. By the Author of "Caste," 
 
 &c. 3 vols. 
 
 WILFRID CUMBERMEDE. By George Mac 
 
 Donald, LL.D., author of " Robert Falconer," &c. 3 vols. 
 
 " ' Wilfrid Cumbermede' is extremely original, clever, and interesting. Besides 
 the faculty of drawing character, Mr. Mac Donald has a wonderful gift of word 
 painting." Alhenoeum. 
 
 " ' Wilfrid Cumbermede' is the best of Mr. Mac Donald's novels. It is a very 
 good one, is most interesting and well told. Altogether, the book is worthy of ex- 
 tremely high praisa" Echo. 
 
 HANNAH. By the Author of "John Halifax." 2 v. 
 
 " A powerful and well-written noveL The treatment of the subject is artistic 
 and thoughtful, and the book will, no doubt, be read with interest by all who desire 
 to be enlightened on one of the great social problems of the day." Morning Post. 
 
 " A powerful novel of social and domestic life. One of the most successful efforts 
 of a successful novelist." Daily Xeiox. 
 
 " ' Hannah' is a book which every one will read with pleasure. It is in every 
 way worthy of its predecessors. The characters are well drawn, the story inte- 
 resting, and the morality as pure as the English." Echo. 
 
 " Each of the author's novels has, from the very first she published to the last 
 one now before us, maintained a surprising amount of interest. ' Hannah' abounds 
 in the expression of natural feeling, pathos, and the weaknesses of true humanity." 
 Messenger. 
 
 MINE OWN FAMILIAR FRIEND. By the Hon. 
 
 Mrs. Alfred Montgomery. 3 vols. 
 
 " Mrs. Montgomery has broken new ground Her novel belongs to none of the 
 schools. There is great force in the character of Adelaide Snowden, and many 
 touches of true artistic discrimination adorn it. In her the interest centres and 
 /calminatea She is the novelty, the heart, the creation of the book." Spectator. 
 
 THE SYLVESTRES. By M. Betham-Edwards, 
 
 author of " Kitty," " Doctor Jacob," &c. 3 vols. 
 
 " A novel which possesses many real claims to consideration by virtue of Its 
 
 fresh and powerful style." Athenceum. "A very interesting novel. Wo hope 
 
 it will have all the popularity it merits." Examiner. " This is no ordinary 
 
 novel. Written in animated style, it has much in it of tenderness and beauty, and 
 its characters ace admirably drawn." Observer. 
 
 THE LADY OF LYNDON. By Lady Blake. 3 v. 
 
 "An agreeable, well constructed story." Post. "Lady Blake's new book 
 
 may be cordially recommended" John Bull. " It is a rare thing to find so 
 
 agreeable and entertaining a novel as ' The Lady of Lyndon,' by Lady Blake, and 
 we heartily commend it to the public." Daily News.
 
 THE NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HURST & BLACKETT. 
 
 SQUIRE ARDEN. By Mrs. Oliphant, author of 
 
 " Chronicles of Carlingford," " Salem Chapel," &c. 3 vols. 
 
 " Mrs. Oliphant'8 new book will not diminish her already established reputation. 
 The plot is interesting and well managed, the scene well laid, and the characters 
 various and forcibly described." Athenaeum. 
 
 " Mrs. Oliphant has a place of her own among the best novelists of the day. She 
 keeps up the reader's interest from the first page to the last ' Squire Arden ' is 
 very clever." Examiner. 
 
 LOVE AND VALOUR. By Tom Hood. 3 vols. 
 
 " Mr. Hood has written a story which in many parts is not inferior to the pro- 
 ductions of any living novelist The characters are sketched with a masterly hand. 
 ' Love and Valour ' is one of the best novels that has been published for a long 
 time." Morning Post. 
 
 THE MORRICES ; or, the Doubtful Marriage. By 
 
 G. T. LowTH, author of " Around the Kremlin." 3 vols. 
 
 "The characters are mostly well drawn and consistent Susan is charming. 
 
