SWITZERLAND.

(SCHWEIZ.-SUISSE.)

Constitution and Government.

THE republic of Switzerland, formerly a league of semi-independent states, or 'Staatenbund,' has become a united confederacy, or 'Bundesstaat,' since the year 1848. The present Constitution, based on fundamental laws passed in 1848, came into force May 29, 1874, having received the national sanction by a general vote of the people, given April 19, 1874. It vests the supreme legislative and executive authority in a parliament of two chambers, a Ständerath,' or State Council, and a 'Nationalrath,' or National Council. The first is composed of forty-four members, chosen by the twenty-two cantons of the Confederation, two for each canton. The Nationalrath' consists of 145 representatives of the Swiss people, chosen in direct election, at the rate of one deputy for every 20,000 souls. On the basis of the general census of 1880, which governed the last elections, the cantons are represented as follows in the National Council:

A general election of representatives takes place every three years. Every citizen of the republic who has attained the age of twenty years is entitled to a vete; and any voter, not a clergyman, may be elected a deputy. In 1884 there were 640,395 inscribed electors,

or 22.6 per cent. of the population, while 384,735, or 60 per cent. of the electors, actually voted. Both chambers united are called the 'Bundes-Versammlung,' or Federal Assembly, and as such represent the supreme Government of the republic. The chief executive authority is deputed to a 'Bundesrath,' or Federal Council, consisting of seven members, elected for three years by the Federal Assembly. Every citizen who has a vote for the National Council is eligible for becoming a member of the executive.

The president and vice-president of the Federal Council are the first magistrates of the republic. Both are elected by the Federal Assembly for the term of one year, and are not re-eligible till after the expiration of another year. The election takes place at a united meeting of the State Council and the National Council. The president and vice-president of the council, by the terms of the Constitution, hold office for only one year, from January 1 to December 31.

President for 1888.-W. F. Hertenstein, of Zürich.

Vice-President for 1888.-B. Hammer, of Solothurn.

The seven members of the Federal Council—each of whom has a salary of 4801. per annum, while the president has 6007.-act as ministers, or chiefs of the seven administrative departments of the republic.

Independent of the Federal Assembly, though issuing from the same, is the Bundes-Gericht,' or Federal Tribunal. It consists of nine members, elected for six years by the Federal Assembly. The Federal Tribunal decides, in the last instance, on all matters in dispute between the various cantons of the republic, as well as between the cantons and the Federal Government, and acts in general as high court of appeal. The Tribunal is divided into a civil and a criminal court, the latter having three sections, the Anklagekammer,' or chamber of accusation; the 'Kriminalkammer,' or jury department; and the Cassations-Gericht,' or council of appeal. The seat of the Federal Tribunal is at Lausanne.

The city of Bern is the seat of the Federal Council and the central administrative authorities.

Each of the cantons and demi-cantons of Switzerland is 'souverain,' so far as its independence and legislative powers are not restricted by the federal constitution; each has its local government, different in organisation in most instances, but all based on the principle of absolute sovereignty of the people. In a few of the smallest cantons, the people exercise their powers direct, without the intervention of any parliamentary machinery, all male citizens of full age assembling together in the open air, at stated periods, making laws and appointing their administrators. Such assemblies, known as the Landesgemeinde, exist in Appenzell, Glarus, Unterwald,

and Uri. The same system is carried out, somewhat less directly, in several other of the thinly populated cantons, which possess legislative bodies, but limited so far that they must submit their acts to the people for confirmation or refusal. In all the larger cantons, the people delegates its sovereignty to a body chosen with universal suffrage, called the Grosse Rath, which exercises all the functions of the Landesgemeinde. The members of these bodies, as well as most of the magistrates, are either honorary servants of their fellowcitizens, or receive a merely nominal salary.

The Constitution of 1874 abolished the penalty of death, but by a popular vote taken in May 1879 it was decided, by a majority of 195,000 against 180,000, that each canton should have liberty to re-enact the infliction of the penalty, and Lucerne and Uri have done so.

Church and Education.

The population of Switzerland is divided between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, about 59 per cent. of the inhabitants adhering to the former, and 41 per cent. to the latter. According to the census of December 1, 1880, the number of Protestants amounted to 1,667,109, of Roman Catholics to 1,160,782, and of Jews to 7,373. The 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.

The Constitution of 1874 has the following enactments concerning the exercise of religion :-'There shall be complete and absolute liberty of conscience and of creed. No one can incur any penalties whatsoever on account of his religious opinions. The person who exercises the paternal authority or that of guardian has the right to dispose of the religious education of children up to the age of sixteen years. No one is bound to pay taxes specially appropriated to defraying the expenses of a creed to which he does not belong. The free exercise of worship is guaranteed within the limits compatible with public order and proper behaviour. 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 witzerland; 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.'

Education is compulsory and is very widely diffused through Switzerland, particularly in the north-eastern cantons, where the vast majority of inhabitants are Protestants. In these cantons the proportion of 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 entire 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, in which the elements of education, with geography and history, are taught; and secondary schools, for youths of from twelve to fifteen, in which instruction is given in modern languages, geometry, natural science, the fine arts, and music. In both these schools the rich and the poor are educated together, the latter being admitted gratuitously. Of the contingent for military service in 1886, only 0.14 were returned as illiterate.'

The following are the statistics of the various classes of educational institutions for 1885-86 ::

In 1885 the expenditure of the Cantons on education amounted to 10,674,100 francs, and of the Communes to 16,719,663 francs: total 27,393,763 francs. Of this over 23 million francs was for elementary education.

There are four universities in Switzerland. Basel has a university, founded in 1460, and since 1832 universities have been established in Bern, Zürich, and Geneva. In 1887, Basel had 85 professors and teachers and 342 students; Bern (1886), 88 professors and 490 students; Zürich (1887), 99 professors and 526

* Excluding Geneva and Neuchâtel.

students; and Geneva, 79 professors and about 345 students, exclusive of non-matriculated students. 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 for the whole Confederation at Zürich, with 770 students in 1886, founded in 1855, and a military academy at Thun, both maintained by the Federal Government.

There are also academies and high schools with faculties similar to those of the University at Lausanne (47 professors and teachers and 128 students in 1887), and Neuchâtel (33 professors and teachers).

Revenue and Expenditure.

The public revenue of the Confederation is derived chiefly from customs. By the Constitution of May 29, 1874, customs dues are levied only on the frontiers of the republic, instead of, as before, on the limits of each canton. A considerable income is also derived from the postal system, as well as from the telegraph establishment, conducted by the Federal Government on the principle of uniformity of rates. The sums raised under these heads are not left entirely for Government expenditure, but a great part of the postal revenue, as well as a portion of the customs dues, have to be paid over to the cantonal administrations, in compensation for the loss of such sources of former income. In extraordinary cases, the Federal Government is empowered to levy a rate upon the various cantons after a scale settled for twenty years. A branch of revenue proportionately important is derived from the profits of various Federal manufactories, and from the military school and laboratory at Thun, near Bern.

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The following table gives the total revenue and expenditure of the Confederation in each of the years 1883 to 1887, showing actual receipts and disbursements for the first four, and estimates for 1887 :—

The following table gives the budget estimates for the year

1888: