CHAPTER XXI.-SWITZERLAND.

THIS extensive country forms the Swiss or Helvetic confederacy. The northern and southern nations of Europe have been singularly intermingled in the ancient Helvetia, whose Alpine walls seem like a barrier, separating them from each other. The Roman legions, indeed, conquered the Gauls, Rhætians, and Alemanni, in their forests and marshes; but they could not destroy the northern spirit of freedom. Indeed, the traces of its ancient subjugation to Rome are still visible in the Romanic language of a part of Switzerland.

Helvetia, under the Romans, had a flourishing trade, which covered the land with cities and villages; and Switzerland still forms the connecting link between northern Germany, the Netherlands, and France, on the one side, and Italy on the other. Before the fall of the Roman empire in the west, the northern and largest part of Switzerland, occupied by the Alemanni, had been conquered by the Franks. On the Jura dwelt the Burgundians, and Rhætia was under the Ostrogoths. Three German nations, therefore, freed the country, about A. D. 450, from the dominion of Rome. Christianity had already been introduced into Helvetia from Italy, and as early as the fourth century there were Christian churches at Geneva, Coire, and other places. The Alemanni and Burgundians gave their laws and their habits to the Helvetians, and the Alemanni occupied the greater part of the country. Each soldier received a farm; a judge, or centgrave, was set over one hundred of these farms (forming a cent, or hundred); and the place of judgment, where he settled all questions between the free citizens, was called Mallus. Several cents formed a Gau (hence Thurgau, Aargau, &c.), the judge of which was styled count, or graf, and the counts were under a duke. The great irruption of barbarians swept through the peaceful valleys of the Alps, and Roman civilization disappeared. Ostrogoths, Lombards, and even Huns, settled in different parts of the country. At last, the Franks, who had taken possession of the lands of the conquered Alemanni, drove the Ostrogoths over the Rhætian mountains. In 534, they likewise subjected the Burgundians, and all Switzerland became a portion of the Frankish empire. The country, however, retained its ancient constitution; the Romans and the old inhabitants were governed by Roman, the Alemanni by Alemannic laws; and each of the other nations by its peculiar code. The Christian religion was restored anew, and the desolated fields were again brought under cultivation.

On the partition of the empire of the Franks among the Merovingians, Switzerland was divided between two sovereigns-one reigned over Alemannian, and the other over Burgundian Switzerland, or Little Burgundy. Pepin reunited the whole country, and Charlemagne encouraged the arts and sciences in Helvetia. Under his feeble successors the counts became more and more independent of the royal authority, and finally made the possession of the Gaus hereditary. One of them (Rodolph) established, in 888, the new kingdom of Burgundy, between the Reuss and the Jura. Nine years previously, Boso had established the kingdom of Arles, in the territory between the Jura and the Rhone. Thirty years afterward, the two Burgundian kingdoms were united. The counts in the other parts of Switzerland were still nominally subject to the German kings; but they conducted themselves as princes, assumed the same name as their castles, and compelled the free inhabitants of their Gaus to acknowledge them as lords. Hence arose a multitude of independ ent and complicated governments, whose chiefs were engaged in continual feuds with each other. War was the business of the nobles, and misery the fate of the people in the distracted land. The emperor Conrad, therefore, set a duke over the counts in Alemannia, in 911. But the emperors of the Saxon house were the first who compelled the dukes, counts, and bishops, in Switzerland, to respect their authority.

After the death of Rodolph III., the fifth and last king of Burgundy, in 1032, the emperor Conrad II. reunited Burgundian Switzerland with Alemannia, which be longed to the German empire. But under Henry IV., grandson of Conrad II., the royal authority in Switzerland was again overthrown. Henry, persecuted by the pope, sought adherents. He gave to the duke of Zähringen the Alemannic part of

Switzerland, to which, in 1125, after the conquest of the count of Hochburg and of Raynold of Chalons, Conrad of Zähringen added the Burgundian portion. The dukes of Zähringen humbled the proud and quarrelsome nobility, but favored Zürich and the other imperial cities; and built several new cities, among which were Friburg, in 1178, and Berne, in 1191. The country people became more secure; the feuds among the nobility less frequent; manufactures and industry flourished; Geneva and Lausanne, among the Romanic, and Zürich and Basle among the German cities, became thriving towns. The families of Savoy, Kyburg, and Hapsburg, were the most powerful among the noble families. Many nobles went, about this time, to Palestine, and thus the country was delivered from their oppression.

