Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/348

364 their arms more and more into all parts of the country, and before long, Graubündten, Valais, and Tessin, will no longer sit solitarily behind their mountains remote from Berne, Geneva, and Zürich, as they do at present.

As regards political freedom in the Cantons, I have heard more evil spoken than good. Party feeling is often carried to an unprincipled length. The better class of citizens are set aside to give place to the worse; the bold, unprincipled man is the conqueror, and the ignorant set themselves in the place of the wise. The later revolutions in the Cantons have nearly always taken this direction. These facts have led me to the conviction that the Constitutional Monarchy must be, perhaps, of all forms of government, the safest and the best for the freedom and prosperity of the people. In the mean time it is clear that amidst these agitations, the Swiss people are receiving a political education, and that the new governments, compelled by the pressure of public opinion, are adopting a course