CHAPTER I. LAND AND PEOPLE AND EARLY HIS

Transcriber’s Note: As a result of editorial shortcomings in the

original, some reference letters in the text don’t have matching entries

in the reference-lists, and vice versa.

THE HISTORIANS’ HISTORY OF THE WORLD

[Illustration: HUME]

THE HISTORIANS’

HISTORY

OF THE WORLD

A comprehensive narrative of the rise and development of nations

as recorded by over two thousand of the great writers of all ages:

edited, with the assistance of a distinguished board of advisers

and contributors, by

HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, LL.D.

[Illustration]

IN TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES

VOLUME XVII--SWITZERLAND (Concluded)

RUSSIA AND POLAND

The Outlook Company

New York

The History Association

London

1905

COPYRIGHT, 1904,

BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS.

_All rights reserved._

Press of J. J. Little & Co.

New York, U. S. A.

Contributors, and Editorial Revisers.

Prof. Adolf Erman, University of Berlin.

Prof. Joseph Halévy, College of France.

Prof. Thomas K. Cheyne, Oxford University.

Prof. Andrew C. McLaughlin, University of Michigan.

Prof. David H. Müller, University of Vienna.

Prof. Alfred Rambaud, University of Paris.

Capt. F. Brinkley, Tokio.

Prof. Eduard Meyer, University of Berlin.

Dr. James T. Shotwell, Columbia University.

Prof. Theodor Nöldeke, University of Strasburg.

Prof. Albert B. Hart, Harvard University.

Dr. Paul Brönnle, Royal Asiatic Society.

Dr. James Gairdner, C.B., London.

Prof. Ulrich von Wilamowitz Möllendorff, University of Berlin.

Prof. H. Marczali, University of Budapest.

Dr. G. W. Botsford, Columbia University.

Prof. Julius Wellhausen, University of Göttingen.

Prof. Franz R. von Krones, University of Graz.

Prof. Wilhelm Soltau, Zabern University.

Prof. R. W. Rogers, Drew Theological Seminary.

Prof. A. Vambéry, University of Budapest.

Prof. Otto Hirschfeld, University of Berlin.

Dr. Frederick Robertson Jones, Bryn Mawr College.

Baron Bernardo di San Severino Quaranta, London.

Dr. John P. Peters, New York.

Prof. Adolph Harnack, University of Berlin.

Dr. S. Rappoport, School of Oriental Languages, Paris.

Prof. Hermann Diels, University of Berlin.

Prof. C. W. C. Oman, Oxford University.

Prof. W. L. Fleming, University of West Virginia.

Prof. I. Goldziher, University of Vienna.

Prof. R. Koser, University of Berlin.

CONTENTS

VOLUME XVII

SWITZERLAND (_Concluded_)

PAGE

CHAPTER V

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 1

The conspiracy of Hentzi; the insurrection of Fribourg, 1.

Disorders at Geneva, 4. Tumults in Neuchâtel, 8. Aristocracy

and democracy, 9. Davel, 10. Federal relations of the Swiss

states, 13. Switzerland feels the shock of the French

Revolution, 16. French troops in Switzerland, 20. The

capitulation of Berne; the Constitution Unitaire, 23.

CHAPTER VI

SWITZERLAND SINCE 1798 26

Changes of constitutions and administrations, 26. The

evacuation of Switzerland; the nomination of deputies, 28.

The act of mediation (1813 A.D.); Cabals follow Napoleon’s

fall, 30. Switzerland develops along new lines, 35. Reaction

and reform; effects of the revolution of July, 35. Siebener

Konkordat; disputes over asylum and religion, 38. The

Sonderbund War, 39. Colonel Dufour is made commander of the

army, 40. Preparations of the Sonderbund, 41. The capitulation

of Fribourg and Lucerne end the Sonderbund, 42.

BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 48

A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SWISS HISTORY 49

A CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND 56

RUSSIA

INTRODUCTION. THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIA. By Dr. A.

S. Rappoport 71

CHAPTER I

LAND AND PEOPLE AND EARLY HISTORY (TO 1054 A.D.) 79

Extent, configuration, and climate, 79. The similarity of

European and Asiatic Russia, 80. The dualism of north and

south, 81. The soil of the Black Lands and the Steppes,

82. Diversity of races, 84. The Finns, 85. Ethnological

distribution of religions, 87. The Great Russians and the

Little Russians, 91. Social and political organisation,

92. The treaty with Constantinople, 96. The first written

document of Russian history, 97. The reign of Igor, 97. The

regency of Olga, 99. Nestor tells of the baptism of Olga, 100.

Sviatoslav; the victory of north over south, 101. Nestor’s

account of Vladimir’s conversion, 103. The death of Vladimir

the Christian, 106. Sviatopolk is succeeded by Iaroslav, 107.

Iaroslav’s code of laws, 110. Iaroslav dies, 115.

CHAPTER II

THE PERIOD OF THE PRINCIPALITIES (1054-1224 A.D.) 117

The character of the principalities, 117. The unity of the

principalities, 120. The theory of succession, 121. Civil wars,

122. Vsevolod, 124. Sviatopolk, 124. Vladimir Monomakh, 126.

The “Instruction” of Vladimir Monomakh, 127. The fall of Kiev

and the rise of Suzdal, 129.

CHAPTER III

THE TIME OF TATAR DOMINATION (1235-1462 A.D.) 133

Jenghiz Khan; the Tatar invasion, 134. Influences of Tatar

domination, 136. Alexander Nevski, 139. Death of Alexander

Nevski; appreciation of his character, 142. The grand

princedom, 143. The growing ascendency of Moscow, 144. The

principle of direct succession, 148. The battle of the Don or

Kulikovo, 151. Significance of the battle of Kulikovo, 152.

The destruction of Moscow, 153. The death of Dmitri Donskoi;

his place in history, 154. The reign of Vasili Dmitrievitch,

156. Vasili Vasilievitch (afterwards called “The Blind” or

“The Dark”), 158. Jonas becomes metropolitan, 159. A review

of the internal development during the Tatar period, 160. The

influence of Tatar domination, 163. Wallace’s view, 164.

CHAPTER IV

FROM IVAN THE GREAT TO IVAN THE TERRIBLE (1462-1584 A.D.) 166

Accession of Ivan (III) Vasilievitch, 166. Character and aims

of Ivan, 168. Ivan Vasilievitch marries the Greek princess

Sophia, 170. The growth of autocracy, 171. Subjugation of the

republics, 172. The final overthrow of the Tatars, 176. Affairs

of Lithuania, 179. Last years of Ivan; inheritance left to his

sons, 181. Appreciations of Ivan Vasilievitch, 181. Accession

of Vasili Ivanovitch, 184. Wars with Lithuania, 184. Wars with

the Tatars, 188. The growing power of Russia, 189. Maxine the

Greek, 190. Private life of Vasili Ivanovitch; his death, 192.

A forecast of the reign of Ivan (IV) the Terrible, 192. The

minority of Ivan IV, 194. Ivan assumes the reins of government,

196. The discovery of Siberia, 197. The restraining influences

of Anastasia, 198. Ivan’s atrocities, 199. The Polish invasion,

200. The reign of terror, 202. The march against Novgorod, 203.

Carnage in Moscow, 205. The struggle for Livonia, 207. Projects

of alliance with England, 208. Death of Ivan the Terrible, 208.

Karamzin’s estimate of Ivan, 209. Ivan the Terrible compared

with Peter the Great, 212.

CHAPTER V

THE CENTURY AFTER IVAN THE TERRIBLE (1584-1682 A.D.) 213

Character of Boris Godunov, 214. War with Sweden, 215. Serfdom,

218. Death of Dmitri, 219. The reign of Boris, 222. The false

Dmitri appears, 224. Career and murder of Demetrius, 227.

The false Dmitri; marriage and death, 228. Vasili Ivanovitch

Shuiski, 229. Accession of the house of Romanov, 237. The

Cossacks, 239. Last years of Michael, 242. Alexis, 243. Feodor,

247.

CHAPTER VI

PETER THE GREAT (1684-1725 A.D.) 249

The childhood and youth of Peter, 251. Peter asserts control,

253. Military reforms, 255. Azov taken from the Turks, 256.

Schemes of conquest, 258. Conspiracy to murder Peter, 258.

Peter travels to acquire knowledge, 259. Peter in Holland,

England and Austria, 261. The insurrection of the Strelitz,

265. War with Sweden, 265. Rallying from defeat, 267. The

antecedents of an empress, 268. Military success: Foundation of

St. Petersburg, 269. Renewed hostilities, 272. Polish affairs,

273. Charles XII invades Russia, 275. Revolt of the Cossacks of

the Don; Mazeppa, 277. Mazeppa joins Charles XII; Pultowa, 279.

Peter and the Powers, 281. Catherine acknowledged as Peter’s

wife, 281. War with Turkey, 282. Catherine’s heroism: the Peace

of Pruth, 283. War with Sweden, 285. A naval victory; Peter’s

triumph, 286. Peter at the height of power, 287. Peter’s second

European tour, 289. The czarevitch Alexis disinherited, 294.

Death of the czarevitch Alexis, 297. Domestic affairs, 299.

Renewed hostilities with Sweden, 302. Peter as administrator,

304. The church and the aristocracy, 309. Commerce with the

East, 311. War with Persia, 312. Last years and death of Peter,

314. Soloviev’s estimate of Peter’s work, 318. Kostomarov’s

estimate of Peter, 323. Haxthausen’s estimate of Peter’s

influence, 326.

CHAPTER VII

CATHERINE I TO PETER III (1725-1762 A.D.) 327

Catherine I (1725-1727 A.D.), 327. Peter II (1727-1730 A.D.),

328. Anna Ivanovna, 331. War with Turkey, 335. Internal

administration, 337. Biron the favourite, 338. Death of Anna,

(1740 A.D.); the succession, 339. A Russian estimate of Anna

and of Biron, 340. The nominal reign of Ivan VI, 341. Anna of

Brunswick assumes the regency, 342. Sweden renews the war,

342. Successful conspiracy against the regent, 345. Elizabeth

Petrovna, 350. Foreign affairs, 352. Antecedents of the

future Peter III, 353. The future Catherine II appears, 354.

Court intrigues: the death of Elizabeth, 355. Spread of art,

literature, and education under Elizabeth, 356. Bain’s estimate

of Elizabeth, 359. Peter III, 360. Impolitic acts of Peter III,

362. Catherine plots against the Czar, 364. Catherine usurps

the crown, 367. Death of Peter III, 368.

CHAPTER VIII

THE AGE OF CATHERINE II (1762-1796 A.D.) 372

Catherine’s own views on Russia, 373. The Polish succession;

the policy of the nations, 376. Poland is dismembered, 378. War

with Turkey, 380. The Treaty of Kutchuk-Kainardji, 383. The

migration of the Kalmucks, 383. The Kalmucks reach China, 385.

Insurrections and pretenders, 386. Favouritism under Catherine

II, 387. The rise of Potemkin, 389. The official status of the

favourite, 392. Potemkin’s schemes of conquest, 392. General

Suvarov, 396. The favourites Lanskoi and Iermolov, 396. Joseph

II visits Catherine; A spectacular tour, 397. Outbreak of the

Austro-Russian war with Turkey, 399. The Swedish war, 400.

The campaign of 1790; the Treaty of Varela, 403. Progress

of the Austro-Russian war with Turkey, 405. Successes of

Laudon, 405. Victories of Suvarov, 406. Austrian and Russian

valour; Austria’s withdrawal, 408. Russia prosecutes the

war; the storm of Ismail, 409. European intervention; the

Treaty of Jassy, 410. The death of Potemkin (1792 A.D.);

Ségur’s characterisation, 411. The question of the imperial

succession, 413. The last of the favourites, 415. Debaucheries

at Catherine’s court, 416. The subjugation and final partition

of Poland, 417. The annexation of Courland, 420. Last years and

death of Catherine, 421. A Russian estimate of Catherine, 422.

CHAPTER IX

RUSSIA IN THE NAPOLEONIC EPOCH (1796-1815 A.D.) 426

Early measures of the reign of Paul I, 426. Imperial

eccentricities, 427. Paul’s foreign policy, 432. The campaigns

of Korsakov and Suvarov, 433. Paul reconciled with France,

436. The armed neutrality, 438. Assassination of Paul, 440.

The accession of Alexander I (1801 A.D.): His early reforms,

443. The incorporation of Georgia, 444. Russia joins the third

coalition, 445. The campaign of Austerlitz, 446. The campaign

of Eylau and Friedland, 451. Meeting of Alexander and Napoleon

at Tilsit, 455. Russia declares war against England, 456. The

conquest of Finland, 457. War with Persia and with Turkey, 459.

Congress of Erfurt, 463. Renewed war with Turkey, 466. War with

Napoleon, 468. Napoleon invades Russia, 471. The abandonment of

Moscow, 473. The retreat of the grand army, 476. Napoleon on

the road to Smolensk, 477. The battle of Viazma; Smolensk is

found evacuated, 480. Kutusov’s policy, 481. Campaigns of the

Grand Alliance, 484. Alexander I at the capitulation of Paris,

487. The Russian occupation of Paris, 488. Alexander I and

the congress of Vienna, 490. Alexander’s religious mysticism;

Baroness Krüdener, 493. Alexander’s holy alliance, 496.

CHAPTER X

ALEXANDER I, MYSTIC AND HUMANITARIAN (1801-1825 A.D.) 499

The complex character of Alexander I, 499. Ministerial

influences; Speranski and Araktcheiev, 501. Educational

advances; the Lycée and the library, 502. Expulsion of the

Jesuits from St. Petersburg, 504. Liberation of the peasants of

the Baltic provinces, 505. The emperor and the quakers, 506.

Secret societies under Alexander I, 510. Closing of the masonic

lodges, 513. Turgeniev’s comment on the secret societies, 514.

Literary activity of the period, 516. Alexander I as a patron

of literature, 517. Failure of the Polish experiments, 518.

Constitutional projects, 520. The military colonies, 521.

Alexander and the great uprising, 523. The great inundation

of 1824, 525. The close of Alexander’s reign, 527. Death of

Alexander I, 530. Alison’s estimate of Alexander I, 531.

Skrine’s estimate of Alexander I, 532.

CHAPTER XI

THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I (1825-1855 A.D.) 533

The interregnum, 533. The accession of Nicholas, 537. Trial of

the conspirators, 539. The coronation of Nicholas, 539. Changes

in internal administration, 540. Reforms in the administration

of justice, 541. War with Persia, 543. War with Turkey, 544.

The Polish insurrection, 545. The outbreak of cholera and the

riots occasioned by it, 548. The war in the Caucasus, 550.

The emperor’s conservative patriotism, 555. Unveiling of the

monument at Borodino, 556. Death or retirement of the old

ministers, 557. Great fire in the winter palace, 558. The

emperor Nicholas’ views of Louis Napoleon, 559. Events leading

up to the Crimean War, 560. Outbreak of the Crimean War, 562.

France, England, and Turkey in alliance, 562. The taking of

Bomarsund, 563. The seat of war transferred to the Crimea, 564.

The battle of the Alma, 565. The seizure of Balaklava, 570.

The advance on Sebastopol, 571. The Battle of Balaklava, 572.

The Battle of Inkerman (November 5th, 1854), 573. Death of the

emperor Nicholas I, 576. Skrine’s estimate of Nicholas, 576.

CHAPTER XII

ALEXANDER II, THE CZAR LIBERATOR (1855-1881 A.D.) 578

The fall of Sebastopol, 579. Amelioration in the condition of

the soldier, 585. The emancipation of the serfs, 586. Laws

and social rights granted to the peasants, 588. Text of the

imperial proclamation, 589. Effects of the new conditions,

593. Abolition of corporal punishment, 595. Reforms in the

courts of justice, 596. The Polish insurrection of 1863, 597.

The subjection of the Caucasus, 598. The taking of Schamyl,

599. Wars with Khokand and Bokhara, 600. A glance at the past

history of Bokhara, 600. The conquest of Khiva, 601. The

Russo-Turkish War, 602. Spread of education and civilisation,

606. The death of Alexander II, 607.

CHAPTER XIII

REACTION, EXPANSION, AND THE WAR WITH JAPAN (1881-1904 A.D.) 610

The reactionary policy under Alexander III, 611. The

Russification of the provinces, 613. Foreign policy; the French

alliance, 614. The conquest of the Tekke-Turcomans, 615.

Accession of Nicholas II, 617. Kuropatkin on the Russian policy

of expansion, 619. Russia in Manchuria, 621. The war with

Japan, 622.

APPENDIX

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO RUSSIAN HISTORY

I--THE TREATY OF PARIS 626

II--THE TREATY OF BERLIN, 1878 631

III--THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE 634

BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 641

A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RUSSIAN HISTORY 643

A CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA 653

[Illustration]

SWITZERLAND (_Concluded_)

[Illustration]

CHAPTER V. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

There is an evil worse than war and that is the debasement

of peoples. The wounds of war may be healed, but moral

degradation leads nations to the tomb. During the peace that

followed the battle of Villmergen up to the time of the French

revolution Switzerland suffered more calamities than in all

the wars against Burgundy and Austria. For during the eighty

years of repose during which the swords of the Winckelrieds,

the Fontanas, the Halhwyls, and the Erlachs were tarnishing,

the rust of egoism and of pride succeeded in eating away the

tablets on which was engraven the loyal union of the ancient

Swiss; and like a corpse the old confederation was rotting

away. In vain degenerate sons decorated pompously the corpse of

the achievements of their ancestors, that they might conceal

the fact that the spirit which animated it aforetime had left

it.--ZSCHOKKE.[b]

THE CONSPIRACY OF HENTZI; THE INSURRECTION AT FRIBOURG

The outward peace enjoyed by the confederacy during the eighteenth

century (the last of its existence in its primitive form) was contrasted

by incessant inward disturbances. The first of these which claims our

attention is the conspiracy of Hentzi at Bern. Here, as in most towns of

the confederacy, a more and more formal and regular aristocracy had grown

up by degrees in the course of centuries. From time immemorial the powers

of government had been held by the avoyer and council. For the protection

of the burghers against the encroachments of the council, and of that

body against the influence of the multitude, an assembly of two hundred

of the most respectable burghers was formed, the members of which were

annually elected.

The most important acts, which imposed duties on every burgher, not only

for himself but for his posterity, were often brought before the whole

body of citizens, and even country people; the more so as at that time

a few villages constituted the whole domain of Bern. The continual

aggrandisement of the state rendered obsolete the fundamental laws of

its constitution, which became imperceptibly modified in proportion as

political emergencies appeared to require alterations. When the power

of Bern was doubled by the conquest of the Vaud, the assembly of the

burghers ceased to be thought of. The dignities of the state became

hereditary in those families which had once obtained a seat in the

great council. It is true that the other burghers remained eligible to

public functions; but it was rarely indeed, and generally by means of

intermarriages, that a new family raised itself to the rank of the rulers

_de facto_.

[Sidenote: [1743-1749 A.D.]]

The administration of these ruling families was, in general, not devoid

of wisdom and equity; and, in fact, the principal subject of complaint

was that participation in state affairs had ceased to be open to all. It

was, however, precisely this system of aristocratic exclusion which was

felt so insupportably by many of those who were subjected to it, that so

early as 1710 attempts were made to break it up. These were renewed with

increased vigour, in 1743, by six and twenty burghers, who combined to

petition the council for the revival of a greater equality of rights in

favour of the general body of citizens. These adventurous men incurred

the censure of the authorities, and were placed under arrest in their

houses or banished.

Amongst the exiles was Samuel Hentzi, a man of no ordinary talent and

spirit. He had fixed on Neuchâtel as the place of his banishment; the

term of which was shortened by the favour of the authorities. On his

return, the embarrassed state in which he found his domestic economy,

and the ill success of his efforts to obtain a lucrative office, may

have mingled with other motives in inducing him to take the lead in a

desperate undertaking of a little band of malcontents, who, without

money, arms, or even unity of purpose, dreamed of overturning a

government strong in its own resources, and sure of support from the

whole Helvetic body, and of instituting equality of rights among all

burghers, and appointment to all offices by lot. Yet, with all their

root and branch work, the conspirators had no idea of remedying the

real defects of the state, of satisfying the prevalent and increasing

discontents of the Vaud, or of procuring an extension of political

rights to the whole people: for, in the plan of a constitution annexed

to their mediated manifesto, exclusive regard was paid to the burghers

at Bern; and the rest of the people would hardly have been bettered by

their accession to the dignities which had hitherto been engrossed by the

ruling families. The 13th of July, 1749, was fixed for the execution of

the plans of the conspirators; but many of their own number had opened

their eyes by this time to the utter impossibility of success, produced

by the disunion and imprudence of their colleagues--to the passion

and cupidity of some, and the atrocious hopes of murder and plunder

entertained by others.

No man felt more sensibly the criminal views of his party than the only

man of ability and public spirit among them, Hentzi. He would not betray

those with whom he had long pursued the same object; but he made an

attempt to save himself by flight from further participation in their

plans and foreseen destiny. It was too late: a betrayer had already

done his work. Hentzi and other leaders of the party were taken and

beheaded during the first exasperation of the government. Sentence of

death was also pronounced upon some who had made their escape; others

were imprisoned or banished, but soon afterwards pardoned. On embarking

with her two sons to quit the Helvetic territory, the wife of Hentzi

exclaimed, “I would rather see these children sink in the Rhine-stream

than they should not one day learn to avenge the murder of their

father.” However, when the sons came to manhood, they displayed more

magnanimity than their mother; and one of them, who rose to distinction

in the service of the Netherlands, requited with good offices to the

burghers of his native town the unmerited misfortunes which they had

brought upon his family.

In Fribourg--where, in olden times, equality of rights for all burghers

had been settled as a principle--a no less close aristocracy had formed

itself than in Bern, since the middle of the seventeenth century. A few

houses, under the denomination of secret families, had contrived to

exclude, not only the country people, but a large proportion likewise

of the town burghers, from all participation in public affairs; and, in

1684, admission into the number of these secret families was rendered

wholly impossible. From thenceforwards, constantly increasing discontent

displayed itself both in town and country. Several very moderate

proposals for alleviating the pressure of this oligarchy were rejected

with such haughtiness by the government, that disaffection swelled into

revolt.

[Sidenote: [1781 A.D.]]

In 1781 Peter Nicholas Chenaux of la Tour de Trême, John Peter Raccaud,

and an advocate of Gruyères of the name of Castellaz, formed a league for

the achievement of a higher degree of freedom. First they endeavoured

to work upon the people by fair promises. Then Chenaux, at the head of

a select band of fifty or sixty, undertook to terrify the government

into a compromise. But the gates being closed on the party, and the

walls manned with armed burghers, this undertaking ended in open revolt.

The toll of alarm-bells summoned up the country people from every hill

and valley in the canton to assist in the coercion of the domineering

capital. A body of nearly three thousand men encamped before the walls

of Fribourg, and further aid was hourly expected. The terrified burghers

instantly called for the armed intervention of Bern, and the latter

town detached a part of its guard without delay. Three hundred dragoons

marched upon Fribourg, and were to be followed by fourteen hundred foot.

The burghers of Fribourg now thought themselves strong enough to meet

force with force. The garrison made a sally from the town, and on the

first sight of the Bernese flag, not to mention the heavy artillery,

the malcontents solicited an armistice. The surrender of their arms and

of the ringleaders was demanded as preliminary to all negotiation. The

people refused the latter of these conditions, but fled panic-struck on

the first attack, without making any resistance.

The whole affair would have ended without bloodshed, had not the leader

Chenaux been murdered in his flight by Henry Rosier, himself one of the

popular party. The two remaining heads of the insurgents got clear off:

Chenaux’s corpse was delivered to the public executioner, and his head

fixed on a spear above the Romont gate. Sentence of death was passed on

Castellaz and Raccaud, the two fugitives. Several others were visited

with less degrees of punishment: new reinforcements from Bern, Solothurn,

and Lucerne secured the town from any recurrence of tumult, and their

ambassadors strove to promote the restoration of tranquillity. It was

ordered to be proclaimed, from all the pulpits, that the council was

well disposed to protect the old and well attested rights of its loving

subjects, as well as to hear, with its never-failing graciousness, every

suitable and respectful representation. Three days were allotted to

each commune to lay their complaints and wishes before the government,

through delegates. But when months elapsed without the popular grievances

having obtained a hearing, the loss of Chenaux began to be appreciated.

Multitudes assembled round his tomb weeping and praying: pilgrimages,

as if to the tomb of a saint, were made thither with banners, and with

crucifixes. Vainly were these demonstrations of feeling stigmatised,

by the government as crime against the state, by the bishop as impious

profanations. They were neither to be checked by posting sentinels, nor

fulminating excommunications. They were the last sad consolation of the

people--the last substitute for hopes that were already given up.

DISORDERS AT GENEVA (1707-1782 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [1707-1714 A.D.]]

Shortly after the establishment of Genevan independence, it had been

decreed by the general assembly, for the better suppression of hostile

attempts against their hard-won freedom, that whoever should propose

a change in the government of Geneva should be considered to deserve

capital punishment. This did not, however, hinder alterations being made,

at different times, in various parts of the constitution. So early as

the middle of the sixteenth century, the laws were revised and improved.

The advantageous situation of the town and the long duration of peace

promoted the increase of wealth in Geneva, and the rise of many families

to opulence. These families aimed at separating themselves from their

fellow citizens, even in their places of habitation, by settling in the

upper part of the town, near the council-house, while the other burghers

inhabited the lower town. The principal families already regarded

themselves as a standing patriciate; and even the name of patrician came

into use in the acts of council.

The year 1707 witnessed an effort of the inferior burghers to wrest from

the principal families a part of their usurped power, and to introduce

amendments in the constitution. In this emergency, the council invoked

the mediation of Bern and Zurich, received a confederate garrison, and

maintained itself by force of arms and by execution of its principal

antagonists. A renewal of the disturbances which had been quelled by

such violent measures, was produced, in 1714, by the imposition of

an arbitrary tax by the council for the enlargement and completion

of the fortifications of the town. This stretch of power occasioned

great discontent among the burghers; bitter attacks and censures on

the government appeared in print; and the more strictly these were

prohibited, they obtained the more eager perusal and credence.

One of the arch-promoters of the rising storm was Michael Ducrest, a

Genevan burgher and noble, an officer in the army, and a member of the

great council. This man opposed himself with extraordinary vehemence to

the building of the new fortifications, and heaped offensive charges

on the partisans of the measure. The government condemned him to

recant, and, on his evading compliance by flight, a penal sentence was

pronounced against him. New attempts which he made to excite disturbance

were followed by a sentence of perpetual imprisonment. This sentence

could not be put in execution, as Ducrest had taken refuge under a

foreign jurisdiction, where he set at defiance the council of Geneva,

and provoked that body to such a degree by his writings and intrigues

against them, that sentences more and more severe were heaped upon his

head, until at length the most offensive of his writings was torn by

the hangman, and his effigy was suspended from the gallows. His person,

however, enjoyed impunity till 1744, when he was taken into custody in

the territory of Bern. The government of Geneva did not thirst for his

blood, and was content with his perpetual imprisonment. Even in this

situation he contrived to mix in Hentzi’s conspiracy, was confined in the

castle of Aarburg, and closed, in extreme old age, as a state prisoner,

a life which he had spent in incessant labours in the cause of democracy.

[Sidenote: [1734-1738 A.D.]]

Meanwhile Geneva continued to be agitated by party manœuvres and popular

discontents. In the year 1734 a body of eight hundred burghers addressed

themselves to the heads of the government, desiring the curtailment

of the projected fortifications, and the repeal of the tax levied for

that object. The council only replied by preparations for defence:

firearms were transported to the council hall; barricades erected in

the approaches thither as well as in those to the upper town, where the

principal class of burghers lived, and the garrison kept in readiness to

act on the first signal. All this apparatus was regarded with mistrust by

the burghers, who were still farther provoked by reports of the approach

of Bernese troops, and by the removal of a part of the town artillery to

the upper regions, while two and twenty other pieces were spiked. The

multitude made themselves masters of the city guard, pointed field-pieces

on the road by which the troops from Bern were expected, and tumultuously

demanded the convocation of the burgher assembly, the sovereign authority

of Geneva. The council contrived to win over the members of this body so

far that they voted unanimously the completion of the fortifications and

the continuance of the tax for ten years. The declaration of an amnesty

and improvement of the criminal and judicial administration formed the

rest of their business. The burghers laid down their arms and returned to

their ordinary vocations; so that an embassy which arrived from Zurich

and Bern found Geneva in a state of apparent tranquillity.

Permanent ill will was fostered only against the syndic Trembley,

commander of the garrison and conductor of the defensive preparations

of the council. Whatever this person had done by the instructions of

the council was laid to his individual account, and added to the mass

of dark imputations which were heaped on him, as the head of an already

obnoxious family. He plumed himself on the favour of the confederate

ambassadors, and forfeited thus the last chance of retrieving himself in

the public opinion. The remembrance of the armed intervention of Zurich

and Bern, in 1707, was too recent to admit of their ambassadors doing

any good to Trembley’s cause through the medium of pacific intercession.

The departure of these embassies removed the only screen of the syndic:

he demanded his dismission, which was refused him, in order to deprive

him of his functions more ignominiously. No resistance or artifice of

a powerful connection could save him: the tumults were renewed with

increased fury; and the question soon ceased to regard the person or

party of Trembley, and became that of the triumph of the aristocratic or

democratic principle at Geneva. In 1737, the council ventured several

arrests, and the consequence was that the whole body of burghers rushed

to arms, and the council was defeated, not without bloodshed. A garrison

from Bern and Zurich was thrown into the town: the ambassadors of these

cantons, in concert with the French ambassadors, undertook the office

of mediators, and in 1738 framed a constitution which set limits to the

assumptions of the council and the principal families, and was gratefully

and all but unanimously accepted as a fundamental law by the burghers.

[Sidenote: [1762-1768 A.D.]]

After four and twenty years of repose and prosperity, occasion was given

to new political movements at Geneva by a subject of a nature purely

speculative. It pleased more than one government about this time to apply

the doom of fire, which had been visited by inquisitors on the ill fated

victims of their zealotry, to certain of the more remarkable works of

the human intellect--a proceeding highly calculated to draw the eyes of

the reading public on productions which seemed worthy of such signal

condemnation. On the first appearance of that work of Rousseau which

opened views so novel and so striking on the moral and still more on the

physical education of man, the parliament of Paris had the work burned

by the hangman, and sentenced Rousseau to imprisonment, which he only

escaped by flight. Both of these decisions were immediately repeated by

the council of Geneva [1762], which improved on them by launching a like

condemnatory sentence against the _Contrat Social_ of the same author. It

was in vain that Rousseau’s connections demanded a copy of the sentence

against him: their reiterated demands, though supported by a large body

of burghers, were rejected by the council. The popular party, which

vindicated the right of the burgher assembly to bring up representations

or remonstrances against the council on any subject under discussion,

distinguished themselves by the name of representatives. Their claims

were met by asserting a _droit négatif_, or right of rejection, on the

strength of which the council pretended that nothing that should not have

been previously consented to by themselves could come before the general

assembly. The partisans of the council were called negatives.

[Illustration: JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

(1712-1778)]

The tranquillity of Geneva was once more disturbed to such a degree by

passionate discourses, party writings, and manœuvres that the ambassadors

of Zurich, Bern, and France again interfered, and pronounced themselves

in favour of the council. The representatives rejected their decision,

the ambassadors left Geneva, French troops advanced on the town, and all

trade and intercourse were suspended. But the French ministry speedily

became lukewarm in the cause of the negatives. The latter, when they

found themselves abandoned by all foreign aid, apprehending what might

ensue, patched up a peace with the representatives. By a compact closed

in March, 1768, the burghers acquired valuable rights, and even a third

party, that of the so-called _natifs_ or _habitans_ (old inhabitants,

excluded by birth from taking part in public affairs), obtained extended

franchises, and was flattered with a prospect of participation in all the

rights of citizenship.

But on recovery from the first panic, reciprocal hatred soon revived. The

negatives were vexed at having made such important sacrifices, and aimed

at resuming all their former ascendency. Moreover they found a favourable

hearing in the French court, which had long viewed with an evil eye

the trade and wealth of Geneva, desired to raise the neighbouring

Versoix to a commercial town, and hoped, by encouraging tumult and

disorder at Geneva, either to annihilate its industry and opulence, or

ultimately to bring it under the sovereignty of France. French emissaries

therefore aided the negatives in spiriting the natifs up against the

representatives, by promising to confer on them the franchises withheld

by the latter. But the representatives flew to arms, took possession

of the gates, and speedily succeeded in disarming the unpractised and

undisciplined mob of natifs. Well aware by what manœuvres the natifs had

been led to revolt, they prudently abstained from taking any vindictive

measures against them; but, on the contrary, imparted to them, in 1781,

that equality of rights which had been promised by the negatives, and

endeavoured thus to win them over permanently to the common cause.

[Sidenote: [1782 A.D.]]

The council, on the other hand, impelled by French influence, declared

the newly conferred rights illegally extorted, and invoked the mediation

of Bern and Zurich. But, betwixt representative stubbornness and

negative assumption, the ambassadors of these towns could exert but

limited influence. They essayed to put an end to disputes by amicable

arrangements, but were baffled by the intrigues of the French court,

which was resolved to recognise no democratical system on its frontiers,

and soon proceeded to open force in support of its secret policy. The

first act of aggression was to garrison Versoix; a measure which gave

just offence to Zurich and Bern, who thereupon renounced all adhesion to

the mediation of 1738, and left the Genevans to their own discretion.

France also declared she would mix no more in the affairs of Geneva; the

government was overthrown and a new constitution established.

Zurich and Bern now declared formally and coldly that they could not

acknowledge a government erected by revolt. Still more indignation was

exhibited by France and Savoy, who entered into a league for the coercion

of the town. Bern, too, joined this league in 1782, that the destiny of

Geneva, that _point d’appui_ of her own dominion, might not be trusted

altogether to the caprices of foreign powers. On the appearance of the

allied troops before the gates of Geneva, the burghers, unaware of the

bad state of their defences, swore to bury themselves in the ruins of

their native town rather than yield. But when the cannon of the besiegers

was advanced up to their walls, and the alternative of desperate

resistance or surrender was offered, the disunited city opened her gates

without stroke of sword, after the principal heads of the representative

party had taken to flight.

Mortal dread accompanied the victorious troops as they entered Geneva.

Many had reason to tremble for their lives, their liberty, and

possessions. No punishments, however, were inflicted, excepting only

the banishment of the principal popular leaders; but the rights of the

burghers were almost entirely annihilated by the arbitrary arrangements

of the victors; the government was invested by them with almost unlimited

power, and proceeded under their auspices to prohibit all secret

societies, military exercises, books and pamphlets on recent events, and

to reinforce the garrison by twelve hundred men under foreign leaders.

Thus the town was reduced to utter subjection, and depopulated by exile

and emigration. From thenceforwards commerce and enterprise fell into

decay; and for seven long years a forced, unnatural calm dwelt in Geneva.

During these years the government was conducted with much mildness, the

administration of justice was impartial, that of the public revenues

incorrupt, art and industry were encouraged to the utmost. But nothing

could win the lost hearts of the people back to the government. The

iniquity of the so-called _règlement_ of 1782, the destruction of their

franchises, and the disarming of their persons, had wounded irrecoverably

the feelings of the burghers. The malcontents increased daily in number;

and even many former negatives now disowned their party, which had gone

greater lengths than they had ever wished or expected. At length, on

the death of Vergennes, the French minister, and arch enemy of Genevan

independence, the spirit of freedom awoke with all its ancient strength

in Geneva, and the burghers arose to break their slavish fetters. But the

recital of the subsequent occurrences must be postponed until we come to

notice the train of events fired by the French Revolution.

TUMULTS IN NEUCHÂTEL

[Sidenote: [1748-1767 A.D.]]

The little principality of Neuchâtel, the succession of which had

descended in the same line since the era of the second Burgundian

monarchy, came, in 1707, into the hands of the king of Prussia, as next

heir to the ancient house of Châlons. In 1748, Frederick II displayed

that love of economy which distinguished all his measures, by farming out

certain parts of the public revenue arising from tithes, ground rents,

and the crown lands; from the former administration of which many of

the inhabitants had enjoyed considerable profits. The loss of these, of

course, was felt as a grievance by the losers; but what was viewed with

more concern by the mass of the inhabitants was the prospect of still

further innovations. Accordingly five communes of the Val de Travers

transmitted their remonstrances through a delegate to Berlin; and their

example was soon afterwards followed throughout the principality.

The arrival of two commissaries, despatched by the king to Neuchâtel,

was viewed with discontent as an encroachment on its immunities.

Shortly after their coming, an attempt was made to put in execution the

proposed financial system, of which the only result was to provoke a

tumultuous popular movement. On the 7th of January, 1767, the burgher

assembly of Neuchâtel passed a resolution of exclusion from the rights

of citizenship, against all who should farm or guarantee the farming

of the revenues. On this the royal commissary, Von Derschau, brought a

suit before the council of Bern, against the town of Neuchâtel; and the

advocate-general, Gaudot, who had formerly been a popular favourite, much

to the surprise of his fellow-citizens, seceded to the royal side, and

thenceforwards gave his active assistance to the commissary.

The cause was decided at Bern (with some limitations) in the royal

favour. With regard to the resolutions of the Neuchâtel burghers, already

referred to, it was decreed that they should be cancelled in the presence

of the burgher assembly, and a public apology made to the vice-governor.

The costs of the whole process to be paid by the town. Gaudot, who had

attacked the civic immunities both by word and writing, naturally became

an object of popular indignation. By way of compensation, however, he

received a lucrative government office, along with the functions of

procurator-general, from which another man had been removed who possessed

the popular favour. He returned to Neuchâtel from Bern with the royal

plenipotentiaries. These and the vice-governor advised him to take up his

residence in the castle; but, in spite of their recommendations, Gaudot

thought fit to repair to his own residence. The same evening, clamour

and disturbance took place around the house, which the magistrates were

forced to protect by military force.

The next morning the mob returned in increased numbers, and was still

further exasperated by missiles being thrown down upon them. A carriage,

escorted by servants in the royal livery, which had been sent by the

king’s commissary for Gaudot, was knocked to pieces by the infuriated

multitude. Gaudot and his nephew now imprudently fired from the windows,

and their shots took effect, fatally for themselves. The exasperated

populace forced its way into the house; Gaudot was killed by three shots,

and the mob dispersed after the deed, with cries of “Long live the

king.” The chief actors in this tragedy escaped, and could be executed

only in effigy. The whole affair was ultimately compromised by the

benevolent moderation of the great Frederick; and terms of pacification

were accepted by the communes, which provided alike against arbitrary

government and popular turbulence.