After the death of Berthold V., last duke of Zähringen, in 1218, Alemannia again came into the possession of the emperors. His hereditary estates in Uchtland and in Little Burgundy passed, by his sister Agnes, to the house of Kyburg. From this time, the Hapsburgs in northern Helvetia, and the counts of Savoy in the southwest, grew more and more powerful. The emperor appointed some nobleman as gover nor of each city or community, which was not under a count, to collect the public revenue, and to punish violations of the public peace; still, however, private feuds continued. The German kings were no longer able to afford protection; might gave right, and the boldest became the mightiest. Several inferior lords, and several places, therefore, sought the protection of the houses of Hapsburg or Savoy. Zürich, Berne, Basle, and Soleure, the districts, of Uri, Schweitz, and Underwalden, gradually acquired the seigneurial rights from the emperors, by purchase or by grant, and assumed the name of imperial cities or imperial districts. They were more prosperous and powerful than the nobility, who lived in their solitary castles, at enmity with each other. Even the crusades, by promoting commerce, improved the already flourishing condition of the cities, as a part of the troops, arms, provisions, &c., were transmitted to Italy through the passes of the Alps. The crusa ders brought back new inventions in the arts, new kinds of fruits, &c. The gold and silk manufactures of the Italians and eastern nations were imitated in Switzerland; refinement took the place of rudeness, and poetry became the favorite amusement of the nobles. The cities now formed alliances for their mutual protection against the rapacity of the nobles, and demolished many castles from which they exercised their oppression upon the peaceful merchants.

At the end of the thirteenth century, Rodolph of Hapsburg, who, in 1264, had inherited the estates of his uncle, Hartmann, count of Kyburg, became more powerful than the old lords of the soil. As king and emperor of Germany, in 1273, he held a court in Helvetia ; but did not abuse his power to reduce the freemen to vassalage. His ambitious sons, however, Rodolph and Albert, encroached upon the rights of the Swiss. Albert, in particular, who succeeded to the imperial dignity in 1298, by his tyranny and obstinacy, gave rise to the first confederacy of the Swiss

cantons.

On the night of November 7, 1307, thirty-three brave countrymen met at Rütli, a solitary spot on the lake of Lucerne, and all swore to maintain their ancient independence. The three Walstädte, or Forest-Towns, as these cantons were called, having assembled in arms in 1308, deposed the Austrian governors, and destroyed the castles built to overawe the country. Henry VII., the successor of Albert on the German throne, confirmed to the Forest-Towns the rights of which Albert endeav ored to rob them. But the house of Austria still contended obstinately for its lost privileges. The victory of Morgarten, gained by the Forest-Towns in 1315, over Leopold of Austria, gave rise to the perpetual league of Brunnen, on December 9th of the same year, to which, previous to 1353, Lucerne, Zürich, Glarus, Zug, and Berne, had acceded. The victories of Sempach, where Arnold Winkelried sacrificed his life, and of Näfels, gave them an uncertain peace. But the warlike spirit of the people fostered a love of conquest and plunder; mutual hatred kindled civil wars between neighboring cantons, and foreign powers sought the aid of the confederates in their contests. In 1424, the people of the Gray League established their independence, and were soon after joined by those of the other two leagues. The empe ror Frederic III. then called a French army into Switzerland to protect his family estates: the Swiss made a second Thermopyla of the churchyard of St. Jacob, at Basle, where 1,600 of them withstood 20,000 French under the dauphin Louis, August 26, 1444; they next provoked Charles the Bold of Burgundy, who marched into their country, but was defeated at Granson, Murten or Morat, and Nancy, in

1477. The confederates themselves aspired to conquest, the people being fired by the desire of plunder, and the nobles by ambition of glory. In 1460, they wrested Thurgau from Austria; and from 1436 to 1450, Zürich, Sehweitz, and Glarus, contended for Toggenburg, till Berne decided the dispute in favor of Schweitz.