 Harding and Mrs. Print are capital figures The story is told in a pleastint 
 
 narrative style." Athemeum "A clever and entertaining novel" Observer.. 
 
 MAGGIE'S SECRET. By Mary Charlotte 
 
 PHILIiPOTTS. 2 vols. 
 
 " A book which every one should read. The tone is so good and pure, the tale 
 so natural, the plot so masterly, and the interest so enthralling, that one cannot 
 lay it aside." John Bull. " A pleasant and interesting noveL'' Homing Post. 
 
 SUN AND SHADE. By the Author of "Ursula's 
 
 Love Story." 3 vols. 
 "An interesting story. It exhibits the merits of refined and easy language, 
 natural delineation of the manners of social life, and inight into the feelings and 
 motives of mankind." Globe. 
 
 MALVINA. By H. Sutherland Edwards. 3 vols. 
 
 " The story of ' MaMna' is very lightly and pleasantly written." Times. " A 
 
 charming story. It is wonderfully entertaining throughout" Graphic 
 
 ARTISTE. By Maria M. Grant. 3 vols. 
 
 " We owe a debt of thanks to the authoress of this interesting novel for present- 
 ing us with so charming an ideal of womanhood as we find in the heroine, and 
 producing a work which, as regards the story, the descriptions of character, and 
 the nmuber of original thoughts it contains, is so far above the average run of 
 novels now in circulation as ' Artista' " Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 RESTORED. By the Author of " Son and Heir." 3 v. 
 
 " An exceptionally good novel, and will be widely read. It stirs the rentier's 
 deepest feelings ; its characters are new ; its plans and incidents original.'' Pott. 
 
 JAMES GORDON'S WIFE. 3 vols. 
 
 " This novel is conceived and executed in the purest spirit The illostrations of 
 society are cleverly and spiritedly done." Post. " An interesting novel, plea- 
 santly written, refined in tone, and easy in styla" Giofte. 
 
 MY LITTLE LADY. 3 vols. 
 
 "There is a great deal of fascination about this book. The author writes in a 
 clear, imaffected style. She has a decided gift for depicting character; while the 
 descriptions of scenery scattered up and down the book convey a distinct pic- 
 torial Impression to the reader." Timet. 
 
 11
 
 Mniitx i^t ^spmal '^nixannQt of Per P^ajestg. 
 
 Published annually/, in One Vol., royal 8vo, with the Arms beautifulh/ 
 engraved, handsomely bound, with gilt edges, price 31s. 6d. 
 
 LODGERS PEERAGE 
 
 AND BARONETAGE, 
 
 CORRECTED BY THE NOBILITY. 
 
 THE POETT-FIEST EDITION FOE 1872 IS NOW EEADY. 
 
 Lodge's Peerage and Babonetage is acknowledged to be the most 
 complete, as weU as the most elegant, work of the kind. As an esta- 
 blished and authentic authority on all questions respecting the family 
 histories, honours, and connections of the titled aristocracy, no work has 
 ever stood so high. It is published under the especial patronage of Her 
 Majesty, and is annually corrected throughout, from the personal com- 
 munications of the Nobility. It is the only work of its class in which, the 
 type being kept constantly standing, every correction is made in its proper 
 place to the date of publication, an advantage which gives it supremacy 
 over all its competitors. Independently of its full and authentic informa- 
 tion respecting the existing Peers and Baronets of the realm, the most 
 sedulous attention is given in its pages to the collateral branches of the 
 various noble families, and the names of many thousand individuals are 
 introduced, which do not appear in other records of the titled classes. For 
 its authority, correctness, and facihty of arrangement, and the beauty of 
 its typography and binding, the work is justly entitled to the place it 
 occupies on the tables of Her Majesty and the Nobility. 
 
 LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL CONTENTS. 
 
 Historical View of the Peerage. 
 
 Parliamentary Roll of the House of Lords. 
 