On this occasion, Frederick displayed more generosity than would have

been shown by any cantonal government; and his conduct seemed to justify

the general reflection, which must often occur to the student of Swiss

history that when administrative abuses are introduced into a monarchy,

it only requires a well-disposed and enlightened prince to crush the

gang of official oppressors and extortioners; because such a prince is

powerfully backed in such measures by the public opinion. Whereas, when

the majority of the ruling class in misnamed republics is corrupted so

far as to speculate on the profits of malversation, it generally takes

care to recruit its ranks with new accomplices; or, at all events,

only to promote to public offices such men as will at least shut their

eyes to public abuses. The magnanimity of Frederick was but ill repaid

to his successor by the tumults which ensued in Neuchâtel on the

commencement of the French Revolution; and we have lately seen the same

misunderstandings, as in the last century, arise between the now canton

of Neuchâtel and its Prussian sovereign.

ARISTOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY

The democratical cantons, where the assembled population exercised

the supreme power in their _landsgemeinde_, held the lowest station,

in almost every respect, amongst the confederates. Narrowness of

mind and ignorant hatred of all innovation withstood every proposal

of improvement; while passion and prejudice, aided by the artifices

of demagogues, often occasioned acts of crying injustice. Judicial

proceedings were in the highest degree arbitrary; confession of crimes

was extracted by torture, which, indeed, was often employed when nothing

more remained to confess. Capital punishment, even for minor offences,

was by no means rare. Public offices, particularly that of bailiff or

land-vogt, were commonly conferred not on the worthiest but on the

highest bidder; and the proceeds of this ignominious traffic went to the

public treasury. Was it to be wondered at if these functionaries in their

turn set justice up to auction in their bailiwicks, and endeavoured to

recover their advances to the government by every sort of oppression of

its subjects?

[Sidenote: [1780 A.D.]]

Mental cultivation was extremely neglected in these cantons, scientific

establishments were rare, and those for education were, for the most

part, in the hands of the capuchins; whose _esprit de corps_ was at

least on one occasion beneficial, by preventing the admission of the

jesuits into the canton of Schwytz in 1758. Elsewhere, however, similar

influences produced worse effects. In Glarus, so late as 1780, an

unfortunate servant girl was executed as a witch, on the charge of having

lamed the leg of a child by magic, and having caused it to vomit pins.

Credulous souls were even found to believe the affirmation that the girl

had administered pin-seed through the medium of a magical cake, which had

afterwards borne its fruit within the body of the child. The political

relations of these cantons, in the period now before us, were of little

importance.

The constitutions of the aristocratical cantons had all of them this

circumstance in common, that not only the capital towns assumed the

rule of the whole canton, but the burghers of those towns themselves

were divided into ruling and non-ruling families, of which the former

monopolised admission to all places of honour. But the governments of

these cantons deserve to be treated of more at length.

Bern, which, in the first period after its foundation, had no domains

of any importance outside its walls, possessed in that immediately

preceding the French revolution a territory containing more than 400,000,

inhabitants. This considerable tract of land was administered by 250

ruling families, of which, however, only about sixty were in actual

possession of the government; and these again were divided into so-called

great and small families, and did not easily suffer others to rise to

an equality with them. The sovereign power resided in 299 persons, of

whom the great council was composed. A little council or senate of

five-and-twenty formed the executive. The rural districts and the Pays

de Vaud were governed by land-vogts or bailiffs. It was chiefly there

that discontent prevailed against the Bernese government. The nobles of

the Pays de Vaud were rendered wholly insensible to the real and solid

advantages secured to them by that government, by resentment of their

exclusion from all public employments. The peasants of that district, for

the most part subjects or bondsmen of the nobles, sighed under the weight

of feudal oppression and its accustomed offspring, poverty, neglected

culture, mental and moral abortion.

_Davel_

A singular attempt at revolt was made in 1723 by Major Daniel Abraham

Davel, a well-intentioned man, of excellent character, but a decided

political and religious enthusiast, possessed with the idea that he was

called by inspiration to emancipate the Vaud from Bern. He assembled

the regiment of militia which he commanded, under the pretext of a

review, and with these troops, who were altogether ignorant of his real

design, and unprovided with stores or ammunition, he surprised the town

of Lausanne at a point of time when all the Bernese land-vogts had gone

to Bern for the annual installation. Davel offered his aid for the

restoration of independence to the hastily assembled town council. He

found, however, no kindred spirit in that body; and the cautious citizens

put him off with fair words till a force was under arms sufficient to

crush him. Meanwhile his troops had discovered the real object of their

commander, and shrank from him in surprise and consternation. He himself

was arrested, cruelly tortured for the discovery of accomplices, of whom

he had none, and lastly beheaded.

A certain contempt of scholastic acquirements seemed the prevailing

tone at Bern; and school education naturally came to deserve the low

esteem which it met with. Accordingly those patrician youths who did

not serve in the army remained for the most part unemployed until they

obtained places under government. The establishment of what was called

the “exterior state” afforded but a superficial substitute for more solid

attainments, and initiated youth only too early in the petty intrigues

and jealousies of faction. This institution, which was also known by

the name of the “shadow state,” was intended to give the youth of the

ruling families opportunities for acquainting themselves with the forms

at least of public business, and of acquiring an unembarrassed address,

so important for republicans. It parodised the dignities and offices of

the state, the election of avoyers, councillors, and senators, had its

secretaries and functionaries of all ranks, and distributed by lot 120

vogtships, which for the most part took their names from ruined castles.

Without any sufficient evidence, some would refer to the era of the

Burgundian war the origin of this institution, which received the

sanction of government in 1687, and for which a council-house, far more

splendid than that which belonged to the actual government, was built in

1729. The seal of this “exterior state” bore an ape astride on a lobster,

and looking at himself in a mirror. These and similar traits of humour

seem to owe their descent to an era exceedingly remote from the measured

formality of later times.

The government of Lucerne, which with Solothurn and Fribourg formed the

remaining pure Swiss aristocracies, consisted of a little council of

six-and-thirty members, which, reinforced by sixty-four others, held

the sovereign authority. With regard to intellectual cultivation, the

most contradictory features were observable at Lucerne. On the one hand,

learning, enlightenment, and patriotism were hereditary distinctions

of some families; while, on the other hand, the mass was imbued with

ignorant fanaticism. On the one hand, the encroachments of the papacy

were resisted with inflexible firmness; while, on the other hand, the

clergy kept possession of a highly mischievous influence in the state.

On the one hand, a series of saints’ days and holidays was abolished, as

being dedicated to dissoluteness more than devotion; while, on the other

hand, we are horror-struck by the burning of a so-called heretic. In

1747, a court, consisting of four clergymen, sentenced Jacob Schmidli, a

man of blameless life, to be strangled, and then burned with his books

and writings, because he had not only read the Bible for his private

edification, but had explained and recommended it to others as the sole

true basis of religion. His wife, his six children, and seventy-one other

persons were banished, his house was burned to the ground by the hands

of the public executioner, and a monument raised on its former site, to

perpetuate the ignomy (query: of the victim or of his judges?).

The appearance of two pamphlets in 1769, on the question “whether removal

or restriction of the monastic orders might not be found beneficial to

the Catholic cantons?” excited terrible uproar at Lucerne, where certain

classes were constantly scenting danger to church or state from some

quarter. The town and county clergy, and the bigots in the council, were

rejoiced to get so good an opportunity to persecute the holders of free

principles, and raised a deplorable howl, as if the canton were on the

verge of destruction. The whole population was plunged in consternation

and astonishment, by thundering sermons and rigorous prohibitions of

the obnoxious work. Free-thinkers were fulminated against by name from

the pulpits; and Schinznach, which had witnessed the formation of the

Helvetic society, was denounced as the focus and headquarters of heresy.

This society, which aimed at the diffusion of useful knowledge, public

spirit, and union throughout the Helvetic body, without reference to

varieties of religion, rank, or political system, was founded by a knot

of patriotic and instructed men, in the pious hope of arresting the

decline of the confederation. At its commencement it consisted of no more

than nine members, but added to its numbers with astonishing rapidity.

The society was soon viewed with an evil eye by the cantonal governments,

which dreaded all independence of feeling and action in the people.

At Bern, political dangers were anticipated from it, as symptoms of

refractoriness were exhibited shortly after its formation by the nobles

in the Vaud; while at Lucerne it was regarded as a conspiracy for shaking

off the Catholic religion, and assisting the supposed ambition of Bern to

gain ascendency over the whole confederation.

The aristo-democratical governments next come under our notice, and

in these, as in most of the purely aristocratical, the metropolis had

obtained unlimited power over the whole canton. In these, however,

particular families did not engross the sovereign power; the collective

body of citizens had maintained themselves by means of the regulations

of their guilds in the possession of considerable influence over the

public affairs. Accordingly the magistracy favoured the monopolies

which enriched the metropolitan traders, and imposed restraints on the

industry and invention of the surrounding country. Thence the subjects

of these towns were much more harshly administered than those of the

aristocratical cantons. Their ancient charters fell into oblivion, and

were withdrawn as far as possible from public inspection; they were not

only excluded from civil and military, but even from ecclesiastical

functions; and the exercise of many branches of industry, and the sale

of their productions in the towns, was wholly cut off by corporation

privileges. Moreover, since the commencement of the century of which we

are treating, no mode of acquiring the rights of burghers remained open;

they were only conferred on extremely rare occasions to reward eminent

merit; or when the times became troublesome to conciliate influential

burghers. Hence that discontent and disaffection which broke out at the

close of the century found a principal focus in the heart of the mixed

aristocracies.

In the larger cantons the public administration was for the most

part incorrupt; and that of justice was liable on the whole to fewer

complaints than in many other European countries. The pay of public

servants, with few exceptions, was extremely moderate. Men who had

devoted their whole lives to public affairs, and who had filled the

highest offices in the state, lost more than they gained by the bounty

of their country. At Zurich, the expenses of the government were wholly

defrayed without the imposition of taxes, properly so called, from

the revenues and interests of the national lands and capital, from

ground-rents, tithes, the salt monopoly, and the produce of the premium

paid by the several guilds of traders in return for their exclusive

privileges. The same description is applicable to the government of Bern,

excepting that here the course of justice was tedious and expensive. The

superior financial resources of the latter canton enabled her to execute

more for public ends than Zurich. Bern invested considerable sums in

foreign securities, particularly in the English funds; and, besides,

amassed a treasure amounting to some millions of dollars, which became,

as we shall presently see, and as Mably had predicted, the booty of

rapacious and powerful neighbours.

Very different was the condition of the free or common bailiwicks,

particularly those of the democratical cantons; here most of the

land-vogts sought by every species of extortion to indemnify themselves

for the sums for which they had in fact bought their places from the

general assemblies of their respective cantons. Many made an open

traffic of justice; took presents from both parties; helped delinquents

to evade deserved punishment who could pay for exemption, and exacted

contributions from the wealthier class whenever and wherever they could.

Even farther than in the German domains of Switzerland were abuses of

this kind carried in the Italian bailiwicks, and most of all in those

of the Grisons. The inevitable tendency of such treatment was to debase

the popular character in those districts, and its effects have left

unequivocal traces even to this day.

In those towns of which the constitution was grounded on corporate

bodies, the privileges of the burghers and their guilds received

progressive extensions. Propositions were made which would hardly have

been conceivable in monarchical states, and could only, in fact, take

place where particular classes had to decide upon the destiny of the

rest of their fellow-countrymen. In Bâle it was several times proposed,

under the pretext of protection to agriculture, that the exercise of

certain manufactures should be prohibited altogether in the rural part of

the canton.[c]

FEDERAL RELATIONS OF THE SWISS STATES

The federal bond which united the various cantons and their allies

was very loose, and far different from that which fastened together

the united provinces of Holland, or even from the federal compact

of the United States of North America. There was not in Switzerland

any permanent sovereign body, no standing federal magistrate equally

acknowledged by all, no central government having its own establishment,

its own treasury, its own servants, civil and military. The general

diets could not decide upon any important question, unless it had been

previously debated and decided on in the councils of each of the cantons,

who were applied to by their own deputies for fresh instructions at every

new case which was brought before the diet. The cantons were not even

each allied to all. The eight older cantons had among them a federal

compact for their common defence, and even of these eight the five first

only, _viz._ Zurich, Schwyz, Uri, Unterwalden, and Lucerne, were bound

to enter into no other alliance without each other’s consent; while the

other three, Glarus, Zug, and Bern, were at liberty to form alliances

with other states or foreign princes, provided such alliances contained

nothing prejudicial to the federal bond. The eight cantons were also

bound, by the convention of Stanz, to assist one another in supporting

the form of government established in each of them.

The five junior cantons, _viz._ Fribourg, Solothurn, Bâle, Schaffhausen,

and Appenzell, had no federal bond with the whole of the rest, nor among

themselves, but every one of them was allied to some one or more of the

others. The three forest cantons alone were allied to every one of the

other cantons. By these means, however, the guarantee of common defence

was secured to each; for, as any canton attacked had the right of calling

some other cantons to its assistance, and as these were entitled to

call others, all would be brought in to take a part, in virtue of their

particular bonds.

The general diets of the confederation were either ordinary or

extraordinary. The ordinary diets met once a year at Frauenfeld in

Thurgau, instead of Baden, where, until the treaty of Aarau in 1712, they

had been accustomed to meet. The deputy from Zurich presided: he brought

forward the matters to be discussed, collected the votes, framed the

resolutions, etc. Each canton or associate had one vote and questions

were decided by a simple majority. The sittings were held with closed

doors, and at the end of the session the deputy of Zurich drew up a

statement of the decisions of the diet, of which he sent a copy round to

each canton. The principal business of the diet was to hear appeals from

the common bailiwicks, and to inspect the accounts and inquire into the

conduct of the bailiffs.

Extraordinary diets were assembled at the request of any particular

canton, or of any of the foreign ministers in case of urgent business.

In such a case the canton of Zurich summoned the other cantons to send

their deputies to Frauenfeld, or any other place fixed upon, acquainting

them at the same time with the nature of the subjects which were to be

discussed, in order that the cantonal governments might give instructions

to their deputies accordingly. The foreign minister, at whose request an

extraordinary diet was convoked, was bound to pay the expenses of the

deputies who were thus called from their homes at an unexpected season.

The partial diets were held by the Protestant cantons at Aarau, and by

the Catholic ones at Lucerne. There was no fixed time for their meeting,

but they were summoned as the occasion required it.

A regulation, called the “defensionale,” was, as we have seen, agreed

upon at a general diet held at Baden in 1668, for providing against

sudden emergencies, such as an attack from foreign powers, when the

proceedings of the diet would have proved too slow for the common

safety. In such a case deputies were to be named by all the members of

the Helvetic body, and invested with full powers to direct the military

force of the nation, which was to be raised by contingents from the

militia of each state. This body consisted of 9600 men for the thirteen

cantons, 1400 for the associates, and 2400 for the subject bailiwicks--in

all 13,400 men; which number, however, might be doubled and trebled if

required.

The militia of each canton consisted of all the males from sixteen to

sixty years of age, and these received military instruction at certain

epochs. Only one-third of the whole, however, consisting of the youngest

and strongest, were enrolled into regiments, the other two-thirds

supplying them with recruits if necessary. The regiments were divided

into fusileers and electionaries, the fusileers being all young unmarried

men, who were considered as always ready to march at a moment’s notice;

the electionaries were composed of the married men, of an age and size

proper for service, and these were called out after the fusileers. When

in active service they received regular pay; but every man was bound to

provide his own uniform, arms, and accoutrements.

The Swiss, it is well known, furnished troops to several European powers,

according to certain treaties or capitulations, as they were called,

agreed upon between those powers and the various cantons. The chief power

having Swiss troops in its service was France, who had retained them ever

since the treaty made between the Swiss and Louis XI. Under Louis XIV the

number of Swiss troops in the French service amounted to 28,000 men; but,

in 1790, at the beginning of the French Revolution, there were not more

than 15,000, who were divided into twelve regiments. Six Swiss regiments

were in the service of Holland, four were serving in Piedmont, four at

Naples, and four in Spain: the pope had also a small body guard of Swiss.

There has been considerable misconception abroad upon this subject; the

cantons have been represented as selling their countrymen as if they

were cattle, while the truth is that the men were not sold, but enlisted

of their own accord for a certain period of time, receiving the bounty

money.[d]

Agriculture was advanced by the cultivation of clover and of other

artificial grasses, and by the consequent increase of pasturage and

manure. Many districts which had formerly been regarded as unfruitful

were thus rendered remarkable for fertility. The processes of manuring,

and many other processes in Swiss cultivation, became a model for foreign

agriculturists. Arts and manufactures were extended more and more widely.

In the canton of Bern, in the Thurgau, and elsewhere, industry was

employed on native materials in the linen manufacture; in Zurich, St.

Gall, and Appenzell, in working up imported wool in spinning, weaving,

and cotton printing. Silk manufactures occupied Zurich and Bâle, and

the latter town enriched itself by its riband manufacture. Trade in

all its branches throve at Geneva; where a wholesale watch manufacture

was conducted, and from whence watchmaking was soon spread through

the district of Neuchâtel, where it suggested many other mechanical

processes.

Intellectual culture and social refinements marched abreast with

commercial wealth. Not only the towns were embellished with architectural

structures, but in the Emmenthal, and around the lakes of Zurich and

Geneva, arose new and splendid edifices which bespoke increasing

opulence. In Neuchâtel, which a century before had been inhabited by

shepherds, the villages assumed the appearance of towns; and the wealthy

marts of England or the Netherlands were recalled to the mind of the

traveller by the principal street of Winterthur. Intercourse with other

states in trade or in foreign services naturalised new wants and desires,

yet many still adhered to the old usages and manners. In whole districts,

especially in the democratic cantons, public opinion imperiously

set limits to the advance of luxury. In other places sumptuary laws

maintained a struggle with the various arts of invention; and a wholesome

state of simplicity was preserved in Zurich, St. Gall, and Bâle, in which

celibacy became a rarity.[c]

Although in political matters dissentions prevailed, yet in intellectual

and scientific life a sense of the unity of the fatherland was beginning

to arise, notably in the reformed towns, where intellectual life had

made great strides since the success of the war of Toggenburg. Men

began to study their own position, learnt to know the individuality of

Switzerland, and drew thence the hope of a brighter future. The pioneers

of the movement were Scheuchzer of Zurich, and Haller of Bern. J. J.

Scheuchzer (1672-1733), physician and naturalist, made himself famous by

various journeys into the Swiss Alps, wrote the first natural history

of Switzerland, and also completed a large map of Switzerland, by which

labours he put new life into patriotism.

Albrecht von Haller (_ob._ 1777), the great poet and naturalist, by

unrivalled industry acquired an extensive and learned education; he also

possessed a strong poetic vein, and a warm and patriotic heart. Among

his poems which appeared in 1732, _Die Alpen_ (_The Alps_) made a great

impression by its poetic depth and the novelty of its ideas. Full of

indignation at the depravity of the time, and yearning for natural and

unspoiled conditions, he there depicts with vigorous touches the life

of nature and of men in the Alps, the simple, beautiful customs of the

Alpine folk, with a patriotic warmth and enthusiasm before unknown. In

another poem, _Der Mann der Welt_ (_The Man of the World_), he laments

the degeneration of his fatherland; in a third, _Die verdorbenen Sitten_

(_Demoralisation_), in contradistinction to the good old times, he

apostrophises the decay of his own day, exclaiming--“O Helvetia, once

the land of heroes, how is it possible that the men whom we now behold

could have descended from thy former inhabitants?” By his poems and his

researches in natural science Haller became so famous in other lands that

he received a number of honourable calls; yet he declined them all: he

wanted to devote his powers to his beloved country, and from 1753 until

his end he served her as a government official with affectionate devotion

and self-sacrifice.[e]

[Illustration: J. C. LAVATER

(1741-1801)]

Eloquence and daring imagination conferred European celebrity on Lavater.

Rousseau promulgated truths in education and in politics which will not

be lost for future generations, whatever alloy of paradox or perverse

misapplication they might suffer from himself or his followers. The

bitterness of religious and political dissension which had long prevailed

in so many odious forms began to decline, and the personal worth of men

began to be estimated by less absurd criteria than their speculative

opinions. Old prejudices vanished, or at all events were mitigated, and

even if the recognition of principles more enlightened was with many a

matter of fashion and imitation, still those may be deemed fortunate

whose existence falls on a period in which truth and liberal sentiments

find favour and adoption.

On the whole, the century was not worse than those which had preceded it.

Even if the forms of government favoured many abuses, a more extended

spirit of activity prevailed amongst the people than in previous

generations; and though it is true that no extraordinarily great actions

were performed, it is also true that no great occasion called for their

performance. It cannot be denied that too much jealousy prevailed between

the cantons, and that more reliance was often placed on strangers than

on fellow confederates. But Germany, which united might have given law

to Europe, had been even more distracted by like errors, reduced to

a mere battle-field for foreigners, and robbed of its most valuable

dependencies.[c]

Seldom during the eighteenth century did the confederates act together.

Only once did the confederation appear as a unit toward the outside.

That was in 1777, when an alliance was concluded with France which well

expressed the subserviency of the Swiss at this period to that country.

The members of the diet convened at Solothurn went through a humiliating

ceremony. They appeared in a body at the ambassador’s hotel, followed

him to church and thence to the place of the deliberations. By this

treaty the Helvetic body was bound to render a levy of six thousand men

to France in case her territory was invaded, and in return the king of

France promised the Swiss help in danger and to maintain the privileges

accorded them by his predecessors.[a][f]

SWITZERLAND FEELS THE SHOCK OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

[Sidenote: [1789-1794 A.D.]]

The Swiss government, as well as that large portion of their subjects who

were contented with their condition, and desired no alteration in it,

were startled out of a state of perfect tranquillity by the first shock

of the French revolution. The shifting of the whole political scenery of

Europe surrounded them with entirely new embarrassments. They resembled

steersmen tolerably capable of guiding their bark safely through the

tempests of their native lakes; but who found themselves now on unknown

seas without chart or compass. The situation of the Swiss regiments

engaged in the French service afforded the first reason for disquietude;

the next was the apprehension of infection from the principles

predominant in France. Alarming political movements soon began in the

interior; and the solution of the problems which were set before Swiss

politicians by the progress of events in the neighbouring countries was

the more difficult the more various were the views, wants, and relations

of the cantons, and the lands which were subject to them.

It was in the latter districts, as might have been expected, that the

new ideas gained the greatest currency, and that the first attempts

were made for their realisation. Educated and thinking men in the

subject towns and territories brooded resentfully on their exclusion

from all public posts and dignities. In those cantons where trade and

manufactures were most cultivated, it was regarded as an intolerable

hardship by the enterprising and wealthy rural proprietor, that he was

hindered by oppressive regulations from purchasing the requisite raw

materials, or from disposing of the products of his industry in any

quarter except to a wholesale dealer of the capital. Similar resentments

were excited by corporate privileges. Nevertheless, in the German regions

of Switzerland, a longer time elapsed before the new modes of thinking,

and the comparisons which they suggested, set the public mind in motion.

This took place much sooner in the west, where the French language and

neighbourhood made communication easier; above all, in Geneva, where

nothing but an auspicious hour was waited for to burst asunder a yoke

imposed by foreigners.

A rise in the price of bread, which was imputed to the government,

gave occasion to the long prepared explosion. On the 26th of February,

1789, the burghers assailed the garrison with everything which could

be turned into a weapon of offence. Fire-engines with boiling water

supplied the place of artillery: the garrison was put to the rout, and

the power of the government overturned the more easily, as its foreign

props had now ceased to support it. The ruling class was compelled to

throw itself wholly on the citizens, to restore the ancient liberties

of the town, and to recall the banished heads of the representatives.

But the hour was come for the ruin of Genevan independence. The country

people and habitans of the town now demanded an equality of rights

with the burghers, on the model of republican France; and the latter

power was induced to second their wishes, by the suggestions of the

ex-representative Clavière. The malcontents were kept for a while in

check by troops from Bern and Zurich; but, on the withdrawal of these

in 1792, the country people, habitans and natifs, flew to arms, made

themselves masters of the town, deposed the government, and established,

on the model of France, a national convention, with committees of general

safety and of public welfare.

A show of moderation and tranquillity lasted some time longer; but

distrust and exasperation received continual new aliment, and the

disinterested friends of peace could hardly prevent some furious

outbreak. Many votes were gained to a proposed new constitution, by the

hope of securing order and repose; and in the beginning of 1794 it was

adopted by a large majority. In April, syndics and council were again

installed in their former functions, and the event was announced to

Zurich and Bern with expressions of hope and confidence. Bern, however,

could not resolve, on the instant, to give the name of confederates to

these newly re-established authorities; and what had been done had no

effect in mitigating the violence of those who put themselves forwards

as the organs of the multitude, which they first set in motion for their

own purposes, and then were forced, in turn, to flatter its passions, in

order to continue popular favourites. Meanwhile, the price of necessaries

rose, while trade and industry stagnated; and the repeated demands for

so-styled free-will offerings to the public were answered by supplies

more and more sparing.

In order to crush, at a stroke, all resistance, and to furnish themselves

with the necessary stores and ammunition, the party of terrorists made a

nocturnal seizure of the arsenal in July, 1794, occupied all the posts

in warlike array; and filled the prisons of the town, and even the

corn-magazine, with nearly six hundred men, whom they chose to designate

as aristocrats; and amongst whom were a number of the most respectable

members of the magistracy, merchants, and men of letters. Of eight

of the prisoners first examined, a revolutionary tribunal contented

itself with sentencing one to death; but the clamour and threats of the

multitude worked on these unsteady judges to retract their verdict, and

extend the same condemnation to all the others. The doom of four of

these was commuted for banishment by the general assembly; but a band of

wretches again collected, stormed the prisons, and the bloody tribunal

now sentenced their victims to be shot; and afterwards endeavoured to

excuse itself on the plea that this had only been done to prevent worse

atrocities. More executions followed, which included several persons who

had actively promoted revolution. Numbers were banished, in order to

secure the ruling party a majority in the general assembly. The large

sums required by a revolutionary government for the payment of public

officers, and the armed force of the populace, were defrayed by imposing

heavy contributions on the possessors of property; indifferentists being

made to pay double, aristocrats a treble amount.

[Sidenote: [1796 A.D.]]

Party spirit, however, cooled by degrees; approximations and concessions

took place between all classes of citizens, who felt, in common, the

general ruin of public and private happiness; and the disappointment of

all the hopes which had formerly found indulgence. In 1796, a return to

the old constitution was agreed upon, on condition of equality of rights

being conceded to the old and new burghers, and the town and country

inhabitants. The exiles returned home, and all rejoiced that they could

again breathe freely. For two years more, the little republic dragged on

an infirm existence; till it was finally united with France in 1798, and

forced to partake, for fifteen years, the destinies of that country.

Of the men who had at different times been banished for political

offences from Switzerland, many had taken refuge in the French

metropolis, and endeavoured to persuade the republican statesmen that

their enemies were equally those of France. [Notable among them was La

Harpe of Vaud, who published a treatise on the situation of the Pays

de Vaud and demanded its restoration from Bern.] Their representations

found the easier audience, as Switzerland was already regarded with

greedy eyes by their hearers. “At an early period of the Revolution,”

observes an English writer,[i] “the views of France were directed towards

Switzerland, as well from its importance as a barrier on her eastern

frontier, as from its central position between the German Empire and

Italy. The reduction, therefore, of Switzerland, was a favourite object

of the republican rulers, and was only suspended by the dread of adding

its people to the host of enemies who menaced France on all sides; they

accordingly temporised under the mask of friendship, and succeeded in

preserving the neutrality of the Helvetic confederacy, by fomenting the

national antipathy to the house of Austria. Yet even during this specious

display of friendship, their agents industriously spread disaffection,

and prepared the mine which was ready to explode on the first favourable

opportunity: such an opportunity presented itself at the conclusion of

the treaty of Campo Formio, which left the Swiss without an ally on the

Continent. At this period the French Republic had acquired a colossal

strength. The king of Sardinia, deprived of half his territory, was the

vassal of France; the pope, and the king of Naples, owed the possession

of a precarious sceptre to the forbearance of the directory; Prussia

pertinaciously maintained her close connection with the new republic;

and Austria, vanquished by the genius of Bonaparte, had concluded a

dishonourable peace.

“But the French rulers were not content with planting the tricoloured

flag on the summit of Mont Blanc, on the left bank of the Rhine, and

at the mouth of the Scheldt, and with establishing the limits of

their empire by the natural boundaries of the Pyrenees, the Alps, the

Mediterranean and the ocean. With a view to secure their territories

against the future aggressions of the continental powers, they purposed

to form a series of dependent republics along the line of their

frontiers, as a kind of outwork, to remove the point of attack. At the

extremities of this line they had already established the Ligurian and

Batavian republics; the Cisalpine soon followed. A connecting link of

this chain was Switzerland, which covered the most vulnerable parts

of the French territory; and, from its natural strength and central

position, formed the citadel of Europe.”

Besides these motives, acknowledged by the French themselves, their

rapacity was stimulated by the treasures known to exist at Bern and

elsewhere, the amount of which, as usual, was enormously exaggerated.

What was required, in short, was not a motive but a pretext for

intermeddling with the internal regulations of the Helvetic body. That

body had with the utmost caution avoided giving offence; had recognised

every successive form of government in France; and had turned out of

their territories the unfortunate French _émigrés_ who had fled thither

for refuge from the rage of their own countrymen.

The triumphs of Napoleon in Italy were concluded by the construction of

the Cisalpine Republic. The Swiss subjects of the Valteline, Chiavenna,

and Bormio, were tempted to desire participation in the freedom thus

established on their borders; and Napoleon offered the Grisons the

alternative of conceding equal rights to these districts, or of seeing

them included in the new Cisalpine state. Parties ran so high on this

proposal, that no friendly understanding was possible; and when the term

allowed for reply elapsed without any being given, Napoleon put his

threat into effect, and confiscated all property belonging to the Grisons

contained in the above-mentioned districts.

Such was the first encroachment on the ancient limits of Switzerland:

shortly afterwards the bishopric of Bâle was annexed to France. Great

consternation was caused by these proceedings in the confederation;

but still more serious evils were at hand. In the canton of Bâle the

peasantry murmured loudly against the town: in the Aargau several towns

advanced tumultuous claims against Bern, for the recovery of their old

and chartered rights; and the Pays de Vaud reclaimed its freedom with

more impatience than ever. It was said besides, that a French army was

already marching on Switzerland; ostensibly to support the claims of the

malcontents, but really to make themselves masters of the land for their

own purposes. Bern and Fribourg hastily levied forces for the coercion of

their turbulent dependencies; and a diet of the confederacy was summoned

at Aarau. Much was said and nothing done at this meeting, as the cantonal

governments neither trusted each other nor their subjects. The members of

the diet renewed the original league of the cantons, as if urged by the

presentiment of its coming dissolution. The oath had hardly been taken,

when a messenger from Bâle brought the intelligence that the mansions of

the land-vogts were in flames; that a large body of peasantry had entered

the town, and that all the subject districts had declared themselves free.

The spectacle of feebleness and fear in the authorities, combined with

dogged resistance to the wishes of the people, of course diffused,

instead of quelling, the spirit of revolt. As in the thirteenth and

succeeding century, the prerogatives of the nobles had been forced to

yield to the claims of a class of burghers and of shepherds, so soon as

the example of the Lombard towns, and the growth of public prosperity,

had excited independence of feeling; so likewise, in the times of which

we are treating, it had ceased to be within the power of a privileged

class to contend with success against the claims of the so-called third

order, encouraged as it was by the example of France. Some districts,

indeed, took no part in the prevalent agitations, and pertinaciously

adhered to the accustomed order of things; others, more distinguished for

enlightenment and enterprise, demanded an equality of rights in town and

country; others, again, required the restoration of ancient franchises:

some regarded nothing as attainable but by French interference; while

nobler minds retained an insurmountable abhorrence for the agency of

strangers in the internal affairs of their country.

[Sidenote: [1797-1798 A.D.]]

It became more and more evident that the policy of the French directory

led them to foment intestine discord in Switzerland. For several years

past it had been observed, that foreign emissaries set themselves to

work upon the public opinion. A person of the name of Mengaud made his

appearance at Bâle, under the unusual and equivocal title of commissary,

and set his seal on the papers of the French embassy: this individual

not only made no secret of his intelligence with the malcontents in

Switzerland, but affected to display it ostentatiously. He went to Bern

on the 10th of October, 1797, where he demanded, in a note addressed to

the government, the dismissal of the English ambassador Wickham, who had

certainly exerted himself openly against France, but had done so as the

envoy of a power at war with that country. Bern referred the demand of

Mengaud to the then directing canton, as a matter which concerned the

whole confederacy.

Wickham relieved for the moment the embarrassment of the Helvetic

body, while he deprived the French directory of a present pretence for

violence, by taking his departure on a tour into Germany; but he left

an able diplomatist behind him in the person of his secretary Talbot.

Mengaud was received at Zurich and Bern with undisguised aversion, and

no diplomatic visits were paid him at either of these places. In the

month of November, an embassy from the latter town had been sent to

Paris; which, though admitted to an audience of the director Barras, soon

received a rude dismissal homewards.

Great were the hopes infused into the disaffected party by the promises

of Mengaud, and other subordinate agents of France; and proportional

fears were excited amongst the friends of the old system, including

the greater number of public functionaries. In order to increase their

uneasiness, Mengaud threatened the diet of the confederation in January,

1798, with the entrance of French troops into Switzerland, should Austria

be suffered to occupy the Grisons. He travelled to the place of meeting

at Aarau, with tricoloured flags flying from his carriage; and, on his

arrival there, hung out an immense banner in front of his house. The

triumphant revolutionists of Bâle had already formed a tricoloured flag

of their own, by the addition of green to their formal cantonal colours,

black and white, and their delegate at Paris, Ochs, had hastily sketched

what he called an Helvetic constitution, on the model of that of the

French Republic. This document was printed in Italian, French, and

German, and distributed by Mengaud, not in official quarters only, but

throughout the whole population of the cantons.

FRENCH TROOPS IN SWITZERLAND

In the mean time, a division of the French army, under Menard, appeared

on the western frontier; and the Pays de Vaud, protected by it, declared

its independence of Bern. The Bernese government saw the necessity of

trying the force of arms on its subjects; and the command of the forces

having been declined by councillor Erlach of Spiez, who had hitherto

been one of the strongest assertors of aristocracy, it was conferred on

Colonel Rudolf Weiss, who had, till then, sustained the character of a

champion of the opposite system; and had contributed, by a published

work,[g] to the favourable temper of the partisans of Robespierre towards

the Swiss confederation. An unusual delegation of full powers placed in

his hands the whole military government of the Vaud. The new commander

held conferences with the leaders of the malcontents; published a

treatise[h] intended to conciliate them, but intermixed conciliation with

menace. Chillon was recovered by surprise from the insurgents, and the

German troops of Bern were moved on the frontiers of the Vaud.

Meanwhile, General Menard was already on the lake of Geneva, with ten

thousand men of the conquering army of Italy; and to him the insurgent

leaders, alarmed for their own safety, addressed themselves. Menard

replied, that he was instructed to give them aid and protection; and

threatened Colonel Weiss that he would repel force with force, if the

former should persist in drawing troops around a territory already

declared independent, and in arming the communes against each other.

Without taking any measures of defence--without even attempting to

maintain himself on the high grounds--Weiss withdrew to the neighbourhood

of Yverdun. It happened, accidentally, that two French hussars were shot

on the outposts of the Bernese army, because they had not immediately

answered the challenge of the sentinels. This incident was taken up by

Menard, and afterwards by the directory, as an infringement of the law of

nations, and the commencement of hostilities.

The revolution of Bâle, and the entrance of French troops into the Pays

de Vaud, rendered it impossible for reflecting men any longer to doubt

that sweeping social changes were inevitable. Yet the Swiss democracies

would not be persuaded that anyone could shake their constitutions, or

force on them a new species of freedom. The numerous friends of things

as they were still hoped to steer themselves through the crisis without

any great sacrifices, by mere dint of tenacity and delay. Many, moreover,

flattered themselves with the notion that the plans of France were

levelled at no wider mark than the Vaud; and were prompted by a petty

feeling of jealousy towards Bern [the stronghold of the aristocracy], to

see nothing in the affair but a mortification to that envied canton.

It could hardly be conceived at Bern, that the French should have

advanced without meeting any resistance up to Yverdun, while the

headquarters of Colonel Weiss were withdrawn behind Avenche. He was

instantly dismissed from his command, which was transferred to General

Erlach of Hindelbank; but the evil effects of exorbitant discretionary

powers had been so sensibly felt, that the opposite extreme was now

adopted. Meanwhile, the leading statesmen of Bern, had, at length, became

convinced that concessions must be made to the people. Fifty-two members

were added to the great council from amongst the burghers, citizens of

the minor towns, and rural inhabitants. It was resolved to introduce,

within a year’s time, a new constitution; in which admission to every

public function should be open to all, and due proportion should be

observed in the emoluments of all public services. These resolutions were

laid before the directory, together with a demand for the withdrawal

of the French troops. The government also stooped to make a like

communication to Mengaud, to acquaint him with the actual political

system of Bern, and inform him of the wish of that canton to preserve

peace with France. Mengaud made just such an answer as ought to have

been expected from him. He demanded a prompt and complete change of the

old political system, declared that further delays could not be suffered

by the majesty of the French Republic; and designated the persevering

defenders of the existing order as a handful of inveterate tyrants.

Disregarding their own positive engagements, the French, on the 8th of

February, took possession of the town of Bienne. Yet the confederates

still hoped to conciliate France, and were encouraged in this illusion by

General Brune, who now commanded the French troops, reinforced by several

thousand men, and fixed his headquarters at Payerne. This subtle leader,

who, without having performed a lengthened public career, was, to borrow

a diplomatic expression, _rompu dans les affaires_, proposed, with artful

blandishments, and with hinted hopes of peaceful adjustment, an armistice

of fourteen days; during which the discipline and enthusiasm of the

Bernese army had time to abate, indecision and distrust to increase, and

recruits to join the French army.

Meanwhile, General Schauenburg had collected a division of troops on the

frontiers of Solothurn and Bern, equal in strength to that of Brune. The

latter announced, on the 26th of February, that he had received full

powers to treat from the executive directory. He proposed his ultimatum

to the Swiss delegates, that without farther delay they should introduce

a provisional government, take measures for the establishment of a new

constitution, with securities for freedom and equality, liberate all

prisoners for political offences, and withdraw their own troops, as well

as those of the other cantons. On the due fulfilment of these conditions,

the French troops should be drawn off likewise; and should not again

enter the Swiss territory, unless the government called for their

assistance.

