lections and libraries, for commerce and industry. The authorities of the various states vied with one another in their efforts to further the material welfare of their subjects, in 'fatherly' fashion; to support them in times of misfortune, of bad harvests, of famine, etc., and to check beggary, pauperism and such-like by numerous mandates. Viewed externally, many parts of Switzerland presented a more cheering appearance than the numerous provinces of other lands, mostly depopulated and devastated by war. . . .

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Once more for every ray of light there was a shadow; narrow-mindedness and bigotry reigned supreme, in a way which it is now hardly possible to conceive. . . Higher schools were, indeed, provided, but on the other hand hardly anything was done towards educating the people. The teachers in the popular schools were ignorant artisans, discharged soldiers, or uneducated youths; the education consisted merely in learning mechanically by rote, and without understanding, religious matter out of the catechism and various devotional books. By this means ignorance was systematically cultivated, and the mind of the people was stifled rather than awakened. Intellectual life was entirely under the control of the authorities, secular and religious; it was feared that a liberal education might open the eyes of the people. Writings which displeased the authorities, even innocent poems and popular songs, were unhesitatingly suppressed; everything had to undergo the censorship of severe masters" (Dr. K. Dändliker).

With the increased opportunities for the education of the middle classes came that progress in ideas which invariably precedes all great popular movements. Albrecht von Haller roused patriotic discontent with

existing conditions, and a longing for better things, with his poems The Alps, The Man of the World, and Demoralisation. Young J. C. Lavater, of Zurich, composed his Swiss Songs, in which he calls for unity in the cause of national well-being. The songs soon became the "songs of the people," being sung by men and women, old and young, throughout the country. Salomon Gessner, of Zurich, wrote Idylls, which were very popular; and in which he sang the joys of country life. Franz Urs Balthasar, of Lucerne, published (1758) a work called The Patriotic Dreams of a Confederate of a way to make young again the old Confederation, in which he urges the founding of a national Swiss institute, in which the children of the aristocrats should be educated in such a way that they would become good citizens and capable politicians. Amongst other subjects, history, politics and military science were to be taught. Professor Bodmer, of Zurich, aroused an interest in literature, amongst scholars and readers, by his publications and controversies with German writers. Societies for artists, musicians, naturalists, farmers, etc.; benefit societies; reading clubs, etc., were formed. Printing presses became common and many books, magazines, newspapers and pamphlets were published. Johann von Müller, of Schaffhausen, published (1780) the first popular history of the Swiss. The country was a meeting place for many of the great men of the day. Voltaire, Ferney and Gibbon spent much time together at Lausanne; whilst Klopstock, Wieland, Kleist, Goethe, Fichte and other great German writers often stayed at Zurich. No wonder that to people suffering so much political and social oppression and repression, and yet just beginning to enter into in

tellectual liberty and life, the political pamphlets and books (from France and England) which preached the sovereignty of the people, and the liberty of man, met with a hearty welcome. Above all, that famous and epoch-making work by Rousseau, Contrat Social (published 1744), had a profound effect upon the reformers. With all its glowing eloquence; its human sympathy; its clear-cut and apparently conclusive arguments; its dogmatic definiteness; and, first and foremost, its fitness as argument-however specious and superficial even as special pleading-for their purpose; this book came as an inspired revelation to the minds of its readers.

As Mr. John Morley says, in his work on Rousseau, in spite of its " shallowness [and] practical mischievousness . . . it was the match which kindled revolutionary fire in generous breasts throughout Europe. . . . His theory made the native land what it had been to the citizens of earlier date, a true centre of existence, round which all the interests of the community, all its pursuits, all its hopes, grouped themselves with entire singleness of convergence, just as a religious faith is the centre of existence to a church." Further, it added to this "the cardinal service of rekindling the fire of patriotism, the rapid deduction from the doctrine of the sovereignty of peoples of the great truth, that a nation with a civilised polity does not consist of an order or a caste, but of the great body of its members, the army of toilers who make the most painful of the sacrifices that are needed for the continuous nutrition of the social organisation. As Condorcet put it, and he drew inspiration partly from the intellectual school of Voltaire, and partly from the social school of Rousseau, all institutions ought to

have for their aim the physical, intellectual and moral amelioration of the poorest and most numerous class. This is the People."

Commencing with a sentence, "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains"-which must have thrilled the heart of every reformer-Rousseau professes to prove to demonstration (in the Contrat Social) the following principles:-(1) A society, community, or state is the outcome of a social compact by which men, freely and voluntarily, bind themselves to obey "the general will": "Each of us puts his person and all his powers under the sovereign direction of the general will; and we receive every member as an inseparable part of the whole ". This is for the purpose of defending and protecting the person and property of each. (2) The body thus formed is the sovereign power -the sovereign and the body politic are one and the same thing. Every member is a citizen in that he is a part of the sovereign power, and a subject in that he owes obedience to the laws made by, or through, the sovereign power. (3) The sovereign power is inalienable and indivisible, i.e., the sovereign power itself is not subject to the laws it makes; and the sovereign power cannot exercise its legislative functions through one body and its executive powers through another. (4) The general will of the sovereign power in regard to a matter of common interest is expressed in a law. Laws, therefore, cannot be made through any kind of representative institution, since only the sovereign power (the whole community) can possess the law-making power (the general will). (5) All governmental machinery constitutes the agents and go-betweens of the sovereign power as a whole and its members as the parts; to the

end that civil and political freedom for each and all may be properly maintained. The government may be a monarchy, i.e., when there is one magistrate from whom all the rest hold their authority; an aristocracy, i.e., when there are more simple citizens than magistrates; or a democracy, i.e., when there are more citizen magistrates than private citizens. (6) The sovereign power should establish a purely civil profession of religious faith, consisting of a belief in God: a future state: happiness of the righteous and punishment of the wicked: the sanctity of the social contract and the laws.

Such is a brief and bald outline of the theory of the Contrat Social, the book which was one of the more immediate causes of the French Revolution, and which had such a powerful influence upon its Swiss readers that, in 1762, the government of Geneva caused a copy of it to be publicly burnt. Pestalozzi has put on record that he was himself greatly influenced by the reading of the book; and his own political writings plainly show this. He, like other good patriots, did everything possible to bring about a better state of things.

The new spirit of national, as against state, patriotism which was fast spreading found active expression in and through the founding, in 1762, of the Helvetic Society. This was largely due to the influence of Balthasar's book; and the society consisted of such zealous patriots as Gessner, Hirzel and Iselin. Pestalozzi appears to have been one of the earliest, if not one of the original members. Both Catholics and Protestants worked together in this society. Soon all the most famous men. of both French and German Switzerland attended its annual meetings; at which patriotism and national