Another constitutional document of material importance in Swiss history, the date of which is 1370-that is, twenty-three years before the Sempacherbrief—is the Pfaffenbrief, or Priests' Charter. By it all the Confederates, except Bern and Glarus, freed themselves from the jurisdiction of clerical courts in all temporal matters. It also contained provisions for the better keeping of the peace throughout the country; and, as Dändliker claims, 'is remarkable for having introduced the principle of the majority as regards the adoption of new Articles.'

The fifteenth century is often spoken of as the heroic age of Switzerland. Its greatest triumph of arms was the overthrow of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in the three great battles of Granson, Morat, and Nancy -in the last of which conflicts (1477) the Duke was killed. There were indeed disputes and even wars among the Cantons; still, the Confederation steadily advanced in power and prestige. But as that century drew to a close, Switzerland passed through a very critical crisis. Jealousies had sprung up between the democratic Forest States, which were the founders of the League, and the cities, rich, aristocratic, and sometimes unscrupulous. Moreover, there was the question of admitting into the Confederation the Cantons of Freiburg and Solothurn. This the cities desired; but the Forest States, not wishing to increase the municipal influence, were opposed to it. There was great danger of the splitting of the Confederacy into two, when, as a last chance of reconciliation, a Diet was called to meet at Stanz on the 8th of December, 1481. After much ineffectual debating, just as the assembly was about to break up in confusion, a compromise was arranged, through the intervention of the hermit, Nicholas von der Flüe, and was embodied in the document known as the Convention of Stanz. It reaffirms the three older great constitutional instruments, the Perpetual League, the Pfaffenbrief, and the Sempacherbrief; it interdicts new separate alliances among the Cantons; and, as to the division of the spoils of war-one of the points at issue-it provides

The name of the Canton of Schwyz gradually spread over the whole League-I do not know why; and they came to be called Swiss, and their country Switzerland. It is only, however, in quite late times, that these appellations have come into formal use.

that movable booty should be shared according to the number of fighting men, and that new acquisition of territory should be apportioned among the States participating, thus recognising the principle of State rights, and, in a sort of way, the principle of popular representation also. Moreover, Freiburg and Solothurn were admitted to the Confederacy on equal terms with the other Cantons, as was Appenzell, in 1513.

The thirteen Cantons thus united constituted the Swiss Confederation as it lasted for three centuries. But each Canton, we must remember, was a Sovereign State, its citizens being regarded as foreigners in another Canton. It must be remembered too that the tie which united them was of the loosest kind. There was no central Government, nor was the Diet in any sense a legislature; it was rather a conference of envoys, bound by instruction from the several States, which were, in fact, imperative mandates. 'Connected with the Confederacy there were, for various periods, and in different relationships, other territories and cities more or less under its control. One class consisted of the so-called Allied Districts, which were attached to the central body, not as equal members, but as friends for mutual assistance. . . . More closely attached to the Confederation were the Subject Territories, whose government was administered by various members of the League-territories which had been obtained partly by purchase or forfeiture of loans, and partly by conquest. . . . Upon this territorial basis of States, Subject Lands and Allies, the fabric of Government stood till the close of the eighteenth century.' * Switzerland was not as yet a nation. It was in fact a German League, its proper style 'The Old League of Upper Germany'; German in origin, in traditions, in language, and in modes of thought, one of many German Leagues, but the only one which, from various causes, had attained to virtual autonomy. At the end of the fifteenth century its dependence upon the Empire was merely nominal, and the peace of Westphalia (1648) recognised its complete independence. Moreover, the Governments of the various

'Government in Switzerland,' by John Martin Vincent, p. 22. I am glad to have an opportunity of calling attention to this admirable little book, which is as clear as it is comprehensive.

States differed vastly. The three primitive Cantons were, from the first, strictly democratic; as were also Glarus, Appenzell, and Zug. In these the citizens in General Assemblies ('Landsgemeinden ') decided all important questions. In the territories of the Sovereign Cities there were no General Assemblies, and the burghers ruled without consulting the opinions of the country people. Bern, Luzern, Solothurn, and Freiburg were indeed aristocratic oligarchies.

The Protestant Reformation exercised, as was inevitable, a dissolvent influence on Switzerland. Dissident religious sects became political parties, and the country had a narrow escape from being split into two confederations, one Catholic and the other Protestant. At the close of the Reformation period seven of the Cantons, Luzern, Schwyz, Uri, Unterwalden, Zug, Freiburg, and Solothurn, remained Catholic; four, Bern, Zürich, Basel, and Schaffhausen, had become Protestant; Appenzell and Glarus recognised both religions. Theological animosities were active during the seventeenth century, and were by no means extinguished in the eighteenth, as was shown by the war which broke out in 1712 between the Protestant Cantons of Bern and Zürich on the one hand, and the five smaller Catholic Cantons on the other.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the political decline of Switzerland, and it has been truly remarked that to this decline the Protestant Reformation largely conduced by vesting all power-political, fiscal, moral, and educational-in the hands of the Government in the Protestant Cantons.' Absolutism, indeed, was in the air, in Switzerland as in the rest of Europe, and the old traditions of freedom lost their influence. The spirit of patriotism was more or less quenched, and foreign military service† depleted the country of its best men. A year after the battle of Marignano (1515) a formal alliance had been concluded between France and the