On the very day when Brune had given his insolent ultimatum, Erlach

entered the great council at Bern, accompanied by eighty of his officers,

who were members, like himself, of that body. In a moment of unusual

resolution, he was invested with full powers to commence hostilities on

the close of the armistice. However, two days afterwards, the delegates

returned from Brune’s encampment at Payerne. Erlach and his brothers

in arms were no longer present in council; the rest of that body were

paralysed by the imminent and gigantic danger; and the full powers which

had just been given the general were taken away. The same evening,

Erlach received instructions _not_ to attack the French, which fired his

troops with anger and suspicion, and tended to confirm the belief in the

treachery of their leaders, already widely prevalent in the army. Brune’s

ultimatum, in all its principal features, was accepted. The delegates

of Zurich, Wyss, and Tscharner sought a conference with him, when he

renewed his former offers in cold and peremptory language; but now added

a novel stipulation to them, namely, that, even after the confederate

troops were disbanded, his should remain till the new constitution

should be established. It was affirmed, truly or otherwise, that he

granted, without difficulty, an extension of the truce for twenty-four

hours; notwithstanding which, the delegates, on their return, saw his

troops already in motion for the attack. Orders for the commencement of

hostilities had also been forwarded from the council of war at Bern to

the army, and two hours afterwards, retracted.

In obedience to the first of these contradictory instructions, the

Bernese colonel Gross had given notice to the French outposts that

the truce would come to an end at ten in the evening of the 1st of

March; but when he withdrew his former announcement on the arrival

of counter-orders, Schauenburg would admit no further parley. He had

already attacked, without warning, the old castle of Dornach, in the

neighbourhood of Bâle, which sustained a siege of twenty-four hours. The

attack of a Bernese division near Vingels was repulsed with loss, and

the French surprised the Bernese posts at Lengnau, which they carried

after an obstinate resistance. The town of Solothurn capitulated, on

Schauenburg’s appearance before it. The passage across the Aar now lay

open to the French troops. Fribourg was attacked and taken, though a

stand was made by the Bernese garrison.

Erlach was now compelled to withdraw his troops behind the Aar and the

Sense; though it was not without extreme reluctance that the men of

Bern abandoned Morat. On the 3rd of March, Brune destroyed one of the

finest monuments of Swiss courage and union, the Ossuary of Morat; and

the French, among whom were many natives of Burgundy, honoured the bones

of their ancestors with a grave, after an interval of more than three

hundred years. Now at length, Bern, Solothurn, and Fribourg proclaimed

a levy _en masse_ of the able-bodied men within their territories. The

Bernese army was in a dreadful state of confusion; particularly that

division which stood directly opposed to Brune, in which the distrust

and exasperation of the soldiers were at their highest pitch. Officers

were dismissed by their soldiers, and others put in their place. Colonels

Stettler and Ryhiner were bayonetted and shot before the very gates of

Bern; and Colonels Crusez and Goumoens fell beneath the sabre-strokes of

their own dragoons. Nevertheless, the troops were again assembled under

command of Grafenried, who was admirably supported by his officers, and

repulsed the French in every attempt to charge them at the point of the

bayonet. Eighteen cannons were taken from the enemy, and their loss in

men besides was very considerable.

_The Capitulation of Berne; the Constitution Unitaire (1798 A.D.)_

The native troops had now fully recovered spirit and confidence; but

just as Grafenried prepared to cross the Sense at Neueneck, the decisive

intelligence arrived that Bern was in the hands of the enemy! Early

on the 5th, an attack had been made by Schauenburg on Solothurn. His

force was far numerically superior to the Bernese; his horse artillery

terrified the native militia by its novelty, and his cavalry was nearly

eight-fold that of Bern in numbers. At Fraubrunnen, the French turned

the left flank of the Bernese: in the Grauholz and at Breitenfeld their

militia under Erlach offered a brave resistance, armed with scythes and

other agricultural implements. Men, women, and even children mixed,

and fell in the mortal struggle. On its unsuccessful issue, ensued the

capitulation of Bern.

All was lost: the armed bands of the peasantry dispersed in every

direction with loud accusations of treason against their officers, many

of whom were slain by their own men. Amongst these was the general

Erlach, an illustrious name in the annals of Bern. That unfortunate

commander, and the avoyer Steiger, when the fortune of the day was

decided, retreated towards the Oberland, whither they knew that arms and

money had already been despatched by the government, and where they still

hoped to offer an effective resistance. But Erlach was murdered in the

way by the enraged fugitives, who breathed nothing but revenge for their

imaginary betrayal, and it was only by chance that Steiger did not meet a

similar fate.

Even public extremity could not restore public spirit. Every little

canton treated, armed, and cared for itself exclusively, totally

regardless of the rest. Wherever the authorities had, till then,

withheld freedom from their subjects, they no longer delayed to grant it;

but bestowed emancipation with so ill a grace, as to indicate how gladly

they would have refused it, had they dared.

France now assumed a tone of direct command, and proclaimed the

dissolution of the Helvetic body, and the establishment of a

_constitution unitaire_, embracing the whole of Switzerland under one

uniform system of government. This system announced a perfect equality of

rights between the inhabitants of the towns and of the villages, assigned

the nomination of judges, magistrates, and legislators, to the people

in their primary assemblies, and entrusted to the government the choice

of executive functionaries. The founders of this new Helvetic republic

next proceeded to the more material objects of their mission. They levied

large contributions on the towns, appropriated the treasures amassed at

Bern, Zurich, Solothurn, and Fribourg, and carried off many members of

council and other persons, as hostages for the further payments exacted

from those places.

But the people of Uri, Nidwalden, Schwyz, and Glarus, were resolved not

to deliver up their old independence so easily, and organised a heroic,

though a useless, resistance under their brave leader Aloys Reding.

The most brilliant and the most sanguinary struggle took place at

Rothenthurm, in the neighbourhood of the battle-field of Morgarten. These

Alpine shepherds combated with a spirit and success which showed them

not unworthy of their forefathers. Thrice were the attacks of regular

troops, four times their number, repulsed, with serious loss on the

side of the enemy. But the vigour of this peasant militia was exhausted

by their very successes, and they were, finally, compelled to accept

terms from the invaders, and to bow beneath the yoke of the Helvetic

Republic. Thus ended the old Swiss confederation, after enduring for a

term of nearly five centuries. “It fell,” says an enlightened native

historian,[1] “not exactly for want of strength in the bands which held

it together; for, without any stronger bond of union the old confederates

won their freedom, crushed or repelled the force of mighty antagonists,

and rendered themselves powerful and formidable. The Swiss succumbed in

the last unfortunate struggle, because the feeling of duty, the lofty

faith in their country and its fortunes, had become chilled in the bosoms

of the many, and because the democratical cantons thought of none but

themselves.”

While the well-instructed friends of their country regretted the rude

violence with which every link in the system of society, from the Alps

to the Jura, had been totally torn away from its ancient holdings,

they could not fail to perceive the ultimate benefits educible from

the general convulsion. The former aggregation of little states had

been productive of estrangement and enmity; the cantons had been proved

powerless, even for self-defence; separately too poor for public

enterprises; collectively incapable of any combined action. But now an

opportunity seemed to be given to the Swiss people of becoming one great

family, enjoying equal rights. The mass of the people, however, was not

penetrated by such ideas, and only deplored the breach made in their old

habits and usages. They had, indeed, demanded freedom and independence,

but not this melting up into an uniform mass. They would have preferred

that every petty district, nay, every single valley, should become a free

and independent canton, ruling itself in its own assemblies, according

to its own pleasure, and only connected by federal ties with the rest of

the Swiss people. The whole subsequent march of events tended only to

increase the desire for a subdivided federative system of this kind, and

the aversion for the newly established order. The new general government,

called an executive directory, after its prototype at Paris, resided

at Aarau without inspiring either respect or confidence, dependent on

its sole protectors, the French plenipotentiaries. In the senate and

the great council, composed of delegates from all the cantons, the

conflicting opinions of parties caused an incessant wordy warfare. Out

of doors the same parties abandoned parliamentary weapons, and asserted

their discordant creeds with arms in their hands. New and old laws and

regulations were perpetually coming in collision. While the state was

often without the most indispensable means for its maintenance, and even

for the daily pay of its functionaries, the French plenipotentiaries,

leaders, and subalterns, rioted in shameless superfluities at the cost of

the country, and sent to France the surplus of their plunder.

The discontents of the people were considerably aggravated by the murmurs

and manœuvres of the ci-devant authorities; of the monks who apprehended

the abolition of all monasteries; of the priests who had suffered

diminution of the stipends, and of the traders and artisans in the towns

who no longer enjoyed the sweets of corporations and monopolies. They

trusted to the approaching renewal of war between France and Austria,

and prepared to support the emperor for the expulsion of the French.

When the whole population was summoned, in July, 1798, to take the oath

of allegiance to the newly formed constitution, disturbances and revolts

took place in many districts.[c]

FOOTNOTES

[1] Ludwig Meyer.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VI. SWITZERLAND SINCE 1798

CHANGES OF CONSTITUTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS

War with France was at length renewed by the emperor of Austria, and

a division of his army entered the Grisons. A signal defeat sustained

by the French troops near Stockach, in Swabia, the victorious advance

of the Austrian army into Switzerland, and the removal of the seat of

the Helvetic government from Lucerne to Bern, seemed to inspire the

conflicting parties with renewed animation and fury. Swiss fought against

Swiss under the banners of France and Austria; tumults and revolts took

place on account of the French conscription or in favour of the Austrian

invasion; battles were fought between foreign armies in the valleys, on

the Alps, and on the banks of the lakes; and horse and man clambered

over heights which had formerly been only known to the chamois hunter.

The Grisons and the mountainous lands as far as the St. Gotthard were

alternately won and lost by French and Germans. The victorious banners of

Austria were carried on the left as far as Zurich and the St. Gotthard,

on the right up to the banks of the Rhine, supported by the Russians

under Suvarov. Switzerland had never sustained such desolating inroads

since the times of the Romans, Alamanni, and Burgundians.

Many of the old superseded members of the government now looked forward

to the speedy restoration of their authority, which they here and there

attempted to recover with the assistance of the Austrian bayonets: even

the new abbot of St. Gall resumed the exercise of his feudal rights, such

as they had existed before the recent emancipation which had been granted

to the people. The effects of this iniquitous resumption did not fail

soon to be felt by the proud prelate himself; Zurich and Schaffhausen,

too, were soon forced to acknowledge that the people did not wish to be

replaced in its state of subjection. The decisive and brilliant victory

of Massena near Zurich, and the destruction of Suvarov’s army, which had

marched over the Alps from Italy, restored the Helvetic constitution

throughout the whole country. Parties now supplanted and succeeded each

other in quick succession, so that none could remain long at the helm or

consult for the public benefit.

[Sidenote: [1801 A.D.]]

First of all, the legislative councils dissolved the executive directory,

and substituted for it an executive committee; then, in its turn, this

executive committee dissolved the councils, convoked a new legislature,

and styled itself an executive council. Twelve months afterwards a

general Helvetic diet was assembled at Bern for the formation of a new

and improved constitution: this, like the former deliberative bodies, was

arbitrarily deposed from its functions, and a newest-of-all constitution

established, in October, 1801. Alois Reding, the victor of Rothenthurm,

as the foremost Swiss landammann, was placed at the head of the senate;

but as he possessed neither the confidence of the French rulers nor that

of those who detested all recurrence to the old state of things, a new

act of arbitrary power deposed him from the presidency of the council.

These continual changes of administration were looked upon with

absolute indifference by the Swiss people, who only sighed at the total

interruption of law and order, the increase of taxes, and the lawless

acts of the French soldiery. The Valais more particularly suffered by the

military tyranny to which it was subjected. The object of France was to

separate it from Switzerland, in order to keep a route open across the

Alps into Italy.

In the same degree as popular consideration ceased to attend the

ever-changing but equally odious aspects of the new government,

individual opinions and wild fancies obtained prevalence. Mystical

views were propagated in Appenzell; and the anabaptists reared their

heads once more in Bern and Zurich. The quiet of the former town and

its neighbourhood was suddenly disturbed by a swarm of fanatics from

Amsoldingen. Two years before, a quack doctor and fanatic, by name Antony

Unternerer, had fixed his abode in that village. A certain flow of

language, combined with prepossessing manners and the profuse employment

of benedictory formulas in human diseases, as well as in those of cattle,

had gained for this fellow the confidence of the multitude. He held

meetings in which particular parts of the New Testament were interpreted

in a new and peculiar manner; and his adherents ceased their attendance

on the ordinary divine service. Unternerer addressed a summons in writing

to the supreme tribunal of Bern, to appear, with all its prisoners and

their keepers, in the cathedral church on the morning of Good Friday,

when the Saviour of the world would ascend the pulpit and hold his

judgment. He also summoned all his disciples to meet at Bern on the same

day. Many of them had already remained during several days assembled

together; and, anticipating the coming judgment, had transferred their

worldly possessions to others. Curiosity drew a multitude together

from all quarters. Unternerer himself was announced as Saviour by

his adherents; and seditious projects peeped out under the mantle of

fanaticism. However, such a wholesome effect was produced by the arrest

of the ringleader, the consignment of his most conspicuous followers to

the lunatic hospital, and the billetting of dragoons in the houses of

others, that the poor enthusiasts soon came to their senses, lamenting

the error of their ways and the transfer of their properties.

THE EVACUATION OF SWITZERLAND; THE NOMINATION OF DEPUTIES (1802-1803 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [1802-1803 A.D.]]

The Peace of Amiens, betwixt France and the other belligerent powers

in consequence of which the French garrisons were drawn home out of

Switzerland, afforded opportunity to the party and provincial spirit

to show itself with new vigour. On the 12th of July Montrichard, the

French resident in Switzerland, communicated in an extra-official note

to the Helvetic landammann, Dolder, that he had received commands from

the minister of war to hold himself, with the troops under his orders,

in readiness for instant return to France. The landammann laid this note

before the then executive council, who were considerably embarrassed by

its import, and addressed themselves to Montrichard and to the Swiss

ambassador at Paris, to petition for a postponement of the measure. But

shortly afterwards, Boizot, secretary of the Helvetic embassy, arrived

from Paris with Talleyrand’s note, which fixed for the approaching 20th

of July the complete evacuation of Switzerland. It was now out of the

question for the heads of the Helvetic government to oppose themselves

to a measure invoked by the wishes of a large majority. Accordingly

the executive council did its best to assume an unconstrained and easy

attitude; and with all expedition voted its liveliest thanks to the first

consul for his purpose of withdrawing his troops from Switzerland, which

they hailed as the highest proof of his benevolence and respect for the

independence of the Helvetic nation.

The reply of the French minister was couched in terms of disinterested

delicacy, which almost seemed ironical. He talked of the French troops

as the battalions which the first consul had consented to leave in

Switzerland on the conclusion of peace. He based the proposed measure

on the confidence entertained by the first consul in the virtues of

the Helvetic people, who were now better agreed, as he said, on the

principles of political organisation, and in whose attachment the

government would find sufficient securities for the maintenance of order

and tranquillity. “The Helvetic government could regard this resolution

but as a pledge of the consul’s confidence in its friendly intentions and

policy, and of his disinclination to meddle with the internal affairs of

other nations.”

It is impossible to assign with any certainty the motives by which this

ambiguous language and conduct were dictated. The first consul may have

meant to give a popular example of moderation and respect for the faith

of treaties; or he may have designed a covert chastisement for the

feeble attempts at independence made by the Helvetic government and its

refusal of unconditional acquiescence in the projected separation of

the Valais; or he may have wished to extort an express prayer for the

stay of his troops, or to revive the struggle of parties, and compel the

Helvetic government to throw itself into the arms of France, and urge

him, as though against his will, to assume the part of arbiter and ruler;

or, finally, perhaps, the best solution of his conduct may be found by

supposing the combination of all or most of these motives.

Conformably with the system thus enforced upon them, the executive

council made known to the Swiss people the departure of the French

troops, as a gracious boon the offer of which they had eagerly accepted.

In effect, the removal of these troops was performed with such celerity

that none were left behind but the sick in the hospitals and a handful of

men here and there to guard whatever French property was not of a movable

description.

The news of the retreat of the French troops and the ill-concealed

uneasiness of the government flew through the country with wonderful

rapidity, and everywhere roused the concealed but numerous enemies of

the existing order, who had hitherto lurked inactively, as it were in

scattered cantonments. The Valais declared itself independent. Uri,

Schwyz, and Unterwalden took up arms against the Helvetic government.

The town of Zurich, likewise, threw off allegiance to it--an example

which was speedily followed by Schaffhausen and Bâle. A general levy

took place in the Aargau against Bern: the helpless Helvetic government

fled for refuge to Lausanne, while a diet was held in Schwyz for the

restoration of the old league. The feeble body of troops in the pay of

the government were driven from the interior of the country, and followed

their employers into the Vaud: everywhere the opposite factions prepared

for active hostilities; the towns planned the destruction of the general

government; the peasants armed for their freedom against the pretensions

of the towns; and the Pays de Vaud arrayed itself in defence of Helvetic

unity. Blood had already flowed, and civil war appeared inevitable, when

Napoleon turned his eyes again upon Switzerland, and commanded peace in a

tone which was not apt to meet with resistance.

“Inhabitants of Switzerland” (such were the terms of a declaration

addressed by him through General Rapp to the cantons of the Helvetic

Republic): “you have presented, during two years, a melancholy spectacle.

Sovereign power has alternately been seized by opposite factions, whose

transitory and partial sway has only served to illustrate their own

incapacity and weakness. If you are left to yourselves any longer,

you will cut one another to pieces for years, without any prospect of

coming to a rational understanding. Your intestine discord never could

be terminated without the effective interposition of France. I had

resolved not to mix in your affairs; but I cannot and will not view with

indifference those calamities to which I now perceive you exposed. I

retract my former resolution. I offer myself as your mediator, and will

exert my mediation with that energy which becomes the powerful nation in

whose name I speak. Five days after reception of the present declaration,

the senate shall assemble at Bern to nominate three deputies to be

sent to Paris, and each canton will also be admitted to send delegates

thither. All citizens who have held public employments during the last

three years may also appear at Paris to deliberate by what means may

best be effected the restoration of concord and the reconciliation of

parties. Every rational man must perceive that my purposed mediation is

a blessing conferred on Switzerland by that providence which, amidst so

many concurring causes of social dissolution, has always preserved your

national existence and independence. It would be painful to think that

destiny had singled out this epoch, which has called to life so many new

republics, as the hour of destruction to one of the oldest commonwealths

in Europe.”

The Helvetic senate instantly replied to this announcement by declaring

that it received, with lively gratitude, this new proof of the friendly

dispositions of the first consul, and would conduct itself in all points

in conformity with his wishes. In a proclamation addressed to the

Helvetic people, after some allusion to the mighty and uplifted arm of

the mediator, it recommended union, tranquillity, and calm expectation.

The cantonal diets met to elect deputies to Paris. The several communes

also were permitted to despatch delegates thither at their own expense.

The mandate of Napoleon and the presence of his soldiers induced

conflicting parties to suspend their hostilities, and tacitly, at least,

to acquiesce in his mediation, as they could come to no agreement with

each other.

[Sidenote: [1803-1813 A.D.]]

On the 10th of December, 1803, Swiss delegates were received in the

office of foreign affairs at Paris, to hear a note of Bonaparte read,

in which he addressed them as president of the French and Cisalpine

republics, and laid down the basis of his intended mediation. “A federal

constitution,” he said, “is a point of prime necessity for you. Nature

herself has adapted Switzerland for it. What you want is an equality

of rights among the cantons, a renunciation of all family privileges,

and the independent federative organisation of each canton. The central

constitution may be easily arranged afterwards. The main points for your

people are neutrality, promotion of trade, and frugal administration:

this is what I have always said to your delegates when they asked my

advice; but the very men who seemed to be the best aware of its truth

turned out to be the most obstinately wedded to their privileges. They

attached themselves, and looked for support, to the enemies of France.

The first acts of your insurgents were to appeal to the privileged

orders, annihilate equality, and insult the French people. No party

shall triumph; no counter-revolution take place. In case of violation of

neutrality, your government must decide upon making common cause with

France.”

On the 12th, Bonaparte received a select number of the Swiss deputation

to whom he further addressed himself as follows: “The only constitution

fit for Switzerland, considering its small extent and its poverty,

is such a one as shall not involve an oppressive load of taxation.

Federalism weakens larger states by splitting their forces, while

it strengthens small ones by leaving a free range to individual

energies.” He added, with an openness peculiar to great characters, and

unequivocally indicative of good will, “When I make any demand of an

individual, he does not often dare to refuse it; but if I am forced to

apply myself to a crowd of cantonal governments, each of them may declare

itself incompetent to answer. A diet is called: a few months’ time is

gained; and the storm blows over.”

Almost every word of the first consul during these negotiations has

historical value. Most of his expressions wear a character of greatness;

all of them afford a clue to the system on which he acted. One or two

passages, taken at random here and there, will suffice for a specimen:

“It is the democratic cantons which distinguish you, and draw on you the

eyes of the world. It is they which do not allow the thought of melting

you up with other states to gain any coherence or consistency. The

permission to settle wherever they please, in pursuit of their vocation,

must be extended to all natives of Switzerland. The small cantons are

said to be averse to this principle; but who on earth would ever think of

troubling them by settling amongst them? France will re-open a source of

profit in favour of these poorer cantons, by taking additional regiments

into her pay. France will do this, not because she needs additional

troops but because she feels an interest in attaching these democracies.”

THE ACT OF MEDIATION (1813 A.D.); CABALS FOLLOW NAPOLEON’S FALL

The Act of Mediation, which resulted from these conferences, restored

the old federative system; but not without introducing very considerable

improvements. The amnesty announced by it precluded all persecutions,

and the new agitations necessarily arising from them. All servitude and

all privilege were abolished; while equality of rights and freedom of

industry were established. The mischievous freedom formerly enjoyed by

the several cantons of entering into hostilities or alliances against

each other was quite put an end to. In future, they could only use their

arms against the common enemy; and the objects of the whole league could

no longer be frustrated by the humours of its individual members.

The dissolution of the Helvetic general government followed naturally

on the completion of the above-mentioned arrangements; and soon

afterwards Napoleon recalled his troops from Switzerland. The people,

in almost every part of the country, returned quietly to their usual

occupations, and tendered their allegiance to the new order of things.

In the canton of Zurich alone several communes refused the oaths;

complaining of the difficulties newly thrown in the way of the redemption

of tithes, ground-rent, and other burdens. They would listen to no

friendly representations; but committed acts of violence on unoffending

functionaries, set fire to the castle of Wadenschwyl, and finally took

to arms. The prolonged disorders of former years had accustomed them to

lawless self-defence; but the insurrection was soon suppressed by the aid

of the neighbouring cantons, combined with the well-affected part of the

Zurichers.

The ringleader John James Willi, shoemaker in the village of Horgen,

and others of his more conspicuous comrades, were punished with death.

The less distinguished rioters suffered imprisonment, and forty-two

offending communes were visited with a war-tax of above 200,000 florins.

It was well that the first flame of revolt was speedily extinguished,

before it had time to spread itself through the country. Parties remained

everywhere unreconciled; and each imagined nothing to be required

for their predominance but the fall of the new order of things. The

friends of Helvetic unity still murmured at the cantonal partition of

the country. The monasteries murmured as they felt their existence

threatened; and Pancrace, the _ci-devant_ abbot of St. Gall, openly

stigmatised the inhabitants of that district as contumacious vassals

of the empire. Many of the country people murmured, who wished for

_Landsgemeinde_, on the model of the original cantons. Many patrician and

city families murmured that their privileges were swept away, and the

peasantry no longer their subjects. The majority of the people, however,

wished for nothing but peace and quiet, and decidedly adhered to the

existing order of things, and the rights which they had acquired under

that order.

Thus the peace of the country remained for the most part undisturbed; and

a series of comparatively prosperous years followed. The energies of the

Swiss had been awakened by the years of revolution and of civil war, and

displayed themselves in a hitherto unprecedented degree. They no longer

stood apart from each other as formerly, like strangers; but had been

made better acquainted by the storms of social collision. The concerns of

each canton were now interesting to all. Journals and newspapers, which

had formerly been suppressed by timid governments, instructed the people

in useful knowledge, and drew its attention to public affairs. The Swiss

of all cantons formed societies for the furtherance of objects of common

utility, for the encouragement of various arts and sciences, and for the

maintenance of concord and patriotism. The canal of the Linth formed a

lasting monument of this newly reawakened public spirit.

Since the people had ceased to be viewed as in a state of perpetual

infancy a new impulse was given to trade and industry, which were now

no longer cramped and confined, as formerly, by corporate restrictions

and monopolies. The participation in public affairs allowed to all free

citizens enforced a mild and equitable conduct on the governments.

Schools were increased and improved throughout the country; the military

force was newly organised; and, on the whole, a greater number of

laudable objects were provided for in the space of ten years than had

been thought of in the previous century.

When the throne of Napoleon sank under the power of the allies, the

public-spirited part of the Swiss nation fondly imagined that the hour

was come in which their country’s honour and independence might be

established on a firmer footing than ever. To preserve the benefits

gained to the land by his act of mediation was the wish of a large

majority of the people. If the Swiss had sometimes felt, along with

others, the iron arm of that formidable despot (who had, however,

spared them more than any neighbouring population), yet his gift of

a constitution had become deservedly dear to them. It had dried up

innumerable sources of discord. Under it a fellow-feeling, never before

experienced, had been diffused in the same degree as individual pride

had been humbled. The cessation of a state of subjection, wherever it

had before existed, had decupled the number of confederates, and all

restraints on free communication betwixt one canton and another had been

removed.

The cantons sent their contingents for the protection of the frontiers,

voted extraordinary imposts for their maintenance, and a diet was

assembled at Zurich with unanimous instructions from its constituents.

This body declared with one voice its resolution “to observe a

conscientious and impartial neutrality with regard to all the high

belligerent powers,” expressing, at the same time, its full anticipation

that “the same would be acknowledged upon their part.” It addressed

itself as follows to the confederates: “The great and only end of all our

endeavours is to maintain this neutrality by every means in our power;

to protect our country’s freedom and independence; to preserve its soil

inviolate, and to defend its constitution.” The senate of Bern expressed

itself as follows: “Our object is to guard the pacific borders of our

country inviolate from the march of foreign armies; we are unanimously

resolved, however, at all events, to maintain tranquillity, order, and

security in our canton by all the means which stand in our power.”

Such was the general sense of the Swiss people. Not such, however,

was the sense of the great families in the once dominant towns of the

confederation. Many of these wished to see their country invaded by

foreign armies, by aid of which they hoped to restore the old league of

the thirteen cantons, with all its hated appendages of sovereignty and

servitude, which had vanished from the face of the land in 1798.

The Swiss delegates were received in a friendly manner by the emperor

of Austria and the king of Prussia; but no direct recognition of their

neutrality was vouchsafed to them. The satellites of these monarchs

gave them distinctly to understand that Switzerland was regarded and

would be treated as nothing else than as a limb of the French system.

A large Austrian force was collected on the frontiers, particularly in

the neighbourhood of Bâle; yet many still believed that a determined

vindication of neutrality would not be put down by violence. In the

meantime, the Swiss delegates were stopped at Fribourg in Brisgau

on their return homewards from Frankfort, and their letters were

intercepted. A general enervation seemed to have spread itself over the

conduct of the affairs of the confederation at this crisis. There is

no ground for supposing that the men who led their forces and presided

in their governments acted the part of secret conspirators against the

order of things which they professed to defend. But when the overwhelming

powers of the allies came pouring in upon them; when these were joined

by kings who owed their crowns to Napoleon; when even the French

ambassador dissuaded reinforcement of the frontier cordon--when, in

short, the ancient state of things renewed its sway on every side, while

a decided popular will showed itself nowhere, opposition was in a manner

overwhelmed by the force of circumstances.

A proclamation, couched in terms of mildness and of amity, was issued

by Prince Schwarzenberg, the Austrian commander-in-chief; and at the

same time Count Capo d’Istria declared, on his arrival in Zurich,

that the monarchs could not recognise a neutrality which, in the

existing situation of Switzerland, must be nothing more than nominal.

The armies of the allied powers hoped to find none but friends there.

Their majesties pledged themselves solemnly not to lay down their arms

until they should have secured the restoration to Switzerland of the

territories wrested from her by France--a pledge which we shall presently

see was adhered to but indifferently. They disclaimed all wish to meddle

with her internal constitution; but at the same time could not allow her

to remain under foreign influence. They would recognise her neutrality

from that day in which she became free and independent.

The Austrian army marched over the Rhine on the 21st of December, 1813,

through the territories of Bâle, Aargau, Solothurn, and Bern, into

France. During the first months of the following year the burdens and

even the dangers of war were felt very severely in the northern and

western parts of Switzerland, particularly in Bâle, which received

much annoyance from the obstinate defence of Hüningen, and the hostile

disposition of the commander of that place. Geneva, too, while she

welcomed in anticipation the new birth of her ancient independence, saw

herself suddenly surrounded with the actual horrors of warfare, and

threatened with a regular siege. The continual passage of large bodies

of troops brought malignant fevers and maladies in their train, and it

became more and more difficult to supply them with provisions.

On the entrance of the Austrian troops, Bern set the example of

abolishing the Act of Mediation, and reclaimed the restoration of the

predominance which she had previously enjoyed in the Helvetic body.

The example was followed first by Solothurn and Fribourg, and then by

Lucerne. In Zurich, too, the diet declared the Act of Mediation, by

virtue of which it was sitting, null and void, and drew up a plan for a

new confederation of the nineteen cantons. But this was not enough for

some of the men in power at that time, who demanded nothing short of the

restoration of the old league of the thirteen cantons, and had already

summoned the Pays de Vaud and the Aargau to return under the government

of Bern. These cantons, however, resolutely rejected the proposal.

The diet, which was again convoked at Zurich and consisted of delegates

newly elected by all the nineteen cantons, was now the only feeble bond

which kept the Helvetic body together. Interested voices were raised on

every side for annihilating or mutilating the last constructed cantons,

which for sixteen years had enjoyed the boon of freedom and independence.

Zug demanded a part of its former subject lands from the Aargau; Uri,

the Valle Levantina from the canton of Ticino; Glarus, the district of

Sargans from the canton of St. Gall; the prince abbot Pancrace, his

former domains and sovereignties in the Thurgau; Schwyz and Glarus

combined to demand compensation for their privileges over the districts

of Utznach, Gaster, Wesen, and Ersatz; Unterwalden, Uri, and Schwyz

united in a similar demand for compensation for the sovereign rights

which had formerly been possessed by them in Aargau, Thurgau, St. Gall,

and on the Ticino.

In these cabals and commotions Zurich, Bâle, and Schaffhausen displayed

the least of prejudice or passion; while the Aargau and the Vaud showed

themselves worthy of their freedom by the spirited resolution of their

people. In the lands and towns of Bâle, Solothurn, and Zurich it was

proposed to espouse the cause and rally round the standard of the Aargau.

Bern, however, avoided open hostilities, and even offered to recognise

the independence of the Vaud on certain conditions, which were rejected

by the latter. Aargau now made menacing demonstrations, and a dangerous

ferment showed itself in the Oberland. Here, as in many other places,

the jealousy and suspicion of the various parties came into play, in

proportion as discussion was broached on the limits to be assigned to

the rights of the people and their governments. News was daily received

of scattered plots and insurrections, of imprisonments and banishments,

in various places. The town of Solothurn called for the protection of

a Bernese garrison against the threatened attacks of its own people.

Swiss troops were precipitately despatched to the banks of the Ticino to

prevent the breaking out of civil war; while other troops were sent into

the canton of St. Gall to put an end to a scene of absolute confusion.

[Sidenote: [1815 A.D.]]

While Switzerland was thus given up to a state of such disquietude

that blood had already flowed in more than one district, and the gaols

of several towns were filled with prisoners, the plenipotentiaries of

the great powers were sitting in congress at Vienna, to establish the

peace of Europe on a durable foundation. The allies had already allowed

the addition to the Helvetic body of Geneva, as well as of the Valais,

and the Prussian principality of Neuchâtel. Swiss delegates made their

appearance with equal promptitude in the imperial metropolis on the

Danube, as they had done eleven years before in the capital of France.

But the politics of Europe moved no faster at Vienna than those of

Switzerland did at the diet of Zurich. No settlement of Swiss affairs

had been made, when the sudden news of Napoleon’s landing from Elba and

his triumphal march through France awakened European diplomacy once more

from its slumbers. The diet called to arms the half contingent of fifteen

thousand men for the defence of the frontiers. Two battalions of the Vaud

were detached hastily to Geneva, and the same canton received as friends

and comrades the troops of Bern, against which it had taken up arms a

month before. The most important elements of discord seemed to have

disappeared--the most inveterate enemies to be reconciled.

On the 20th of March, 1815, the definitive arrangements of the allied

powers were promulgated. The existing nineteen cantons were recognised,

and the increase of their number to two-and-twenty confirmed, by

the accession of Geneva, Neuchâtel, and the Valais. The canton of

Vaud received back the Dappenthal, which had been taken from it by

France. Bienne and the bishopric of Bâle were given to Bern by way

of compensation for its former sovereign rights over the Vaud. One

moiety of the customs received in the Vale Levantina was assigned to

Uri; the prince abbot Pancrace and his _ci-devant_ functionaries were

indemnified with 8000 florins yearly. A decision was also given on the

indemnification of those Bernese who had possessed jurisdictions in the

Pays de Vaud, and on many other points in dispute. The complaints of the

Grisons alone were disregarded--Chiavenna, the Valtellina, and Bormio,

which had now become the property of Austria, were neither restored nor

was any compensation for them given, notwithstanding the clause to the

contrary in Prince Schwarzenberg’s proclamation.

The cantons now remodelled their respective constitutions in the midst

of agitations of all kinds. Those in which the supreme power is assigned

to the _Landsgemeinde_ for the most part removed the restrictions on the

popular prerogative, which had been introduced by the Act of Mediation,

and approximated anew to pure democracy. In the city cantons the

capitals recovered, though in various modifications and proportions, a

preponderance in the system of representation. Even in these privileged

places, however, many friends of the public weal remained true to

the conviction tried and proved by past experience (and about to

receive after no long period additional confirmation from the march of

events)--that participation of the lesser towns and rural districts

in public functions was a requisite condition for the permanence of

tranquillity; and that the members introduced from these remoter parts of

the country would form vigorous roots of the slender stem of authority,

and fix them wide and deep in a republican soil.

SWITZERLAND DEVELOPS ALONG NEW LINES

[Sidenote: [1817-1823 A.D.]]

In 1817, the confederates were led by the invitation of the emperor

Alexander into a signal deviation from the policy of their forefathers.

They entered into a close alliance with Austria, Russia, and Prussia; and

allowed themselves to be mixed up with the system of the great powers, by

giving their adhesion to the Holy Alliance, unmindful of the lessons left

by the Swiss of old times.

On the conclusion of the War of Liberation from Napoleon, an opinion

which the allied powers had encouraged by their promises became prevalent

through great part of Germany--that the efforts of the people should be

requited by the grant of representative constitutions. The realisation

of this object was pursued by open and secret means, which soon aroused

attention and mistrust on the part of the governments. Investigations

were set on foot, followed up by penal inflictions; and many of the

accused parties made their escape into Switzerland. A similar course was

taken by some Italians, on the suppression of the Piedmontese revolts

and the abortive revolution of Naples. Natives of France, moreover, who

had given offence to their government, either by republican principles

or by adherence to the cause of Napoleon, in like manner sought a place

of refuge in Switzerland. These occurrences did not fail to give umbrage

to several cabinets, which was increased by the friendly welcome and

assistance afforded to the fugitives from Greece. It never seemed to

occur to foreign potentates what a blessing in the vicissitudes of

European affairs was the existence of a land to which political victims

of all parties might resort as an inviolable sanctuary.

The year 1823, that of the French invasion of Spain under Louis XVIII,

seemed an epoch of especially unfriendly dispositions in more than one

European court against Switzerland. There were personages who would

willingly have used these dispositions to effect some limitation of

Helvetic independence; but their influence was either insufficient

for that purpose in the cabinets to which they belonged, or Europe

seemed as yet not ripe for success in such an experiment. Meanwhile

the remonstrances and demands of continental powers afforded matter of

anxious consultation to the Helvetic diet; and their usual subjects

of discussion were increased by two new topics--foreign police and

surveillance of the press.

It was resolved that both these points touched the prerogatives of the

separate cantons, and therefore did not admit of decision at any general

diet. An invitation was accordingly issued to the governments of all the

cantons, exhorting them to adopt vigorous measures, in order that nothing

might find its way into newspapers and journals inconsistent with proper

respect to friendly governments. With regard to foreign police it was

proposed to take measures for preventing the entrance or residence of

such strangers as had left their country on account of crimes or efforts

at disturbance of the public repose; and for providing that no foreigners

should be admitted except such as could show certificates or passports

from their respective governments.

In many of the cantons these demands were met by a ready alacrity not

only to urge their execution in their full extent but even to improve on

them by subjecting discussion of domestic as well as of foreign affairs

to strict surveillance. On the other hand, in more enlightened parts of

the confederacy, it was thought that public discussion and the old right

of sanctuary should be guarded from every species of encroachment. The

diets continued to busy themselves with deliberations on both subjects.

Returning tranquillity diminished the uneasiness of the cabinets; and,

by consequence their inquisitive and minute attention to Switzerland.

Individuals lost the importance which had formerly been ascribed to them,

and the sojourn of strangers in Switzerland again became freer. The press

occasioned more prolonged discussions at the diets and in several of the

councils; but in the midst of these it obtained more and more freedom,

and in some districts shook off all its former restrictions.

During these years an interest in church affairs diffused itself amongst

laymen, as well as amongst theologians by profession. In the educated

classes religious indifferentism became less frequent; while the genuine

spirit of tolerance made progress. This tendency, like every other widely

extended mental movement, had its questionable as well as its pleasing

features. Shocking ebullitions of fanaticism are reported to have taken

place in Zurich, Bern, and other cantons. A footing was gained in

Fribourg and the Valais by the revived order of Jesuits; and the friends

of human improvement could not regard without anxiety their influence in

ecclesiastical matters and in education.[b]

REACTION AND REFORM; EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION OF JULY

The reaction making itself manifest throughout Europe in the third decade

of the nineteenth century appeared also in the individual cantons of

Switzerland and in its general government. The same disparity between

the rights of the nobility and those of the people which existed in

northern Germany was to be found here. As we have seen, the cantons for

the most part had an aristocratic government in which a few favoured

families, the patricians, had so decided a preponderance that there was

hardly a shadow of representation of the people. As at an earlier period

in other countries there had been a distinction between _Stadt_ and

_Amt_ (city and subject land), so at this time in Switzerland the same

distinction was still made between _Stadt_ and _Landschaft_ (city and

rural district). The citizens belonging to the latter were permitted to

send but a few members to the “great council” of a canton.