 EngUsh, Scotch, and Irish Peers, in their 
 orders of Precedence. 
 
 Alphabetical List of Peers of Great Britain 
 and the United Kingdom, holding supe- 
 rior rank in the Scotch or Irish Peerage. 
 
 Alphabetical list of Scotch and Irish Peers, 
 holding superior titles in the Peerage of 
 Great Britain and the United Kingdom. 
 
 A Collective list of Peers, in their order of 
 Precedence. 
 
 Table of Precedency among Men. 
 
 Table of Precedency among Women. 
 
 The Queen and the Royal Family. 
 
 Peers of the Blood RoyaL 
 
 The Peerage, alphabetically arranged. 
 
 Families of such Extinct Peers as have left 
 Widows or Issue. 
 
 Alphabetical List of the SnroameB of all the 
 Peers. 
 
 The Archbishops and Bishops of England, 
 Ireland, and the Colonies. 
 
 The Baronetage alphabetically arranged. 
 
 Alphabetical List of Surnames assumed by 
 members of Noble Families. 
 
 Alphabetical List of the Second Titles of 
 Peers, usually borne by their Eldest 
 Sons. 
 
 Alphabetical Index to the Daughters of 
 Dukes, Marqvuses, and Earls, who, hav- 
 ing married Commoners, retain the title 
 of Lady before their own Christian and 
 their Husband's Surnames. 
 
 Alphabetical Index to the Daughters of 
 Viscounts and Barons, who, having 
 married Commoners, are styled Honour- 
 able Mrs. ; and, in case of the husband 
 being a Baronet or Knight, Honourable 
 Lady. 
 
 Mottoes alphabetically arranged and trans- 
 lated. 
 
 "A work which corrects all errors of formerworks. It is a most useful publication. 
 We are happy to bear testimony to the fact that scrupulous accuracy is a distinguish- 
 ing feature of this book." Times. 
 
 "Lodge's Peerage must supersede all other works of the kind, for two reasons: first, it 
 is on a better plan ; and secondly, it is better executed. "We can safely pronounce it to be 
 the readiest, the most useful, and exactest of modem works on the subject." Spectator. 
 
 " A work of great value. It is the most faithful record we possess of the arislo- 
 crucy of the day." Post. 
 
 " The best existing, and, we believe, the best possible Peerage. It is the standard 
 authority on the svbjoct." Standard. 
 
 13
 
 HURST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 
 
 OF CHEAP EDITIONS OF 
 
 POPULAR MODERN WORKS, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY HILLATS, HOLMAN HUNT, LEECH, BIRKET FOSTER, 
 JOHN GILBERT, TENNIEL, SANDYS, E. HUGHES, &C. 
 
 Each in a Single Volume, elegantly printed, lonnd, and illnstrated, price 6& 
 
 I. SAM SLICK'S NATUEE AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 ' The first volume of Messrs. Hurst and Blackett's Standard Library of Cheap Editions 
 forms a very good beginning to what will doubtless be a very successful undertaking. 
 ' Nature and Human Nature ' is one of the best of Sam Slick's witty and humorous 
 productions, and is well entitled to the large circulation which it cannot fail to obtain 
 in its present convenient and cheap shape. The volume combines with the great recom- 
 mendations of a clear, bold t3rpe, and good paper, the lesser but attractive merits of 
 being well illustrated and elegantly bound." Post. 
 
 II. JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN. 
 
 " This is a very good and a very interesting work. It is designed to trace the career 
 from boyhood to age of a perfect man a Christian gentleman; and it abounds in inci- 
 dent both well and highly wrought Throughout it is conceived in a high spirit, and 
 written with great ability. This cheap and handsome new edition is worthy to pass 
 freely from hand to hand as a gift book in many households." Examiner. 
 