A

* 'Switzerland,' by Mrs Lina Hug and Richard Stead, p. 303. †These mercenary services, which have often been made a reproach to Switzerland, date from the Burgundian war. Sir Francis Adams and Mr Cunningham, in their valuable work, 'The Swiss Confederation,' observe, 'No doubt the reproach was, in a great degree, merited. But the spectacle of some 30,000 Swiss troops mounting guard over Continental thrones was not without its grandeur, and made the name of Switzerland famous in Europe' (p. 9).

Confederation. In the time of Louis XIV French influence was predominant in Switzerland-at all events till the latter years of his reign; and the arbitrary rule of that monarch was regarded as a pattern to be imitated by the Swiss governing classes. The Peasants' Revolt in 1653 was unquestionably due to excessive imposts, harsh administration, and increasing poverty; and although it was suppressed, with much bloodshed and great cruelty, some of the grievances which had led to it were, in the event, more or less effectively redressed.

Matters did not improve in the eighteenth century. Even in the professedly democratic Cantons, popular rights were little respected, as ambitious chieftains and powerful families seized the reins of government and overruled the 'Landsgemeinden.' Most of the other Cantons were more or less completely under the control of aristocracies. In Zürich, Schaffhausen, and Basel, indeed, the guilds kept them in check; in Zürich especially were liberal tendencies manifested. Bern, on the other hand, was the narrowest of oligarchies; as the eighteenth century went on all power fell into hands of less than a hundred noble families. It must, however, be allowed that their government of that State was economical, wise, and just, and that the forty-four bailiwicks of its Subject Territories, though shorn of political rights, enjoyed material prosperity. Johannes von Müller goes so far as to say, 'It were no easy matter to find in the world's history a community which has been so wisely administered, and for so long a time, as this of Bern.' Such was the condition of Switzerland when the French Revolution broke out, and the sciolists and sophists, into whose vile hands France fell, tried to make the constitution' for that country on the lines followed in their own. Many Swiss in Paris who, for good or bad reasons, had left their native land, sympathised with the revolutionary movement, and formed themselves into the Helvetic Club-its professed object being the liberation of Switzerland from aristocratic Government-which was formally opened in June 1791, amid the plaudits of the Parisian mob, 'Vivent nos amis les Suisses.' Before long the Swiss discovered the true meaning of Jacobin amity. The French invasion of Switzerland in 1798, undertaken of course in the name of liberty, had for its primary object

the seizure of money and arms. This was effected chiefly under the orders of the Commissary of the French Republic attached to the Army of Helvetia,' aptly named Rapinat.* The public treasuries of Bern, Zürich, and Lausanne, and all the charitable funds, were plundered; valuable objects of art were stolen from the churches and public buildings, and contributions, gigantic, if the poverty of the country be considered, were everywhere levied. The Swiss resisted heroically but were outnumbered and slaughtered, and every species of violence was perpetrated. 'All that tyranny the most oppressive, rapine the most insatiate, cruelty the most sanguinary, and lust the most unbridled could inflict,' was experienced by that unhappy people. Trees of liberty were, however, planted for their consolation, and a Constitution of the French pattern was forced upon them-a paper theory to replace their ancient Landsgemeinden,' their State and Communal liberties. They turned in horror from these Jacobin abstractions. The Helvetic Republic, 'one and indivisible,' which it was attempted to substitute for the old Confederation, took no root in Switzerland. In this new unitary State the ancient Cantons were reduced to Prefectures, while Sub-prefects ruled in the Districts, and agents in the Communes. The change was absolutely repugnant to the genius of the people, and the history of the country from 1798 to 1803 is a record of social trouble, devastation, massacre, and impoverishment hardly to be paralleled in the world's annals. At last Napoleon, who at all events had eyes, showed a willingness, which he was far from always displaying, to recognise the historical fitness of things and the political aptitudes of a country. His Act of Mediation (Feb. 2, 1803), which, while retaining a central Government, gave back autonomy to the Cantons, and restored the old popular Assembly in seven of them, bestowing upon the rest representative institutions, was followed by a general improvement in the condition of Switzerland. The League now consisted of nineteen Cantons, the additional six-St Gallen, the Grisons,

* The following verses which were current about him seem worth citing : La Suisse qu'on pille, et qu'on ruine,

Voudrait bien que l'on décidât

Si Rapinat vient de rapine,

Ou rapine de Rapinat