With such privileges in the hands of the patrician families the

administration of the state was as bad as possible. Offices were

apportioned more according to birth than merit, the finances were

not always managed in the interests of the state. The evils of the

administration of justice had become proverbial. Federal laws for the

regulation of domestic intercourse and commerce were not thought of. The

diet which met at one of the three leading places (_Vororte_)--Bern,

Zurich, and Lucerne--did not fall behind the German diet in reactionary

sentiment, adhered closely to the system of Metternich and sent its men

as mercenaries to France and Naples that it might provide appointments as

officers for the young patricians.

[Sidenote: [1830-1832 A.D.]]

The younger generation, such as was growing up at the universities and

elsewhere, would not content itself with such republics. Everywhere

the opposition of the liberals was becoming active against the rule of

the oligarchies. Since the uprisings in northern Germany, especially,

the demand for constitutional reforms became still more general.

Societies were formed and the liberal press did not tire in proclaiming

the principles of the new era; political equality, abolition of all

privileges, equal representation for all the citizens of a canton,

freedom of the press, etc. Bern, at that time the chief place (_Vorort_,

capital), whose government was the most aristocratic of all, September

22nd, 1830, sent a circular letter to the governments of the cantons

urging them to proceed against the press and to hold fast to the old

constitutions. This only fanned the flame. In the months of October and

November assemblies of the notables and of the people were held in almost

all the cantons, the principles of new constitutions were determined

upon, and in a few weeks the governments were forced to accept them.

[Illustration: PLACE DE LA PALUD, LAUSANNE]

Already before the revolution of July, in May, 1830, the

oligarchal-ultramontane government in Ticino was overthrown and a

different one erected on a democratic basis. The new constitution was

accepted by the people in March, 1831. Events took a similar course

in Zurich, where it was chiefly a matter of the relation of the rural

districts (_Landschaft_) to the too powerful city; in Aargau, St. Gall,

Lucerne, Solothurn, Fribourg--where the hierarchical aristocracy,

supported by the Jesuits and congregationalists (_Congregisten_) who

had been driven out of France, mustered out soldiers but was overthrown

together with everything belonging to it; in Vaud--where, acting with

the hot-bloodedness of Frenchmen, the people called out to the great

councillors (_Gross-räthe_) of Lausanne, “Down with the tyrants!” and

established a radical constitution; in Schaffhausen and in Bern--where

the deposed government for a time had the mad plan to maintain itself

by help of the discharged Swiss soldiers of Charles X; in Bâle--where

bloody encounters twice occurred, and where for the adjustment of the

quarrel federal troops had to take station, the great council of the city

consented rather to a separation from the rural districts than conform to

their demands. Thus there were formed here in 1832 the two half-cantons,

Bâle (city) and rural Bâle (with its government at Siestal). Similar

desires for separation also showed themselves in Schwyz and Valais, but

they were laid aside after embittered conflicts. On the other hand, the

old constitution remained in force in Uri, Unterwalden, Zug, Geneva,

Glarus, the Grisons, and Appenzell. In Neuchâtel the liberal party

would no longer recognise the king of Prussia as the sovereign, but was

suppressed in 1831 by the energy of the Prussian general Von Pfuel; and

the movement ended in a victory for the existing government.

SIEBENER KONKORDAT; DISPUTES OVER ASYLUM AND RELIGION

[Sidenote: [1832-1845 A.D.]]

The party which in 1831 had secured a more liberal form of government

in a majority of the cantons strove also to achieve reforms in the

federal constitution. At the diet of 1832 it obtained the appointment

of a commission which was to revise the federal statutes and present

its conclusions to an extraordinary session of the diet of 1833. The

liberal cantons, Bern, Aargau, Thurgau, St. Gall, Solothurn, Zurich, and

Lucerne, concluded the agreement of the Seven (_Siebener Konkordat_) for

the preservation and attainment of popular sovereignty. On the other hand

the conservative party, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Valais, Neuchâtel, and

the city of Bâle, united in the league of Sarnen (_Sarner-Bund_). In

conjunction with the neutral party these succeeded in 1833 in balking

federal revision. As a result their hopes and demands increased. Armed

bands from Schwyz and the city of Bâle, July 30th, 1833, entered Outer

Schwyz and rural Bâle to compel the submission of these seceding

districts. The consequence was that Schwyz and Bâle city were occupied

by federal troops and the league of Sarnen was declared annulled. The

separation of Bâle into two independent cantons was recognised and the

reunion of Schwyz was declared--this, however, with complete equality of

rights.

The gathering of many fugitives from Germany, Poland, and Italy, who

found an asylum in republican Switzerland but who at times abused

hospitality, brought on complications with foreign powers. The most

active among these revolutionists was Giuseppe Mazzini of Genoa, who in

spite of total lack of any promise of success was continually setting on

foot new attempts at insurrection, to keep his Italian fellow countrymen

in practice. “Young Italy” which he founded at that time caused an inroad

of about four hundred men under General Romarino into Savoy in order from

this point to revolutionise Piedmont and the rest of Italy. After the

occupation of several villages the undertaking foundered because of the

indifference of the people. From this time on Switzerland in the eyes of

the outside world appeared as the hearth of radicalism, especially as

Mazzini wished to extend his activity to the whole of Europe and for the

republicanisation of this continent founded “Young Europe.” Now it rained

diplomatic notes. The neighbouring powers complained of the abuse of the

right of asylum and held out the prospect of the most hostile measures,

if Switzerland would not expel the participants of the Italian raid

and keep a better watch over the rest. Louis Philippe went farthest in

severity toward Switzerland and even threatened her with war if she would

not expell Louis Napoleon, who had returned from America, and was living

in Arenenberg as a citizen of Thurgau. The latter left Switzerland for

England of his own accord.

Even more important were the consequences of the religious conflicts. The

calling of Doctor Strauss from Würtemberg to the University at Zurich

in 1839 roused the rural population to arms and caused the fall of the

liberal government at Zurich; this did not again secure supremacy till

1845. More significant was the question of the convents. In a conference

at Baden in 1834 seven cantons had determined upon the subjection of the

church to the authority of the state and the employment of the convents

for purposes of general usefulness. Most violent was the quarrel over

this matter in the canton Aargau, whose radical government finally, in

1841, closed all the convents, among others the wealthy one of Muri,

and took possession of the property for “purpose of instruction and

benevolence.” Among the bigoted Catholics there was great excitement over

this. It led to a victory of the ultramontane party in Lucerne and Valais

in 1844. This party called the Jesuits to Lucerne to take charge of the

instruction of youth.

[Sidenote: [1845-1847 A.D.]]

In this affair the wealthy farmer Joseph Leu and Sigwart Müller

showed themselves especially active. The Jesuits had also established

themselves in Fribourg and Schwyz. To expel them from Switzerland was

the aim of all the liberal cantons. The expedition of the free lances

(_Freischaren_) of 1845 under the leadership of Ochsenbein of Bern met

with failure. The government of Lucerne, still more embittered by the

murder of Leu, assumed a terrorising attitude, demanded the punishment

of the free lances, and restoration of the convents of the Aargau; and

when no attention was paid to these demands concluded with Schwyz, Uri,

Unterwalden, Zug, Fribourg, and Valais a separate league (_Sonderbund_)

for mutual protection against external and internal enemies. This league

within a league was not to be endured; and, since the liberal cantons

were in the majority, they decided at the diet in Bern, in July, 1847,

upon the dissolution of the Sonderbund, as being contrary to the Pact of

Federation (_Bundesvertrag_) and upon the expulsion of the Jesuits. As

the fanatics of Lucerne failed to obey the diet, orders were given for

federal action against the cantons of the Sonderbund. The federal army

was mustered in and the experienced general Dufour of Geneva was placed

at its head.[c]

THE SONDERBUND WAR (1847 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [1847 A.D.]]

Europe had followed with an attentive eye the events we have just

related. Peoples were preoccupied with them, courts saw in them a source

of serious anxiety. All, taking the Vienna congress as their point of

view, desired a federative, neutral, and peaceable Switzerland. From this

point of view the cause of the Sonderbund seemed to them to have justice

on its side. But everywhere, owing to diversified interests, the language

differed. “A fine country and a good people,” said King Louis Philippe,

“but it is in a bad way. Let us keep from interfering. To hinder others

so doing is to render them a great service.” Guizot nevertheless proposed

to occupy himself in Swiss affairs in a conference to be held at Paris

or in London, but he was unsuccessful. Once Austrian troops on the one

hand, French on the other, drew near Switzerland, but they were speedily

recalled to their cantonments. Metternich would willingly have taken the

lead, had he not known that France could not leave Austria to interfere

alone. Thenceforth, of the two powers, one contented itself with secretly

aiding the Sonderbund by relays of arms and money, the other with

lavishing encouragements on the seven cantons through its ambassador.

Prussia hesitated, recommending Neuchâtel prudence. Czar Nicholas could

not understand an intervention unless the powers had sixty thousand men

behind them. Great Britain would not interfere at all. Under the ministry

of Lord Palmerston, a young statesman named Peel, son of the illustrious

minister of that name, joined the Bear Club at Bern where radicals met.

At Rome, the French ambassador, Rossi, an ancient deputy of the Geneva

diet, was charged to solicit Pius IX to recall the Jesuits from Lucerne.

It was thought both in London and Paris that the best means of restoring

peace to Switzerland was to take from the radicals their principal

grievance and their flag. The holy father contented himself with letting

the Swiss know that he would remain passive in the strife (_passive se

habere decrevit_).

Switzerland, under these circumstances, was persuaded that the moment had

come frankly to declare to Europe her intention of being sole interpreter

of her Pact of Alliance; to have done with the questions that agitated

her; and to constitute herself on the basis of an enlarged and equitable

democracy, which would soon see her the first on the road towards which

all European peoples were proceeding. She knew the states which lavished

advice on her to be torn by a revolutionary spirit and incapable of

uniting against her in a common resolution. It was under the influence of

this thought that Ochsenbein opened the confederation diet on the 5th of

July, 1847.

Although only the son of a hotel keeper, without instruction in the

classics, but gifted with prompt and pleasing intelligence, he presented

himself unembarrassed before an assembly wherein the heads of the two

parties dividing Switzerland were sitting, and at which the majority

of ministers from foreign powers assisted. Frankness characterised his

discourse. Foreseeing a European crisis--“Our modern world,” said he,

“rests on worm-eaten columns, on institutions that have for support only

the powers of habit and interests, a construction that the slightest

storm will make a ruin. Well, this storm approaches; the colossus is

quite aware of it. He sleeps a dangerous sleep.” Descending from these

heights to questions of the moment, the president of the diet proclaimed

the right of the majority, whom Switzerland had always recognised. When

this majority had been declared, he courteously invited all the cantons

to join with it. Callame, a Neuchâtel deputy, exposed in language firm

and untouched by passion the gravity of events that had given place

to a separate alliance, and demanded that they should leave those who

had concluded it the time to convince themselves that it was no longer

necessary.

In reality, the vote of the majority meant a declaration of war. The

diet adjourned so as to give the parties time either to unite or to

finish their preparations for hostilities. It reassembled on the 18th

of October. Two delegates, envoys of peace, were sent from each of the

Sonderbund cantons, but they met with scant welcome: one-half wanted war.

_Colonel Dufour is Made Commander of the Army_

On the 29th of October the deputies from the seven cantons left Bern,

and on the 4th of November it was decided that the decree ordering the

dissolution of their alliance should be executed by arms. The diet put

on foot fifty thousand men, and entrusted the command, with the rank

of general, to Colonel Dufour, of Geneva. No name in the army was more

respected, none had more weight. Dufour did not belong to either side. In

sympathy he was conservative, but was none the less a man of progress.

He had been in the wars and published writings on military science,

fruits of a long and wide experience. No chief knew as he did the canton

militia, over whose manœuvres he had for a number of years presided

in the camp at Thun, as chief instructor of the engineering corps. To

these warlike qualities he united the virtues of a man of peace. He was

occupied in the elaboration, on a plan he had conceived, of the fine

map of Switzerland which bears his name, when he was called to quit the

pursuits of the student for the field of battle. He comprehended the

danger to his country. He clearly perceived his duty, and he thought only

of accomplishing it.

In accepting the first command he made what he considered necessary

stipulations, demanding a sufficient number of troops and absolute

power. All this he obtained, though not without some resistance. He was

given 100,000 men and 260 field pieces. This army he distributed into

seven divisions. In the choice of superior officers, he exacted that he

alone should judge of their capacity without any regard to political

opinion; this was the way both to get excellent officers and to prepare

for what he considered to be his duty--the quieting of hatreds after

the struggle. In a short time there was no longer question of politics

in the army. Addressing once his heads of divisions, “I shall never

depart,” he said, “from the laws of moderation and humanity. A stranger

to political agitation and faithful to my military duties, I shall try

to establish order and discipline in the federal troops, to make public

and private property respected, to protect the Catholic religion in her

ministers, her temples, and her religious establishments--in a word,

to do everything to soften the inevitable evils of war. If violence be

used, let it not come from us. After fighting, spare the vanquished;

however strong one may be, relieve the despair of the enemy: then we can

congratulate ourselves after the fight on never having forgotten that it

was between confederates.”

These instructions being made known, the general resolved to trust

nothing to chance, and to make no offensive movement unless sure of

the superiority of his forces; this he recognised as the surest way

towards a speedy ending with the least bloodshed. Soon the confidence he

inspired began to show itself. The city of Bâle, long undecided, sent

him excellent artillery. Neuchâtel and Appenzell alone continued to take

no part in the war. The promptitude with which the army got under arms,

well ordered, well clothed, and well equipped, astonished foreigners.

The redivision of troops was necessitated by the situation. The country

occupied by the Sonderbund formed three distinct masses--Fribourg, the

original cantons, and Valais. Dufour proposed to attack them separately,

and to begin with Fribourg.

_Preparations of the Sonderbund_

The powers held exaggerated ideas of the Sonderbund forces. It could

hardly put on foot more than thirty thousand regular troops. The

_Landsturm_, it is true, meant a more considerable number of men, but

not having received sufficient organisation could not be compared to

the excellent reserves of the large cantons, and did not give the help

expected of them. Far from one another, the separatist states could

only with difficulty lend one another aid. The original cantons tried

nevertheless to keep their ways open by means of boldness in offensive

actions. Even before the diet began its campaign, the men of Uri seized

the St. Gotthard passes (November 3rd); threw themselves across the

Levantina, surprised three thousand Ticinese encamped at Airolo, and

drove them as far as the Moesa bridge. But arrived at this point, they

found themselves face to face with Grisons and Ticino militia, superior

to them in number, who stopped their progress. The expedition had no

other result than that of holding back two thousand excellent soldiers

from the places where decisive blows were to be struck. Another attempt,

made from Lucerne, to penetrate into Catholic Aargau and to free

Fribourg, by means of a diversion, had no better success.

_The Capitulations of Fribourg and Lucerne End the Sonderbund_

Without taking much account of these movements, Dufour occupied himself

only in concentrating his forces so as to surround the Sonderbund states,

on all their accessible frontiers. His provisions were assured, his

hospital organised. Immediately upon the rupture being announced, Colonel

Ochsenbein, who presided over the diet, left office to put himself

entirely at the disposition of the general-in-chief. The general placed

him at the head of the Bernese reserves, which composed his seventh

division and which he assimilated with the active troops. He stationed

them first on the Lucerne frontier, and when he arranged to draw near

Fribourg, he called Ochsenbein to advance towards that capital, in

order to make the enemy think he would attack from the eastern side.

However, twenty thousand men and fifty-four artillery pieces, under

colonels Rilliet, Burkhard, and Donatz, advanced from the north and west

by different routes, and kept their movements secret that they might

arrive on the same day at the gate of Fribourg. On the 13th the town

was surrounded. An experienced leader, Colonel Maillardoz, had raised

defences all round, and they had prepared to attack these exterior

forts when the Fribourg government, recognising the impossibility of

resistance, gave up the town, dismissed the troops, and renounced the

Sonderbund. The taking of Fribourg would not have cost the federal army a

single man if through a mistake a Vaudois troop had not rushed under fire

from the Bertigny redoubt, which resulted in seven killed and a large

number wounded.

As soon as Fribourg had capitulated the general confided to Colonel

Rilliet the care of occupying the military cantonments and watching the

entrance of Valais. He himself hastened to Aarau, to prepare for the

investment of Lucerne. Two rivers, the Emme and the Reuss, protected

this town. The bridges on these rivers had been broken or fortified.

The ground on which it was foreseen that the most serious engagements

would be delivered was the labyrinth which stretches from the Reuss to

the Lake of Zug; bristling with wooded hills, where passage had been

stopped by barricades and mines had been laid in the defiles. It was

necessary to attack these strong positions, because they served as a

link between Schwyz and Lucerne, and success on this point was decisive,

whilst elsewhere it was not so. The leader whom the five cantons had

put in charge of their militia, Ulrich de Salis-Soglio, understood

this, and went to these places. The forces he could dispose of were

some twenty thousand regulars and a similar body of the _Landsturm_.

Salis had learned warfare in fighting Napoleon. A sincere Protestant,

he had nevertheless devoted himself to a cause which had his political

sympathies, but of which he despaired.

A resolution being taken to force his entrenchments, Dufour set five

divisions of his army on the march from the various points they occupied,

giving them Lucerne as object. Ochsenbein’s reserves went down the Emme

valley, overcoming a lively resistance. The Burkhard and Donatz divisions

approached the Emme and the Reuss between the bridges of Wolhusen and

Gislikon, at the same time that colonels Ziegler and Gmur at the head of

some odd thousands of men attacked Salis in his intrenched camps. Ziegler

mastered the Gislikon bridge and the Honau defiles. Gmur, after having

received on his march the submission of Zug, scaled the heights of Meyers

Kappel. Everything made for success. Victory was hotly disputed, but the

Schwyzers were in the end thrown back towards Immensee, whence they fell

back on Art and Goldau. Troops from the other cantons turned to Lucerne.

The separation of Schwyz with its allies was accomplished. On every hand

the federal troops marched simultaneously on that capital. The gates were

opened to them by a convention, and on the 24th of November Dufour made

his entry. On the following days the Waldstätte and the Valais made their

submission. Twenty-five days after the decree of execution the task of

the army was complete--the Sonderbund no longer existed.[d]

[Sidenote: [1848-1874 A.D.]]

The diet now debated the draft constitution drawn up by Kern of Thurgau

and Druey of Vaud, which in the summer of 1848 was accepted by fifteen

and a half cantons, the minority consisting of the three forest cantons,

Valais, Zug, Ticino, and Appenzell (Tuner Rhodes), and it was proclaimed

on September 12th.

From 1848 onwards the cantons continually revised their constitutions,

always in a democratic sense, though after the Sonderbund War Schwyz and

Zug abolished their Landsgemeinde. The chief point was the introduction

of the _referendum_, by which laws made by the cantonal legislature may

(facultative referendum) or must (obligatory referendum) be submitted

to the people for their approval; and this has obtained such general

acceptance that Fribourg alone does not possess the referendum in

either of its two forms, Ticino having accepted it in its optional

form in 1883. It was therefore only natural that attempts should be

made to revise the federal constitution of 1848 in a democratic and

centralising sense, for it had been provided that the federal assembly,

on its own initiative or on the written request of fifty thousand Swiss

electors, could submit the question of revision to a popular vote. In

1866 the restriction of certain rights to Christians only was swept

away; but the attempt at final revision in 1872 was defeated by a small

majority, owing to the efforts of the anti-centralising party. Finally,

however, another draft was better liked, and on April 19th, 1874, the

new constitution was accepted by the people. This constitution is that

now in force, and is simply an improved edition of that of 1848. The

federal tribunal (now of nine members only) was fixed (by federal law)

at Lausanne, and its jurisdiction enlarged, especially in constitutional

disputes between cantons and the federal authorities, though jurisdiction

in administrative matters (_e.g._, educational, religious, election,

commercial) is given to the federal council--a division of functions

which is very anomalous, and does not work well.

[Illustration: A SWISS FINIAL]

A system of free elementary education was set up, and many regulations

were made on ecclesiastical matters. A man settling in another canton

was, after a residence of three months, only, given all cantonal and

communal rights, save a share in the common property (an arrangement

which as far as possible kept up the old principle that the “commune”

is the true unit out of which cantons and the confederation are built),

and the membership of the “commune” carries with it cantonal and federal

rights. The referendum was introduced in its “facultative” form--_i.e._,

all federal laws must be submitted to popular vote on the demand of

thirty thousand Swiss electors or of eight cantons. If the revision

of the federal constitution is demanded by one of the two houses of

the federal assembly or by fifty thousand Swiss citizens, the question

of revision must be submitted to a popular vote, as also the draft of

the revised constitution--these provisions, contained already in the

constitution of 1848, forming a species of “obligatory referendum.” It

was supposed that this plan would lead to radical and sweeping changes,

but as a matter of fact there have been (1874-1886) about one hundred

and seven federal laws and resolutions passed by the assembly, of which

nineteen were by the referendum submitted to popular vote, thirteen being

rejected, while six only were accepted--the rest becoming law, as no

referendum was demanded. There has been a very steady opposition to all

schemes aiming at increased centralisation. By the constitutions of 1848

and 1874 Switzerland has ceased to be a mere union of independent states

joined by a treaty, and has become a single state with a well-organized

central government.

[Sidenote: [1874-1887 A.D.]]

This new constitution inclined rather to the Act of Mediation than to

the system which prevailed before 1798. A status of “Swiss citizenship”

was set up, closely joined to cantonal citizenship: a man settling in

a canton not being his birthplace got cantonal citizenship after two

years, but was excluded from all local rights in the “commune” where

he might reside. A federal or central government was set up, to which

the cantons gave up a certain part of their sovereign rights, retaining

the rest. The federal legislature (or assembly) was made up of two

houses--the council of states (_Stände Rat_), composed of two deputies

from each canton, whether small or great (forty-four in all), and the

national council (_National Rat_), made up of deputies (now 145 in

number) elected for three years, in the proportion of one for every

twenty thousand souls or fraction over ten thousand, the electors being

all Swiss citizens. The federal council or executive (_Bundesrat_)

consisted of seven members elected by the federal assembly; they are

jointly responsible for all business, though for the sake of convenience

there are various departments, and their chairman is called the president

of the confederation. The federal judiciary (_Bundesgericht_) is made

up of eleven members elected by the federal assembly for three years;

its jurisdiction is chiefly confined to civil cases, in which the

confederation is a party (if a canton, the federal council may refer

the case to the federal tribunal), but takes in also great political

crimes--all constitutional questions, however, being reserved for the

federal assembly. A federal university and a polytechnic school were to

be founded; the latter only has as yet been set up (1887) and is fixed at

Zurich. All military capitulations were forbidden in the future. Every

canton must treat Swiss citizens who belong to one of the Christian

confessions like their own citizens, for the right of free settlement

is given to all such, though they acquired no rights in the “commune.”

All Christians were guaranteed the exercise of their religion, but the

Jesuits and similar religious orders were not to be received in any

canton. German, French, and Italian were recognised as national languages.

The constitution as a whole marked a great step forward; though very

many rights were still reserved to the cantons, yet there was a fully

organised central government. Almost the first act of the federal

assembly was to exercise the power given them of determining the home of

the federal authorities, and on November 28th, 1848, Bern was chosen,

though Zurich still ranks as the first canton in the confederation. By

this early settlement of disputes Switzerland was protected from the

general revolutionary movement of 1848.

The federal constitution of 1848 set up a permanent federal executive,

legislature, and tribunal, each and all quite distinct from and

independent of any cantonal government. This system was a modified

revival of the state of things that had prevailed from 1798 to 1803,

and was an imitation of the political changes that had taken place

in the cantonal constitutions after 1830. Both were victories of the

centralist or radical party, and it was therefore but natural that

this party should be called upon to undertake the federal government

under the new constitution, a supremacy that it has kept ever since. To

the centralists the council of states (two members from each canton,

however large or small) has always been a stumbling-block, and they have

mockingly nicknamed it “the fifth wheel of the coach.” In the other house

of the federal legislature, the national council (one member per twenty

thousand, or fraction of over ten thousand of the entire population), the

radicals have always since its creation in 1848 had a majority. Hence,

in the congress formed by both houses sitting together, the radicals

have had it all their own way. This is particularly important as regards

the election of the seven members of the federal executive which is made

by such a congress. Now the federal executive (federal council) is in

no sense a cabinet--_i.e._, a committee of the party in the majority in

the legislature for the time being. In the Swiss federal constitution

the cabinet has no place at all. Each member of the federal executive

is elected by a separate ballot, and holds office for the fixed term of

three years, during which he cannot be turned out of office, while as

yet but a single instance has occurred of the rejection of a federal

councillor who offered himself for re-election.

Further, none of the members of the federal executive can hold a seat

in either house of the federal legislature, though they may appear and

speak (but not vote) in either, while the federal council as such has

not necessarily any common policy, and never expresses its views on the

general situation (though it does as regards particular legislative and

administrative measures) in anything resembling the “speech from the

throne” in England. Thus it seems clear that the federal executive was

intended by the federal constitution of 1848 (and in this respect that of

1874 made no change) to be a standing committee of the legislature as a

whole, but not of a single party in the legislature, or a “cabinet,” even

though it had the majority. Yet this rule of a single political party is

just what has taken place. Between 1848 and the end of 1899, thirty-six

federal councillors were elected (twenty-three from German-speaking,

eleven from French-speaking, and two from Italian-speaking Switzerland,

the canton of Vaud heading the list with seven). Now of these thirty-six

two only were not radicals, _viz._ M. Ceresole (1870-75) of Vaud,

who was a Protestant liberal-conservative, and Herr Zemp (elected in

1891), a Romanist conservative; yet the conservative minority is a

large one, while the Romanists form about two-fifths of the population

of Switzerland. But, despite this predominance of a single party in

the federal council, no true cabinet system has come into existence in

Switzerland, as members of the council do not resign even when their

personal policy is condemned by a popular vote, so that the resignation

of Herr Welti (a member of the federal council from 1866 to 1891), in

consequence of the rejection by the people of his railway policy, caused

the greatest amazement and consternation in Switzerland.

[Sidenote: [1891-1900 A.D.]]

The chief political parties in the federal legislature are the right,

or conservatives (whether Romanists or Protestants), the centre (now

often called “liberals,” but rather answering to the whigs of English

political language), the left (or radicals), and the extreme left (or

the socialists). In the council of states there is always a federalist

majority, since in this house the smaller cantons are on an equality

with the greater ones, each indifferently having two members. But in the

national council (147 elected members) there has always been a radical

majority over all other parties, the numbers of the various parties after

the triennial elections of 1899 being roughly as follows: radicals, 86;

socialists, 9; Centre, 19; and the Right, 33. The socialists long worked

under the wing of the radicals, but now in every canton (save Geneva)

the two parties have quarrelled, the socialist vote having largely

increased. In the country the anti-radical opposition is made up of

the conservatives, who are strongest in the Romanist, and especially

the forest cantons, and of the “federalists” of French-speaking

Switzerland. There is no doubt that the people are really anti-radical,

though occasionally led away by the experiments made recently in the

domain of state socialism: they elect, indeed, a radical majority, but

very frequently reject the bills laid before them by their elected

representatives.

From 1885 onwards Switzerland had some troubles with foreign powers owing

to her defence of the right of asylum for fugitive German socialists,

despite the threats of Prince Bismarck, who maintained a secret police

in Switzerland, one member of which, Wohlgemuth, was expelled in 1889,

to the prince’s huge but useless indignation. From about 1890, as the

above troubles within and without gradually subsided, the agitation in

the country against the centralising policy of the radicals became more

and more strongly marked. By the united exertions of all the opposition

parties, and against the steady resistance of the radicals, an amendment

was introduced in 1891 into the federal constitution, by which fifty

thousand Swiss citizens can by the “initiative” compel the federal

legislature and executive to take into consideration some point in the

federal constitution which, in the opinion of the petitioners, requires

reform, and to prepare a bill dealing with it which must be submitted to

a popular vote. Great hopes and fears were entertained at the time as to

the working of this new institution, but both have been falsified, for

the initiative has as yet only succeeded in inserting (in 1893) in the

federal constitution a provision by which the Jewish method of killing

animals is forbidden. On the other hand, it has failed (in 1894) to

secure the adoption of a socialist scheme by which the state was bound to

provide work for every able-bodied man in the country, and (also in 1894)

to carry a proposal to give to the cantons a bonus of two francs per

head of the population out of the rapidly growing returns of the customs

duties.

The great rise in the productiveness of these duties has tempted the

Swiss people of late years to embark on a course of state socialism,

which may be also described as a series of measures tending to give

more and more power to the central federal government at the expense

of the cantons. So, in 1890, the principle of compulsory universal

insurance against sickness and accidents was accepted by a popular vote,

in 1891 likewise that of a state or federal bank, and in 1898 that of

the unification of the cantonal laws, civil and criminal, into a set

of federal codes. In each case the federal government and legislature

were charged with the preparation of laws carrying out in detail these

general principles. But in 1897 their proposals as to a federal bank were

rejected by the people, while at the beginning of 1900 the suspicion felt

as to the insurance proposals elaborated by the federal authorities was

so keen that a popular demand for a popular vote was signed by 115,000

Swiss citizens, the legal minimum being only 30,000: they were rejected

(20th of May, 1900) on a popular vote by a two to one majority. The

preparation of the federal codes has progressed quietly, drafts being

framed by experts and then submitted for criticism to special commissions

and public opinion. But this method, though the true one to secure the

evolving of order out of chaos, takes time.

By a popular vote in 1887 the federal authorities were given a monopoly

of alcohol, but a proposal to deal similarly with tobacco has been very

ill received (though such a monopoly would undoubtedly produce a large

amount), and would pretty certainly be refused by the people if a popular

vote were ever taken upon it. In 1895 the people declined to sanction

a state monopoly of matches, even though the unhealthy nature of the

work was strongly urged, and have also resolutely refused on several

occasions to accept any projects for the centralising of the various

branches of military administration, etc. Among other reforms which have

recently been much discussed in Switzerland are the introduction of the

obligatory referendum (which hitherto has applied only to amendments to

the federal constitution) and the initiative (now limited to piecemeal

revision of the federal constitution) to all federal laws, etc., and

the making large federal money grants to the primary schools (managed

by the several cantons). The former scheme is an attempt to restrain

important centralising measures from being presented as laws (and as

such exempt from the compulsory referendum), and not as amendments to

the federal constitution, while the proposed school grant is part of the

radical policy of buying support for unpopular measures by lavish federal

subventions, which it is hoped will outweigh the dislike of the cantons

to divest themselves of any remaining fragments of their sovereignty.[e]

[Illustration]

BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS

[The letter [a] is reserved for Editorial Matter.]

Transcriber’s Note: Chapters I-IV are not in this volume.

CHAPTER I. SWITZERLAND TO THE FOUNDING OF THE CONFEDERATION (earliest

times to 1291 A.D.)

[b] STRABO, _Geographica_.

[c] JOHN WILSON, _History of Switzerland_ (in the “Cabinet Cyclopædia”).

[d] FERDINAND KELLER, _Pfahlbauten_.

[e] FREDERIC TROYON, _Habitations lacustres_.

[f] VICTOR GROSS, _Les Proto-helvétes_.

[g] ELISÉE RECLUS, _The Lacustrian Cities of Switzerland_ (in Smithsonian

Report for 1861).

[h] G. O. MONTELIUS, _De Chronologie der Pfahlbauten in Mittheilungen der

Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien. Vol. XXX._

[i] JOHN LUBBOCK, _Prehistoric Times_.

[j] T. STUDER, _Pfahlfan Bevölkering in Zeit für Ethr. Verband_, 1885.

[k] RUDOLF VIRCHOW, in letter prefixed to V. Gross, _Les Proto-helvétes_.

[l] ROBERT MUNRO, _The Lake Dwellings of Europe_.

[m] A. VIEUSSEUX, _The History of Switzerland_.

[n] MICHAEL STETTLER, _Annales_.

[o] JOHANN VON MÜLLER, _Geschichte der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft_.

[p] ALEXANDRE DAGUET, _Histoire de la Confédération Suisse_.

CHAPTER II. THE RISE OF THE SWISS CONFEDERATION (1288-1402 A.D.)

[c] E. A. FREEMAN, _The Historical Geography of Europe_.

[d] A. RILLIET, _Les Origines de la Confédération Suisse_.

[e] J. DIERAUER, _Geschichte der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft_.

[f] W. A. B. COOLIDGE, _History of Switzerland_ in _Encyclopædia

Britannica_.

[g] K. DÄNDLIKER, _Histoire du Peuple Suisse_.

[k] J. VON MÜLLER, _Geschichte der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft_.

[l] G. MEYER VON KNONAU, _Die Sage von der Befreiung der Waldstätte_, in

_Sweizer Oeffentliche Vorträge_.

[m] A. HUBER, _Die Waldstätte, Uri, Sweiz, Unterwalden, etc._

[n] R. VON RADEGG, _Capella Eremitana_.

[o] JOHN OF WINTERTHUR, _Chronikon Vitodurani_ in W. Oechsli’s _Anfänge

der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft_.

[p] W. OECHSLI, _Quellenbuch zur Schweizer Geschichte_.

[q] A. VIEUSSEUX, _The History of Switzerland_.

[r] J. WILSON, _History of Switzerland_.

[s] J. VULLIEMIN, _Histoire de la Confédération Suisse_.

CHAPTER III. THE CONFEDERATION AT THE HEIGHT OF ITS POWER (1402-1516 A.D.)

[b] W. A. B. COOLIDGE, Switzerland, in _Encyclopædia Britannica_.

[c] A. VIEUSSEUX, _The History of Switzerland_.

[d] VULLIEMIN, _Histoire de la Confédération Suisse_.

[e] A. DAUGET, _Histoire de la Confédération Suisse_.

[f] A. MORIN, _Précis de l’Histoire_.

[g] WILSON.

[h] P. VERRI, _Storia di Milano_.

[i] F. GUICCIARDIN, _Historia di Milano_.

CHAPTER IV. THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES

[b] A. VIEUSSEUX, _The History of Switzerland_.

[c] J. K. L. GIESELER, _Compendium of Ecclesiastical History_.

[d] J. WILSON, _History of Switzerland_.

[e] J. STRICKLER, _Grundniss der Schweizer-Geschichte_.

[f] MAGUENOT, _Abrége de l’Histoire de la Suisse_.

[g] DAGUET, _Histoire de la Confédération_.

CHAPTER V. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

[b] JOHANN HEINRICH DANIEL ZSCHOKKE, _Des Schweizerlandes Geschichte_.

[c] J. WILSON, _History of Switzerland_.

[d] A. VIEUSSEUX, _The History of Switzerland_.

[e] K. DÄNDLIKER, _History of Switzerland_.

[f] A. DAGUET, _Histoire de la Confédération_.

[g] R. WEISS, _Coup d’œil sur les relations politiques entre la

république Française et le corps Helvétique_ (1793).

[h] R. WEISS, _Réveillez-vous, Suisses, le danger approche_.

[i] W. COXE, _A History of the House of Austria_.

CHAPTER VI. SWITZERLAND SINCE 1798

[b] J. WILSON, _History of Switzerland_.

[c] W. MÜLLER, _Politische Geschichte der Neuersten Zeit_.

[d] VULLIEMIN, _Histoire de la Confédération Suisse_.

[e] W. A. B. COOLIDGE, article on Switzerland in _Encyclopædia

Britannica_.

A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SWISS HISTORY

BASED ON THE WORKS QUOTED, CITED, OR CONSULTED IN THE PREPARATION OF THE

PRESENT WORK; WITH CRITICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

=Adams=, F. O., and C. D. =Cunningham=, The Swiss Confederation, London,

1889.--=Ah=, J. J. von, Die Bundesbriefe der ältern Eidgenossen,

Einsiedeln, 1891.--=Alt=, F. N. de, Histoire de la Suisse, Fribourg,

1750-1755, 10 vols.

_François Joseph Nicholas_, baron of Alt, the son of an ancient

patrician family of Fribourg, Switzerland, was born in 1689,

and died in 1771. His history, which was admirably planned,

would have greater value for the general student if much of the

extraneous matter and all the violent Catholic partisanship

were eliminated.

=Amtliche Sammlung der Akten aus der Zeit der Helvetischen Republik=, 2

vols., translated by J. Strickler, Bern, 1886-1890, 4 vols.--=Amtliche

Sammlung der ältern eidgenössischen Abschiede= 1245-1798, 1839-1856, 8

vols. Reports of the old Federal diets, containing an enormous amount

of historical matter.--=Anshelm=, Berner-Chronik, Bern, 1825-1833, 6

vols.--=Arx=, J. von, Geschichte von St. Gallen, St. Gallen, 1810, 2

vols.--=Aubigné=, T. A. d’, Histoire Universelle 1550-1601, Geneva, 1626,

3 vols.

_Théodore Agrippa d’Aubigné_, one of the most notable

characters of the sixteenth century, was born at St. Maury,

near Pons, February 8th, 1550, of an old and noble family

which had embraced the religion of the Calvinists. The young

d’Aubigné neglected none of the educational opportunities

afforded him by his father, and at the age of six was already

able to read Latin, Greek and Hebrew. At thirteen he escaped

from the restraints of his tutor to take part in the siege

of Orléans. After his father’s death he won reputation as

a warrior under the prince of Condé, and later entered the

service of the king of Navarre. In the wars of Henry IV for

the recovery of his kingdom, d’Aubigné further distinguished

himself; but he was finally obliged by the enmity of the

queen-mother to retire from the court. During his exile he

composed the history of his time, a work remarkable for its

fearless frankness. The first two volumes were printed without

opposition; but the third was condemned on account of its

merciless criticisms. D’Aubigné, however, caused it to be

printed, thereby incurring the burning of all three volumes;

the confiscation of all his goods, and the savage persecution

of his later years, until his death at Geneva, April 29, 1630.

* * * * *

=Bachtold=, J., and F. =Vetter=, Bibliotek älterer Schriftwerke

der deutschen Schweiz, Frauenfeld, 1882-1884, 5 vols.--=Baker=, T.

