Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1418

 1062 SWITZERLAND

344 ; Ticino, 303 ; Bale (town), 189 ; St. Gall, 149. Of the whole number in 1897, 2,149 went to the United States, 313 to Central and South America, 7 to Australia, 3 to Asia, 33 to Africa.

III. Principal Towns.

The population dwell chiefly in small towns, hamlets, and villages. In 1897 the populations (communal) of the following towns were — Geneva, 86,535, including suburbs ; Basel, 89,687 ; Berne, 49,030 ; Lausanne, 40,671 ; Zurich, 151,994, with suburbs; Chaux-de-Fonds, 31,157; St. Gallen, 34,025 ; Luzern, 23,060 ; Neuchatel, 19,022 ; Bienne, 19,237.

Religion.

According to the Constitution of 1874 there is complete and absolute liberty of conscience and of creed. No one can incur any penalties whatso- ever on account of his religious opinions. No one is bound to pay taxes specially appropriated to defraying the expenses of a creed to which he does not belong. No bishoprics can be created on Swiss territory without the approbation of the Confederation. The order of Jesuits and its affiliated societies cannot be received in any part of Switzerland ; all functions clerical and scholastic are forbidden to its members, and the interdiction can be extended to any other religious orders whose action is dangerous to the State, or interferes with the peace of different creeds. The foundation of new con- vents or religious orders is forbidden.

The population of Switzerland is divided between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, about 59 per cent, of the inhabitants adhering to the former, and 40 per cent, to the latter. According to the census of Decem- ber 1, 1888, the number of Protestants amounted to 1,716,548, of Roman Catholics to 1,183,828, and of Jews to 8,069. The Roman Catholic priests are much more numerous than the Protestant clergy, the former comprising more than 6, 000 regular and secular priests. They are under five bishops, of Basel, Chur, St. Gall, Lausanne, and Sion, and an Apostolic administrator in the canton of Tessin. The government of the Protestant Church, Calvin istic in doctrine and Presbyterian in form, is under the supervision of the magis- trates of the various cantons, to whom is also entrusted, in the Protestant districts, the superintendence of public instruction.

Instruction.

In the educational administration of Switzerland there is no centralization. Before the year 1848 most of the cantons had organized a system of primary schools, and since that year elementary education has steadily advanced. In 1874 it was made obligatory (the school age varying in the different cantons), and placed under the civil authority. In some cantons the cost falls almost entirely on the communes, in others it is divided between the canton and com- munes. In all the cantons primary instruction is free. In the north-eastern cantons, where the inhabitants are mostly Protestant, the proportion of the school-attending children to the whole population is as one to five ; while in the half- Protestant and half-Roman Catholic cantons it is as one to seven ; and in the entirely Roman Catholic cantons as one to nine. The compulsory law has hitherto not always been enforced in the Roman Catholic cantons, but is rigidly carried out in those where the Protestants form the majority of inhabitants. In every district there are primary schools, and secondary schools for youths of from twelve to fifteen. Of the contingent for military service in 1897, •29 per cent, could not read, and 1 '02 per cent, could not Write.