The confederated cantons now bore the name of the Swiss confederacy in foreign countries. In 1481, Friburg and Soleure entered the confederacy. The emperor, Maximilian I., determined to force the Swiss to join the Suabian league, and to submit to the court of the imperial chamber; but they suspected Germany on account of Austria, and joined the Grisons. Hence arose the Suabian war, which was concluded, after the Swiss had gained six victories over the Germans, by the peace of Basle, in 1499. Basle, Schaffhausen, and Appenzell, were afterward admitted into the confederacy. But the country and people were disturbed by domestic and foreign

wars.

In the Milanese war of 1512, the Swiss conquered the Valteline and Chiavenna, and obtained from Milan the Italian bailliages, which form at present the canton of Tessin. They fought on a foreign soil-now for, now against Milan-at one time for France, and at another time against her-till after the great battle of Marignano, gained by Francis I., in 1515, they concluded a perpetual peace with France, at Friburg, in 1516, which was followed, in 1521, by the first formal alliance with that kingdom. About this time the work of the Reformation began in Switzerland. Zuinglius, in 1518, preached against indulgences, as Luther had done in 1517. Even as early as 1516, he had attacked pilgrimages and the invocation of the Virgin Mary; and in 1517, with the knowledge of his patron, the abbot of Einsiedeln, several nuns abandoned the monastic life. His removal from Einsiedeln to Zürich, in 1518, gave him courage to speak more openly, as Luther had, meanwhile, appeared in the cause of reform. But when the principles of the Reformation were diffused through Zürich, Berne, Schaffhausen, Basle, St. Gall, Mühlhausen, and Bienne, religious jealousy separated the reformed and the catholic cantons. In Glarus, Appenzell, and the Grisons, the people were divided between the two confessions. Lucerne, Uri, Schweitz, Underwalden, Zug, Friburg, and Soleure, adhered to the ancient faith, as did likewise the Valais and the Italian bailiwicks.

Fanaticism now kindled a civil war. The Schweitzers burnt a protestant preacher of Zürich; and two Swiss armies, nearly 30,000 strong, awaited the signal for civil war, when the word “concord" was pronounced, and the first religious peace was concluded in 1529. It was agreed that the majority of votes in the communities should decide all questions relating to changes of faith. But the rapid progress of the Reformation again provoked the catholic cantons to war; and the troops of Zürich were routed at Cappel, where Zuinglius fell, and at the mountain of Zug. After the second public peace, the catholic religion was restored in Soleure and the common provinces. In the meantime, Savoy, which had long possessed episcopal and seigneurial rights in Geneva, reduced the city to entire submission. But the oppressive manner in which the ducal authority was exercised, led Geneva, in 1525, to join Berne and Friburg. Berne and Geneva concluded the perpetual league of 1531, and Berne gained possession of the Pays de Vaud. At the same time, the reformed doctrines were propagated from Geneva by Calvin.

By the peace of Lausanne, in 1564, Savoy first renounced her claims upon the Pays. de Vaud, and was thus driven from Helvetia, as Hapsburg had been before. About this time, Berne and Friburg divided between themselves the territories of the counts of Gruyere, so that, in all Helvetia, no great family of the ancient nobles retained its patrimonial estates, except that of Neuburg. The Swiss, however, were distracted by religious and political controversies. Aristocracy and democracy struggled for the superiority, and the intrigues of Spain filled the people of the Valteline with a spirit of fanaticism. In foreign, and especially in the French service, the Swiss adopted foreign manners: he sold his blood to foreign masters, and the ancient Swiss purity and simplicity retired to the remote valleys of the higher Alps. At the same time, the connexion of the confederacy with the German empire became less and less close, while the cantons obtained the confirmation of their rights from the emperor Maximilian II. But the influence of France soon became predominant, and Rome swayed the minds of its adherents by means of Jesuit colleges at Lucerne and Friburg, and particularly through the papal nuncio at Lucerne.