G., The Model Republic, London, 1895.--=Baebler=, J. J., Die alten

eidgenössischen Bunde, St. Gall., 1848.--=Baumgartner=, G. J., Die

Schweiz in ihren Kämpfen und Umgestaltungen, 1830-1850, Zurich, 1853-66,

4 vols.; Erlebnisse auf dem Felde der Politik, Schaffhausen, 1844;

Geschichte Spaniens zur Zeit der französichen Revolution, Berlin, 1861;

Geschichte des Schweiz Freistaats und Kantons St. Gallen, Zurich, 1868,

2 vols.--=Berchtold=, J., Histoire du canton de Fribourg, Fribourg,

1841-1845.--=Berthold=, de Constance, continuator of the Chronicon de

sex ætatibus mundi.--=Blochmann=, C. J., Heinrich Pestalozzi, Leipsic,

1846.--=Bloesch=, E., Rapport sur les affaires communales Berne,

1851.--=Blumer=, J. J., Staats- und Rechtsgeschriften der Schweiz.

Demokratien, St. Gallen, 1850-59, 3 vols.; Handbuch des schweiz.

Bundesstaatsrechts, Schaffhausen, 1877-87, 13 vols.--=Bluntschli=, J. K.,

Geschichte des schweiz. Bundesrechts, Stuttgart, 1875, 2 vols.; Staats-

und Rechtsgeschichte der Stadt und Landschaft Zurich, Zurich, 1838, 2

vols.--=Bohmer=, J. F., Regesta Karolorum, Frankfort, 1833.--=Bonivard=,

F., Les Chroniques de la Genève, Geneva, 1831, 2 vols.

_François Bonivard_, to whom we owe the vivid pictures of the

agitations which marked the beginning of the sixteenth century,

was born of Savoyard parents, in 1493, at Seyssel. At seventeen

he became prior of St. Victor, a community of Benedictines near

Geneva. Revolutionist at heart, he entered into the struggle

against the duke of Savoy, who in 1519 imprisoned him and

confiscated his priory. He died in 1570, aged seventy-seven

years, after a troubled youth and a melancholy old age as

pensioner in the city where he had once been a man of mark. He

left behind him the invaluable chronicle of his time, written

half in Latin, half in the quaint French of his day, in a style

at once rude and naive, familiar and vigorous, and brimming

with picturesque imagery and lively metaphor.

=Bonnechose=, E. de, Les Réformateurs avant la Réforme, Paris, 1860, 3rd

edition, 2 vols.--=Brandstetter=, J. L., Repertorium über die Zeit und

Sammelschriften der Jahre, 1812-1890, Bâle, 1892.--=Bulletin= official du

Directoire Helvétique, 3 vols.--=Bullinger=, H., Reformationsgeschichte,

Frauenfeld, 1838-40, 3 vols.

_Henry Bullinger_ was born at Bremgarten in 1504 and died at

Zurich in 1575. After a preliminary course at Emmerich, his

father having refused him the means necessary to continue his

education, he made money by singing in the streets and in 1520

he recommenced his studies at Cologne, with the idea of joining

the community of the Chartreux. But his resolution and his

religion as well were changed by his association with Zwingli,

whose doctrine he embraced and whose successor he became.

In addition to his history of the Reformation and numerous

theological writings he edited the complete works of Zwingli.

=Burckhardt=, Der Kirchenschatz des Münsters zu Basel, Bâle, 1867.

* * * * *

=Cæsar=, J., De bello gallico.--=Casus S. Galli.= By Ekkehard IV.

Translated by G. Meyer von Knonau, Leipsic, 1878.--=Chambrier=, F. de,

Histoire de Neuchâtel et Valangin jusqu’à l’avènement de la maison de

Prusse, Neuchâtel, 1840.

_Frédéric de Chambrier_, the real founder of the Academy of

Neuchâtel, was a man of wide culture and varied resources.

In his _Histoire_ he follows faithfully, century by century,

the progress of the little but proud and independent people

of Neuchâtel, handling his character analyses with skill and

persisting in a style at once simple and dignified.

=Chauffour-Kestner=, Études sur les Réformateurs du XVI

Siècle.--=Cherbuliez=, A., De la Democratie en Suisse, Geneva,

1843.--=Chronique d’Edlibach.=--=Chronica de Berno.=--=Chronique

Anonyme.=--=Chronique des chanoines de Neuchâtel=, Michaud,

1839.--=Chronik des Hans Fründ=, Chur, 1875.--=Colton=, J. M., Annals

of Switzerland, New York, 1897.--=Coxe=, W., A History of the House of

Austria, London, 1807.--=Crétineau=, Joly J., Histoire du Sonderbund,

Paris, 1850, 2 vols.--=Curti=, T., Geschichte der Schweizerischen

Volksgesetzgebung, Zurich, 1885.

* * * * *

=Daguet=, A., Biographie de Guillimann, Fribourg, 1843; Les barons de

Forell, Lausanne, 1873; Histoire de la Confédération Suisse, Geneva,

1880, 2 vols.

_Alexander Daguet_, Swiss historian and professor was born at

Fribourg, March 12, 1816, of a family of poor nobles. Since

1866 he has held the chair of history and pedagogy at the

Academy of Neuchâtel. He has edited successively numerous

educational journals and figures among the authors of the

publications of the Société de la Suisse romande. In his own

country and abroad he has gained innumerable distinctions. He

is the founder of several literary and historical societies,

and the honored member of many more.

=Dändliker=, C., Ursachen und Vorspiel der Burgunderkriege, Zurich, 1876;

Geschichte der Schweiz, Zurich, 1884-88, 3 vols.; A short history of

Switzerland, translation by E. Salisbury, London, 1899.

_Chas. Dändliker_, Swiss historian, was born at Staffa, May 6,

1849. He studied at Zurich and Munich and in 1871 was called to

the chair of history at the Pedagogical Institute, Küssnacht,

where he is still instructor. In 1887 he was named professor

extraordinary in Swiss history at the University of Zurich. His

history of Switzerland has been translated into English.

=Dawson=, W. H., Social Switzerland, London, 1897.--=Der Schweizerische

Republikaner=, Zurich, Lucern, Bern, 1798-9, 3 vols.--=Dierauer=,

J., Geschichte der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft, Gotha, 1887, 2

vols.--=Dottain=, E., La question suisse, éclaircissements historiques,

Paris, 1860.--=Droz=, N., Instruction civique, Geneva and Lausanne, 1885;

Die Schweiz im 19ten Jahrhundert, Lausanne, 1899.

_Numa Droz_, minister of foreign affairs for the Swiss

Confederation, was born January 7, 1844, of a humble family of

watchmakers. In 1864 he turned his attention to politics and

became editor of a radical instrument, _Le National Suisse_.

During the elections of 1869 he obtained a high place in

the grand council, thanks to his facile elocution and his

ardent liberalism. He was in 1882 one of the negotiators of

the Franco-Swiss treaty. His writings are distinguished for

clearness of presentation, beauty of style, and substantialness

of matter.

=Dubs=, J., Das öffentliche Recht der Eidgenossenschaft, Zurich, 1855, 2

vols.--=Dufour=, G. H., Der Sonderbundskrieg, Bâle, 1882.

* * * * *

=Eckhardus=, Jr. (monk of St. Gall), St. Galler Kloster-Chronik,

Leipsic, 1891.--=Egli=, S. E., Die schlacht bei Kappel, Zurich,

1873.--=Elgger=, C. von, Kriegswesen und Kriegskunst der schweizerischen

Eidgenossenschaft, Lucerne, 1873.--=Escher=, H., Die Glaubensparteien

in der Eidgenossenschaft, Frauenfeld, 1882.--=Etterlin von Lucerne=,

Petermann, Kronica von der löblichen Eydtgnoschaft, Bâle, 1507.

_Petermann Etterlin_, captain of Lucernois in the wars of

Burgundy, was the first to give to the world a veritable Swiss

chronicle. A good deal of fiction is mixed with his facts, but

we glean from his writings many interesting details of the

scenes in which he was an actor.

* * * * *

=Fassbind=, T., Geschichte von Schwyz, Schwyz, 1832-1838, 5

vols.--=Feddersen=, Geschichte der Schweizerischen Regeneration, Zurich,

1867.--=Fetscherin=, W., Die eidgenössischen Abschiede aus den Jahren

1814 bis 1848.--=Fiala=, F., Archives pour l’histoire de la Réformation

en Suisse, 1868-69, 2 vols.--=Fleury=, J., Franc-Comtois et Suisse,

Besançon, 1869.

_Jean Fleury_, professor of French literature at St.

Petersburg, member of numerous societies of savants in France,

England, and Russia, was born at Vasteville, Feb. 14, 1816. He

has published a considerable quantity of political, literary,

pedagogical, and other papers, besides numerous books on a

variety of subjects.

=Forel=, F., Introduction de Regeste des documents de la Suisse romande,

Lausanne, 1862.--=Freeman=, E. A., “The Landsgemeinde of Ury and

Appenzell,” in _History of Federal government_, London, 1863.--=Froment=,

A., Acts et gestes merveilleux de la cité de Genève, 1548.

_Froment_ was a continuator of the chronicles of Bonivard and

of Jeanne de Jussie.

=Furrer=, P., Geschichte von Wallis, Sitten, 1850-1854, 4 vols.

* * * * *

=Galiffe=, J. B. G. (fils), Genève historique et archéologique,

Geneva, 1869-72, 2 vols.--=Galiffe=, J. A. (père), Notices

généalogiques.--=Gaullier=, E. H., La Suisse en 1847, Geneva,

1848.--=Gaullier=, E. H. A., and =Schaub=, C., La Suisse historique

et pittoresque, Geneva, 1855-6, 2 vols.; Les armoiries et les

couleurs de la Confédération et des cantons suisses, Geneva and

Bâle, 1879.--=Gelpke=, Kirchengeschichte der Schweiz, Bern,

1856-1861, 2 vols.--=Gingins la Sarra=, F. de, Épisodes des

Guerres de Bourgogne, Lausanne, 1850.--=Gisi=, W., Quellenbuch zur

Schweizergeschichte, Berne, 1869.--=Grandpierre=, L., Mémoires

politiques, Neuchâtel, 1877.--=Gelzer=, H., Die zwei ersten Jahrhunderte

der Schweizergeschichte, Bâle, 1840; Die zweiletzten Jahrhunderte der

Schweizergeschichte, Aarau and Thun, 1838-39.--=Gregory= of Tours,

Historia Francorum.--=Grasser=, J. J., Schweizerisch Heldenbuch, Basel

1624.--=Grote=, G., Seven letters on the recent politics of Switzerland,

London, 1847.--=Guérard=, Polyptyque d’Irminon, Paris, 1844, 2

vols.--=Guillimann de Fribourg=, F., De rebus helvetiorum, 1598.

_François Guillimann_ (or more properly Vuillemain), a

distinguished savant, was born at Romont, a canton of Fribourg.

He taught at Solothurn, afterwards became professor of history

at Fribourg and historiographer to the emperor Rudolf II. His

death is variously placed at 1612 and 1623. Besides numerous

poems he has left us valuable historical works.

=Gut=, Der Überfall in Nidwalden, Stanz, 1862.--=Guye=, P. H., Die

Schweiz in ihrer politischen Entwickelung als Föderativ-Staat, Bonn, 1877.

* * * * *

=Haller=, C. L. von, Geschichte der Wirkungen und Folgen des

österreichischen Feldzugs in der Schweiz, Weimar, 1801; Histoire de la

Réforme protestante dans la Suisse occidentale, Lausanne, 1828.

_Charles Louis von Haller_, grandson of the great Albert von

Haller, was born at Bern in 1768 and died at Solothurn May 17,

1854. In 1806 he was elected member of the two councils and

was ejected from both in 1821 when it became known that he had

embraced Catholicism. He sojourned for a time in France, but

returned in 1830 to Solothurn, where he died at an advanced age.

=Haller=, C. L. de, Helvetischen Annalen.--=Heer=, J., Jahrbuch

des historie Vereins des Cantons Glarus; Heft, 1865.--=Hegel=,

C., Stadtchroniken, Leipsic, 1862-64, 19 vols.; Scriptores rerum

Germanicarum, Munich, 1885.

_Charles Hegel_, an eminent German historian, son of the

celebrated philosopher, was born at Nuremburg June 7, 1813;

since 1856 he has been professor of history at the University

of Erlangen.

=Heierli, J.=, Urgeschichte der Schweiz, Bern, 1901.

_Jacque Heierli_, Swiss litterateur, was born October 11,

1853, at Herisan (Appenzell); he devoted himself to pedagogy

and has made the whole of the north of Europe the field of his

researches.

=Henne=, A., Schweizerchronick, St. Gallen, 1840.--=Henne-am-Rhyn=, O.,

Geschichte von St. Gallen, 1863; Geschichte des Schweizervolkes, Leipsic,

1865, 3 vols.--=Hermann le Paralytique= (monk of Reichenau), Chronicon de

sex ætatibus mundi, Bâle, 1529.

_Hermann of Reichenau_, surnamed the Paralytic on account of a

contraction of the limbs, was the son of a count of Wehringen,

born in 1013. In spite of his physical affliction he was

possessed of unusual intelligence, and he became at an early

age the most learned man of his day. He embraced the monastic

life. He became abbot of Reichenau, where he died in 1054. He

continued his chronicle up to the day of his death, after which

it was continued by Berthold de Constance.

=Herminijard=, A. L., Correspondance des Réformateurs, Bâle, 1546;

Harlem, 1868.--=Heusler=, A., Der Bauernkrieg von 1653, in der Landschaft

Basel. (Bâle, 1864); Verfassungsgeschichte der Stadt Basel, Bâle,

1860.--=Hidber=, B., Schweizerisches Urkundenregister, Bern, 1863-1877, 2

vols.

_Basil Hidber_, Swiss historian, born at Mels, November 23,

1817; professor of natural history at the University of Bern.

=Hilty=, C., Vorlesungen über die Helvetik, Bern, 1878; Die Bundes

Verfassung der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft, Bern, 1891.

_Charles Hilty_, Swiss jurisconsult, born at Werdenberg,

February 28, 1833; called in 1873 to the chair of common

(public) and federal law in the University of Bern.

=Hisely=, J. J., Cartulaire de Hautcrest; sur l’origine et le

développment des libertés des Waldstelle, Uri, Schwyz, et Unterwalden,

Lausanne, 1839; Histoire du comte de Gruyère, Lausanne, 1855.--=Hodler=,

Geschichte des Sweizervolkes, neuere Zeit., 1865.--=Herzog=, J. A.,

Das Referendum in der Schweiz, Berlin, 1885.--=Hottinger=, J. J., Das

Wiedererwachen der wissenschaftlichen Bestrebungen in der Schweiz während

der Mediations und Restaurationsepoche; Vorlesungen über die Geschichte

des Untergangs der alten Eidgenossenschaft, Zurich, 1844; Vorlesungen

über den Untergang der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft, Zurich, 1866;

Geschichte der Eidgenossen, Zurich, 1825-1827, 2 vols.

_Johann Jacob Hottinger_, born in 1783, professor of Greek at

Zurich, must not be confounded with Jean Jacques Hottinger,

also a professor at Zurich, who died in 1819.

=Hug=, L., and =Stead=, P., The story of Switzerland, New York,

1890.--=Hutten=, U. von, Œuvres complètes, Berlin, 1822-1825, 5 vols.

* * * * *

=Imhof=, J. (Bourcard Leu), Die Jesuiten in Luzern.--=Istria=, Dora d’,

Switzerland, London, 1858, 2 vols.

* * * * *

=Jahn=, H. A., Chronik des Cantons Bern, Bern, 1857; Der Keltische

Alterthum der Schweiz, Bern, 1860.

_Henry Albert Jahn_, Swiss historian and archæologist,

professor at Bern, formerly secretary of the department of the

interior, was born at Bern, October 9, 1811.

=Johannis=, Vitodurani, Chronicon, Zurich, 1856.--=Jovii=, P., Historiæ

sui temporis, Bâle, 1567, 2 vols.--=Jullien=, Histoire de Genève,

1865.--=Jussie=, Jeanne de, Levain de calvinisme, 1605.

A religious abbess of the convent of St. Claire, whence she

was driven in 1535, together with the other members of the

community, to seek refuge at Annecy, where she later became

abbess. She has pictured for us in all its crudity the

conflict of popular passions in the most primitive style, and

in language, which is in itself an index to the comedy, the

tragedy, and the overwhelmingly gross superstition of her day

and generation.

=Justinger=, C., Bernerchronik, Bern, 1871.

* * * * *

=Keller=, A., Die kirchlich politischen Fragen bei der Eidg.

Bundesrevision von 1871.--=Klingenberger=, Chronik, Gotha,

1861.--=Königshofen=, J. von, Chronique helvétique.--=Königshoven=, von

Strasbourg, J. T., Chronicum latinum, Strasburg, 1678.

_Jacques Twinger Königshoven_, better known under the name of

Twinger, a celebrated chronicler of the 14th century, was born

at Strasburg in 1346, of rich and influential parents. At the

age of thirty-six he changed his condition of citizen for the

ecclesiastical state and died in 1420, aged seventy-four years.

=Kopp=, J. E., Urkunden zur Geschichte der Eidgenössischen Bunde, 1835;

Geschichte der Eidgenössischen Bunde, Leipsic and Berlin, 1844-52, 11

vols.

* * * * *

=Laharpe=, F. C., Mémoires, Bern, 1864.--=Liebenau=, T. von, Blicke

in die Geschichte Engelbergs, 1876; Die Schlacht bei Sempach, Luzern,

1886; Indicateur de l’histoire suisse, 1876; Die Böcke von Zurich.

Stanz., 1876.--=Lavater=, J. C., Letter to the French Directory, London,

1799.--=Lütolf=, Die Glaubensboten der Schweiz, Luzern, 1871.

* * * * *

=Mallet=, J., Considérations sur la Révolution, Brussels,

1793.--=Mallet-Dupan=, J., Mémoires historiques et littéraires, Geneva,

1779-1782, 5 vols.--=Mallet=, P. H., Histoire des Suisses ou Helvétiens,

Geneva, 1803, 4 vols.

_Paul Henri Mallet_, an eminent historian, was born at Geneva

in 1730, of a family remarkable for the number of great men

it has produced. He held the position of professor of history

in several universities, and was a member of the academies of

Upsal, Lyons, Cassel, and the Celtic Academy. He died of a

paralytic stroke in the city of his birth, February 8, 1807.

=Marsauche=, L., La Confédération Helvétique, Neuchâtel, 1890.--=Matile=,

G. A., Monuments de l’histoire de Neuchâtel, Musée historique, 3

vols.--=May de Romainmotier=, E., Histoire militaire des Suisses, Bern,

1772, 2 vols.

_E. M. de Romainmotier_ was born at Bern in 1734, and became

known to the world chiefly through the military history. This,

though a somewhat mediocre production as a literary work,

contains important facts not to be found elsewhere.

=McCracken=, W. D., Rise of the Swiss Republic, New York,

1901.--=Mémoires et Documents= publié par la Société de la Suisse

romande, Lausanne.--=Meyer von Knonau=, Gerold, Eidg. Abschiede; St.

Gallische Geschichtsquellen, St. Gall, 1870-81, 5 vols.; Die Sage von

der Befreiung der Waldstätte, Bâle, 1873.--=Meyer=, H., Die Denare

und Bractealen in der Schweiz, Zurich, 1858-60; Geschichte der XIᵉ

und XXIᵉ Legion, Mittheilungen de Zürich, Zurich, 1853.--=Meyer=, J.,

Geschichte des schweiz. Bundesrechts, Zurich, 1849-1852, 2 vols.--=Meyer

von Knonau=, Ludwig, Handbuch der Geschichte der schweizerischen

Eidgenossenschaft, Zurich, 1843, 2 vols.

_Louis Meyer von Knonau_ was born at Zurich September 12, 1769.

He studied history, law, and philology at Halle, where he

became an ardent disciple of Professor Wolf. He filled various

diplomatic offices with firmness and intelligence, retired to

private life in 1839, and died September 6, 1841. His history

of the confederation is one of the most accurate and complete

at the disposition of the student. His son, Gerold, born

March 2, 1804, followed in his father’s footsteps and devoted

himself to public life. The government confided to his care the

archives of Zurich and charged him with the publication of the

documents of the federal diet. He died November 1, 1858.

=Miles=, H., Chronik, St. Gall., 1902.--=Mohr=, T. von, Die Regesten der

Benedictiner-Abtei Einsiedeln, Chur., 1848.--=Mommsen=, T., Römische

Geschichte, Berlin, 1885, 5 vols.; Inscriptiones Confœderationes

helveticæ, Mitt. d. antiq. Ges., Zurich, vols. 10 and 15.

_Theodor Mommsen_, an eminent historian, was born Nov. 30,

1817, at Garding, Schleswig, of a Danish family. He was

displaced in 1852 from the chair of law at Leipsic for

partisanship in political events, but was immediately called to

that of the University of Zurich. During the Franco-Prussian

War he was among the bitterest enemies of France.

=Monnard=, C., Histoire de la Confédération suisse, Zurich, 1847-1853, 5

vols.

_Charles Monnard_ was born in 1790, and died at Bonn in

1865. His chief labor was the continuation of the history of

Switzerland by J. von Müller. His classic style is apt to

strike us of to-day as too stilted, but it is easily overlooked

in the appreciation due to his solid merit, his simple modesty,

his generous and liberal spirit.

=Moor=, Theodore, Historisch-chronologischer Wegweiser, Chur.,

1873; Wegweiser durch da Curratien, 1873.--=Morel=, G., Mémoires et

documents de la Soc. d’histoire de la Suisse romande; Die Registen

der Benedictiner-Abtei Einsiedeln.--=Morell=, C., Die helvetische

Gesellschaft.--=Morin=, A., Précis de l’histoire politique de la

Suisse, Geneva and Paris, 1856-75.--=Müller=, J. von, Der Geist

der Ahnen oder die Einheitsbestrebungen in der Schweiz vor der

helvetischen Revolution, Zurich, 1874; Geschichte der schweizerischen

Eidgenossenschaft, 1841-1847, 7 vols.; Indicateur d’antiquités

suisses, 1875; Schweizergeschichte, Lausanne, 1795-1801, 11 vols.; Der

Geschichten Schweizerischer Eidgenossenschaft, Liepsic and Zurich,

1805-16, 5 vols.--=Müller-Friedberg=, Schweizerische Annalen, 1830, 6

vols.--=Muralt=, C., Schweizergeschichte mit durchganziger Quellenangabe,

Bern, 1885.

* * * * *

=Nayler=, F. H., History of Helvetia, London, 1801, 2 vols.--=Nisard=,

M., Études sur la renaissance, Paris, 1855.--=Nuscheler=, A., Die

Siechenhäuser in der Schweiz, Zurich, 1866.

* * * * *

=Ochs=, Geschichte der Stadt und Landschaft Basel, Bâle, 1796-1822,

8 vols.--=Ochsenbein=, Die Kriegsgründe und Kriegsbilder des

Burgunderkrieges, 1876.--=Oe=, Die Anfänge der schweizerischen

Eidgenossenschaft, Zurich, 1891.--=Oechsli=, W., Lehrbuch für den

Geschichtsunterricht, Zurich, 1885; Quellenbuch zur Schweizergeschichte,

Zurich, 1886; Die Anfänge der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft, Zurich,

1891.

_William Oechsli_, born October 6, 1851, at Riesbach, was

destined by his family to the ministry; but he deserted

theology for history, and after exhaustive study at Heidelberg,

Berlin, and Paris, he was called in 1887 to the professorship

of Swiss history in the Zurich Polytechnical Institute.

=Orelli=, A. von, Das Staatsrecht der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft,

Fribourg, 1885.

* * * * *

=Pierrefleur=, P. de, Mémoires.

_The Memoirs of Pierre de Pierrefleur_, grand banneret of Orbe,

present an accurate picture of the progress of the Reformation.

Modestly and without recrimination, though himself an ardent

Catholic, he endeavours accurately to reproduce day by day

the scenes which pass before his eyes--truth without passion,

simplicity without grossness his chief object. Moderation

is the keynote of this recital from the lips of the pious

and honourable knight of Orbe. Unfortunately, the original

chronicle having been lost, we are obliged to content ourselves

with extracts.

=Peyssonel=, C. C. de, Discours sur l’alliance de la France avec les

Suisses et les Grisons, Paris, 1790.--=Pfyffr=, C., Sammlung kleiner

Schriften, Zurich, 1866.--=Pirkheimer=, W., Historia belli Suitensis

sive Helvetici, Tiguri, 1735.--=Planta=, P. C. von, Die Schweiz in ihrer

Entwicklung zum Einheitsstaate.--=Pupikofer=, Geschichte des Thurgavs,

Bischoffzell, 1830.--=Pury=, S. de, Chronique des chanoines de Neuchâtel,

Neuchâtel, 1839.

* * * * *

=Rahn=, J. N., Geschichte der bildenden Künste in der Schweiz, Zurich,

1876.--=Rambert=, E., Les Alps suisses, Geneva, 1875.

_Eugene Rambert_, born in 1830, first turned his studies in the

direction of theology, but at twenty-four he was appointed to

the chair of French literature at Lausanne, which he occupied

until the Confederation called him to the Polytechnical School.

His sojourn at Zurich lasted twenty-one years, when, in 1881,

he returned to his own canton. He was not long, however, to

breathe his native air, his laborious career being suddenly cut

short in 1886. His works are numerous and varied, but all are

remarkable for great power, authority, and calm.

=Rauchenstein=, H., Der Feldzug Cæsars gegen die Helvetier, Zurich,

1882.--=Relatio Conflictus Laupensis.=--=Reportorium= der Abschiede der

Eidgenössischen Tagsatzungen, 1803-1848, 3 vols. (Additional reports of

the old federal diets).--=Rilliet=, A., Les Origines de la Confédération

suisse, Geneva, 1868.--=Rochholz=, Eidgenössische Liederchronik, Bern,

1835.--=Rodt=, E. von, Die Feldzüge der Schweizer gegen Karl den Kühnen.

Geschichte des bernischen Kriegswesens, Schaffhausen, 1843-1844, 2

vols.--=Roget=, Amedee, Les Suisses et Genève, Geneva, 1864; Histoire

du peuple de Genève, Geneva, 1870-83, 7 vols.--=Rossel=, V., Histoire

littéraire de la Suisse romande, Bern, 1887-91, 2 vols.--=Rovéréa=, F.

de, Mémoires, Bern.--=Ruchat=, A., Histoire de la Réformation en Suisse,

Lausanne, 1727-28.

_Abraham Ruchat_, the father of Swiss (French) history, was

born in 1678 of a peasant family. Educated in Germany and

Holland, he returned to Switzerland to become professor of

history at the University of Lausanne. The _Histoire de la

Réformation en Suisse_ was but a part of a projected general

history of Switzerland which was never completed. Ruchat says

of his labours: “I have been tempted nine times to give up

the enterprise and live in peace; but the desire to serve my

country has ever reinvested me with courage. I seek not glory,

but truth and the public good. I have always endeavoured to

write as though some day I were to be called to account for the

products of my pen.”

* * * * *

=Sarnen=, Livre blanc de Sarnen, in Les Origines de la Confédération

suisse, by A. Rilliet, Geneva, 1868.--=Schilling=, D. (the younger),

Luzerner Chronik, Luzern, 1862.--=Schreiber=, H., Loriti Glareanus,

Fribourg, 1878.--=Schuler=, M., Geschichte des Landes Glarus; Thaten

und Sitten der Eidgenossen, Zurich, 1856, 7 vols.--=Secrétan=, E.,

Galérie suisse, Biographies Nationales, Lausanne, 1874.--=Seehausen=,

R., Schweizer Politik während des dreissigjahrigen Krieges, Halle,

1882.--=Segesser=, P. von, Eidgenössische Abschiede Staats- und

Rechtsgeschichte von Luzern, Lucerne, 1839-1856, 17 vols.--=Simmler=, J.,

Vom Regiment der löblichen Eidgenossenschaft, Zurich, 1576.--=Steiger=,

R. de, Coup d’œil général sur l’histoire militaire des Suisses, Lausanne,

1869.--=Steinauer=, Geschichte des Freistaates Schwyz, Einsiedeln,

1861.--=Stettler=, M., Annales oder Beschreibung der vornehmeten

Geschichten, Bern, 1626, 2 vols.--=Studer=, H., Till-Eulenspiegel

im Lande des Tell, Zurich, 1900.--=Strickler=, J., Lehrbuch der

Schweizergeschichte, Zurich, 1874; Aktensammlung der helvetischen

Republik, Frauenfeld, 1899; Die Quellen zur Reformationsgeschichte,

1884.--=Stumpf=, J., Swiss Chronicle, Zurich, 1547.

* * * * *

=Tageblatt der Gesetze und Dekrete der gesetzgebenden Rathe der

Helvetischen Republik=, Bern, 1800, 6 vols.--=Tillier=, J. A. von,

Geschichte der Eidgenossen während der Zeit des sogeheissenen

Fortschrifts, Bern, 1853-1855, 3 vols.; Geschichte der Eidgenossenschaft

während der sogenannten Restaurationsepoche, Zurich, 1848-1850, 3 vols.;

Geschichte der Eidgenossen während der Herrschaft der Vermittlungsakte,

Zurich, 1845-1846, 2 vols.; Geschichte des Freistaates Bern, Bern,

1838-1839, 5 vols.; Geschichte der helvetischen Republik, Bern, 1843, 3

vols.--=Tschudi=, A., Chronicon Helveticum, Basel, 1734-1736, 2 vols.

The most complete of the early Swiss chronicles and the basis

of Müller’s history.

* * * * *

=Vaucher=, P., Esquisses d’histoire Suisse, Lausanne, 1882.--=Vieusseux=,

A., History of Switzerland, London, 1846.--=Vincent=, J. M., State and

Federal Government of Switzerland, Baltimore, 1891.--=Vischer=, W.,

Geschichte det Schwäbischen Städtebünde, Göttingen, 1861.--=Vita S.

Galli=, Translated by A. Potthast in Die Geschichtschreiber der deutschen

Vorzeit, Vol. 1, Berlin, 1857.--=Vögeli=, Vaterländische Geschichte,

Zurich, 1872.--=Vogelin=, A. and =Escher=, Geschichte der schweizerischen

Eidgenossenschaft, Zurich, 1854, 4 vols.--=Vulliemin=, L., Histoire de la

Confédération suisse, Lausanne, 1875-1876, 2 vols.

_Louis Vulliemin_ was the founder of the _Société d’histoire de

la Suisse romande_, together with Felix Chavannes the poet and

F. de Gingins the historian. Imaginative, ardent, patriotic,

variously gifted, Vulliemin devoted all his talent to his

country’s use, and merits the eternal gratitude of Switzerland.

* * * * *

=Wattenwyl=, Geschichte der Stadtund Landschaft Bern, Schaffhausen,

1867-1872, 2 vols.--=Weidmann, Father=, Geschichte der Landschaft St.

Gallen, St. Gall, 1834.--=Wild=, K., Auszüge aus handschriftlichen

chroniken und aus den Rathsprotokollen der Stadt und Republik St.

Gallen, St. Gall, 1847.--=Wilson=, J., History of Switzerland, London,

1832.--=Wintherthur=, Morf de, Dittes Pædagogium, Heft, 1878.--=Wirth=,

Statistik der Schweiz, Zurich, 1871-75, 3 vols.--=Wittekind=, (monk of

Corvey), Chronique.--=Wyss=, G. von, Geschichte der Historiographie in

der Schweiz, Zurich, 1895.--Indicateur d’histoire de Soleure, Solothurn,

1866.

_J. G. von Wyss_, Swiss historian, born at Zurich March 31st,

1816, is the son of the burgomaster David von Wyss. He was

appointed president of the _Société d’histoire suisse_ in 1854,

and is universally recognised as among the most learned of the

historians of the century.

* * * * *

=Zellweger=, J. K., Geschichte des Appenzellischen Volkes, Trogen,

1830; Chronologische Uebersicht der Schweizergeschichte, Zurich, 1887;

Geschichte der diplomatischen verhältnisse der Schweiz mit Frankreich,

Bern, 1848.--=Zschokke=, J. H., Histoire de la lutte des cantons

démocratiques, Geneva and Paris 1823; History of the Invasion of

Switzerland by the French, translated by J. Aiken, London, 1803.

[Illustration]

A CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND

BEFORE THE ROMAN CONQUEST

Before 3000 B.C. (Stone Age.) The lake-dwellers, the earliest

people of which traces remain in what is now Switzerland,

live in primitive huts built on piles in the shallow waters

of various lakes. They do not know the use of metal; use

stone axe-heads, fixed in stag’s horn and wood hafts, flint

arrow-heads, etc.

3000-1000 B.C. (Bronze Age.) The lakemen learn to manipulate

metal; advance in skill and mental culture; make artistically

shaped bronze spear-heads, swords, etc.

1000-100 B.C. (Iron Age.) The lakemen substitute iron

for bronze and achieve greater beauty and perfection of

workmanship. Their weapons and implements become gradually

identical with those of historic times. In their later days

they come into contact with Gauls and Romans.

107 B.C. The Helvetians, one of the chief of the tribes then

inhabiting Switzerland, led by the clan of the Tigurini and

under command of their chief Diviko, joined the Cimbri and

Teutones in a raid into southern Gaul. The allies defeat the

Romans, under the consul Lucius Cassius, at Agen, and overrun

Gaul.

102 B.C. The barbarians are defeated by the Romans under the

consul Marius near Aquæ Sextiæ and one clan of the Helvetians,

that of the Toygeni, is annihilated.

101 B.C. Another division of the invading barbarians is cut to

pieces by the forces of Marius and his colleague Catullus, near

Vercelli. The Helvetian clan of the Tigurini alone escapes.

60 B.C. The Helvetians prepare for a second migration into

Gaul. A powerful chief, Orgetorix, promises to secure free

passage through the lands of the Allobroges and Ædui. He is

accused of treason and dies, by suicide or murder.

58 B.C. The Helvetians, accompanied by the Boii and neighboring

tribes, begin the march. Julius Cæsar checks the Helvetians at

the Rhone, and destroys the Tigurini at the Arar (Saône). At

Bibracte Cæsar defeats the Helvetians. Their remnants return

home.

UNDER ROMAN DOMINION

57 B.C. Cæsar’s lieutenant, Sergius Galba, subdues the

Helvetian Veragri and Seduni. Helvetia is made a Roman province.

52 B.C. The Helvetians take part in the revolt of Vercingetorix.

43 B.C. Romans settle at Noviodunum (Nyon) and in various other

parts of Helvetia.

27 B.C. Helvetia is made part of Belgica, one of the provinces

of Gaul, and comes more directly under Roman control.

15 B.C. Rhætia (the Grisons) is subjugated by armies under

Drusus and Tiberius Nero and made a Roman province.

A.D. 69 Aulus Cæcina lays waste Helvetia and massacres large

numbers of the inhabitants. Claudius Corius, a Helvetian

deputy, by his eloquence saves the people from complete

destruction. Aventicum (Avenches) becomes a Roman city of

importance. Roman civilisation makes much progress in Helvetia,

especially in the western portion. Under the Romans military

roads and fortresses are built.

FROM THE GERMAN INVASIONS THROUGH THE CARLOVINGIANS

260 Hordes of Alamanni devastate Switzerland. They partially

destroy Aventicum.

300 Christianity makes some converts in Switzerland.

305 Alamanni again overrun Switzerland.

406 The Alamanni conquer eastern Switzerland.

409 The Burgundians march toward the Rhine and approach

Switzerland.

443 The Burgundians settle in western Switzerland, receiving

“Sabaudia” (Savoy) from the Romans.

496 The Franks subjugate the Alamanni, acquiring eastern

Switzerland.

493 The Goths conquer Rhætia.

500 King Gondebaud rules in Burgundy. His laws become part of

Swiss institutions.

524 The Franks, under Clodomir, capture Geneva.

534 The Franks subjugate the Burgundians, bringing western

Switzerland into their power.

536 Rhætia is given up to the Franks by the Goths.

570 The Langobardi invade southern Switzerland.

574 The Frankish king Gontran checks the incursions of the

Langobardi.

610 The Culdee monks, led by Columbanus and Gallus, spread

Christianity in Switzerland.

687 The Carlovingians begin their rule over the Franks. They

foster religious establishments in Switzerland.

768 Charlemagne ascends the Frankish throne. He gives an

impetus to religion, education, and industry in Switzerland;

founds schools and churches and increases their wealth.

774 The Franks gain possession of the Italian valleys of

Switzerland till then held by the Langobardi.

843 By the Treaty of Verdum western or Burgundian Switzerland

falls to Lothair, eastern or German Switzerland (Alamannia)

with Rhætia to Ludwig the German. Feudalism is becoming well

established in Switzerland. The church owns large estates and

the bishops are powerful. Arts and sciences progress in the

monasteries of St. Gall, Reichenau, and Pfäffers.

853 Ludwig the German founds the Fraumünster at Zurich.

TIME OF BURGUNDIAN AND ALAMANNIAN RULERS

888 Rudolf I is crowned king of Upper Burgundy and begins to

rule over western Switzerland.

917 Count Burkhard of Rhætia is made duke of Alamannia

(Swabia). He rules over eastern Switzerland.

919 Burkhard I, duke of Alamannia, defeats Rudolf II of Upper

Burgundy at Winterthur.

920 Alamannia is formally incorporated with Germany. Eastern

Switzerland thus becomes a part of Germany.

922 Rudolf II of Upper Burgundy marries Burkhard’s daughter

Bertha who brings to Burgundy the upper Aargau.

930 Rudolf II acquires Arelat (Cisjurane Burgundy) as the

result of a raid into Italy with Hugo of Provence. Thus

the kingdom of Burgundy is reunited and Switzerland, as an

important part of this kingdom, attains prominence.

937 Rudolf II of Burgundy dies. Good Queen Bertha, his widow,

rules beneficently as regent for her son Conrad.

940 Conrad is placed under the guardianship of Otto I of

Germany. Beginning of German influence in western Switzerland.

950 Conrad defeats the Hungarians that invade Switzerland.

962 Queen Bertha founds a religious house at Payerne.

(Traditional.)

990 Ekkehard II of St. Gall, the most famous man of learning of

his time, dies.

992 The serfs rise against the nobles of Aargau and Thurgau.

993 Rudolf III of Burgundy. Switzerland is turned over more and

more to the clergy and the great nobles.

1016 Rudolf III abdicates in favor of Henry II of Germany.

Henry is opposed by the nobles of Burgundy in several battles

in Switzerland.

