Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1413

Rh SWITZERLAND.

Constitution and Government.

I..

August 1, 1291, the men of Uri, Schwyz, and Lower Unterwalden, entered into a defensive League. In 1353 the League included eight cantons, and in 1513, thirteen. Various associated and protected territories were acquired, but no addition was made to the number of cantons forming the League till 1798. In that year, under the influence of France, the Helvetic Republic was formed, with a regular constitution. This failed to satisfy the cantons, and in 1803 Napoleon, in the Act of Mediation, gave a new constitution and increased the number of cantons to nineteen. In 1815, the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland and the inviolability of her territory were guaranteed by Austria, Great Britain, Portugal, Prussia, and Russia, and the Federal Pact which had been drawn up at Zurich, and which included three new cantons, was accepted by the Congress of Vienna. The Pact remained in force till 1848, when a new constitution, prepared without foreign interference, was accepted by general consent. This, in turn, was, on May 29, 1874, superseded by the constitution which is now in force.

The constitution of the Swiss Confederation may be revised either in the ordinary forms of Federal legislation, with compulsory referendum, or by direct popular vote, a majority both of the citizens voting and of the cantons being required, and the latter method may be adopted on the demand (called the popular initiative) of 50,000 citizens with the right to vote. The Federal Government is supreme in matters of peace, war, and treaties; it regulates the army, the postal and telegraph system, the coining of money, the issue and repayment of bank notes, and the weights and measures of the Republic. It provides for the revenue in general, and especially decides on the import and export duties in accordance with principles embodied in the constitution. It legislates in matters of civil capacity, copyright, bankruptcy, patents, sanitary police in dangerous epidemics, and it may create and subsidise, besides the Polytechnic School at Zurich, a Federal University and other higher educational institutions. There has also been entrusted to it the authority to decide concerning public works for the whole or great part of Switzerland, such as those relating to rivers, forests, and the construction of railways.

The supreme legislation and executive authority are vested in a parliament of two chambers, a 'Ständerath,' or State Rh