THE SWISS CONFEDERATION.* THI8 is one of a series of
"Studies in Historical and Political Science," intended for the edification of that singularly named institution, the Johns Hopkins University. It is introduced by a preface, in which the author states that, "when I began these studies, there was no adequate work upon Swiss government in the English language." We do not, of course, know when Mr. Vincent began his studies, but there was published in 1889 an excellent work upon The Swiss Confederation by Sir Francis Adams, at one time her Majesty's Minister at Berne, and Mr. C. D. Cunningham, which, being at least as careful and as accurate as the one before us, and infinitely more entertaining, certainly deserved some- thing more than the casual and somewhat contemptuous mention which is made of it in Mr. Vincent's bibliography. The author further claims the sympathy of the Johns Hopkinsians for his book on the ground that his "American nativity has given him some measure of appreciation and of impartiality," while other writers on the same subject had been handicapped by not being "personally accustomed to democratic institutions." We have not, however, found any- thing remarkably democratic in tone about the work before us, unless it be an odd inclination to describe the Holy Roman Emperor by the title of King. Perhaps it may be considered suitable in democratic circles to affect a certain confusion of mind regarding titles of this sort. Our readers will remember that the immortal M. Cardinal had such an aversion to the very name of King, that even when he had four cards of that objectionable rank in his hand at ladzique, thereby scoring eighty points, he would only condescend to declare them as " Qnatre-vingt de chases !" Very likely this is also the fashionable tone in the cultured circles of the Johns Hopkins University.
The Swiss Confederation, however, presents at all times a profitable subject of study, and one that is too little regarded in general. It is one of the oddest little Governments on the face of the earth, full of queer survivals and makeshift arrangements that go on tiding over one difficulty after another, but should apparently, according to all previous experience, cease to act some day. It is a consolation to think that history seldom does what it ought to do, or we fear that the curious little agglomeration of federated Republics would gradually fade away and be replaced by some one prosaic nineteenth-century structure, equal and regular in all its parts, and profoundly uninteresting. But though the tendency to centralisation is undoubtedly growing, the Swiss peasant is conservative about his little political arrangements, and the change cannot be made without his express consent; and even the more advanced politicians of the towns look back with some uneasiness to the times when the Helvetic Republic, one and indivisible, was forced upon their reluctant fathers at the point of the bayonet, by the faddists of the French Revolu- tion. That one practical experience of the brotherhood of mankind—of the " Sois mon frere, on je to tue " order—had other effects, too, upon the Swiss, who have since that day shown a decided distrust of strange Republics ; they did try Vie experiment of a Constitution modelled as much as possible upon that of the United States, but had to change back again to a system more in their old style. Indeed, the Swiss—who is seldom troubled with over-modesty—rather imagines that it is good for the rest of the world to live under monarchical governments; it shows more clearly the superiority of his own people in being able to govern themselves.
As a rule, the outsider thinks himself sufficiently instructed if he knows that there exists in Switzerland an institution
* State and Federal Government in Switzerland. By Tobn Martin Vincent, Ph.D. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. 1891.
called the Referendum, by which laws which have passed through both Chambers of the Parliament can be referred to the people for subsequent approval. If he also knows that the people have the power of initiating legislation by a popular vote, he may -well feel himself to be wiser than his fellows. But, as a point of fact, the Referendum, though itself of special interest, is only one out of many peculiar institutions at present existing in the Confederation. It is the survival of the old days when the Diet of the Confederated States could be con- voked by any one of them for any special occasion, and dele- gates would be sent by the other Cantons ad audiendum et referendum, to hear, that is, what proposition or complaint the conveners had to make, and then return to lay it before the people who had sent them for consideration. It can now be applied to any Federal law which is not declared urgent by the National and States' Councils, on the request of thirty thousand voters or of eight Cantons. Urgent measures become law from the time they have passed the two Chambers and been promulgated by the Federal Council. The Referendum is also applied in Cantonal legislation in seventeen Cantons; in about half of these it is compulsory, sometimes in cases of all measures passed by the State Legislature, sometimes only in financial matters ; in others it is optional ; and the power of initiative exists in some of these Cantons, but not in others. There is no Cantonal Referendum in the case of Uri, Glarus, or Fribourg, the two sections of Unterwalden, or the two half-Cantons of Appenzell. In all of these, with the exception of Fribourg, the business of State is transacted in the old fashion of the days of Walther Furst and Arnold von der Melchthal, by the Landsgemeinde, the open-air Parliament of all adult males in the Canton, which meets once a year for the transaction of the yearly business. These Cantons are all small, and primitive in their ways, and this style of legislation amply meets their wants. There is, however, an amount of commercial progress in Glarus and the Protestant division of Appenzell, Ausser-Rhoden, which may lead to changes in this respect. The Canton of Fribourg offers the most extreme contrast to the rural Conservative States which are governed by Landsgemeinden. Fribourg is, in the midst of all the confusion of various types of democracy exemplified in other Cantons, a kind of little model Republic. All authority here is centralised, all power delegated by degrees from the outermost circle of electors to the nucleus of government called the State Council, which is elected by the Grand Council—the elective assembly of the Canton—for the same five years' term for which the latter is appointed. The Judges of the Cantonal High Court owe their election to the same Grand Council. The Referendum can only be admitted in Fribourg in the case of a projected change of the Con- stitution.