1022 The distinguished scholar Notker III of St. Gall dies.

FROM THE UNION OF SWITZERLAND UNDER THE GERMAN EMPERORS TO THE FOUNDING

OF THE SWISS CONFEDERATION

1032 Conrad II of Germany defeats the Burgundians at Morat and

Neuchâtel.

1033 He is crowned king of Burgundy and thus adds western

Switzerland to Germany.

1038 Burgundy, Alamannia, and Rhætia fall to Henry III. All

Switzerland is hereby reunited as part of Germany. St. Gall

is a leader in learning. The abbeys of Zurich, Rheinau, and

Einsiedeln and the bishoprics of Coire, Constance, and Bâle

attain great eminence.

1045 Henry III of Germany by assuming the crown of Lombardy

secures possession of all the territories of Switzerland not

already within his dominions (Italian Switzerland). He is

frequently at Bâle and Solothurn. He holds imperial diets at

Zurich and lavishes gifts on her religious foundations.

1057 Rudolf of Rheinfelden begins his rule as duke of Alamannia

and governor of Burgundy, thus controlling all Switzerland.

1077 Rudolf is elected king by the opponents of Henry IV.

Switzerland is drawn into the struggle between Henry IV and

Pope Gregory VII.

1080 Rudolf is slain and his army defeated at Mersburg. The

Guelf-Zähringen faction wars against Frederick of Hohenstaufen

for the possession of Alamannia. Many monasteries, castles, and

towns are destroyed in Switzerland.

1090 Berthold II of Zähringen inherits the possessions of the

Rheinfeldens in Switzerland.

1097 Berthold II surrenders his claims to the dukedom of

Alamannia. He receives as recompense the imperial bailiwick of

Zurich, and is made duke of that portion of Alamannia lying in

what is now Switzerland.

1114 The people of Schwyz resist the encroachments of the monks

of Einsiedeln. Henry V decides in favour of Einsiedeln.

1127 Conrad of Zähringen is created rector of Burgundy by the

emperor Lothair. Most of the territories comprising modern

Switzerland are now under the rule of the house of Zähringen.

This family governs benevolently throughout the century.

1140 Arnold of Brescia finds asylum at Zurich.

1144 In the quarrel of Einsiedeln and Schwyz, Conrad III

decides in favour of Einsiedeln.

1146 Bernard of Clairvaux preaches the crusade at Zurich. Many

Swiss join the crusade.

1152 The Waldstätte are placed under an interdict by the bishop

of Constance.

1173 By inheritance of the possessions of the house of Lenzburg

in Aargau and in the forest states the house of Hapsburg gains

in wealth and power.

1177 Berthold IV of Zähringen founds the free city of Fribourg.

1186 Berthold V succeeds. He develops the policy of walling in

strong cities to offset the power of the nobles. He fortifies

Burgdorf, Moudon, Yuerdon, Laupen, and Schaffhausen.

1190 Berthold V defeats the rebellious nobles at Avenches and

in the Grindelwald.

1191 Berthold V founds the city of Bern.

1209 Franciscan monks begin to enter Switzerland.

1211 Berthold V is defeated by Count Thomas of Savoy, who

seizes Moudon.

1215 Dominicans begin to enter Switzerland.

1218 Berthold V dies childless. With him the house of Zähringen

and the rectorate of Burgundy ends. Switzerland reverts to

Germany. Bern, Solothurn, Zurich, and other towns become

immediately dependent on the emperor, and gain in freedom.

Many nobles become subject to the empire alone and increase in

power. The houses of Savoy, Kyburg (inheritors of the lands of

the Zähringens), and Habsburg become most prominent. Religious

orders flourish.

1231 The people of Uri obtain their first charter from King

Henry, which nominally places them directly under the empire.

1240 The community of Schwyz is given a charter from the empire

by Frederick II. Savoy extends her dominion to include Vaud and

other portions of Southern Switzerland.

1245-1250 The people of Switzerland take sides in the struggle

between Guelfs and Ghibellines. Risings occur in the Waldstätte

against the house of Habsburg which has gained authority in

middle and eastern Switzerland. The expulsion of oppressive

bailiffs (referred to this period by modern investigators from

its former position in 1307-08).

1250 Lucerne enters into alliance with Schwyz and Obwalden.

1254 The _antiqua confederatio_, the earliest league of the

Waldstätte, is formed (uncertain date).

1255 Pierre of Savoy is acknowledged suzerain of Bern; later of

Morat and Bâle.

1264 Pierre of Savoy is acknowledged suzerain of Geneva. The

greatness of the house of Habsburg is founded through the

inheritance of the possessions of the Kyburgs.

1266 Zurich with the aid of Rudolf of Habsburg defeats Ulrich

of Regensburg. Rudolf gains in influence with several Swiss

towns.

1267 Pierre of Savoy defeats an army sent against him by Rudolf

of Habsburg at Löwenburg. Peace between Habsburg and Savoy.

1273 Rudolf of Habsburg besieges Bâle. He is chosen emperor of

Germany. Bâle submits, Rudolf inherits the possessions of his

cousins in the Waldstätte.

1275 Rudolf of Habsburg is consecrated emperor by Pope Gregory

at Lausanne.

1277 Rudolf acquires Fribourg. He now holds in Switzerland

territories equivalent to the modern cantons of Aar, Zug,

Thurgau, Bern, and Lucerne, the towns of Sursee, Sempach, and

Winterthur, the convent of Säckingen, and the wardenship of the

Waldstätte.

1288 Rudolf twice unsuccessfully besieges Bern.

1289 The Bernese suffer loss in an Austrian ambuscade at the

Schosshalde and Bern is compelled to make peace.

1291 The men of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden (the three

Waldstätte) form the Everlasting League (_Ewige Bund_), for the

defence of their common rights and interests. The Waldstätte

form a temporary alliance with Zurich. In the struggle for the

imperial throne between Adolf of Nassau and Albert, duke of

Austria, the confederates with Zurich and Bâle side against

Albert. War ensues. The territories of the bishop of Constance

and the abbot of St. Gall are laid waste.

1292 The Austrians defeat the men of Zurich before Winterthur.

Zurich is forced to make peace with Albert and her alliance

with the forest states is annulled.

1294 The first Landsgemeinde of which record remains is held in

Schwyz.

1297 Adolf of Nassau as king of Germany confirms the charter of

1240 to Schwyz and the same charter to Uri.

1298 The Bernese defeat the Austrian nobles at Dornbühl.

Albert, duke of Austria, ascends the German throne and

strengthens the power of Austria in Switzerland.

THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

1307 Werner Stauffacher of Schwyz, Walter Fürst of Uri, and

Arnold of the Melchthal in Unterwalden, with thirty companions

take an oath on the Rütli to free the country from oppressors.

William Tell shoots the Austrian bailiff Gessler. (These events

are now regarded as legendary.)

1308 The expulsion of the bailiffs. (This event some historians

now regard as merely traditional and refer it to the period

1245-50.) King Albert is murdered. Bern concludes a league with

Solothurn.

1309 Henry VIII confirms the charters of Schwyz and Uri, and

grants liberties to Unterwalden, placing all three under direct

imperial jurisdiction. The confederates renew their alliance

with Zurich.

1314 The men of Schwyz capture the abbey of Einsiedeln because

of a quarrel over pasture land. Frederick of Austria places the

Waldstätte under the ban of the empire. The Waldstätte conclude

alliances with Glarus, Ursern, Art, and Interlaken. Louis of

Bavaria, rival of Frederick for the German throne, declares the

ban removed. The confederates take his side in the struggle for

the throne.

1315 Duke Leopold of Austria, brother of Frederick, moves

against the Waldstätte. The Swiss vanquish the Austrians at

Morgarten. Leopold is slain. The three forest districts renew

the Everlasting League of 1291.

1316 Louis of Bavaria recognises the new league, declares the

political rights of the house of Austria forfeit in the forest

districts, and confirms their several charters.

1318 Truce with Austria. The Habsburgs surrender all

jurisdiction over the Waldstätte, but their rights merely as

landowners are recognized. Risings against Austria in western

Switzerland. Leopold besieges the free town of Solothurn, but

soon withdraws. (Traditional rescue of the Austrians at the

bridge by the men of Solothurn.)

1323 Bern and other Burgundian towns enter into an alliance

with the forest districts for protection against Austria and

the aristocracy.

1328 Lucerne revolts from Austria.

1332 Lucerne (fourth of the “old” places) joins the league.

1336 Civic revolution in Zurich places Rudolf Brun at the head

of the city government and gives power to the craft-guilds.

1339 The Bernese with men from the forest districts defeat the

nobles at Laupen.

1350 Massacre of Austrian conspirators at Zurich. The men of

Zurich destroy the castle of Rapperschwyl, Zurich thereby

incurs the enmity of Austria.

1351 Zurich (fifth of the “old” places) for protection against

Austria enters the league. First regulations as to the aid that

the confederates owe to each other, first federal rights and

establishment of the circle of confederate defence. Duke Albert

of Austria unsuccessfully besieges Zurich.

1352 Zug and Glarus (sixth and seventh of the “old” places)

enter the league. The duke of Austria renews war on Zurich. By

the terms of the peace of Brandenburg, Zug and Glarus are again

brought into subjection to Austria.

THE CONFEDERATION OF THE EIGHT OLD PLACES

1353 Bern (completing the eight “old” places) enters the

league, adding greatly to its strength.

1354 Zurich is besieged by the forces of Austria and the empire.

1355 Peace is declared at Regensburg (Ratisbon).

1361 Charles IV recognises the confederation of eight states

as a lawful union for the preservation of the public peace

(_Landfriedensverbindung_).

1364 Zug is freed from Austrian rule by the men of Schwyz.

1367 The Gotteshausbund (league of God’s house) is formed in

the Engadine.

1368 The Peace of Thorberg adjusts matters between Austria and

the confederates. Zug rejoins the league as a permanent member.

1370 The Parson’s Ordinance (_Pfaffenbrief_) abolishes special

exemption of the clergy and provides for the preservation of

peace among the confederates.

1375 Enguerrand de Coucy to assert claims to lands in

Aargau invades Switzerland with a horde of irregulars in

the Guglerkrieg, or English War. De Coucy is routed in the

Entlebuch and at Freibrunnen.

1382 Rudolf of Kyburg, of the Habsburg line, is defeated by

Bern and Solothurn, in the Kyburg War.

1384 Bern and Solothurn take Thun, Burgdorf, and other places

from Rudolf of Kyburg. The Kyburgs are forced to accept

citizenship in Bern.

1385 The Swiss cities join the league of the south German

towns. The men of Lucerne demolish Rotenburg, the residence of

the Austrian bailiff.

1386 The forest districts come to the aid of Lucerne against

Austria. The Swiss defeat the Austrians in spite of great odds

in the battle of Sempach (Arnold Winkelried).

1388 The men of Glarus aided by a few from Schwyz defeat the

Austrians at Näfels. Glarus is delivered from Austria.

1389 The confederates are secured in their conquests by a seven

years’ truce with Austria. Glarus permanently rejoins the

league.

1393 Schöno’s attempt to deliver Zurich to Austria fails. By

the Sempach Ordinance (_Sempacher Brief_) the confederates are

drawn closer together by provision for an army and for the

preservation of order.

1394 The truce with Austria is prolonged for twenty years. The

Swiss Confederacy is recognised and political dependence on

Habsburg is practically at an end. The country hereafter is

commonly known as _Die Schweiz_ (Switzerland).

1395 Formation of the Upper (Grey) League in the western

Grisons.

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

1402 Revolt of the people of Appenzell and St. Gall against the

abbot of St. Gall.

1403 The Appenzellers defeat the abbot’s forces at Vögelinseck.

1405 The abbot’s troops, assisted by an Austrian army, are

defeated in the battle of the Rheinthal or Stoss.

1408 The Appenzellers are beaten at Bregenz.

1411 Appenzell is placed under the protection of the Swiss

League (save Bern).

1412 The truce of the league with Austria is prolonged for

fifty years. During the first half of the century the league

increases its territory, not giving political rights, however,

to the acquired lands.

1414 The council of Constance is convened. Switzerland is

visited by great numbers of ecclesiastics and great nobles.

1415 Duke Frederick of Austria helps John XXIII escape from

Constance. The emperor Sigismund places Frederick under the

ban. By Sigismund’s order the confederates conquer the Austrian

Aargau. Bern receives the lion’s share. The first common

bailiwicks (_Freie Amter_) are established. Uprising of the

Valais against the baron von Raron, a despotic ruler.

1416 Lucerne, Uri, and Unterwalden form an alliance with Upper

Valais.

1417 Uri and Upper Valais take the Val d’Ossola from Savoy.

1422 The attempts of Uri and the confederates to acquire

territory to the south of the Alps receive a check in their

defeat by the Milanese at Arbedo.

1424 The Grey League is formally renewed.

1436 The league of the Ten Jurisdictions is formed in the

eastern Grisons. Conflicting claims over the territories left

by Frederick, count of Toggenburg, cause dissension between

Zurich and Schwyz. The other confederates take sides with

Schwyz.

1440 The men of Zurich invade Schwyz but are compelled to

retreat. Felix Hämmerlin, humanist, furthers the new learning

at Zurich.

1442 Zurich allies itself with Austria and resists federal

jurisdiction. Civil war (the Old Zurich War) breaks out.

1443 The Zurich troops are defeated at Sankt Jacob on the Sihl.

Stüssi, the burgomaster of Zurich is slain.

1444 Zurich is besieged by the confederates. Charles VII of

France sends to her aid wild bands of the Armagnacs under

command of the dauphin Louis. They slaughter the confederates,

who make a heroic defence at Sankt Jacob on the Birs before

Bâle.

1450 Peace is concluded. Zurich is forced to renounce her

alliance with Austria.

1452 The Swiss League concludes treaty of friendship with

France. A new class of allies, the associate districts

(_Zugwandte Orte_), begins to gather round the league.

1458 The league forms an alliance with Rapperschwyl. Sigismund,

duke of Austria, irritated by its loss declares war.

1460 The confederates overrun the Austrian Thurgau. This

results in the second accession of common bailiwicks. The art

of printing is established at Bâle. Founding of the University

of Bâle. Material and artistic culture flourishes.

1461 Sigismund gives up Thurgau which comes under the

protection of the confederates.

1463 The confederates renew the French treaty with Louis XI.

1467 Zurich purchases Winterthur from Sigismund. The league

makes a treaty of friendship with Philip the Good, duke of

Burgundy.

1468 The Swiss lay siege to Waldshut. Sigismund buys them off.

1469 Sigismund obtains the protection and financial aid of

Charles the Bold of Burgundy. He gives as security Alsace, the

Waldshut, and the Black Forest. The alliance of Charles with

Sigismund violates the treaty of 1467 and incenses the Swiss.

Charles the Bold commits the mortgaged lands to Peter von

Hagenbach, as vogt. His severity is complained of by the Swiss.

1470 Louis XI of France makes a treaty with the Swiss to secure

their neutrality.

1471 The three leagues of the Grisons confirm an earlier

alliance.

1473 Sigismund becomes the ally of Louis, who aims to reconcile

Sigismund and the Swiss and turn them against Charles the Bold.

1474 The confederates attempt in vain to get redress from

Charles the Bold for the wrongs done by Hagenbach to their

friends in Alsace. As the result of the efforts of Louis

XI, the Everlasting Compact (_Ewige Richtung_) is signed at

Constance. By it Sigismund renounces all Austrian claims on the

lands of the confederates and they agree to support him. The

freedom of the Swiss Confederation from the Habsburgs is now

formally established. The Swiss and Sigismund join a league of

the Alsatian and Rhine cities. Hagenbach is put to death with

the connivance of Bern. The confederates at the instance of

Sigismund declare war against Charles. Bern takes the lead in

westward aggression. Héricourt is taken by the confederates.

1475 Further successes of the Swiss. Bern captures sixty towns

in Vaud, fighting against Savoy, which has joined Charles the

Bold. Bern and Upper Valais form an alliance and the latter

prevents the passage of the Milanese troops of Savoy. The

emperor and Louis desert the confederates.

1476 Charles the Bold captures Granson and has the garrison

executed by two of their own comrades. The Swiss gain a

glorious victory in the battle of Granson and retake the

town. Rich spoils and revenge. Charles besieges Morat. In the

battle of Morat the Swiss decisively defeat the Burgundians.

By intervention of Louis XI an arrangement is made with Savoy

by which for the first time French-speaking districts become

connected with the confederation. Savoy loses Fribourg,

Granson, Morat, Orbe, Echallens, and Aigle. Bern profits most.

1477 The Swiss and the troops of René, duke of Lorraine, defeat

Charles the Bold at the battle of Nancy. The foundation of

Swiss nationality is firmly laid by these victories, and the

fame of Swiss arms is world-wide; but internal jealousies

arise. Riots in various states. The band of the Mad Life.

Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Fribourg, and Solothurn form a separate

league and a perpetual treaty (_Burgrecht_).

1478 The men of Zurich, Lucerne, Uri, and Schwyz defeat the

Milanese at the battle of Giornico. Switzerland expands toward

the south.

1480 Fribourg and Solothurn seek admission to the league. This

demand is opposed by the rural members and supported by the

towns belonging to the separate league of the Burgrecht.

1481 The Compact of Stanz (_Stanzer Verkomnis_) prevents

disruption. Nicholas von der Fluhe aids to an understanding.

Fribourg and Solothurn (the ninth and tenth members) are

admitted to the confederation. The separate league of the towns

is dissolved. Dangerous societies are forbidden. The compact

concentrates the government of the confederation.

1489 Hans Waldmann, burgomaster of Zurich, attempts to

subordinate the peasants. He is overthrown and executed.

1490 Insurrection against the federal government in St. Gall is

put down.

1496 The Swiss refuse to obey the imperial chamber, objecting

to taxation without representation. They refuse to join the

Swabian League.

1497 The confederates conclude a perpetual league with the Grey

League of the Grisons.

1498 The confederates conclude a perpetual league with the

League of God’s House (_Gotteshausbund_) of the Grisons.

1499 The Swiss go to the support of their allies in the

Grisons against the emperor Maximilian and the Swabian

League. Successes of the Swiss at Triesen, at Bruderholz

near Bâle, at Calven, at Schwaderloo, and at Frastenz. The

Swiss Confederation by the peace of Bâle secures freedom from

German imperial regulations and rises to the rank of an allied

state of the empire, having practical independence. The Swiss

establish their rights in the Thurgau. The league of Ten

Jurisdictions in the Grisons confirms an alliance with the

Swiss League.

1500 Swiss mercenaries engaged by Louis Sforza surrender Novara

to the French rather than fight the Swiss in the French army of

Louis XII. By the help of the Swiss Milan becomes a property of

France. The practice of Swiss serving in foreign armies has now

become frequent.

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

1501 Bâle and Schaffhausen (the eleventh and twelfth members)

are admitted to the confederation.

1510 Schinner, bishop of Sitten, induces Swiss troops to aid in

the expulsion of the French from Italy.

1512 The Swiss conquer Milan and drive the French out of Italy;

declare Maximilian duke of Milan. In return the confederates

receive Ticino and the Grisons leagues get the Valtellina,

Cleves, and Bormio.

THE CONFEDERATION OF THIRTEEN STATES

1513 Appenzell is admitted to the confederation, thus

completing the confederation of Thirteen States. The Swiss

defeat the French at Novara.

1515 Francis I defeats the Swiss at Marignano, breaking the

Swiss power in northern Italy.

1516 The Swiss League concludes a treaty of Perpetual Peace

with France. Hans Holbein at Bâle wins great reputation as a

painter. His work marks the further advance of humanism in

Switzerland.

1519 Ulrich (Huldreich) Zwingli preaches the Reformation at

Zurich.

1521 Twelve states of the confederation (Zurich being

restrained by Zwingli) conclude an alliance with France.

1522 The diet at Lucerne forbids the clergy to preach

unauthorised doctrines.

1523 Zwingli’s teaching is sanctioned by the council at two

“disputations” at Zurich. Zurich pushes forward the work of the

Reformation, but is not supported by the other confederates.

The first ecclesiastics are publicly married.

1524 Under Zwingli’s leadership Zurich dissolves the

monasteries. The forest states prevail on the diet at Lucerne

to pronounce for the old faith. Religious riots occur in

the Thurgau. The monastery of Ittingen is burned down. The

Reformation progresses in eastern Switzerland.

1525 The mass is discontinued at Zurich. The temporal rights of

the Grossmünster are turned over to the state. The Carolinum,

a school for humanists, founded by Zwingli and Zurich, is made

a nursery of culture. Lausanne concludes an alliance with

Fribourg and Bern. The disorders caused by the anabaptists are

checked. The Swiss mercenaries are defeated with the French at

Pavia.

1526 The disputation at Baden, Eck, and Faber, representing

the Catholics, decides in favor of the old faith. Several

executions follow. Geneva forms alliances with Bern and

Fribourg.

1527 Evangelical coburghership of Zurich and Constance

(_Evangelisches Burgrecht_). Execution of Max Wehrli, the

Catholic bailiff in the Thurgau. Troubles in Toggenburg and St.

Gall widen the breach between Catholics and Evangelicals.

1528 Bern joins Zurich and Constance in favour of religious

freedom and is followed by Bâle, Schaffhausen, St. Gall and

Mülhausen. The confederation is in danger of breaking up.

1529 Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, and Zug form the

Christian Alliance (_Christliche Vereinigung_), and ally

themselves with Austria. First war of Kappel. The Austrian

alliance is annulled and religious parity for each member of

the confederation is declared by the first Peace of Kappel.

1530 Genoa with confederate aid secures freedom from Savoy.

1531 Second war of Kappel. The Catholic members of the

confederation advance on Zurich. Near Kappel the men of Zurich

are defeated and Zwingli is slain. Second Peace of Kappel. The

Reformation in Switzerland is considerably checked. Catholic

reaction. The league is now completely split into Catholics and

evangelicals.

1532 William Farel begins to preach the Reformation in Geneva.

1535 The Reformation is successfully planted in Geneva by Farel.

1536 Bern conquers Vaud and Lausanne and takes them from Savoy.

Calvin comes to Geneva. The first Helvetic confession is

published.

1538 By influence of the papal party Calvin is exiled from

Geneva.

1541 Calvin returns to Geneva and there establishes a theoretic

government, the _consistorium_. He enters upon a harsh rule,

imprisoning and executing his opponents.

1548 Constance is captured by the Austrians in the war of

Smalkalden and is cut off from the Swiss Confederation.

1549 Calvin’s theological disputes with the Zurich reformers

are partly settled by the Compromise of Zurich (_Consensus

Tigurinus_).

1553 Michael Servetus is burned at the stake at Geneva at the

instance of Calvin.

1555 Calvin expels from Geneva many who uphold municipal

liberty and replaces them by foreigners. The city gains the

name of the “Protestant Rome.” Evangelicals driven out of

Locarno take refuge in Zurich.

1559 Calvin founds the University of Geneva.

1564 Calvin dies. Théodore de Beze succeeds him as head of the

church. Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, supported by the

Catholic members of the league, demands back the districts

seized by Bern in 1536. The Treaty of Lausanne restores

several of them. The counter-Reformation (Catholic reaction)

makes itself strongly felt in Switzerland. It is furthered by

Carlo Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, and at Lucerne by Ludwig

Pfyffer, the “Swiss king.”

1565 The Catholic states of Switzerland ally themselves with

Pope Pius IV.

1566 The second Helvetic Confession is published as a basis for

union between the Calvinists and the Zurich reformers.

1574 The Catholic reaction advances by the establishment of the

Jesuits at Lucerne.

1580 A papal nuncio comes to Lucerne. Borromeo founds at Milan

the “Collegium Helveticum” for the education of Swiss priests.

1581 The Capuchins become active in Switzerland for the

Catholic reaction.

1582 The Protestants object to the introduction of the

Gregorian calendar.

1586 The Golden or Borromean League for support of Catholicism

is formed by the seven Catholic members of the confederation

(Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, Zug, Freiburg, Solothurn).

1588 The reformed states form a separate league with Strasburg.

1597 Appenzell is divided into two parts, “Inner Rhodes,”

Catholic, and “Outer Rhodes,” Protestant.

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

1602 The Duke of Savoy attempts to get hold of Geneva (the

“Escalade”).

1620 Massacre of Protestants in the Valtellina. The valley

is won for the Catholics. The Swiss Confederation remains

nominally neutral in the Thirty Years’ War, but various members

become involved from time to time.

1622 The Austrians conquer the Prätigau.

1624 French troops take the Valtellina.

1629 The Valtellina is taken by the imperial troops.

1632 The Baden Compromise adjusts the religious status of the

“common bailiwicks.”

1635 The French once more capture the Valtellina.

1637 George Jenatsch with help of the Spaniards drives the

French out of the Valtellina.

1639 The independence of the Grisons is established.

1648 By the Treaty of Westphalia the Swiss Confederation is

formally separated from Germany and recognized as independent.

Religious divisions continue to cripple the energy of the

confederation. Poverty, a result of the Thirty Years’ War,

causes discontent.

1653 The Peasants’ War breaks out in Bern, Solothurn, Lucerne,

and Bâle because of the oppression of the governing class.

The peasants form a league of Sumiswald. They are defeated at

Wohlenschwyl.

1654 The Protestant Swiss intercede for the Waldenses. They

win the friendship of Oliver Cromwell, who pays great honor to

their envoys.

1655 Protestant fugitives from Schwyz find refuge in Zurich.

1656 The first Villmergen War results. Christopher Pfyffer

of Lucerne with a body of Catholics defeats the Protestants

at Villmergen. A treaty is concluded which provides for the

individual sovereignty of each member of the confederation in

religious matters.

1663 The confederation makes a treaty with Louis XIV of France,

by which Protestant Swiss mercenaries are taken into the king’s

pay.

1668 As the result of encroachments by Louis in the

Franche-Comté the confederates provide for joint action against

outside enemies by putting into execution the agreement known

as the Defensionale. French Protestant refugees find shelter in

Switzerland.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

1707 Pierre Fatio at the head of a committee of the council at

Geneva demands a more liberal government.

1712 The abbot of St. Gall by his oppressions rouses the people

of Toggenburg to insurrection. The second Villmergen War (or

war of Toggenburg) between Catholics and Protestants from these

troubles. The Catholics are defeated at Villmergen. The Treaty

of Aarau assures the “common bailiwicks” religious liberty and

gives advantages to the Protestants.

1715 The Catholic members of the confederation by the Truckli

Bund agree to put France in the position of guarantor of the

confederation. A period of decline. The confederation has

little unity. Unsatisfactory relations of the classes.

1723 The conspiracy of Davel to free Vaud from the oppression

of Bern is crushed.

1729 The “_Harten_” (hard ones) opponents of the government,

and the “_Linden_” (soft ones) at Zug struggle for supremacy.

1732 The “Harten” gain a victory over the “Linden” in the Outer

Rhodes of Appenzell.

1737 The democrats win a victory for liberal government in

Geneva.

1744 Demands for a more liberal government are made in Bern.

1749 Hentzi’s conspiracy attempts in vain to overthrow the

oligarchy at Bern.

1748 Discontents of the common people cause disorder in

Neuchâtel.

1755 Popular uprisings in the Leventina are crushed by the

government of Uri.

1762 The Helvetic Society is founded and fosters aspirations

for liberty. Rousseau, then a citizen of Geneva, publishes the

_Contrat Social_. These books are publicly burned by order of

the city government. The popular party wins in the Outer Rhodes

of Appenzell.

1764 The “Harten” are victorious in Zug.

1768 Armed intervention of France, Zurich, and Bern in Geneva

to suppress popular revolts of the “natives.” Disorders occur

in the patriciate of Lucerne.

1770 The “natives” rise in revolt in Geneva.

1777 All of the thirteen states of the confederation join in

making a new alliance with France. Political disturbances occur

in Zurich.

1780 The meetings of the Helvetic Society are forbidden.

1781 Anarchy in Geneva. Pastor Waser is executed at Zurich for

opposition to the city government. France, Bern, and Sardinia

intervene. Emigration from Geneva. Insurrection at Fribourg

under Chenaux.

1784 Joseph Suter, a popular leader in the Inner Rhodes of

Appenzell, is executed.

1789 The French Revolution begins to find sympathizers in

Switzerland.

1790 Exiles from Vaud and Fribourg organise the Helvetic Club

at Paris to spread the new ideas in Switzerland. The club stirs

up risings in the western part of the confederation. Lower

Valais rises against the oppressive rule of the upper districts.

1792 Porrentruy defies the prince-bishop of Bâle; with the

help of the French drives out the imperial troops; forms

the Rauracian Republic. This afterward becomes the French

department of Mont Terrible. Geneva is saved from France by a

force from Zurich and Bern. Massacre of the Swiss guards at the

Tuileries by the Paris mob. The diet of Aarau orders the recall

of the Swiss regiments.

1793 A reign of terror begins in Geneva because of uprising of

the “natives.”

1794 The revolutionary party assumes control in Geneva. Arrests

and murders. Demands for greater freedom are made at Stäfa in

the territory of Zurich.

1795 A reaction sets in in Geneva. The insurrection at Stäfa is

suppressed.

1797 Bonaparte incorporates the Italian bailiwicks of the

Valtellina with the Cisalpine Republic. La Harpe calls on

the Directory to protect the liberties of Vaud against the

oppression of Bern.

THE HELVETIC REPUBLIC

1798 French troops in response occupy Mülhausen, Bienne, and

part of the lands of the prince-bishop of Bâle. Insurgents

open the prison of Chillon. Another French army enters Vaud

and the Lemanic Republic is proclaimed there. The French

occupy Fribourg and Solothurn; defeat the Bernese after

fierce fighting at Neueneck; take Bern, the stronghold of the

aristocratic party, and pillage the treasury. The Revolution

triumphs over the Confederation. By order of the Directory,

the Helvetic Republic, one and indivisible, is proclaimed.

Peter Ochs of Bâle supplies a constitution. Ten of the thirteen

members of the old confederation accept the new government.

Twenty-three “cantons,” or administrative districts, are

created. The forest districts rebel. Their resistance, headed

by Alois Reding, of Schwyz, is put down after desperate

conflicts at Schindellegi, Morgarten, and at Rothenthurm.

An insurrection of the mountaineers of Upper Valais against

the French is bloodily repressed. The French put down an

insurrection in Nidwald with great bloodshed. (The days of

terror of Nidwald end.)

1799 Zurich, the forest cantons, and Rhætia become the scene of

the struggle of the Austrian and Russians against the French in

the wars of the Coalition.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

1802 Strife between the centralists and the federalists.

Bonaparte withdraws the French troops. The Helvetian government

is driven from Bern. Bonaparte convenes Swiss statesmen at

Paris in the _consulta_, and acts as mediator. The Frickthal,

the last Austrian possession in Switzerland, is given to the

Helvetic Republic by Bonaparte.

THE CONFEDERATION OF NINETEEN CANTONS

1803 Napoleon’s Act of Mediation is made the constitution of

“Switzerland.” This name for the first time is used as the

official name of the country. The thirteen members of the old

confederation are set up again and six new cantons are added.

There are to be no more privileged classes or subject lands.

Switzerland enjoys ten years of peace and prosperity.

1804 Insurrection breaks out at Horgen in the canton Zurich.

1806 Neuchâtel is given to Marshal Berthier.

1810 Valais, which has been a separate republic, is made into

the French department of the Simplon. The Swiss Society of the

Public Good is founded. Pestalozzi and Fellenberg work out an

educational system.

1813 Austrian and Russian troops, supported by the reactionary

party, enter Switzerland; the diet abolishes the constitution

of 1803.

1814 “The long diet” at Zurich attempts to adjust party

differences. Bern heads a party anxious to restore the old

order. Zurich and the majority stand out for the nineteen

cantons of Napoleon. The allies enter Switzerland.

THE LEAGUE OF TWENTY-TWO STATES

1815 The Swiss diet accepts the decisions of the congress of

Vienna and a new constitution, the Federal Pact, is adopted.

The league of States (_Staatenbund_) is made to include

twenty-two members. The sovereign rights of each canton are

recognised. The federal diet exercises supreme sovereignty only

in purely national concerns. The great powers at the congress

of Vienna guarantee the neutrality of Switzerland. Switzerland

is freed from subserviency to France. New aristocracies make

themselves felt.

1817 Switzerland becomes a party to the Holy Alliance.

1819 The Helvetic Society again takes up political reforms.

1823 Freedom of the press is restricted under influence of the

great powers. Intellectual reaction and ultra-montanism become

noticeable and cause dissensions.

1830 The July revolution in Paris finds an echo in Switzerland.

Twelve cantons reform their constitutions in a democratic

sense. Popular demonstrations at the assembly of Uster.

1831 The aristocracy of Bern submits to liberal reforms.

1832 The cantons Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Solothurn, St. Gall,

Aargau, and Thurgau agree to united action looking toward

reform (_Siebener Concordat_). They are opposed by the

reactionary cantons, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Valais, and

Neuchâtel which form the league of Sarnen (Sarner Bund).

1833 Bâle is divided into a rural (Baselland) and an urban

(Baselstadt) half-canton because of the desire of the rural

population for proportional representation in the Diet.

1834 Political refugees to Switzerland increase to such an

extent that measures are taken by the diet to prevent abuse of

the privilege of asylum.

1835 Religious tumults in Aargau.

1836 Difficulties with France over tariff regulations.

Religious tumults in the Bernese Jura.

1838 The Society of the Grütli is founded at Geneva.

1839 Reaction in Zurich against radicals and freethinkers.

(Strauss’ _Life of Jesus_).

1840 Clericals revolt against the radicals in Aargau.

1841 They are put down. Eight monasteries in Aargau are

suppressed. The quarrel provokes disputes in the diet.

1843 The diet effects a compromise in the religious quarrel

in Aargau by which four instead of eight of the monasteries

are suppressed. The seven Catholic cantons, Uri, Schwyz,

Unterwalden, Lucerne, Zug, Fribourg, and Valais hereupon form a

separate league, the Sonderbund.

1844 The Sonderbund declares for the reopening of all the

monasteries in Aargau. The clericals in Lucerne, the Vorort,

give high posts to Jesuits. Parties of free-lances attempt to

capture the city.

1845 The attack on Lucerne is renewed but is unsuccessful. The

radicals gain control in Zurich.

1846 The radicals become the majority in Bern and Geneva.

1847 The radicals get a majority in St. Gall. The diet in which

the radicals are now in the majority declares the Sonderbund

contrary to the Federal Pact. The diet resolves to revise the

pact and asks the cantons to expel the Jesuits. The attempt to

enforce the decree leads to the Sonderbund War. This is quickly

ended by the defeat of the rebellious Catholic cantons at

Gislikon, largely because of the good generalship of Dufour.

SWITZERLAND AS A FEDERAL STATE

1848 A new constitution is accepted by the majority of the

cantons. Switzerland becomes a federal state (_Bundesstaat_).

A central government is organised consisting of a council of

states (_Ständerath_), a national council (_National Rath_) and

a federal council or executive (_Bundesrath_). German, French,

and Italian are recognised as national languages. Bern is

chosen the national capital.

1855 The federal polytechnic school is opened at Zurich.

Improvements in the educational system are introduced.

1856 A royalist conspiracy in Neuchâtel is put down and causes

a dispute between Switzerland and the king of Prussia, the

overlord of Neuchâtel.

1857 Neuchâtel is definitely ceded to Switzerland.

1859 Switzerland posts troops on the Italian frontier to

preserve neutrality in the Italian War and puts an end to

foreign enlistments.

1860 The Swiss government protests against the cession of Nice

and Savoy to France.

1861 French troops occupy the Valée de Dappes.

1862 The question of the frontiers in the Valée de Dappes is

arranged with France by mutual cession of territory.

1864 The convention of Geneva introduces humanitarian reforms

in warfare. Election riots at Geneva lead to bloodshed.

1865 International social science congress meets at Bern.

1866 Restrictions on religious liberty of Jesuits, etc., are

removed. An attempt is made to revise the constitution in a

democratic sense but fails.

1867 An international congress of workmen is held at Lausanne.

1869 The construction of the St. Gotthard tunnel is decided

upon.

1871 Switzerland shelters French refugees of the Franco-German

War though insisting on the maintenance of neutrality. The

growth in power of the “old Catholics” causes disturbances in

western Switzerland (the struggle against Ultramontanism). The

Alabama Arbitration Commission meets in Geneva.

1872 An attempt at revision of the constitution is defeated by

a small majority.

1873 Abbé Mermillod, appointed by the pope “apostolic vicar” of

Geneva, is banished from Switzerland. The see of Bishop Lachat

of Bâle is suppressed by several cantons because he upholds the

doctrine of papal infallibility.

SWITZERLAND UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1874

1874 A new constitution, a revision of that of 1848, is

accepted by the people. The referendum hereby becomes a part

of the machinery of the federal government as it had already

been part of that of most of the cantons. The new constitution

increases centralisation in the government. The international

postal congress meets at Bern and lays the foundation for the

international postal union.

1876 Religious and political differences cause an armed

encounter in Ticino.

1877 A law regulating the working hours in factories is passed,

marking an advance in labour legislation.

1878 James Fazy, noted statesman, dies.

1879 Legislation puts an end to dissensions over the

financeering of the St. Gotthard railway.

1882 The St. Gotthard railway is opened.

1883 Mermillod is appointed bishop of Lausanne.

1884 Bishop Lachat is made apostolic vicar of Ticino. An

international conference is held at Bern to secure the

protection of copyright.

1887 Alcohol is made a state monopoly.

1888 The creation of a see at Lugano excites the opposition of

the radicals. An important law for the protection of patents is

passed.

1889 Bismarck’s spy Wohlgemuth is expelled. Germany protests.

Difficulties arising out of the Swiss custom of granting

political asylum are settled.

1890 Religious riot at Ticino. The principal compulsory

insurance against sickness and accident is accepted by popular

vote.

1891 The federal constitution is amended so that fifty thousand

citizens by the “initiative” can compel the federal authorities

to prepare and submit to the people any reform in the

constitution demanded by the petitioners. The establishment of

a state or federal bank is approved by the people. The purchase

of the Central Railway by the confederation is rejected by

popular vote.

1893 The killing of animals in Jewish fashion is prohibited by

exercise of the initiative.

1894 An attempt by the initiative to secure the adoption for

the government of a socialist scheme to provide employment

fails.

1896 A National exhibition is held at Geneva. Labour riots

directed against the employment of Italians cause many of these

to leave Zurich. The eighteenth international congress on

copyright meets at Bern and takes steps for copyright reform in

Germany and Great Britain.

1897 The national council adopts a bill authorising the

confederation to purchase the five principal railroads when

the terms of the concessions expire. The proposals of the

government as to a federal bank are rejected by the people.