 " The new and cheaper edition of this interesting work will doubtless meet with great 
 success. John Halifax, the hero of this most beautiful story, is no ordinary hero, and 
 this his history is no ordinary book. It is a full-length portrait of a true gentleman, one 
 of nature's own nobility. It is also the history of a home, and a thoroughly English 
 on& The work abounds in incident, and is full of graphic power and true pathoa It 
 is a book that few will read without becoming wiser and better." Scotsman. 
 
 ni. THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. 
 
 BY ELIOT WARBURTON. 
 
 " Independent of its value as an original narrative, and its useful and interesting 
 information, this work is remarkable for the colouring power and play of fancy with 
 which its descriptions are enlivened. Among its greatest and moat lasting charms is 
 its reverent and serious spirit" Quarterly Review. 
 
 IV. NATHALIE. By JULIA KAVANAGH. 
 
 " ' Nathalie' is Miss Kavanagh's best imaginative effort Its manner is gracious and 
 attractive. Its matter is good. A sentiment, a tenderness, are commanded by her 
 which are as individual as they are elegant" Athenxum. 
 
 v. A WOMAN'S THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." ~ 
 " A book of sound counsel. It is one of the most sensible works of its kind, well- 
 written, true-hearted, and altogether practical Whoever wishes to give advice to a 
 yoong lady may thank the author for means of doing so." Examiner. 
 
 VI. ADAM GRAEME. By MRS. OLEPHANT. 
 
 " A story awakening genuine emotions of interest and delight by its admirable pic- 
 tures of Scottish life and scenery. The author sets before us the essential attributes of 
 Christian virtue, their deep and silent workings in the heart, and their beautiful mani- 
 festations in life, with a delicacy, power, and truth which can hardly be surpassed. "-/"o** 
 
 Vn. SAM SLICK'S WISE SAWS AND MODERN 
 INSTANCES. 
 
 "The repntation of this book will stand as long as that of Scott's or Bnlwer's Novels. 
 Its remarkable originality and happy descriptions of American life still continue the 
 ub jectof universal admiration. The new edition forms a part of Messrs. Hurst and 
 Blackett's Cheap Standard Library, which has included some of he very best specimens 
 of light Uterature that ever have been written." Meuenger. 
 
 IS
 
 HURST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 
 
 (continued.) 
 
 Vin. CARDINAL WISEMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 THE LAST FOUR POPES. 
 
 " A picturesque book on Rome and its ecclesiastical sovereigns, by an eloquent Boman 
 Catholic. Cardinal Wiseman has treated a special subject with so much geniality, that 
 his recollections will excite no ill-feeling in those who are most conscientiously opposed 
 to every idea of human infallibility represented in Papal domination." AVienseum. 
 
 IX. A LIFE FOR A LIFE. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OP " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 "In 'A Life for a Life ' the author is fortunate in a good subject, and has produced a 
 work of strong effect" Athemeum. 
 
 X. THE OLD COURT SUBURB. By LEIGH HUNT. 
 
 " A delightful book, that will be welcome to all readers, and most welcome to those 
 who have a love for the best kinds of reading." Examiner. 
 
 "A more agreeable and entertaining book has not been published since Bos well pro-- 
 duced his reminiscences of Johnson." Observer. 
 
 XI. MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS. 
 
 " We recommend all who are in search of a fascinating novel to read this work for 
 themselves. They will find it well worth their whUe. There are a freshness and ori- 
 ginality about it quite charming." Athenxum. 
 
 XII. THE OLD JUDGE. By SAM SLICK. 
 
 " The publications included in this Library have all been of good quality ; many give 
 information while they entertain, and of that class the book before us is a specimen. 
 The manner in which the Cheap Editions forming tlie series is produced, deserves 
 especial mention. The paper and print are unexceptionable ; there is a steel engraving 
 in each volume, and the outsides of them will satisfy the purchaser who likes to see 
 books in handsome uniform." Examiner. 
 
 XIII. DARIEN. By ELIOT WARBURTON. 
 
 " This last production of the author of ' The Crescent and the Cross ' has the same 
 elements of a very wide popularity. It will please its thousands." Globg. 
 
