In each canton there are districts (Amtsbezirke) consisting of a number of communes grouped together, each district having a Prefect (Regierungstatthalter) representing the canton. In the larger communes, for local affairs, there is an Assembly (legislative) and a Council (executive) with a president, maire or syndic, and not less than 4 other members. In the smaller communes there is a council only, with its proper officials.

Area and Population

I. PROGRESS AND PRESENT CONDITION.

A general census of the population of Switzerland was taken on December 1, 1900, when the legal population was found to be 3,315,443, and the actual population present 3,325,023. At the census of 1888 the population was 2,917,754; in 1880 it was 2,831,787; in 1870, 2,655,001; in 1860, 2,510,494.

The following table gives the area and the ordinary resident population of each of the cantons and parts of cantons on December 1, 1888, and 1900. The cantons are given in the official order, and the year of the entrance of each into the league or confederation is stated

:

The German language is spoken by the majority of inhabitants in 18 cantons, the French in five, the Italian in one (Tessin), and the Roumansch in one (the Grisons). In 1900, 2,319,105 spoke German, 733, 220 French, 222,247 Italian, and 38,677 Roumansch. The number of foreigners resident in Switzerland at the date of the census (1888) was 229,650, of whom 112,342 were German, 53, 627 French, 41,881 Italian, 13,737 Austrian, 2,577 British, 1,354 Russian. In 1900 the total number was 392, 896.

The chief occupations of the population in 1888, with the numbers employed, their families and domestic servants, were:—

The following table gives the total number of births, deaths, and marriages, with the surplus of births over deaths, in five years :-

In 1902 the illegitimate births numbered 4,422, or 44 per cent. The number of divorces was 1,105.

The number of emigrants in five years was :-1899, 2,493; 1900, 3,816;: 1901, 3,921; 1902, 4,707; 1903, 5,817. The cantons which supplied the argest contingents of emigrants in 1903 were: Schwyz, 2,240; Bern, 1,071; Zurich, 960; Vaud, 810; Grisons, 355. Of the whole number in 1903, 5,227 went to the United States, 65 to Canada, 18 to Mexico and Central America,, 335 to South America, 79 to Australia, 27 to Asia, 65 to Africa.

III. PRINCIPAL TOWNS.

In the middle of 1904 the population of the principal towns was as follows: -Zürich, 169,410; Bâle, 120,897; Geneva, 110,954; Berne, 68, 958; Lausanne, 50,792; Lucerne, 31,992; Winterthur, 24, 443; Neuchâtel, 22,012; St. Gallen, 49, 508; Chaux-de-Fonds, 38,784; Bienne, 24, 615.

Religion.

According to the Constitution of 1874 there is complete and absolute liberty of conscience and of creed. No one can incur any penalties whatsoever on account of his religious opinions. No one is bound to pay taxes specially appropriated to defraying the expenses of a creed to which he does not belong. No bishoprics can be created on Swiss territory without the approbation of the Confederation. The order of Jesuits and its affiliated societies cannot be received in any part of Switzerland; all functions clerical and scholastic are forbidden to its members, and the interdiction can be extended to any other religious orders whose action is dangerous to the State, or interferes with the peace of different creeds. The foundation of new convents or religious orders is forbidden.

The population of Switzerland is divided between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, about 59 per cent. of the inhabitants adhering to the former, and 40 per cent. to the latter. According to the census of December 1, 1900, the number of Protestants amounted to 1,916, 157, of Roman Catholics to 1,379,664, and of Jews to 12,264. Protestants are in a majority in 12 of the cantons, and Catholics in 13. Of the more populous cantons, Zurich, Bern, Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Bâle (town and land) are mainly Protestant, while Lucerne, Fribourg, Ticino, and Valais are mainly Catholic. Roman Catholic priests are much more numerous than the Protestant clergy, the former comprising more than 6,000 regular and secular priests. They are under five bishops, of Basel, Chur, St. Gall, Lausanne, and Sion, and an Apostolic administrator in the canton of Tessin. The government of the Protestant Church, Calvinistic in doctrine and Presbyterian in form, is under the supervision of the magistrates of the various cantons, to whom is also entrusted, in the Protestant districts, the superintendence of public instruction.

Instruction.