An international congress for the protection of labor is held

at Zurich. It votes in favor of the prohibition of Sunday

labor, except under special conditions for the restriction of

unhealthful trades and night-work, for the betterment of the

conditions of employment for women and for a working day of

eight hours by legal enactment.

1898 The government authorises the construction of the Simplon

tunnel. The people vote for the unification of the cantonal

laws civil and criminal into a set of federal codes. The

principle of the purchase by the confederation of the principal

railroads is approved by popular vote. The empress Elizabeth

of Austria is assassinated by an Italian anarchist in Geneva.

Expulsion of anarchists follows.

1899 The scheme for the establishment of the “double

initiative” is launched. The law for the compulsory insurance

of working men against sickness and accident is passed by the

legislature.

1900 This proposal, however, is rejected by the people by a

large majority. The proposals for proportional representation

in the national council and for the election of the federal

council by the people (the “double initiative”) are rejected by

popular vote.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

1901 On representation of the Turkish government the federal

council suppresses publications of the party of Young Turkey

criticising the sultan for the Armenian massacres. Public

opinion condemning the action of the council as a violation

of the right of asylum finds expression in many places.

Anti-Russian demonstrations are made at Geneva and Bern by

socialists. The socialist movement gains in strength.

1902 Difficulties with Italy over the publication in an

anarchist organ at Geneva of an article reflecting on the

murdered king Humbert causes the temporary withdrawal of the

diplomatic representatives of the two countries. A general

strike in Geneva leads to disturbances which are put down by

troops. The federal council issues a decree suppressing such

religious congregations or orders as have not been authorised

by law. The radical democratic majority in the national council

is considerably strengthened.

1903 A new protective tariff is adopted by popular vote. The

Zionist congress at Bâle votes to investigate Great Britain’s

offer of land in East Africa for Jewish colonisation.

[Illustration]

PART XXI

THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA

BASED CHIEFLY UPON THE FOLLOWING AUTHORITIES

R. BELL, R. N. BESTUZHEV-RIUMIN, V. A. BILBASOV, A. BRÜCKNER, A.

DE HAXTHAUSEN, E. HERMANN, N. M. KARAMZIN, W. K. KELLY, N. I.

KOSTOMAROV, M. KOVALEVSKI, A. LEROY-BEAULIEU, P. MÉRIMÉE, NESTOR,

A. RAMBAUD, T. SCHIEMANN, J. H. SCHNITZLER, A. A. SCHUMAKR, N. K.

SHILDER, G. M. SOLOVIEV, P. STRAHL, N. TURGENIEV, D. M. WALLACE

TOGETHER WITH A STUDY OF

THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIA

BY

S. RAPPOPORT

WITH ADDITIONAL CITATIONS FROM

ALEXANDER II, A. ALISON, R. N. BAIN, T. VON BERNHARDI, A. J. BEVERIDGE,

CATHERINE II, A. P. DE CUSTINE, T. DELORD, J. ECKHARDT, A. DE

FERRAND, I. GOLIKOV, P. DE LA GORCE, R. GOSSIP, A. N. KUROPATKIN,

LEO, M. LÉVESQUE, C. A. DE LOUVILLE, H. MARTIN, MAURICIUS,

A. MIKHAILOVSKI-DANILEVSKI, H. NORMAN, PROCOPIUS, C. C. DE RULHIÈRE,

F. SCHLOSSER, P. DE SÉGUR, P. SHCHEBALSKI, F. H. SKRINE,

STORCK, H. TYRRELL, VOLTAIRE

COPYRIGHT, 1904,

BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS.

_All rights reserved_

RUSSIA

INTRODUCTION

THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIA

WRITTEN SPECIALLY FOR THE PRESENT WORK

BY DR. A. S. RAPPOPORT

School of Oriental Languages, Paris

“Russia evolves very slowly, like an empire that is not of yesterday and

that has ample time before it,” is one of Nietzsche’s remarks before his

reason had hopelessly gone adrift in the vast ocean of insanity. This

remark of the German poet-philosopher is true enough. What Nietzsche,

however, did not know or did not say is that one can hardly speak of any

evolution, as far as general civilisation, intellectual culture, and

development are concerned, of Russia as a whole. Only a small minority,

the so-called _intelligentia_, has evolved intellectually, not Russia

itself. Here lies the fundamental difference between Russia and the rest

of Europe.

There is a vast gulf, ever broadening, between the Russian intelligentia

and the _muyiks_. Thought and culture, nay even civilisation, seem to

be limited to a select few. The bulk of the people has not only failed

to advance from a state in which it was surprised by Jenghiz Khan, but

it has actually retrograded to a more savage condition. Revolutions

have passed over their heads without in the least affecting them. “The

Russian masses,” says Leroy-Beaulieu (_The Empire of the Czars_), “have

not felt the breath of either the Renaissance, or the Reformation, or

the Revolution. All that has been done in Europe or America for the last

four centuries, since the time of Columbus and Luther, Washington and

Mirabeau, is, as far as Russia is concerned, non-existent.”

The people never think, or at least have not yet left that crude state

of barbarism which precedes the dawn of civilisation; the first rays

of thought have scarcely tinted with orient hues the dark horizon

of ignorance and superstition of the Russian population; the great

events have failed to stir its mental inertia. I am, however, far from

maintaining that the fault lies with the nature and national character

of the people. The rich nature, the subtle spirit of the Slav, his

power of adaptation and imitation make him not only accessible to

western civilisation and culture but also capable of producing something

which bears the impress of the peculiarity of the Slavonic genius. The

intelligentia is now giving ample proof corroborating this statement.

The Russian intelligentia has passed the phases of growing and changing

and doubting and has reached a condition of maturity, asserting its

manhood and right. Before examining the intellectual development of the

Russian intelligentia and the point it has reached, as compared with

western Europe, we must try to find out the causes that first produced

that gulf between the few and the many, and the circumstances that were

instrumental in widening it.

It is a mistake to imagine that the very first foundations of Russian

intellectual development were laid by Peter the Great and that Russia,

although behind western Europe in culture and civilisation, is still in

her youthful vigour and freshness and will soon overtake the old world.

There was a time, at the beginning of the eleventh century, when the

Slavonic countries under the rule of the Norman conquerors were on the

same level of civilisation as western Europe. The foundations were laid

before the Norman invasion and very frequent were the relations between

this people in the east and those in the north of Europe. Long before the

ninth century, Kiev was known to the inhabitants of Scandinavia. Many

a jarl sought refuge there and many a merchant ship found its way to

the shores of Russia. On the road along which the commercial connection

between the East Sea and Byzantium developed were situated the towns of

Smolensk, Tchernigov, Pereiaslavl (cf. V. der Brüggen, _Wie Russland

Europaisch Wurde_, p. 22). When the Norman princes, the warags as they

were called by the Slavonic nations, conquered these towns and subdued

one tribe after the other, the already existing civilisation developed

rapidly under the protection of the new rulers. Forth from Byzantium

and Greece, from Italy, Poland, and Germany, with which countries the

descendants of Rurik kept up a connection, western influence came to

the north. Learned monks came from Byzantium, architects, artisans,

and merchants from Greece, Italy and Germany, and were instrumental in

spreading the languages, customs and ideas of the west. Not only did the

_kniazi_ (princes) of Kiev build churches and edifices after the model

of Greek and Italian art, but they established schools to which Vladimir

compelled his nobles and boyars to send their children. The commercial

relations with the west and the south were very vivid and frequent, and

on the market places of Kiev and Novgorod a motley crowd of Normans and

Slavs, Hungarians, Greeks, Venetians, Germans, Arabs, and Jews were to be

seen.

The intellectual culture of the time had not yet, one must admit,

penetrated the masses of the Slavonic tribes. Yet the Normans, as the

propagators of culture, speedily and easily merged into one with the

conquered tribes, much easier perhaps than the Normans who came with

William the Conqueror amalgamated with Britons and Saxons in England.

Had the Tatar invasion not taken place, it is highly probable that the

intellectual development of Russia would have followed the same lines

as that of western Europe. The commercial and intellectual relations

with the rest of Europe, so eagerly sought after and cultivated by the

Norman princes, would have continued and brought the Slav countries in

increasingly closer contact with the west and under the influence of

all the currents that were destined to traverse Europe later on. The

Renaissance and the revival of learning which shed their light upon the

dark mediæval age (and only a few rays of which found their way to Russia

by way of Poland at a much later period) would have made themselves felt

in Russia. This was, however, not to happen. The Mongolian invasion had

actually cut off Russia from Europe, and brought it under the Tatar

influence. The Norman civilisation, which was in a nascent state, was

crushed; the threads connecting Russia with Europe were cut off. The wave

of Mongolian invasion had inundated the flat land situated between Europe

and Asia, carried away and destroyed every vestige of western influence.

Kiev, Moscow, Tver, Riazan, Tchernigov, and Smolensk were conquered by

the hordes of the Great Khan, who from his seat somewhere in the heart of

China or in the centre of Asia sent down his generals and tax collectors.

Hundreds of thousands of Mongols came to Russia, mixed with the Slavs,

and influenced habits, customs, civilisation, social life, administration

and even language. The influence was a very far-reaching and deep one;

Mongolism has penetrated Russian life to a much higher degree than a

Russian would care to admit or western Europeans have realised. Greater

and greater became the gulf between the Russian and the Romance and

Teutonic worlds. But that gulf might have been bridged over and Russia

might have been saved, when the dawn of better and happier days broke in,

by another power: the influence of the church. Here again, however, owing

to circumstances, this in many respects civilising agent was powerless.

In spite of all the reproaches hurled at the church, it must be admitted

that it had all the education in its hands. In Russia, however, the

case was different. From the very beginning, ever since Christianity

was introduced, ever since Vladimir had accepted baptism in Kiev, the

Russian people as Christians were divided into two distinct groups.

Whilst the enthusiastic adherents of the new religion endeavoured to

introduce the piety of Byzantium, the mass of the people, although

nominally Christian, remained heathen in reality and has remained so up

to the present. This was due to two reasons. Vladimir had accepted the

Greek form of worship with its asceticism. Asceticism and monasticism, a

retirement from the world, became the Christian ideal. This ideal was too

high, too unattainable and too foreign for reality and for daily life,

whilst on the other hand the perfect Christians considered the life of

the world as sinful and dangerous. Thus the clergy sought retirement in

cloisters and monasteries and the mass, whilst accepting the ceremonies

of Byzantium, had learned nothing of its ethical teachings. The gulf thus

arising between clergy and people was also due to another reason. The

first members of the clergy were Greeks, monks coming from Byzantium,

who spoke a language incomprehensible to the Slavs. The Russian bishops,

who gradually took the place of the learned eastern monks, and who could

communicate with the people, were still too ignorant themselves. And

then suddenly the Tatar invasion came. Connection with Byzantium was cut

off. The influx of the Greek clergy and Byzantine learning had ceased

too early, before the Russians had had time to acquire some amount of

knowledge to replace it. Thus whilst the intellectual development of the

mass took place very slowly, the intellectual level of the clergy sank

rapidly. The consequence was that when the Russian clergy met the people

they were both on the same intellectual level, the priests had nothing

to teach and had no prestige. This also explains, psychologically, the

origin of so many religious sects in Russia. Having no respect and no

admiration for the ignorant priest, addicted to drink, the peasant goes

his own way when he suddenly feels a craving for religious ideals.

Thus the Mongolian invasion had cut off Russia from Europe and whilst

the latter was passing through the phases of transition, approaching

slowly but gradually the times of light and learning, Russia stood still.

The Europe of the Renaissance was not a _creatio ex nihilo_. It was the

result of a slow process of development. The barbarians who had built

their realms on the ruins of the ancient worlds, Hellas and Rome, had

taken over the classical heritage left to them after the disappearance

of the Roman Empire. Rude and barbarous, however, these new conquerors

had no understanding for the value of the heritage and destroyed many

of its richest treasures. Worlds of intellectual culture were lost. But

slowly the age of understanding dawned and the former barbarians brought

forth many of the treasures which they had relegated to the lumber-room,

added many of their own, and blended them into one whole. The result

was the Græco-Roman, Romance, and Teutonic civilisation. Crusades,

Arabian civilisation passing by way of Spain, scholasticism, Reformation,

Renaissance, revival of learning, the discovery of new worlds, the spread

of commerce, scientific inventions and discoveries, stimulating the

desire for learning and creating impulses in every new direction--all

these new and stirring events were so many phases through which European

society and European life passed before they reached the state of modern

development. Many were the streams and cross-currents that traversed

Europe separately before they united and continued the more rapid advance

of a new life and civilisation. All this was lacking in Russia. Russia

missed during its Mongolian period, the time of general transition. None

of the forces which, although invisibly, were steadily furrowing the

European soil and preparing it for the influx of fresh air and new light,

were at work in Russia. The phase of transition had not yet commenced.

That period of constant change, of mingled decadence and spiritual

growth, that ceaseless blending of the old and the new, unnoticed at

the time but clearly distinguished from the distance of later ages,

was lacking in Russia. There was no pope, no powerful church, and

consequently no Reformation and no spirit of individualism--no feudalism,

no knights, no Crusades and no acquaintance with foreign lands, no spread

of commerce, and no widening of the mental horizon of the people. There

were no learned monks copying Greek and Latin manuscripts, paving the way

for scholasticism and modern thought. There was even no language in which

the treasures of the ancient world could be communicated to the Slavs.

Few people could write, few even count properly.

There were no schools and the attempts to establish some such

institutions during the seventeenth century failed. A school was founded

at Moscow under Alexis, but here only a foreign language or two were

taught. Its aim was to train translators for the government. There was no

art, nor technical science. There were no medical men. The two or three

foreign practitioners were considered as sorcerers.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century therefore Russia had

absolutely no culture of her own. All that the Normans had established

had been wiped out. The Byzantine influence had no effect. And when

after a struggle extending over three centuries the czardom of Moscow

had thrown off the shackles of the Great Khan, liberated itself from

thraldom and laid the foundations of the great empire of Russia, it had

only established, on the ruins of the old Mongolian, a new state which

was Mongolian and Tatar in its essence and spirit, in its customs and

institutions, and had little or nothing in common with the rest of Europe.

Moscow was the inheritor of Mongolism, the Czar was spiritually, and

even physically, a descendant of Mongol princes. Ivan IV married a

Mongolian princess, his son married a sister of the Mongol Godunov. They

had actually taken over the inheritance of the khans of Kiptchak. It was

in this barren soil that Peter sowed the seed of European culture. What

happened?

Peter was undoubtedly great and deserves this title. He was one of the

great makers of history. But though great in his plans, great in what

he wished to accomplish, he was not great in what he really attained.

He only saw the superficiality of European civilisation. He introduced

it like some foreign product, like some fashionable article, like

some exotic plant, without first asking whether the national soil was

propitious for its cultivation. He, at the utmost, created a hot-house

atmosphere where his plants could vegetate, and they remained what they

originally were: exotic. He failed to see that civilisation is the

product of a long process of evolution, the natural product of the social

and national conditions, drawing its life and sap from the inner forces

of the people. Instead of making use of these inner forces of his people,

he endeavoured to introduce civilisation by his power of will. He only

had an eye for the effects but not for the causes that were working as

the hidden springs.

In France, in England, in Germany, in all western Europe, civilisation,

the moral and intellectual evolution, was a natural phenomenon, the

effect of previous causes. In Russia, civilisation was the outcome of a

sudden revolution, the slavish, reluctant and half-hearted compliance

with the commands of an individual will. The former was natural, the

latter artificial. An evolution is a slow change, an unconscious and

imperceptible process, finding a state prepared for innovation, a soil,

furrowed and fertile, ready to receive the seed and to bring forth fruit.

A revolution, on the other hand, is a radical, sudden change which seldom

succeeds and, in most cases, calls forth reactions. In Western Europe

there was, as we have see above, a time of transition from the barbarous

to the civilised state. The morning of the Renaissance had dawned upon

mediæval Europe and tinted with orient colours the sombre sky. The

first rays appeared on the horizon of the Italian poets, dissipating

the darkness here and there. The sun gradually rose higher and higher,

penetrated the houses of the people and woke them (who had been lulled to

sleep by the mysterious whisperings of superstition) from their prolonged

slumbers. They awoke, opened their windows and allowed the light of the

morning to penetrate into their dark abodes. Not so in Russia. There

the people were suddenly awakened, dragged out from the utter darkness,

without any transition, into the broad midday of an artificial light.

They opened their eyes, but the light was too strong, too glaring; so

they shut them again. Peter wanted to jump over three centuries and

catch up with Europe. He established a fleet without Russian sailors,

an administration with foreign administrators, an academy of science

in a land without elementary schools. He began a race with Europe but

his people could not follow him. He borrowed everything from Europe

and instead of giving his people a chance to develop naturally and

freely, he crushed the spirit of independence and introduced a knout

civilisation. Everything had to be done by order. He forced his people

to swallow Europeanism. The bulk of his subjects, however, could not

digest it. The consequence was that they could not follow the few, and

remained far behind them. The gulf therefore between the few, who form

the present intelligentia, and the great mass--a gulf which was but

narrow towards the end of the sixteenth century when by way of Poland and

Livonia a glimpse of the western sun penetrated into Russia--suddenly

widened considerably. Thus the origin of the striking phenomenon which

Russia offers in her intellectually high developed intelligentia and her

uneducated, ignorant masses is to be sought in Russia’s past, in the

absence of a period of transition, and in Peter’s misunderstanding the

process of European civilisation, in his admiration for the effects, but

utter ignorance of the causes that brought about these effects.

There is, however, yet another factor--a factor which, whilst accounting

for the existence of an intelligentia, or a coterie of intellectuals,

and of an utterly ignorant mass, will also throw some light upon the

intellectual development of this very intelligentia and explain the

reasons which compelled it to choose certain channels by which it

sends forth the currents of its thoughts. This factor is the despotic

government of the czars. If Russia’s unhappy past and Peter’s good

intentions but great blunders produced the present state of intellectual

development in that country, the government of the Reformer’s successors

has done its very best to preserve this condition.

The continuous policy of the Russian government to civilise by means of

the knout has on the one hand brought about the result that not Russia

but only a few Russians evolved intellectually and, on the other, it has

given a certain direction to the thought and intellectual productions of

these few. Even during the reign of Peter I or Catherine II, when the

spirit of civilisation began to move its wings, independent thought has

had to sustain a fierce struggle against authority. In the most civilised

countries of western Europe ever and anon a cross-current of reaction

traverses the stream of intellectual evolution: narrow-minded zealots,

hypocritical bigots, false patriots, literary Gibeonites, gossiping

old women arrayed in the mantles of philosophers, do their best to put

fetters on the independent thought of man, to nip the free and natural

intellectual development in the very bud by forcing it under the iron

grip of tradition and authority. These reactionary tendencies of the

lovers of darkness are only exceptions, and will lead thought for a while

into a side channel, but cannot stop the triumphant march onwards. Not so

in Russia.

In the empire of the czar thought is almost a crime and every means is

employed to keep it within the boundaries prescribed by the governing

power. To overstep these boundaries, to develop itself freely, and I

might say naturally, is to declare war against authority, to revolt. The

history of evolution of thought in Russia is therefore almost identical

with the revolutionary movement. If whilst working on the construction

of the temple with the right hand, the left has to wield the sword

against a sudden attack of the enemy, the edifice can rise only very

slowly. Renan says (in his _Future of Science_) that the great creations

of thought appear in troublous times and that neither material ease

nor even liberty contributes much to the originality and the energy of

intellectual development. On the contrary the work of mind would only be

seriously threatened if humanity came to be too much at its ease. Thank

God! exclaims the Breton philosopher, that day is still far distant.

The customary state of Athens, he continues, was one of terror; the

security of the individual was threatened at every moment, to-day an

exile, to-morrow he was sold as a slave. And yet in such a state Phidias

produced the Propylæa statues, Plato his dialogues and Aristophanes his

satires. Dante would never have composed his cantos in an atmosphere of

studious ease. The sacking of Rome did not disturb the brush of Michael

Angelo. In a word, the most beautiful things are born amid tears and it

is in the midst of struggle, in the atmosphere of sorrow and suffering

that humanity develops itself, that the human mind displays the most

energy and activity in all directions. Renan was an individualist,

and aristocratic in his teachings, and seems only to have in view

the individual, nay the genius. Suffering and oppression, physical,

intellectual and moral, are schools where the strong gather more strength

and come forth triumphant, but where the weaker are destroyed. What is

true for the _élite_, for the very limited number of the chosen few, does

not hold good for humanity at large, which is not strong enough to think

when it is hungry, to fight against opposing forces and to hurl down the

barriers erected against the advance of thought. Few indeed are those who

can carry on the struggle to a successful issue. The Russian government,

with its Mongolian traditions of autocracy, threw the great nation, which

remained behind Peter’s forward march, back into complete indifference

and apathy, into a state of submissive contentment, where, like a child,

it kisses the rod that punishes it, sometimes cries like a child, and is

lulled to sleep by the whisperings of mystic superstition and the vapours

of _vodki_.

Has not the populace a terrifying example in the martyrs of Russian

thought? A terrible destiny awaits him who dares to step beyond the line

traced by the hand of the government, who ventures to look over the

wall erected by imperial ukase. “The history of Russian thinkers,” says

Alexander Herzen (_Russland’s Sociale Zustände_, page 136), “is a long

list of martyrs and a register of convicts.” Those whom the hand of the

imperial government has spared died in the prime of youth, before they

had time to develop, like blossoms hurrying to quit life before they

could bear fruit. A Pushkin and a Lermontov fell in the prime of youth,

one thirty-eight and the other twenty-seven years old, victims of the

unnatural state of society. Russia’s Beaumarchais, Griboiedov, found a

premature end in Persia in his thirty-fifth year; Kolzov, the Russian

Burns, Bielinski, the Russian Lessing, died in misery, the latter at the

age of thirty-eight. Czerncevski was torn from his literary activity

and sent to Siberia. Dobrolubov sang his swan-song in his twenty-fifth

year. Chaadaev, the friend of Schelling, was declared mad by order of the

government. If such measures have kept the people in a state of ignorance

and still lowered the already low level of civilisation, the autocratic

rule has further, as it was unable to crush it, caused the intelligentia

to turn its thoughts into a certain direction.

If we follow the development of the Russian intelligentia we notice at

once that all the currents of its intellectual life are, at the present

time at least, converging into one centre, swelling the stream, that

is already running high, to a vast and mighty ocean, which is sending

its waters, through many channels, all over Europe. This centre is

literature. Since the foundation of the Academy of Science by Peter

the Great Russian achievements in the domains of science, technical

education, art, sculpture, music, painting, history and philosophy have

been very small.

In science and art the Russians have produced nothing of importance,

nothing original. Mendeleev, Lobatshevski, Pirogov, Botkin, Soloviev are

a few scientific names of some eminence but they are few as compared

with Europe and America. Many others, who are known to the western world

as Russians, are in reality Germans or Armenians. The great historian,

Karamzin, was of Tatar extraction. In the domain of art Vereshchagin is a

Russian but Ainasowski is an Armenian, Brulov a Prussian and Antokolski a

Jew (cf. Brüggen, _Das heutige Russland_, p. 182).

Russia has had no Spinoza and no Kant, no Newton and no Spencer. Since

the foundation of the University of Moscow in 1755, some semblance

of Russian philosophy has appeared but a Soloviev and a Grote, a

Troitski and a Preobrajenski have only introduced the philosophy of

Germany, France, and England into Russia, but not worked out their own

philosophical systems. Thus, whilst Russian scientists, technicians,

artists and even musicians have to go abroad to complete their education,

Russian philosophers borrow from Hegel or Descartes, from Locke or Comte.

This is, however, not the case with Russian literature. Russia has

quickened her development in the realm of literature. Her decades were

centuries. Rapidly she has lived through phases of growth and evolution,

of achievement and reflection which have filled long periods in other

people’s lives. The peaks of Russian creative power in this domain, the

productions of Pushkin and Turgeniev, of Lermontov, Dostoievski and

Tolstoi proudly face the heights of literary western Europe.

Whilst, however, the Russian genius of the intelligentia centred its

force in literature, this literature bears the unmistakable trait, that

distinguishes it from European literature, of having a tendency to teach

and of taking a moral aspect. Russian literature on the whole has not

entered the sphere of artistic interest, it has always been a pulpit

whence the word of instruction came forth. With very few exceptions, like

Merejkovski and Andreiev, the Russian author is not practising art for

art’s sake (_l’art pour l’art_) but is pursuing a goal, is accomplishing

a task.

The Russian literature is a long cry of revolt, a continuous sigh or an

admonition. Taine says, somewhere, when speaking of Stendhal and Balzac:

“They love art more than men--they are not writing out of sympathy for

the poor, but out of love for the beautiful.” This is just what the

Russian modern author is not doing. The intellectual and instructive

moments predominate over the emotional and artistic.

This state of the intellectual development is explained by what has been

stated above. It is due to the sudden introduction of western ceremonies

and superficial civilisation, followed by a powerful foreign influence on

the one hand, and the general social and political state of the country.

When Peter had suddenly launched Russia--which was floating like some big

hulk between Asia and Europe--towards the west, the few who helped him in

this endeavour came under the complete influence of western thought and

manners. St. Petersburg soon became a Versailles in miniature. Voltaire,

Diderot, and the encyclopædists governed and shaped Russian thought and

Russian society. But not only France--Germany too, and England, Byron

and his individualism, had gained great sway in Russia. The independence

of Russian thought and its intellectual development only dates from

about 1840. When it awoke at that time, when it became conscious of

itself, it felt that it had a great work, a great mission to fulfil.

Surrounded on one side by a people that was ignorant, ready to sink lower

and lower; opposed, on the other, by a government that did its best to

check individualism and independence in every possible way--the Russian

intelligentia felt its great responsibility.

Surrounded by a population whose mental development was on a very low

level, the atmosphere was and still is not propitious for the cultivation

of art or science, whilst the Russian author had no time simply to admire

the beautiful in nature but was compelled to look round and try what good

he could do. Thus Russian genius concentrated itself in literature as the

best vehicle to expose the state of Russian society. The Russian writer

became an apostle. He is not anxious to be artistic, to shape his style

and to be fascinating, but to give as true a picture of Russian life as

he possibly can, to show the evil and to suggest the remedy.

Such, in broad lines, is the present state which the few, whom we

termed the Russian intelligentia, have reached in their intellectual

development. In a moment of strength the Russian genius has attained

itself, with self-asserting individuality. Its task is great, its

obstacles are manifold, but it fights valiantly and moves on steadily.

This only applies to the few. When the day of political freedom will dawn

for Russia, then and then only the great evolution and the intellectual

development of Russia itself, of the Russian people as a whole, will

begin. On the day when civil and religious despotism, that everywhere

crushes individuality, will cease, then the genius of the Russian people

will spread its pinions, and the masses will awake from their inertia to

new life, like the gradual unfolding of spring into summer.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER I. LAND AND PEOPLE AND EARLY HISTORY

EXTENT, CONFIGURATION, AND CLIMATE

[Sidenote: [To 1054 A.D.]]

To arrive at a just appreciation of Russia’s genius we must have a

knowledge of the soil that nourishes her, the peoples that inhabit her,

and the history through which she has passed. Let us begin with nature,

soil, and climate.

The first fact that strikes us in regard to the Russian empire is its

vastness.[2] Its colossal dimensions are so out of proportion to the

smallness of the greatest among European states, that, to bring them

within the sphere of human imagination, Alexander von Humboldt, one of

the greatest scientists of his century, makes the statement that the

portion of the globe under Russia’s dominion is greater than the entire

surface of the moon at its full.

The territories of that vast empire acknowledge no limits; its vast

plains stretch toward the heart of the old continent, as far as the huge

peaks of central Asia; they are stopped between the Black and the Caspian

seas by the great wall of the Caucasus, whose foot is planted below the

sea-level, and the height of whose summits exceeds by eight hundred feet

that of Mont Blanc.

In lakes Ladoga and Onega, in the northwest, Russia possesses the

greatest lakes in Europe; in Lake Baikal, in Siberia, the greatest in

Asia; in the Caspian and Aral seas, the greatest in the world. Her rivers

equal her plains in proportion: the Obi, the Yenisei, the Amur, in Asia;

the Dnieper, the Don, the Volga, in Europe. The central artery of Russia

is the Volga--a river that, in its winding course of nearly twenty-four

hundred miles, is not altogether European. Nine tenths of the Russian

territory are as yet nearly empty of inhabitants, and nevertheless the

population, according to the census of 1897, taken over all the empire

except Finland, numbered 129,000,000; and the annual increase is very

nearly two million.

Europe is distinguished from other regions of the globe by two

characteristics which make her the home of civilisation: her land is

cut into by the seas--“cut into bits,” as Montesquieu says; she is,

according to Humboldt, “an articulated peninsula”; her other distinctive

advantage is a temperate climate which, in great measure the result of

her configuration, is duplicated nowhere under the same latitude. Russia

alone, adhering solidly to Asia by her longest dimension, bordered on

the north and northwest by icy seas which permit to the borders few of

the advantages of a littoral, is one of the most compact and eminently

continental countries of the globe.

She is deprived of the even, temperate climate due to Europe’s

articulated structure, and has a continental climate--nearly equally

extreme in the rigour of its winters and the torrid heat of its summers.

Hence the mean temperature varies.

The isothermal lines extend in summer toward the pole; in winter they

sink southward: so that the greater part of Russia is included in January

in the rigid, in July in the torrid zone. Her very vastness condemns her

to extremes. The bordering seas are too distant or too small to serve

her as reservoirs of warmth or basins of coolness. Nowhere else in the

Occident are to be found winters so long and severe, summers so burning.

Russia is a stranger to the great influences that moderate the climate

of the rest of Europe--the gulf stream and the winds of the Sahara. The

long Scandinavian peninsula, stretching between Russia and the Atlantic,

deflects from her coasts the great warm current flowing from the New

World to the Old. In place of the gulf stream and the African deserts

it is the polar snows of Europe, and Siberia, the frozen north of Asia,

that hold the predominating influence over Russia. The Ural range, by its

insignificant elevation and its perpendicularity to the equator, is but

an inconsiderable barrier to these influences. In vain does Russia extend

south into the latitude of Pau and Nice; nowhere this side the Caucasus

will she find a rampart against the winds of the north. The conformation

of the soil, low and flat, leaves her open to all the atmospheric

currents--from the parching breath of the central Asian deserts to the

winds of the polar region.

This lack of mountains and inland seas deprives Russia of the necessary

humidity brought to the rest of Europe by the Atlantic and laid up for

it in the storehouses of the Alps. The ocean breezes reach her only when

empty of refreshing vapours; those of Asia are wrung dry long before they

touch her confines. The further the continent stretches, the greater its

poverty of rain. At Kazan the rainfall is but half that of Paris. Hence

the lack, over an enormous southern region, of the two principal elements

of fertility--warmth and moisture; hence in part those wide, woodless,

arid, un-European steppes in the southeast of the empire.

THE SIMILARITY OF EUROPEAN AND ASIATIC RUSSIA

One whole formed of two analogous halves, Russia is in nowise a child

of Europe; but that is not to say that she is Asiatic--that we can

shelve her among the dormant and stationary peoples of the far East.

Far from it: Russia is no more Asiatic than she is European. But in all

physical essentials of structure, climate, and moisture, she is opposed

to historical, occidental Europe; in all these she is in direct relation

with the bordering countries of Asia. Europe proper naturally begins at

the narrowing of the continent between the Baltic and the Black seas.

In the southeast there is no natural barrier between Russia and Asia;

therefore the geographers have in turn taken the Don, the Volga, the

Ural, or again the depression of the Obi, as boundaries. Desert steppes

stretch from the centre of the old continent into Russia by the door left

open between the Ural chain and the Caspian. From the lower course of the

Don to the Aral Sea, all these low steppes on both banks of the Volga and

the Ural rivers form the bed of an old, dried-up sea, whose borders we

can still trace, and whose remnants constitute the great salt lakes known

as the Caspian and the Aral seas. By a hydrographical accident which has

had an enormous influence upon the character and destinies of the people,

it is into one of these closed Asiatic seas that the Volga, the great

artery of Russia, empties, after turning its back upon Europe almost from

its very source.

To the north of the Caspian steppes, from latitude 52° to the

uninhabitable polar regions, the longest meridional chain of mountains

of the old continent forms a wall between Russia and Asia. The Russians

in olden days called it the “belt of stone,” or “belt of the world”;

but, despite the name, the Ural indicates the end of Asia on the one

side, only to mark its recommencement, almost unaltered, on the European

slope. Descending gradually by terraces on the European side, the Ural is

less a chain than a plateau crowned with a line of slight elevations. It

presents principally low ridges covered with forests, like those of the

Vosges and the Jura. So greatly depressed is the centre that along the

principal passes between Russia and Siberia (from Perm to Iekaterinburg,

for example) the eye looks in vain for the summits; in constructing a

railroad through the pass the engineers had no long tunnels to build, no

great difficulties to surmount. At this high altitude, where the plains

are snow-bound during six or seven months, no peak attains the limit of

eternal snows, no valley enbosoms a glacier.

In reality the Ural separates neither the climates, nor the fauna

and flora. Extending almost perpendicularly from north to south, the

polar winds blow almost equally unhindered along both sides; on both,

the vegetation is the same. It is not till the heart of Siberia is

reached--the upper Yenisei and Lake Baikal--that one finds a different

soil, a new flora and fauna. The upheaval of the Ural failed to wipe out

the resemblance and the unity of the two regions it divides. Instead of

a wall between the Russias, it is merely a storehouse of mineral wealth.

In the rocks, of eruptive or metamorphic origin, are veins of metals not

found in the regular strata of the great plains. It no more separates one

from the other than does the river of the same name; and when one day

Siberia shall boast a denser population, the Ural will be regarded as the

axis, the backbone of the two great halves of the empire.

THE DUALISM OF NORTH AND SOUTH

Unity in immensity is Russia’s chief characteristic. From the huge wall

of the Caucasus to the Baltic this empire, in itself greater than all the

rest of Europe, in its numerous provinces presents perhaps less variety

of climate than west European countries whose area is ten or twelve times

less. This is on account of the flat uniformity. And yet, underlying this

homogeneity of climate and configuration, nature has marked with special

characteristics and a distinct individuality a number of regions which,

divided into two groups, embrace all European Russia. Equally flat, with

a climate nearly equally extreme, these two great zones, notwithstanding

their similarity, present a remarkable contrast in soil, vegetation,

moisture, and most other physical and economic conditions. One is the

forest region, the other the woodless zone of the steppes; they divide

the empire into almost equal halves.

From the opposition, from the natural dualism of the steppe and the

forest, has sprung the historical antagonism and the now-ended strife

between the two halves of Russia--the struggle between the sedentary

north and the nomad south; between the Russian and the Tatar; between

the Muscovite state laid in the forest region, and the free Cossacks,

children of the steppes. The forest region, though ceaselessly diminished

by cutting, still remains the more extensive. Occupying the entire north

and centre, it grows wider from east to west, from Kazan to Kiev.

Beyond the polar circle no tree can withstand the intensity and

permanence of the frost. On both sides of the Ural, in the neighbourhood

of Siberia, stretch vast boggy plains (_toundras_), perpetually

frost-bound, and clothed with moss. In these latitudes no cultivation is

possible, no pasturage but lichens is to be obtained, no animal but the

reindeer can exist. Hunting and fishing are the sole occupations of the

few inhabitants who make their dwelling in these lands of ice.

The soil of the wooded plains, at least in the northwest, from the

White Sea to the Niemen and the Dnieper, is low, swampy, and peaty,

intersected by arid sandy hills. The Valdai Hills, the highest plateau,

scarcely attain the height of one thousand feet. This region is rich in

springs and is the source of all the great rivers. The flatness of the

land prevents the rivers from assuming a distinctly marked course, and

as no ridge intervenes, their waters at the thaw run together and form

enormous swamps; or, travelling slowly down undefined slopes, form at the

bottom vast lakes like the Ladoga, a veritable inland sea, or strings of

wretched little pools, like the eleven hundred lakes in the government of

Archangel.

The population, though scattered over wide expanses and averaging less

than fifteen to the square mile, fails to wring from the unfriendly soil

a sufficient nourishment. Wheat will not thrive; barley, rye, and flax

alone flourish. A multitude of small industries eke out the livelihood

for which agriculture is insufficient.

The augmentation of the scattered population is scarcely perceptible

having, so to speak, reached the point of saturation. Russia can hope for

an increase of wealth and population in this desolate northland only upon

the introduction into it of industrial pursuits, as in the case of Moscow

and the Ural regions.

Russian civilisation finds a great, though by no means insurmountable

obstacle in the extremes of temperature. It must be remembered that

Europe enjoys a temperate climate unparalleled in her fairest colonies,

while other continents, for analagous reasons, labour under much the

same disadvantages as Russia. The climate of the northern portion of the

United States greatly resembles that of south Russia, while New York,

Pennsylvania, and the New England states pass through the same extremes

of temperature as the steppes of the Black Sea.

THE SOIL OF THE BLACK LANDS AND THE STEPPES

The Black Lands, one of the largest and most fertile agricultural tracts

in the world, occupy the upper part of the woodless zone at its juncture

with the forest and lake district. Obtaining moisture and shelter

from the latter, the Black Lands enjoy much more favourable climatic

conditions than the steppes of the extreme south. They derive their

name (_tchernoziom_) from a stratum of black humus, of an average depth

of from one and a half to five feet, consisting partly of loam, partly

of oily clay mixed with organic substances. It dries rapidly and is

thereupon reduced to a fine dust; but it absorbs moisture with equal

promptitude, and after a rain takes on the appearance of a coal-black

paste. The formation of this wonderfully fertile layer is attributed to

the slow decomposition of the steppe grasses, accumulated during many

centuries.

The _tchernoziom_ circles like a belt across European Russia, from

Podolia and Kiev on the southwest beyond Kazan in the northeast; after

the interruption of the Ural ridge it reappears in Siberia in the

southern part of Tobolsk. The trees disappear altogether as we advance

southwards, till not even a bush is to be seen. Nothing is visible to

the eye but hundreds of miles of fertile black soil, a limitless field

stretching beyond the horizon. As a consequence of its fertility this

portion of Russia is most populous; the population increases steadily, as

railways are constructed and as agriculture gains upon the surrounding

steppes.

Between the Black Lands and the southern seas lie the steppes proper

wherein the dead level of the country, the absence of all arboreal

vegetation, and the summer droughts attain their maximum. These great

plains, covering over half a million miles of Europe, include many

different qualities of soil, destined to as many different ends.

The sandy, stony, saline steppes will forever be unfit for cultivation.

