Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/61

Rh tates, like thoe of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, are very complicated, and therefore very difficult to be fully explained; yet the mot uperficial enquirer will find the mod evident traces of a compoition of all the three powers in all of them.

To begin with the cantons commonly reputed democratical.

canton of Appenzel conits of a eries of vallies, cattered among inacceible rocks and mountains, in all about eighteen miles quare. The people are laborious and frugal, and have no commerce but in cattle, hides, butter, cheee, and a little linen made of their own flax. It has no walled towns, and only two or three open boroughs, and a few mall villages: it is, like New England, almot a continued village, covered with excellent houes of the yeomanry, built of wood, each of which has its territory of pature grounds, commonly ornamented with trees; neatnes and convenience are udied without, and a remarkable cleanlines within. The principal part of the inhabitants have preerved the implicity of the patoral life. As there are not, at mot, above fifty thouand fouls, there cannot be more than ten thouand men capable of bearing arms. It is not at all urpriing, among o much freedom, though among rocks and herds, to hear of literature, and men of letters who are an ornament to their country. Never-