The

In the educational administration of Switzerland there is no centralization. Before the year 1848 most of the cantons had organized a system of primary schools, and since that year elementary education has steadily advanced. In 1874 it was made obligatory (the school age varying in the different cantons), and placed under the civil authority. In some cantons the cost falls almost entirely on the communes, in others it is divided between the canton and communes. In all the cantons primary instruction is free. In the north-eastern cantons, where the inhabitants are mostly Protestant, the proportion of the school-attending children to the whole population is as one to five; while in the half-Protestant and half-Roman Catholic cantons it is as one to seven; and in the entirely Roman Catholic cantons as one to nine. The compulsory law has hitherto not always been enforced in the Roman Catholic cantons, but is rigidly carried out in those where the Protestants form the majority of inhabitants. In every district there are primary schools, and secondary schools for youths

of from twelve to fifteen. Of the contingent for military service in 1902, 15 per cent. could not read, and 51 per cent. could not write.

The following are the statistics of the various classes of educational institutions for 1901 :

:

There were also improvement schools for recruits with 76,859 pupils, private schools with 16,277, schools for girls with 3,960, gymnasia with 6,433, and higher schools with 7,080 pupils. In 1902 there were 18 commercial schools with altogether 1,984 pupils; 54 complementary commercial schools with 4,961 pupils; 298 technical schools subventioned by the Federal Government, by the cantons, by communes, by corporations, and by private persons; 214 schools similarly supported for the instruction of girls in domestic economy and other subjects; 4 agricultural schools with 134 pupils; 1 horticultural school with 43 pupils; 11 winter agricultural schools with 432 pupils; 5 schools and experimental stations for viticulture; 3 dairy schools with 46 pupils. The expenditure on instruction in 1901 was: by the State, 24,732,111 francs; by the communes, 27,000,044 francs; total, 51,732,155 francs.

There are six universities in Switzerland. Basel has a university, founded in 1460, and since 1832 universities have been established in Bern, Zürich, Geneva (1878), and Fribourg (1889). The academy at Lausanne was formed into a university in 1890. These universities are organised on the model of those of Germany, governed by a rector and a senate, and divided into four faculties' of theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, and medicine. There is a Polytechnic School, maintained by the Federal Government, at Zürich, with a teaching staff of 150 and 1,169 regular pupils in 1903. There is also an academy with faculties similar to those of the Universities at Neuchâtel. The following table shows the number of matriculated students in the various branches of study in each of the six universities and in the academy of Neuchâtel in 1904

Justice and Crime.

The Bundes-Gericht,' or Federal Tribunal, which sits at Lausanne, consists of 14 members, with 9 supplementary judges, appointed by the Federal Assembly for six years, the President and Vice-President, as such for two years. The President has a salary of 13,000 francs a year, and the other members 12,000 francs. The Tribunal has two sections, to each of which is assigned the trial of suits in accordance with regulations framed by the Tribunal itself. It has original and final jurisdiction in suits between the Confederation and cantons; between cantons and cantons; between the Confederation or cantons and corporations or individuals, the value in dispute being not less than 3,000 francs; between parties who refer their case to it, the value in dispute being at least 3,000 francs; and also in such suits as the constitution or legislation of cantons places within its authority. There are also many classes of railway suits which it is called on to decide. It is a Court of Appeal against decisions of other Federal authorities, and of cantonal authorities applying Federal laws. The Tribunal also tries persons accused of treason or other offences against the Confederation. For this purpose it is divided into four chambers: the Chamber of Accusation, the Criminal Chamber (Cour d'Assises), the Federal Penal Court, and the Court of Cassation. The jurors who serve in the Assize Courts are elected by the people, and are paid ten francs a day when serving. In 1904 legislation for an increase in the number of judges and the creation of a third section was in progress. Each canton has its own judicial system for ordinary civil and criminal trials. On December 31, 1902, the prison population (condemned) of Switzerland consisted of 4,179, of whom 608 were women.

Capital punishment exists in Appenzell-I.-Rh., Obwalden, Uri, Schwyz, Zug, St. Gallen, Luzern, Valais, Schaffhausen, and Freiburg.

Finance.

The Confederation has no power to levy direct taxes; its chief source of revenue is the customs. In extraordinary cases it may levy a rate upon the various cantons according to a settled scale. A considerable income is derived from the postal and telegraph establishments, but part of the postal revenue, as well as of the customs dues, has to be paid over to the cantonal administrations, in compensation for the loss of such sources of former income. The entire net proceeds of the Federal alcohol monopoly (6,317,534 francs in 1903) are divided among the cantons, and they have to expend one-tenth of the amount received in combating alcoholism in its causes and effects. Various Federal manufactories yield considerable revenue. Of the proceeds of the tax for exemption from military service, levied through the cantons, one-half (1,983,204 francs in 1903) goes to the Confederation and the other to the cantons.

The following table gives the total revenue and expenditure of the Confederation for five years :