 XIV. FAMILY ROMANCE ; OR, DOMESTIC ANNALS 
 OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 BY SIR BERNARD BURKE, ULSTER KING OP ARMS. 
 " It were impossible to praise too highly this most interesting book- It ought to be 
 found on every drawing-room table." Standard. 
 
 XV. THE LAIRD OF NORLAW. By MRS. OLIPHANT. 
 
 " The ' Laird of Norlaw ' fully sustains the author's high reputation." Sunday Times. 
 
 XVI. THE ENGLISHWOMAN IN ITALY. 
 
 " We can praise Mrs. Gretton's book as interesting, unexaggerated, and full of oppor- 
 tune instruction." Times. 
 
 XVII. NOTHING NEW. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OP " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN," 
 " ' Nothing New ' displays all those superior merits which have made ' John Halifax ' 
 one of the most popular works of the day." Post. 
 
 XVm. FREER'S LIFE OF JEANNE D'ALBRET. 
 
 "Nothing can be more interesting than Miss Freer's story of the life of Jeanne 
 D'Albret, and the narrative is as trustworthy as it is attractive." Post. 
 
 XIX. THE VALLEY OF A HUNDRED FIRES. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS." 
 " If asked to classify this work, w e should give it a place between ' John Halifax ' and 
 ' The Caxtons.' "Standard.
 
 HURST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 
 
 (continued.; 
 
 XX. THE ROMANCE OF THE FOEUM. 
 
 BY PETER BURKE, SERGEANT AT LAW. 
 " A work of singular interest, which can never fall to charm. The present cheap and 
 elegant edition includes the true story of the Colleen Bawn." Illustrated N^t. 
 
 XXI. ADELE. By JULIA KAVANAGH. 
 
 " ' Adele ' is the best work we have read by Miss Kavanagh ; it is a charming story, 
 full of delicate charactei>painting." Athenmum. 
 
 XXII. STUDIES FEOM LIFE. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HiVLIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 " These ' Studies from Life ' are remarkable for graphic power and observatioa The 
 book will not diminish the reputation of the accomplished author." Saturday lievieic. 
 
 XXIII. GRANDMOTHER'S MONEY. 
 
 " We commend ' Grandmother's Money ' to readers in search of a good novel The 
 characters are true to human nature, the story is interesting." Athenseuin. 
 
 XXIV. A BOOK ABOUT DOCTORS. 
 
 BY J. G. JEAFFRESON. 
 " A delightful book" Athenxum. " A book to be read and re-read ; fit for the study 
 as well as the drawing-room table and the circulating library." Lancet. 
 
 XXV. NO CHURCH. 
 
 " We advise all who have the opportunity to read this book." Athenieum. 
 
 XXVL MISTRESS AND MAID. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 " A good wholesome book, gracefully written, and as pleasant to read as it is instruc- 
 tiva" Atherueum. " A charming tale charmingly told." Standard. 
 
 XXVII. LOST AND SAVED. By HON. MRS. NORTON. 
 
 " ' Lost and Saved ' will be read with eager interest. It is a vigorous novel" Timm. 
 "A novel of rare excellence. It is Mrs. Norton's best prose work." Examiner. 
 
 XXVIII. LES MISERABLES. By VICTOR HUGO. 
 
 AUTHORISED COPYRIGHT ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 " The merits of ' Les Miserables ' do not merely consist in the conception of it as a 
 whole ; it abounds, page after page, with details of unequalled beauty. In dealing with 
 all the emotions, doubts, fears, which go to make up our common humanity, M. Victor 
 Hugo has stamped upon every page the hall-mark of genius." Quarterly JUviete. 
 
 XXIX. BARBARA'S HISTORY. 
 
 BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS. 
 " It i not often that we light upon a novel of so much merit and interest as ' Barbara's 
 History.' It is a work conspicuous for taste and literary culture. It is a very graceful 
 and charming book, with a well-managed story, clearly-cut characters, and sentiments 
 expressed with an exquisite elocution. It is a book which the world will like. This is 
 high praise of a work of art, and so we intend it" Times. 
 