In the thirty years' war, the confederates maintained a prudent neutrality; and by. the peace of Westphalia, the complete separation of Switzerland from the German

empire was at length solemnly acknowledged. In 1633, France renewed her alliance with the Swiss, and asserted that they had no right to form alliances with other powers. The conquest of Franche Compté, in 1674, and the siege of Rheinfeld, in 1678, by the French, together with the erection of the fortress of Hüningen, in 1679, excited the apprehensions of the Swiss; they, however, still maintained their neu trality, even in the war of the Spanish succession. During the persecution of the protestants in France, to whom they readily gave an asylum and pecuniary aid, they paid as little regard to the remonstrances of Louis, who viewed the reformers as rebels, as he did to the intercession of the protestant Swiss cantons in favor of their brethren in the faith.

The Swiss had little influence in foreign politics during the eighteenth century, and, until toward its close, they suffered little from foreign interference. This tranquillity, which, however, was often interrupted by internal dissensions, was alike favorable to the progress of commerce, agriculture, and manufactures, and to the arts and sciences. In almost every department of human knowledge, the Swiss of the eighteenth century, both at home and abroad, acquired distinguished reputation, as the names of Haller, Bonnet, Bernoulli, J. J. Rousseau, Lavater, Bodmer, Gess ner, Sulzer, Hirzel, Fuseli, Hottinger, John von Müller, Pestalozzi, and many others, bear witness. The people of the democratic cantons enjoyed an almost unlimited freedom, and took a large share in the affairs of government. Those places which were under the general protection of the whole confederacy were not burdened by excessive taxes; they enjoyed a high degree of civil freedom, and numerous munici pal rights. The larger cantons, as Berne and Zürich, in which the government was administered by the capitals, or by a body of the citizens, who enjoyed many peculiar privileges, were also in a flourishing condition. There were no oppressive taxes, and almost everywhere the government was conscientiously conducted; the administration of justice was cheap and simple, and benevolent institutions were

numerous.

Notwithstanding all these favorable circumstances, internal dissensions still continued, and new troubles arose in 1790, which shook the political fabric; blood was often spilt, and punishment rendered necessary. Although the Swiss had at first firmly maintained their neutrality in the wars of the French revolution, French power and intrigue gradually deprived them of their former constitution; and after incorporating several portions of Switzerland with the French and Cisalpine republics, the French converted the Swiss confederacy into the Helvetic republic, "one and indivisible," under an executive directory of five persons. The legislative power was divided between a senate and a great council, to which each of the fourteen cantons sent twelve members. It was in vain that some of the democratic cantons attempted to prevent this resolution. They were speedily overpowered. But the oppressions of the French, the arbitrary manner in which they disposed of the highest offices, and the great number of weak and corrupt men who were raised to power, soon made the new officers contemptible.

Aloys Reding, a man of enterprising spirit, whose family was celebrated in the annals of his country, formed the plan of overthrowing the central government. Underwalden, Schweitz, Zürich, Glarus, Appenzell, and the Grisons, wished to restore the federal constitution; and Reding imagined that Bonaparte himself, who had just withdrawn the French troops from Switzerland, would favor his plan. The smaller cantons, in their diet at Schweitz, in 1802, declared that they would not accept the constitution which had been forced upon them, and that they preferred a federal government. The consequence was a civil war. Zürich was besieged to no purpose by the troops of the Helvetic republic, against whom its gates were shut. Rodolph von Erlach and General Auf der Maur, at the head of the insurgents, occupied Berne and Friburg. The Helvetic government retired to Lausanne. Aloys Reding now summoned a general assembly, which was held at Schweitz. Three days after, the first consul of France offered to the cantons his mediation; but the small cantons, guided by Aloys Reding and Hirzel of Zürich, persevered in their op position. Twelve thousand French troops entered Switzerland under Ney, and the diet separated, Reding and Hirzel having been imprisoned. In December, both parties sent deputies of the eighteen cantons to Paris, to whom Bonaparte transmitted, by Barthélémy, Fouché, and Roderer, the act of mediation of February 19, 1803, restoring the cantonal system, but granting freedom to the former subjects of the

cantons.

