Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/831

 1803-1862.] SWITZERLAND 795 Basel into the " city " and " country " divisions (each with half a vote in the diet), though fortunately in Schwyz the quarrel was healed, lleligious quarrels further stirred up strife in connexion with Aargau, which was a canton where religious parity prevailed, later in others. In Zurich the extreme pretensions of the radicals and freethinkers (illus- trated by offering a chair of theology in the university to Strauss because of his recent Life of Jesus) brought about a great reaction in 1839, when Zurich was the " Vorort." In Aargau the parties were very evenly balanced, and, when in 1840, on occasion of the revision of the constitution, the radicals had a popular majority, the aggrieved clerics stirred up a revolt (1840), which was put down, but which gave their opponents (headed by A, Keller) the excuse for carrying a vote in the great council to suppress the eight monasteries in the canton. This was flatly opposed to the pact of 1815, which the diet by a small majority decided must be upheld, though after many discussions it determined (August 31, 1843) to accept the compromise by which four only were to be suppressed, and declared that the matter was now settled. On this the seven Catholic cantons Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, Zug, Freiburg, and Wallis formed (September 7, 1843) a " Sonderbund " or separate league, which (February 1844) issued a manifesto demanding the reopening of the question and the restoration of all the monasteries. Like the radicals in former years the Catholics went too far and too fast, for in October 1844 the clerical party in Lucerne (in the majority since 1841, and favouring the reaction in Wallis) officially invited in the Jesuits and gave them high posts, an act which created all the more sensation because Lucerne was the " Vorort." Twice (December 1844 and March 1845) parties of Free Lances tried to capture the city. In December 1845 the Sonderbund turned itself into an armed confederation, ready to appeal to war in defence of the rights of each canton. The radicals carried Zurich in 1845 and Bern in 1846, but a majority could not be secured in the diet till Geneva (October 1846) and St Gall (May 1847) were won by the same party. On July 20, 1847, the diet, by a small majority, declared that the Sonderbund was contrary to the federal pact, which on August 16 it was resolved to revise, while on September 3 it was decided to invite each canton to expel the Jesuits. Most of the great powers favoured the Sonderbund, but England took the contrary view. On October 29 the deputies of the unyielding cantons left the diet, which ordered on November 4 that its decree should be enforced by arms. The war was short (November 11-29), mainly owing to the ability of Dufour, and the loss of life trifling. One after another the rebellious cantons were forced to surrender, and, as the Paris revolution of February 1848 occupied all the attention of the great powers (who by the constitution of 1815 should have been consulted in the revision of the pact), the Swiss were enabled to settle their own affairs quietly. Schwyz and Zug abolished their " landsgemeinden," and the seven were condemned to pay the costs of the war (ultimately defrayed by subscription), which had been waged rather on religious than on strict particularist or states-rights grounds. The diet meanwhile debated the draft constitution drawn up by Kern of Thur- gau and Druey of Vaud, which in the summer of 1848 was accepted by fifteen and a half cantons, the minority consisting of the three Forest cantons, Wallis, Zug, Tessin, and Appenzell (Inner Rhoden), and it was proclaimed on September 12. Constitu- The new constitution inclined rather to the Act of tion of Mediation than to the system which prevailed before 1798. 1848. j^ s t a tus of "Swiss citizenship" was set up, closely joined to cantonal citizenship: a man settling in a canton not being his birthplace got cantonal citizenship after two years, but was excluded from all local rights in the " commune" where he might reside. A federal or central Government was set up, to which the cantons gave up a certain part of their sovereign rights, retaining the rest. The federal legislature (or assembly) was made up of two houses the council of states (Stande Rath), composed of two deputies from each canton, whether small or great 1 (44 in all), and the national couneil (National Rath), made up of deputies (now 145 in number) elected for three years, in the propor- tion of one for every 20,000 souls or fraction over 10,000, the electors being all Swiss citizens. The federal council or executive (Bundesrath) consisted of seven members elected by the federal assembly ; they are jointly respon- sible for all business, though for sake of convenience there are various departments, and their chairman is called the president of the Confederation. The federal judiciary (Bundesgericht) is made up of eleven members elected by the federal assembly for three years ; its jurisdiction is chiefly confined to civil cases, in which the Confederation is a party (if a canton, the federal council may refer the case to the federal tribunal), but takes in also great political crimes, all constitutional questions, however, being reserved for the federal assembly. A federal university and a polytechnic school were to be founded ; the latter only has as yet been set up, and is fixed at Zurich. All military capitulations were forbidden in the future. Every canton must treat Swiss citizens who belong to one of the Christian confessions like their own citizens, for the right of free settlement is given to all such, though they acquired no rights in the " commune." All Christians were guaranteed the exercise of their reli- gion, but the Jesuits and similar religious orders were not to be received in any canton. German, French, and Italian were recognized as national languages. The constitution as a whole marked a great step forwards; though very many rights were still reserved to the cantons, yet there was a fully organized central government. Almost the first act of the federal assembly was to exercise the power given them of determining the home of the federal authorities, and on November 28, 1848, Bern was chosen, though Zurich still ranks as the first canton in the Confederation. By this early settlement of disputes Switzerland was protected from the general revolutionary movement of 1848, and in later years her political history has been uneventful, though she has felt the weight of the great European crisis in industrial and social matters. The position of Neuchatel, as a member of the Con- Events federation (as regards its government only) and as a K & principality ruled by the king of Prussia, whose rights had been expressly recognized by the congress of Vienna, was uncertain. She had not sent troops in 1847, and, though in 1848 there was a revolution there, the prince did not recognize the changes. Finally, a royalist conspiracy in September 1856 to undo the work of 1848 caused great excitement and anger in Switzerland, and it was only by the mediation of Napoleon III. and the other powers that the prince renounced (1857) all his rights, save his title, which his successor (the German emperor) has also dropped. Since that time Neuchatel has been an ordinary member of the Confederation. In 1859-60 the cession of Savoy (part of it neutralized in 1815) to France aroused considerable indignation, and in 1862 the long-standing question of frontiers in the Vallee de Dappes was finally arranged 1 The method of election and length of term of office were left to the cantonal Governments ; at present (1887), in eleven cantons (or half cantons) the people, in fourteen the "great council," elect; twelve elect for one year and twelve for three, Wallis holding to the mean of two years.