 XXX. LIFE OF THE REV. EDWARD IRVING. 
 
 BY MRS. OLIPHANT. 
 
 " A good book on a most interesting theme." Times. 
 
 " A truly interesting and most affecting memoir. Irving's Life onght to have a niche 
 in every gallery of religious biography. There are few lives that will be fuller of in- 
 struction, interest, and consolation." Saturday Revieio. 
 
 "Mrs. Oliphant's Life of Irving supplies a long-felt desideratora. It ia copious 
 earnest and eloquent" Edinburgh lievietc. 
 
 15
 
 HURST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 
 
 (continued.) 
 
 XXXI. ST. OLAVE'S. 
 
 " This charming novel is the work of one who possesses a great talent for writing, as 
 well as experience and knowledge of the world. ' St Olave's ' is the work of an artist, 
 The whole book is worth reading." Athenaeum, 
 
 XXXn. SAM SLICK'S AMERICAN HUMOUR. 
 
 " Dip where you will into the lottery of fun, you are sure to draw out a prize.' Pent. 
 
 XXXIII. CHRISTIAN'S MISTAKE. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 " A more charming story, to our taste, has rarely been written. The writer has hit 
 off a circle of varied characters all true to nature. Even if tried by the standard of 
 the Archbishop of York, we should expect that even he would pronounce ' Christian's 
 Mistake' a novel without a fault" Times. 
 
 XXXIV. ALEC FORBES OF HOWGLEN. 
 
 BY GEORGE MAC DONALD, LL.D. 
 " No account of this story would give any idea of the profound interest that pervades 
 the work from the first page to the last" Athenoeum. 
 
 XXXV. AGNES. By MRS. OLIPHANT. 
 
 " ' Agnes ' is a novel superior to any of Mrs. Oliphanfs former works." Athenceum. 
 " A story whose pathetic beauty will appeal irresistibly to aD readers." Post. 
 
 XXXVI. A NOBLE LIFE. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 " This is one of those pleasant tales in which the author of ' John Halifax ' speaks 
 out of a generous heart the purest truths of life." Examiner. 
 
 XXXVII. NEW AMERICA. By HEPWORTH DIXON. 
 
 "A very interesting book. Mr. Dixon has written thoughtfully and well" Times. 
 Mr. Dixon's very entertaining and instructive work on New America." Pall Mall Oat. 
 "We recommend every one who feels any interest in human nature to read Mr. 
 Dixon's very interesting book" Saturday Reetew. 
 
 XXXVIII. ROBERT FALCONER. 
 
 BY GEORGE MAC DONALD, LL.D. 
 " ' Bobert Falconer ' is a work brimful of life and humour and of the deepest human 
 interest It is a book to be returned to again and again for the deep and searching 
 knowledge it evinces of human thoughts and feelings." Athenceum. 
 
 XXXIX. THE WOMAN'S KINGDOM 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 " ' The Woman's Kingdom ' sustains the author's reputation as a writer of the 
 purest and noblest kind of domestic stories. Athenaeum. ^ 
 
 XL. ANNALS OF AN EVENTFUL LIFE. 
 
 BY GEORGE WEBBE DASENT, D.C.L. 
 "A racy, well-written, and original novel. The interest never flags. The whjjie * 
 work sparkles with wit and humour." Quarterly Reviete. \\~^ ' 
 
 XLL DAVID ELGINBROD., {^ 6 y 
 
 BY GEORGE MAC DONALD, LL.D. U ^ 
 
 " A novel which is the work of a man of true genius, ^t will attract the highest 
 class of readers." Times. 
 
 XLn. A BRAVE LADY. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 "A very good novel; a thoughtful, well- written book, showing a tender sympathy 
 whb human nature, and permeated by a pure and noble spirit" Examiner. 
 
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