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Rh that have raged in the canton. The legislature (Gran consiglio) is composed of members elected (since 1880) in the proportion of one to every 1200 (or fraction over 600) of the Swiss inhabitants, and holding office for four years. The executive (Consiglio di stato) is (since 1892) elected directly by the people, is composed (since 1875) of five members, and holds office for four years. Since 1883 5000 citizens, have the right (facultative referendum) of claiming a popular vote as to bills passed by the legislature, while (since 1892) 5000 citizens have the right of “initiative” in legislative matters, though 7000 signatures are required in case of a proposal to revise the cantonal constitution. In 1891 the system of proportional representation was introduced for elections to the cantonal legislature and the communal assemblies. In 1904 a very complicated system of proportional representation was adopted by a narrow majority of the people of Ticino. In elections to the cantonal legislature all fractions below that required to secure a member in the entire canton are added together and then divided by the number of the non-elected candidates, plus one, the persons thus selected being, as far as possible, assigned to the constituencies in which they have obtained most votes (the point remains obscure). In 1904 also the “limited vote” was adopted as to the election of members of the executive, no one being allowed to vote for more than four out of the five members. In 1896, by a strange anomaly only to be explained by the previous political history of the canton, non-resident citizens were given a vote in all cantonal and communal matters, though residence is strictly required for all voters in Federal matters. The two members of the federal Ständerath and the seven members of the Federal Nationalrath are elected by a popular vote.

The canton is made up of all the permanent conquests (with one or two trifling exceptions) made by different members of the Swiss Confederation south of the main chain of the Alps. From an historical point of view Italian Switzerland falls into three groups: (1) the Val Leventina conquered by Uri in 1440 (previously held from 1403 to 1422); (2) Bellinzona (previously held from 1419 to 1422); the Riviera and the Val Blenio, all won in 1500 from the duke of Milan by men from Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden, and confirmed by Louis XII. of France in 1503; (3) Locarno, Val Maggia, Lugano and Mendrisio, seized in 1512 by the Confederates when fighting for the Holy League against France, ruled by the twelve members then in the league, and confirmed by Francis I. in the treaty of 1516. These districts were governed by bailiffs holding office two years and purchasing it from the members of the League; each member of group 3 sent annually an envoy, who conjointly constituted the supreme appeal in all matters. This government was very harsh and is one of the darkest pages in Swiss history. Yet only one open revolt is recorded—that of the Val Leventina against Uri in 1755. In 1798 the people were distracted by the Swiss and “Cisalpine republic” parties, but sided with the Swiss. On being freed from their hated masters, they were formed into two cantons of the Helvetic republic—Bellinzona (= 1 and 2 above) and Lugano ( = 3). In 1803 all these districts were formed into one canton—Ticino—which became a full member of the Swiss Confederation. From 1810 to 1813 it was occupied by the troops of Napoleon. The carriage road over the St Gotthard (1820–1830) was made under the constitution of 1814. But many of the old troubles reappeared, and were only done away with by the constitution of the 23rd of June 1830. In 1848, on religious grounds and owing to fears as to customs duties, the canton voted in the minority against the Federal constitution of that year; but in 1874, though the people voted against the revised constitution, the legislature adopted it, and the canton was counted as one of the majority. Since 1830 the local history of the canton has been very disturbed owing to the fact that, though Roman Catholicism is the state religion, and all the population are Roman Catholic (the few Protestants having been expelled from Locarno in 1555), they are divided between the Radical and Ultramontane parties. Since 1876 the intervention of Federal troops (already known in 1870) has been frequent in consequence of conflicts of the local authorities inter se, or against the Federal Assembly.

The political troubles of Ticino were increased in 1888 by the foundation of the see of Lugano, considered by the Radicals as likely to advance Clericalism, though it freed Switzerland from foreign ecclesiastical rule. Hence in September 1890 the Radicals carried out a bloody revolution, which necessitated Federal intervention, but at a state trial at Zürich in July 1891 the leaders were acquitted. Political passions still run high in the canton, as the Radicals and Conservatives are nearly balanced in point of numbers.

TICINUM (mod., q.v.), an ancient city of Gallia Transpadana, founded on the banks of the river of the same name (mod. Ticino) a little way above its confluence with the Padus (Po). It is said by Pliny to have been founded by the Laevi and Marici, two Ligurian tribes, while Ptolemy attributes it to the Insubres. Its importance in Roman times was due to the extension of the Via Aemilia from Ariminum to the Padus (187 ), which it crossed at Placentia and there forked, one branch going to Mediolanum and the other to Ticinum, and thence to Laumellum where it divided once more—one branch going to Vercellae (and thence to Eporedia and Augusta Praetoria) and the other to Valentia (and thence to Augusta Taurinorum or to Pollentia). The branch to Eporedia must have been constructed before 100 Ticinum is not infrequently mentioned by classical writers. It was a municipium, and from an inscription we know that a triumphal arch was erected in honour of Augustus and his family, but we learn little of it except that in the 4th century there was a manufacture of bows there. It was pillaged by Attila in 452 and by Odoacer in 476, but rose to importance as a military centre in the Gothic period. At Dertona and here the grain stores of Liguria were placed, and Theodoric constructed a palace, baths and amphitheatre and new town walls; while an inscription of Athalaric relating to repairs of seats in the amphitheatre is preserved ( 528–529). From this point, too, navigation on the Padus seems to have begun. Narses recovered it for the Eastern Empire, but after a long siege, the garrison had to surrender to the Lombards in 572. The name Papia, from which the modern name Pavia comes, does not appear until Lombard times, when it became the seat of the Lombard kingdom, and as such one of the leading cities of Italy. Cornelius Nepos, the biographer, appears to have been a native of Ticinum. Of Roman remains little is preserved—there is, for example, no sufficient proof that the cathedral rests upon an ancient temple of Cybele—though the regular ground plan of the central portion, a square of some 1150 yds., betrays its Roman origin, and it may have sprung from a military camp. This is not unnatural, for Pavia was never totally destroyed; even the fire of 1004 can only have damaged parts of the city, and the plan of Pavia remained as it was. Its gates were possibly preserved until early in the 19th century. The picturesque covered bridge which joins Pavia to the suburb on the right bank of the river was preceded by a Roman bridge, of which only one pillar, in blocks of granite from the Baveno quarries, exists under the central arch of the medieval bridge, the rest having no doubt served as material for the latter. The medieval bridge dates from 1351–1354.

See A. Taramelli in Notizie degli scavi (1894), 73 sqq. and reff.

 TICKELL, THOMAS (1686–1740), English poet and man of letters, the son of a clergyman, was born at Bridekirk near Carlisle in 1686. After a good preliminary education he went (1701) to Queen's College, Oxford, taking his M.A. degree in 1709. He became fellow of his college in the next year, and in