On Sunday, the first application of the Initiative under the
Federal Constitution took place in Switzerland. It will be remembered that by means of the Initiative the whole body of electors are asked to vote on the question, Shall the Federal Council be invited to propose the addition of a law to the Con- stitution declaring, &c. P" The question can only be pro- posed if a requisition has been signed by some fifty thousand voters. The law proposed on Sunday was one forbidding the bleeding of cattle and pigs intended for immediate slaughter, unless they had previously been stunned. The ostensible object is to stop cruelty to animals ; but it is said that the real one is to prevent the Jews slaughtering cows and sheep as they are required by their law to slaughter them. The new law was carried by a very large majority. It is to be hoped that it will not be worked in an anti-Semitic sense. 'Mae &ems no reason why it should.