The cantons were now nineteen in number, Aargau, Appenzell, Basle, Berne, Friburg, Glarus, Grisons, Lucerne, St. Gall, Schaffhausen, Schweitz, Soleure, Tessin, Thurgau, Underwalden, Uri, Pays de Vaud, Zug, and Zürich. The republic of Valais was changed, by a decree of Napoleon, in 1810, into a French department; and he granted Neufchatel (which had been ceded to him by Prussia, but which was under the protection of Switzerland), to General Berthier, as a sovereign principality. Napoleon assumed the title of " mediator of Switzerland;" and the military service required of the Swiss became more and more oppressive. It was only by great firmness and the sacrifice of immense sums of money, that most of the cantonal governments could avert greater oppression; they were obliged to adopt the continental system, and the canton of Tessin was long garrisoned by French troops.

In 1813, when the theatre of war approached Switzerland, France permitted the Swiss to maintain their neutrality; but the allies expressed themselves ambiguously, and large armies were soon marched through the country in various directions to France. Their arrival excited a fermentation in many quarters. The act of mediation was annulled, December 29, 1813, at Zürich, and several cantons, of which Berne was the first, labored to revive their old constitutions. Through the influence of the allied monarchs, the cantons were finally prevailed on to assemble a general council, but revolutions and counter-revolutions agitated several of the cantons. Some of them were in arms against each other, others enjoyed a happy tranquillity and the respect of the foreign powers. All, meanwhile, were engaged in settling their constitutions. The old cantons adhered more or less closely to their former frames of government, and the new cantons endeavored to give to those which they adopted more stability. A diet was at length assembled at Zürich, and new articles of confederation were agreed upon by nineteen cantons. They resembled the old federal compact in many respects. This confederacy was acknowledged by the congress of Vienna. The bishopric of Basle, with Bienne, was given to the canton of Berne, excepting the district of Birseck, which fell to Basle, and a small portion which fell to Neufchatel. The former relations of the latter place to Prussia were restored, and, with Geneva and the Valais, it joined the confederacy of the Swiss cantons, making their number twenty-two.

The compact of Zürich, was publicly and solemnly adopted in 1815, after the depu ties of the confederacy at Vienna had given in their accession to the acts of the congress of Vienna, so far as they related to Switzerland. Soon after, Switzerland became a member of the holy alliance. But the political state of the Swiss cantons, as settled by the congress of Vienna, and jealously watched by the holy alliance, gave rise to much disaffection in the great body of the people. Though republics in name, nothing could be less republican than many of their laws and customs; privileges of orders, of corporations, of localities, and of family, interfered with the equal rights of the majority of the citizens. The federal diet was overawed by the holy alliance, and oppressed, in turn, the cantons; the chief towns tyrannized over the country districts, and a few trades or families tyrannized over the towns. Refugees for political offences, from the neighboring states, were refused an asylum, and the press was shackled by the diet, in opposition to the voice of the nation, and in compliance with the requests of the great powers.

In the democratic cantons, in which the people were not oppressed by their cantonal authorities, they were often disgusted with these servile compliances of the diet; but in the aristocratical cantons, in which almost all the authority was in the hands of some patrician families, or the corporations of the trades, it was often abused to oppress the mass of the people. This was particularly the case in Berne, Basle, Friburg, Lucerne, Zürich, Schaffhausen, and Soleure. Still a third class of cantons was composed of the new members of the confederacy, professedly organized on popular representative principles, but in which, in 1815, the elections were so arranged, that the whole power, in fact, was possessed by a small executive council. In this state of things, the general demand for reform in the electoral assemblies of Tessin (one of the new cantons), compelled the council, in 1830, to yield to the public voice, and establish a system of direct elections, and of publicity of proceedings in the great council, and to guaranty the liberty of the press, and the inviolability of persons, as parts of the constitution. This event, and the French revolution of July, 1830, set the example for general risings in various parts of the country. In the new cantons, the popular demands were generally so readily complied with as to prevent any serious disturbances, and the democratic cantons