One abatement from the usefulness of the Referendum system, we are often told in Switzerland, and we are strongly inclined to believe, is that the constituencies become more careless about the Members whom they return. There are at present in Switzerland four political parties, counting the new group of Socialists, who are at present of no great importance, but whose growth may lead to results of the most vital importance to the Con- federation. The other three are called, as in most Continental Legislatures, the parties of the Right, Centre, and Left, accord- ing to their position in the Chambers. The Centre, once a formidable party, has now dwindled down to an insignificant group of moderate politicians; the important divisions are the Left or Radical Party, which aims at greater centralisation and at the separation of Church and State, and the Right or Conservative body, which desires to keep the separate legisla- tion of the Cantons intact, and defends the interests of the Churches—especially the Roman Catholic Church—at pre- sent supported by the State. The sense of the country appears to be decidedly with the former ; in such cases as the military organisation, the necessity of greater centralisation is generally felt; and the unification of law is only opposed on grounds of sentimental Conservatism. Representing the majority of the country, the Left does, indeed, count the greater number of Members in the Federal Assemblies, but it appears beyond doubt that many of these are supported at the triennial elections by persons professing entirely different opinions, while well-known Conservative Deputies have in other cases the votes of many of the warmest adherents of the Progressive Party. This reason of this is, in the first
place, the voter's conviction that his representative can do him little harm ; most enactments of the Parliament will come back to him for confirmation, if there is any necessity for it, and on the great questions touching the Constitution, which are the chief points at issue between the two parties, he is especially sure of being able to give his own personal vote. On the other hand, the candidate he votes for is probably a well-tried public servant, of whose efficiency to transact the Federal business he is assured.
Practically nothing more than this latter quality is required in the Federal Chambers. The Members are simply practical
• men who transact the affairs of the State; a mere posing orator would be at once rejected by the constituencies, whose only desire is to secure steady attention to the despatch of business. In nothing is this quality better displayed than in the formation and functions of the Executive. The Federal Council, as it is called, consists of seven members chosen at their first meeting by the Federal Assemblies, who in most eases reappoint old members without regard to party. Mr. Vincent tells us that "of the Cabinet of 1889, one had been in service since 1863, another since 1866, and nearly all more than one term." We believe that Dr. Welti, President of the -Confederation for 1891, was originally elected by the party of the Centre in the days of its power. Even new elections are not usually upon party lines, as there is a kind of tacit agree- ment for the representation of minorities, religions or political. There is also a certain Cantonal feeling which makes it a sine qua' non that Zurich and Berne should each be represented, while other States more or less take their turn. The seven members of the Federal Council are the Ministers of Home and Foreign Affairs, War, Finance, Police, Industry and Agriculture, and Posts and Railways respectively; one of them is chosen President for the year, and is thereby at the same time President of the Confederation, but the Swiss President has little honour in his office, being perhaps the least prominent head of a country in Europe. Even the Captains-Regent of San Marino have at least a higher place above their fellow-citizens than this hard-worked official, who, though he receives foreign Ministers' letters of credence and recall in the name of the Confederation, is practically no more than the Chairman of a Board, all the pomp and majesty of his office having been cut away by good-hearted colleagues who desired to save him trouble. The whole Federal Council, besides departmental and administrative duties, is chiefly busied with preparing Bills for the Chambers, as our own Government does,—with this difference, that if a Swiss Minister's Bill is rejected by the Assemblies, or by the Referendum, after having been approved by the Assemblies, he is in no way called upon to resign his -functions, any more than the Permanent Under-Secretary of an English Department who has drafted a. Bill for his superior, the responsible Minister. The position of the Federal Council, who are elected solely for business, not for party purposes, does, indeed, offer a considerable resemblance to that of our Permanent Under-Secretaries.
All would be for the best in the best of governments, were it not for certain little flaws in the arrangements between the Federal and Cantonal authorities, which come painfully to the front at times. If a Canton will not obey orders, what is a poor Federal Council to do? It can send a special envoy to
• negotiate, but the Canton will probably politely ignore his suggestions. It is true that the Council can be nasty at times. It can quarter additional troops on an offending Canton, and make the latter pay for them, or—a still more efficacious plan —it can detain Federal money granted in aid of public works in that locality, and refuse to pay till the Canton behaves itself. This last expedient is usually successful. In case of actual revolution, it can, of course, call out the troops, as was done in the recent case of Ticino. The value of these same troops is a much-disputed question. The Swiss military system is capital on paper ; but whether its army would be of any particular use in war, is another matter. The present writer once met a Swiss officer who gave him the most dismal accounts of the yearly training which the Federal soldiers have to go. through. According to this officer, the men were very rarely sober during any part of the time, and would not obey orders even when they were; but as he had previously served in an army which is famed through- out Europe for punctilious strictness on the minutest points of discipline, we are inclined to hope that he criticised too severely. The soldiers are not pretty to look at, but the
Army would probably be efficient for ordinary purposes of defence, and for attack, of coarse, it would never be needed. Probably the greatest danger to which the Confederation would be exposed in case of war, would be the snapping-up of some outlying portion, such as the great commercial emporium of Geneva by France ; or Bale, which boasts of being for its size the richest city in Europe, by Germany. Supposing the attacking Power went no farther, we doubt the Swiss capacity to repulse it; especially as it would be as difficult to keep up any protracted warfare with the present Swiss Army as it would have been with the men of Sempa.ch and Morgarten.
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