Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/66

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My dear Sir,

HE canton of Glaris is a mountainous country, of eight miles long and four wide, according to their own authors, perhaps intending German miles; but twenty-five miles in length and eighteen in breadth, according to ome Englifh accounts. The commerce of it is in cheee, butter, cattle, linen, and thread. Ten thouand cattle, and four thouand heep, patured in ummer upon the mountains, contitute their wealth.

The inhabitants live together in a general equality, and mot perfect harmony; even thoe of the different peruaions of Catholics and Protetants, who ometimes perform divine ervice in the ame church, one after the other: and all the offices of tate are indifferently adminitered by both parties, though the Protetants are more in number, and uperior both in indutry and commerce. Ail the houes are built of wood, large and olid, thoe of the richet inhabitants differing only from thoe of the poorer, as they are larger.

The police is well regulated here, as it is throughout Switzerland. Liberty does not degenerate into licentiounes. Liberty, independence, and an exemption from taxes, amply compenate for a want of the refinements of luxury. There are none o rich as to gain an acendency by largees. If they err in their councils, it is an error of the judgment, and not of the heart. As there