The fertile steppes which occupy the greater part of the space between

the Black Lands and the Black Sea and the sea of Azov consist of a

layer of black vegetable mould ready for cultivation and teeming with

fertility. The grass, growing five or six feet high, in rainy seasons

even higher, accounts in some measure for the absence of woods: its rapid

luxuriant growth would smother young trees.

The virgin steppe with its rank vegetation--the steppe of history and

poetry--diminishes day by day, and will soon disappear before the

agricultural invasion. The legendary Ukraine has almost lost its wild

beauty; Gogol’s steppe, like Cooper’s prairie, will soon be but a

memory--lost in the black belt. The long delay in opening up these grassy

plains is due as well to the lack of water and wood as to the lack of

workers. The lack of water is difficult to remedy, hence the plains

are bound to experience alternately good and bad years; hence, also,

the frequent famines in lands which otherwise might be regarded as the

storehouse of the empire.

Perhaps an even greater drawback is the lack of trees; thereby the

population is deprived both of fuel and of materials for building. Stalks

of the tall steppe-grasses and the dung of the flocks, which otherwise

would go to the soil, supply it with a fuel that would not suffice for a

dense population. The introduction of railroads and the opening of coal

mines will, however, remedy little by little these evils, by supplying

fuel and restoring the manure to the soil. The proximity to the estuaries

of the great rivers and to the Black Sea renders the position of these

steppes especially favourable to trade with Europe.

The Ural-Caspian depression is as truly a desert as the Sahara. It

contains but few oases. These saline steppes sink in part below the sea

level, like the Caspian itself, whose ancient basin they formed, and

which now, narrowed and sunk, lies about eighty-five feet below the Black

Sea’s surface. This region is of all European Russia the barest, the

driest, and the most exposed to extreme seasons. It is decidedly Asiatic

in soil, climate, flora, fauna, and inhabitants. This barren steppeland,

covering three hundred thousand square miles, has less than a million

and a half inhabitants. It is good for nothing but pasturage; and is

therefore overrun with nomad Asiatic tribes.

We cannot consider as Russian in character the Caucasus and the southern

coast of the Crimea; these present an entirely different aspect, and

are as varied as the real Russia is monotonous. In the valleys of the

Caucasus appear again forests--absent from the centre of the empire

southwards--dense and vigorous, not thin and scattered and monotonous as

in the north. Here fruit-trees thrive, and all varieties of plant life

for which Russia seeks in vain over her wide plains, from the shores of

the ice-bound north to the Black Sea--the vine, which on the banks of the

Don finds but a precarious existence; the mulberry-tree; the olive. Few

are the fruits that cannot prosper in the hanging gardens of the Crimea

suspended above the sea, or in Transcaucasia where, not content with

having introduced successfully the cultivation of cotton and the sugar

cane, the Russian merchants are anxious to establish tea plantations.

DIVERSITY OF RACES

The number of diverse races is accounted for by the configuration of

Russia. Lacking defined boundaries to east and west, Russia has been

open always to invasion--she has been the great highway of emigration

from Asia into Europe. The strata of human alluvions have nowhere been

more numerous, more mingled, more broken or inharmonious than on this

flat bed, where each wave, pushed by the one behind it, encountered no

obstacle other than the wave which had preceded. Even since historical

times it is difficult to enumerate the peoples who have followed one

another upon Russian soil--who have there formed empires more or less

durable: Scythian, Sarmatian, Goth, Avar, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Chazar,

Petcheneg, Lithuanian, Mongol, Tatar; without counting the previous

migrations of the Celts and Teutones, or of peoples whose very names

have perished, but among whom even the most obscure have left upon the

population some impression whose origin to-day it is impossible to trace.

[Illustration: COSTUME WORN BY COSSACK OF THE UKRAINE]

While the configuration of Russia has left her open to every invader,

the structure of her soil forbade the development of the invaders into

organised nations independent of one another. Instead of being the

consequence of slow development by physical causes, this multiplicity

of races and tribes is an historical heritage. Without considering the

glacial regions of the north, uninhabitable save for hunters and fishers,

or the sandy and saline steppes of the southeast, where wander only

pastoral nomads, this complexity of races and tribes, far from being a

result of adaptation to the soil--far from being in harmony with physical

conditions, is directly opposed to them. Far from having a tendency to

race diversion, the natural conditions made for unity and harmony. The

absence of boundaries made it impossible for the different tribes to

isolate themselves.

In the immense quadrilateral comprised between the glacial ocean and

the Black Sea, between the Baltic and the Ural, there is not a single

mountain--not a single dividing line. Over this even surface the

different tribes have been obliged to scatter at random--just as the

waters have flowed together, having no ridge to separate them, no banks

to contain them. Thus, while custom, religion, and language prevented

their mingling, they were yet obliged to live side by side: to invade

one another, to mingle one with another without loss of individuality,

as the rivers which flow together without confounding their waters.

Exhausted in the effort to spread over too large expanses, or broken up

into fragments, all these races have the more easily submitted to the

domination of one rule; and under this domination they have been the

more rapidly unified and mingled. From this fusion, begun centuries ago

under the Christian empire and the Muscovite sovereignty, have sprung the

Russian people--that mass of about 129,000,000 souls, which, compared

with other peoples, resembles the sea devouring its own shores, a sea

dotted with islands which it swallows one by one.

Out of the seeming chaos of Russian ethnology emerge definitely three

principal elements--Finn, Tatar, and Slav, which last has to-day to a

great extent absorbed the other two. Not counting the three millions

of Jews in the west, the seven or eight hundred thousand Rumanians in

Bessarabia, the eight or nine hundred thousand Germans of the Baltic

provinces and the southern colonies; without counting the Kalmucks of the

steppe of the lower Volga, the Circassians, the Armenians, the Georgians,

and the whole babel of the Caucasus--all the races and tribes which

have invaded Russia in the past and all which inhabit her to-day can be

traced to one of these three races. As far back as history goes, are to

be found upon Russian soil, under one name or another, representatives of

all these three groups; and their fusion is not yet so complete that we

cannot trace their origin, their distinctive characteristics, or their

respective original dominions.

The Finnish tribe seems in olden times to have occupied the most

extensive territory in what is to-day called Russia. It is manifestly

foreign to Aryan or European stock, whence, with the Celts and Latins,

Germans and Slavs, most of the European peoples have sprung. Ethnological

classifications usually place the Finns in a more or less comprehensive

group known variously as Turanian, Mongolian, and Mongoloid.

The Mongols, properly so called, with the Tatars are usually arranged

beside the Finns in the Ural-Altaic group; which, on the other hand,

rejects the Chinese and other great nations of oriental Asia. This

classification appears to be the most reasonable; but it must be

noticed that this Ural-Altaic group is far from presenting the same

homogeneousness as the Aryan or Semitic group. The relationship between

the numerous branches is far less fundamental than between Latin and

German; it is probably far more remote than that between the Brahman or

Gheber of India and the Celt of Scotland or Brittany; at bottom it is

perhaps less close than between the Indo-European and the Semite.

_The Finns_

The Finnish race, which outside of Hungary is almost entirely comprised

within European Russia, numbers five or six millions, divided into a

dozen different tribes. To the Hungarian family in the north belongs

the only Finnish people which ever played an important rôle in Europe,

or arrived at a high state of civilisation--the Magyars of Hungary. In

the northwest we find the Finns properly so called; they are subdivided

into two or three tribes, the Suomi, as they designate themselves,

constituting the only tribe in the whole empire that possesses a national

spirit, a love of country, a history, and a literature; also the only one

that has escaped the slow absorption by which their kindred have been

swallowed up. They form five-sixths of the population of the grand duchy

of Finland--a population almost wholly rural. A Swedish element mingled

with German and Russian is predominant in the cities.

[Illustration: A TATAR

(Russian)]

St. Petersburg is, truth to tell, built in the midst of Finnish

territory; the immediate surroundings are russified, and that quite

recently: even half a century ago Russian was not understood in the

hamlets lying at the very gates of the capital. To this Finnish branch

belong the Livs, a tribe nearly extinct, which has given its name at

Livonia; also the Lapps--the last, physically the ugliest, morally the

least developed, of all the branches of this tribe.

The race is almost infinitely subdivided; its members profess all the

religions from Shamanism to Mohammedanism, from Greek orthodoxy to

Lutheranism. They are nomadic, like the Lapp; pastoral, like the Bashkir;

sedentary and agricultural like the Esth and the Finn. They have adopted

the customs and spoken the language of each and all, have been ruled

by peoples of different origins, have been russified after having been

partially tatarised--all these influences contributing to break up

the race into insignificant fragments. As numerous as their Hungarian

kindred, the Finns of the Russian Empire are far from being able to claim

an equal political significance.

Is it true that the alliance with the Finns is for Russia an irremediable

cause of inferiority? It is doubtful. In their isolation and disruption,

hampered by the thankless soil upon which they dwell, the Finns have

been unable to achieve an original development; as compensation, they

have everywhere manifested a singular facility of assimilation with

more developed races with which they have come in contact; they allowed

themselves easily to be overwhelmed by a civilisation which they

themselves were unable to originate: if they possessed no blood-ties with

Europe, they placed no obstacles in the way of annexation by her. Their

religion is the best proof. The majority have long been Christians; and

it is principally Christianity which has led the way to their fusion

with the Slavs and their assimilation into civilised Europe. From

Hungary to the Baltic and the Volga, they have accepted with docility

the three principal historical forms of Christianity; the most modern,

Protestantism, has thriven better among the Finnish and Esthonic tribes

than among the Celtic, Iberian, and Latin peoples.

If we seek in language an unmistakable sign of race and intelligence,

it must be admitted that certain Finns--the Suomi of Finland like the

Magyars of Hungary--have brought their agglutinated languages to a

perfection which for power, harmony, and wealth of expression well bears

comparison with our most complex flexional languages. If it is true that

the Finns are related to the Mongols, they have certainly the virtues of

that race, which holds its own so well in its struggle with Europe: they

possess the same stability, patience, and perseverance; hence perhaps the

fact that to every country and every state which has felt their influence

the Finns have communicated a singular power of resistance, a remarkable

vitality.

ETHNOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF RELIGIONS

The Finn has become Christian; the Turk or Tatar, Moslem; the Mongol,

Buddhist: to this ethnological distribution of religion there are few

exceptions. Hereto are attributable the causes of the widely different

destinies of these three groups--particularly the neighbouring Finns

and Tatars. It is religion which has prepared the one for its European

existence; it is religion which has made that existence impossible

for the other. Islam has given the Tatar a higher and more precocious

civilisation; it has inspired him to build flourishing cities like the

ancient Sarai and Kazan, and to found powerful states in Europe and Asia;

it has achieved for him a brilliant past, while exposing him to a future

full of difficulties: while saving him from absorption into Europe, it

has left him completely outside the gate of modern civilisation.

It is the Tatars who have given to the Russians the name of Mongols, to

which the Tatars themselves have but a questionable right. In any case

the title is not applicable to the true Russians, who have at most but a

drop or two of Mongol blood in their veins, and less of Tatar than the

Spaniards have of Moorish or Arab.

At the same time with the process of absorption and assimilation of the

Finnish element, another process has for centuries been going on--an

inverse process of secretion and elimination of the Tatar and Moslem

elements which Russia found herself unable to assimilate. After their

submission a great number of Tatars left Russia, being unwilling to

become the subjects of the infidels whose masters they had been. Before

the progress of Christianity they spontaneously retreated to the lands

still dominated by the law of the prophet. After the destruction of the

Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan, they tended to concentrate in the Crimea

and the neighbouring straits--in what up to the eighteenth century was

known as Little Tartary; after the conquest of the Crimea by Catherine

II they took their way still farther toward the empire of their Turkish

brethren. Even in our own time, after the war of Sebastopol and after the

conquest of the Caucasus, the emigration of the Tatars and the Nogaians

began again on an enormous scale, together with that of the Circassians.

In the Crimea the Tatar population, already diminished by one-half in the

time of Catherine II, is to-day scarcely one-fifth of what it was at the

time of the annexation to Russia. The introduction of obligatory military

service in the year 1874 drove them out in large numbers. By defeat and

voluntary exile have the Tatars been reduced to insignificant groups in

a country where, formerly, they reigned for centuries--in some parts of

which even they were the sole inhabitants.[b]

THE SLAVS

As to the Slavs, who form the nucleus of the Russian population, it

is now generally recognised that they migrated to Russia from the

neighbourhood of the Carpathian Mountains. The Byzantine annalists of

the sixth and the beginning of the seventh centuries, speaking of the

Slavs, whom they called Sklaboi, a name appearing as early as the end of

the fifth century, distinguish two branches of them: the Ants, living

from the Danube to the mouth of the Dnieper; and the Slavs, properly

so named, living northeast of the Danube and as far to the east as the

source of the Vistula, and on the right bank of the Dniester. In this,

their statement agrees with that of Jornandes,[l] the historian of the

Goths. Some Russian scholars suppose that before coming to the Danube

the Slavs lived near the Carpathians, whence they invaded the Byzantine

empire. These encroachments, beginning as far back as the third century,

resulted in the penetration of the Slavs into southern Austria and the

Balkan peninsula. Byzantine annalists of the sixth and seventh centuries,

Procopius and the emperor Maurice, who had to fight the Slavs in person,

speak of them as being ever on the move: “They live in woods and on

the banks of rivers, in small hamlets, and are always ready to change

their abode.” At the same time these Byzantine annalists describe this

people as exceedingly fond of liberty. “From the remotest period,”

says Procopius,[d] “the Slavs were known to live as democracies; they

discussed their wants in popular assemblies or folkmotes.” “The Slavs

are fond of liberty,” writes the emperor Maurice[e]; “they cannot bear

unlimited rulers, and are not easily brought to submission.” The same

language is used also by the emperor Leo.[f] “The Slavs,” says he, “are

a free people, strongly opposed to any subjection.” If the Byzantine

historians do not speak of the invasion of the Slavs into the limits of

the empire during the second part of the seventh century, it is because

their migration took at this time another direction: from the Carpathians

they moved toward the Vistula and the Dnieper.

[Illustration: A FINNISH COSTUME]

During the ninth century, the time of the founding of the first

principalities, the Dnieper, with its numerous affluents on both sides,

formed the limit of the Slavonic settlements to the east. This barrier

was broken only by the Viatitchi, stretching as far to the northeast as

the source of the Oka. On the north the Slavs reached the great Valdai

plateau from which Russia’s largest rivers descend, and the southern part

of the great lake region, that of Ilmen.[c]

There is no indication that the race is deficient in genius. It was

the Slavs who opened the way to the west by two great movements which

inaugurated the modern era--the Renaissance and the Reformation; by

the discovery of the laws that govern the universe, and the plea for

liberty of thought. The Pole Copernicus was the herald of Galileo; the

Czech, John Huss, the precursor of Luther. Poland and Bohemia, the two

Slav peoples most nearly connected with the west by neighbourhood and

religion, can cite a long list of men distinguished in letters, science,

politics, and war. Ragusa alone could furnish an entire gallery of men

talented along all lines. There where remoteness from the west and

foreign oppression have made study impossible and prevented single names

from becoming widely known, the people have manifested their genius in

songs which lack none of the qualities inherent in the most splendid

poetry of the west. In that popular impersonal literature which we admire

so frankly in the _romanceros_ of Spain, the ballads of Scotland and

Germany, the Slav, far from yielding the palm to the Latin or the Teuton,

perhaps excels both. Nothing more truly poetical exists than the _pesmes_

of Servia or the _doumas_ of Little Russia; for, by a sort of natural

compensation, it is among the Slavs least initiated into western culture

that popular poetry has flowered most freely.

[Illustration: A WOMAN OF YAKUTSK]

In temperament and character the Slavs present an ensemble of defects

and qualities which unite them more nearly with the Latins and Celts

than with their neighbours the Germans. They are characterised by a

vivacity, a warmth, a mobility, a petulance, an exuberance not always

found to the same degree among even the peoples of the south. Among the

Slavs of purer blood these characteristics have marked their political

life with a mobile, inconstant, and anarchical spirit which has rendered

extremely difficult their national existence and which, taken with

their geographical position, has been the great obstacle in the way of

their civilisation. The distinguishing faculty of the race is a certain

flexibility and elasticity of temperament and character which render it

adaptable to the reception and the reproduction of all sorts of diverse

ideas; the imitative faculty of the Slavs is well known. This gift is

everywhere distributed among them; this Slav malleability, peculiar

alike to Pole and Russian, is perhaps fundamentally but a result of

their historical progress and of their geographical position. But lately

entered in at the gate of civilisation, and during long years inferior to

the neighbouring races, they have always gone to school to the others;

instead of living by their own invention, they have lived by borrowing,

and the imitative spirit has become their ruling faculty, having been for

them the most useful as well as the most widely exercised.

In the west the Slavs fell under the influence of Rome; in the east,

under that of Byzantium: hence the antagonism which during long centuries

has set strife in the midst of the two chief Slavonic nations. United

by their common origin and the affinity of their languages, they are,

however, separated by the very elements of civilisation--religion,

writing, and calendar; therein lies the secret of the moral and material

strife between Russia and Poland--a strife which, after having nearly

annihilated the one, actually cost the other its life; as though from the

Carpathian to the Ural, on those vast even plains, there was not room at

one time for two separate states.

In the northwest, on the banks of the Niemen and Dvina, appears a strange

group, incontestably of Indo-European origin yet isolated amidst the

peoples of Europe; harking back to the Slavs, yet forming a parallel

branch rather than offshoot--the Letto-Lithuanian group. Shut away

in the north by marshy forests, restricted by powerful neighbours,

the Lithuanian group long remained closed to all outer influences,

whether of East or West. Last of all the peoples of Europe to accept

Christianity, its language even to-day is the nearest of European tongues

to the Sanskrit. The bone of contention among the Germans, the Poles,

and the Russians, who each in turn obtained a footing among them and

left an influence on their religion, they found themselves divided into

Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox.

Mixed with Poles and Russians, menaced on both sides with complete

absorption, the Lithuanians and the Samogitians, their brothers by race

and language, still number in ancient Lithuania nearly two million souls,

Catholics for the most part; they formed the majority of the population

of Vilna and Kovno. In Prussia some two hundred thousand Lithuanians

constitute the representatives of the ancient population of oriental

Prussia, whose name is derived from a people of that race which kept its

language intact up to the seventeenth century.

The second existing group of this family, the Letts, crossed probably

with Finns, number more than a million souls; they inhabit chiefly

Courland, Vitetesk and Livonia; but, converted, subjected, and made

slaves of by the Teutonic knights, they still live under the dominion of

the German barons of the Baltic provinces, with whom they have nothing in

common but their religion--Lutheranism. Like the Finnish tribes outside

of Finland, the Letts and Lithuanians, scanty in number and widely

scattered, are incapable of forming by themselves a nation or a state.

Out of this intermixture of races by the assimilation of the ruder by

the more civilised, was formed a new people--a homogeneous nation. In

fact, contrary to popular prejudice there is in Russia something more

than an intermixture of diverse races--there is what we to-day call a

“nationality”--as united, as compact, and as self-conscious as any nation

in the world. Russia, notwithstanding all her various races, is yet no

incoherent mass, no political conglomeration or mosaic of peoples. She

resembles France in her national unity rather than Turkey or Austria.

If Russia must be compared to a mosaic, let it be to one of those ancient

pavements whose scheme is a single substance of solid color edged with

a border of diverse forms and shades--most of Russia’s original alien

populations being relegated to her borders and forming around her a sort

of belt of uneven width.

It is in the centre of Russia that is found that uniformity of much more

marked among the Russians than among all other peoples of Europe; from

one end of the empire to the other the language presents fewer dialects

and less localisms than most of our western languages. The cities all

look alike; the peasants have the same customs, the same manner of life.

The nation resembles the country, having the same unity, almost the same

monotony as the plains which it peoples.

_The Great Russians and the Little Russians_

There are, however, two principal types, almost two peoples, speaking

two dialects and wholly separated from each other: the Great Russians

and the Little Russians. In their qualities and in their defects they

represent in Russia the eternal contrast of north and south. Their

history is no less diversified than their nature; the first have their

centre at Moscow, the second at Kiev. Stretching, the one to the

northeast, the other to the southwest, these two unequal halves of the

nation do not precisely correspond to the two great physical zones of

Russia. This is due partly to nature, partly to history, which has

hindered the development of the one and fostered that of the other. The

southern steppes, open to every invasion, long arrested the expansion

of the Little Russians, who for centuries were shut up in the basins of

the Dnieper, the Bug, and the Dniester; while the Great Russians spread

freely in the north and east and established themselves in the enormous

basin of the Volga; masters of nearly all the forest regions and of the

great Ural Lake, they took possession of the Black Belt and the steppes

along the Volga and the Don.

The White Russian inhabits Mohilev, Vitebsk, Grodno, Minsk--a region

possessing some of the finest forests in Russia, but whose soil is marshy

and unwholesome. United politically with the Little Russian, the two have

been classed under the name Western Russians. Subjected at an early date

by Lithuania, whose dialect became its official language, White Russia

was with the greater part of Little Russia united to Poland, and was for

centuries the object of strife between that nation and the Muscovite

czars, from the effects of which strife she still bleeds. Of the three

Russian tribes this is perhaps the purest in blood; but thanks to the

sterility of the soil and the remoteness of the sea, she has remained the

poorest and least advanced in civilisation.

The Great Russians are the most vigorous and expansive element of the

Russian nation, albeit the most mixed. Finnish blood has left its traces

in their physique; Tatar dominion in their character. Before the advent

of the Romanovs they formed alone the Muscovite Empire, and their czars

took the title “Sovereign of all the Russias” long before Alexis,

father of Peter the Great, justified this title by the annexation of

the Ukraine. Hence Great Russia, under the name Muscovite, has been

considered by certain foreigners the true, the only Russia. This is

an error; since the Great Russian, the product of the colonisation of

central Russia by the western Russians before the invasion of the Tatars

antidates the state and even the village of Moscow. If, therefrom has

emerged the Muscovite autocracy, it is impossible to cut the ties that

bind it to the great Slav republic of the world whose name is still the

active symbol of liberty--Novgorod.

Least Slav of all the peoples that pretend to the name, the Great

Russian has been the coloniser of the race. His whole history has been

one long struggle against Asia; his conquests have contributed to the

aggrandisement of Europe. Long the vassal of the Tatar khans, he never

forgot under Asiatic domination his European origin; and in the farthest

limits of Muscovy the very name Asiatic is an insult to the peasant.

Conqueror over Asia, influenced morally and physically by all the

populations assimilated or subjugated by him in his march from

the Dnieper to the Ural, the Great Russian lost something of his

independence, his pride, his individuality; but he gained in stability

and solidity.

In spite of the obvious evidences of his mixed blood, the Great

Russian is in perfect harmony with the Caucasian race by the exterior

characteristics which distinguish it--his stature, his complexion, the

colour of his hair and eyes. He is apt to be tall, his skin is white,

his eyes are very often blue; his hair is usually blond, light chestnut,

or red. The long heavy beard so dear to the heart of the moujik and which

all the persecutions of Peter the Great failed to induce him to dispense

with, is in itself a mark of race, as nothing could be smoother than the

chin of the Mongol, the Chinese, or the Japanese.

The Little Russians dwelling in the south have brown or dark chestnut

hair, and are of purer race, dwelling nearer to the Occident; they pride

themselves upon their comparatively unmixed blood, their more temperate

climate, their less dreary land; they are a more imaginative, more

dreamy, more poetic people than their neighbours of the north. It is in

Little Russia that the Zaparogians belong, the most celebrated of those

Cossack tribes which in the Ukraine or the southern steppes played so

important a rôle between the Poles, the Tatars, and the Turks, and whose

name will ever remain in Russia the synonym of freedom and independence.

Even to-day the Zaparogian, with his liberal or democratic tradition,

remains the more or less conscious and avowed ideal of the majority of

the Little Russians. Another reason, in the history of the Ukraine, which

makes for democratic instincts in the Little Russians is the foreign

origin and denaturalisation of a great part of the higher classes among

the Poles and Great Russians. From this double motive the Little Russian

is perhaps more susceptible to political aspirations, more accessible to

revolutionary seduction than his brother of Great Russia.

Of the Cossacks of to-day only those of the Black Sea transplanted to the

Kuban between the sea of Azov and the Caucasus are Little Russians; the

Cossacks of the Don and the Ural are Great Russians.[b]

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANISATION

It is extremely difficult to draw an approximately correct picture of the

life of the Russian Slavs even in its barest outlines. Among the widely

scattered tribes there was hardly more than one element tending towards

union--that of language. Frequent contact with the populations living on

their borders and wedged in between them, must of itself have produced

considerable modifications in their mode of life.

The entire social organisation of the early Slavs, like that of all

other Aryan and non-Aryan peoples, was based upon kinship or descent

from a common ancestor.[a] Even in the Varangian period we can discover

traces of this primeval organisation in clans among a few tribes. In

time of peace these clans were in the habit of meeting together in order

to discuss common affairs. The chronicler[h] uses the expression “came

together” when he wants to speak of decisions taken in common. This

practice seems to have been known to all Slavonic peoples. Among the

Russian Slavs these folkmotes were known under the name of _vetché_,

and they remained to the end of their existence a necessary part of the

political institutions, not only in the northern city republics, Novgorod

and Pskov, but also in nearly all the principalities of Russia, with the

exception of one of the latest founded, Moscow.

Among these tribes we also find native princes or clan chieftains

(_kniaz_), and it is also certain that as early as the ninth century

there were among the Russian Slavs private owners of tracts of land who

occupied an advantageous position as compared with the great bulk of the

members of the community, and from whom the latter nobles (_boyars_) were

descended. But on the whole the village community formed the nucleus

of the entire political and economic organisation of the eastern or

Russian Slavs. It was a world complete in itself, self-sufficient and

independent both economically and juridically. The community was the

possessor of the soil, which was periodically redistributed among its

component members; the separate patriarchal families, and the assembly

of the heads of the families was the body that judged and decided all

things pertaining to the community. It is thus that we are to understand

the apparently contradictory reports of the Byzantine writers, who say,

on the one hand, that the Slavs know of no government and do not obey any

individual, and on the other hand speak of a popular government that has

existed from ancient times, that discusses all things in common, and that

has many petty princes at its head.

It is self-evident that a government adapted to the requirements of

a village community must assume a different character as soon as the

settlement gains in extent and assumes the character of a city. And

cities grew up quite early in northern and southwestern Russia. Toward

the end of the ninth century Kiev had a wide fame as a large and populous

city. Constantine Porphyrogenitus also knows of Novgorod, Smolensk,

Linbetch, Tchernigov, Vishgorod, and Vititchev; in the time of Igor more

than twenty cities can be named. The question as to the origin of Russian

cities has called forth much debate and an extensive literature.

The chief difficulty lies in a proper understanding of the so-called

Bavarian geographer, a writer of the ninth or tenth century, who counts,

in his description of the northern Slavs, some twenty peoples with more

than 3,760 cities. These latter he calls now _civitates_, now _urbes_,

without indicating that there is any distinction of meaning to be

attached to these terms, so that we are left to conclude that both names

denote settlements. The present consensus of opinion as to those old

Russian cities is as follows:

The old word _grad_, (now _gorod_, city) denoted any space surrounded by

a palisade or earthworks. Thus there were wooden and earthen cities built

for protection in time of war, and every community had its city. But in

the regions that offered a natural protection by their inaccessible and

swampy character the need for these cities was not so urgent, so that the

wooded and marshy north had fewer cities than the open south. Numerous

remains of these ancient earth piles enable us to recognise the position

and wide extension of these old Slavonic settlements. Sometimes they are

circular in form, others consist of a double angular trench with outlying

earthworks. These are to be distinguished from the wooden cities, which

were originally built for trading purposes, and only later were fenced

in and enclosed, so that they could also serve for protective purposes.

They were built in favourable situations, adjacent to some trade route.

The more complex social relations that grew up in them demanded a more

thorough organisation of social and political life, for which the village

community did indeed furnish the basis, but which, in the long run, was

found to be inadequate. The questions of general interest to the city

were settled in the first place by the vetché, which greatly resembled

the village gathering of the family elders.

But the need of a power which should decide all questions that might

arise while the vetché was in abeyance, was more pressing in the cities,

and favoured the development of the power--originally very limited,--of

the _kniazes_ or princes, who were elective and whose dignity was neither

hereditary nor lifelong. The prince did not even have a permanent

military following: his dignity was of a purely personal nature. It

is certain that not he but the vetché had the power to make laws. Our

information concerning the political organisation of the earliest

period of Russian history is very scanty, and we know more of what it

lacked than of what it possessed. What strikes us most is the absence

of a military organisation. In times of danger, those who could defend

themselves took up arms, the remainder fled to places of safety.

Nor can we discern with certainty any social differentiation into

classes. On the other hand we know that a thriving trade was being

carried on in the ninth century along the route which led from the gulf

of Finland through Lake Ilmen to the Dvina and down the Dnieper to the

Black Sea and thence to Greece. The oldest wooden cities lay along the

famous route of the Varangians to the Greek Empire, along which amidst

many dangers, the raw products of the north were exchanged for the

finished commodities of the south. It is owing to these dangers that

the trader had also to be a warrior, and it is into those ancient trade

relations--peaceful intercourse enforced by warlike means--that we are to

look for the most important arms of the old Russian state. Who discovered

this trade route? We see no compelling reason to deny the honour to the

Slavs, although it is established beyond doubt that even before the

middle of the ninth century the Northmen reached Byzantium along this

route. On the other hand, the marauding and trading expeditions which

were carried on by Russians in the tenth century and earlier to the sea

of Azov, the Caspian, and further still to the Caucasus and the shores of

Persia, emanated from Scandinavians, and not from Slavs.

RELIGION

[Illustration: NATIVE OF YAKUTSK]

The religious conceptions of the Russian Slavs were but little developed.

All other Aryan peoples, including the western Slavs, excel them in

this respect. There was neither a distinct priestly class, nor were

there images of the gods, nor were there distinct types of gods. The

Arabian travellers almost unanimously ascribe sun worship to the eastern

Slavs, and Byzantine writers before the ninth century tell of a belief

in a supreme being who rules the universe. It is now generally accepted

that this supreme god was called Svarog and was a personification of

heaven and light, while sun and fire were regarded as his children.

Perun, the thunder god, and Veles, god of herds, both mentioned by the

oldest chronicler, must be brought in relation to the sun. But it is

highly probable that these two gods were taken over by the Slavs from

their Varangian rulers. Water also was regarded as sacred, and, like

the forest, it was filled with animate beings which must be propitiated

with sacrifices, since they had relations to human beings. Water, fire,

and earth were related to death. The _russalki_, shades of the dead,

swam about in the water, and the bodies of the dead were given up to the

flames in order to make easier their passage to the realm of the dead

(_rai_). The slaves, as well as the wife and the domestic animals were

burned on the funeral pyre, and cremation was preceded by a feast and

games in honour of the dead. But burial also was common.[g]

[Sidenote: [862 A.D.]]

We find the Russian Slavs about the middle of the ninth century split

up into numerous tribes, settled on the soil and engaged chiefly in

hunting and agriculture. A continental people, everywhere confining

itself to the inland country, leaving the sea-borders to non-Slavonic

tribes. Politically they were in the midst of the transition from

the clan organisation to the village community, without any central

authority, without any military organisation, and but little able to

resist the inroads from north, south, and east, of populations who lived

by plunder.[a] The primitive condition of their political organisation,

their extreme subdivision into tribes and cantons, the endless warfare of

canton with canton, delivered them up defenceless to every invader. While

the Slavs of the south paid tribute to the Chazars, the Slavs of Ilmen,

exhausted by internecine conflicts, decided to call in the Varangians.

“Let us seek,” they said, “a prince who will govern us and reason with us

justly. Then,” continues Nestor,[h] “the Tchud, the Slavs (of Novgorod),

the Krivitchi, and other confederate tribes said to the Varangian

princes: ‘Our land is great and has everything in abundance, but it lacks

order and justice; come and take possession and rule over us.’”

THE VARANGIAN PERIOD (862-1054 A.D.)

To the elements that have obtained a permanent foothold on the soil of

modern Russia and affected the Slavs in a greater or less degree, a new

one must now be added in the Varango-Russians. The brave inhabitants of

Sweden and Norway, who were known in western Europe under the name if

Northman or Normans, directed their first warlike expeditions against

their Slavonian and Finnish neighbours. The flotillas of the vikings

were directed to the shores of the Baltic, and _austrvegr_--the eastern

route--was the name they gave to the journey into the country of the

Finns and Slavs on the gulf of Finland and further inland. _Gardar_

was the name they gave to the Slavo-Finnish settlements, _Holmgardar_

was their name for Novgorod, _Kaenungardar_ for Kiev. _Mikligardar_,

for Constantinople, shows that the Normans first learned to know that

city through the eastern Slavs. The Slavs, on the other hand, called

those Scandinavians by a name given to them by the Finns--Rus. The

Scandinavians who sent their surplus of fighting men to Russia and were

destined to found the Russian state, lived--as we learn from the form

of the names that have come down to us--in Upland, Södermanland, and

Östergötland, that is, on the east coast of Sweden north of Lake Mälar.

In these lands and throughout the Scandinavian north, men who were bound

to military chiefs by a vow of fidelity were called _vaeringr_ (pl.

_vaeringjar_, O. Sw. Warung), a name changed by the eastern Slavs into

_variag_. It was these Russo-Varangians who founded the state of Old

Russia.[g]

At the call of the Slavs of Novgorod and their allies, three Varangian

brothers, Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor (Scand. Hrurekr, Sikniutr,

Thorwardr), gathered together their kindred and armed followers, or

_drujina_, and established themselves on the northern frontiers of the

Slavs: Sineus to the northeast, on the White Lake; Rurik, the eldest, in

the centre, on Lake Ladoga near the Volkhov River, where he founded the

city of Ladoga; and Truvor to the northwest, at Izborsk, near Lake Pskov.

The year 862 is usually assigned as the date in which the Varangians

settled in Russia, and it is the official year for the founding of the

Russian empire; but it is more probable that they had come before that

date.

[Sidenote: [865-907 A.D.]]

Shortly after their settlement the two younger brothers died and Rurik

became sole chief of all the Varangian bands in northern Russia and

assumed the title of grand-prince. He now became so powerful that he

was able to subject Novgorod, which he made the capital of an empire

stretching from the lakes in the north to the sources of the Dnieper in

the south.[a] The country drained by that river was also occupied by

Varangians, but independently of Rurik. Two chiefs by the name of Askold

and Dir (Scand. Höskaldr and Dyri) wrested Kiev from the Chazars and

ruled over the Polians, the most civilized tribe of the eastern Slavs. In

865 they led against Byzantium an expedition which consisted of at least

two hundred ships, and according to Venetian accounts of three hundred

and sixty ships, to which would correspond an army of about fourteen

thousand warriors. A tempest arose and destroyed the fleet in the sea of

Marmora. The barbarians attributed their disaster to the wonder-working

virgin, and it is reported that Askold embraced Christianity. This

expedition has a two-fold importance: (1) it gives us the _first_ certain

date in Russian history; and (2) it introduced the seeds of Christianity

into Russia. In the following year, 866, the patriarch Photius

established a bishopric at Kiev.

After the death of his brothers Rurik reigned till his death in 879, when

he was succeeded, not by his son Igor (Scand. Ingvarr), but by the eldest

member of his family Oleg (Scand. Helge). In 882 he set out from Novgorod

with an army composed of Varangians and the subject Slavo-Finnish

tribes--Tchuds, Merians, Vesians, Ilmen Slavs, and Krivitchi--sailed down

the upper Dnieper, took Smolensk, freed the Radimichi and the Severians

from the yoke of the Chazars and incorporated them in his empire, and

finally reached Kiev. Askold and Dir were then got rid of by an act of

treachery, and Kiev was made the capital of an empire embracing nearly

all the eastern Slavs.

_The Treaty with Constantinople_

But Kiev was only one of the stages in the southward progress of

the Varangians. The great city of the east, Constantinople, was the

glittering prize that dazzled their eyes and was ever regarded as the

goal of their ambition. Accordingly, in 907, Oleg sailed with a fleet

of two thousand boats and eighty thousand men, and reached the gates of

Constantinople. The frightened emperor was obliged to pay a large ransom

for the city and to agree to a treaty of free commercial intercourse

between the Russians and the Greeks. A particular district in the suburbs

of the city was assigned as the place of residence for Russian traders,

but the city itself could be visited by no more than fifty Russians

simultaneously, who were to be unarmed and accompanied by an imperial

officer.[g][a]

Oleg’s Varangian guard, who seem to have been also his council, were

parties with him to this treaty, for their assent appears to have been

requisite to give validity to an agreement affecting the amount of their

gains as conquerors. These warriors swore to the treaty by their gods

Perun and Volos, and by their arms, placed before them on the ground:

their shields, their rings, their naked swords, the things they loved and

honoured most. The gorged barbarian then departed with his rich booty

to Kiev, to enjoy there an uncontested authority, and the title of Wise

Man or Magician, unanimously conferred upon him by the admiration of his

Slavonic subjects.

_The First Written Document of Russian History (911 A.D.)_

[Sidenote: [911-913 A.D.]]

Three years after this event, in 911, Oleg sent ambassadors to

Constantinople to renew the treaty of alliance and commerce between the

two empires. This treaty, preserved in the old chronicle of Nestor, is

the first written monument of Russian history, for all previous treaties

were verbal. It is of value, as presenting to us some customs of the

times in which it was negotiated.

Here follow some of the articles that were signed by the sovereigns of

Constantinople and of Kiev respectively:

II. “If a Greek commit any outrage on a Russian, or a Russian on a Greek,

and it be not sufficiently proved, the oath of the accuser shall be

taken, and justice be done.

III. “If a Russian kill a Christian, or a Christian kill a Russian,

the assassin shall be put to death on the very spot where the crime

was committed. If the murderer take to flight and be domiciliated, the

portion of his fortune, which belongs to him according to law, shall be

adjudged to the next of kin to the deceased; and the wife of the murderer

shall obtain the other portion of the estate which, by law, should belong

to him.

IV. “He who strikes another with a sword, or with any other weapon, shall

pay three litres of gold, according to the Russian law. If he have not

that sum, and he affirms it upon oath, he shall give the party injured

all he has, to the garment he has on.

V. “If a Russian commit a theft on a Greek, or a Greek on a Russian, and

he be taken in the act and killed by the proprietor, no pursuit shall be

had for avenging his death. But if the proprietor can seize him, bind

him, and bring him to the judge, he shall take back the things stolen,

and the thief shall pay him the triple of their value.

X. “If a Russian in the service of the emperor, or travelling in the

dominions of that prince, shall happen to die without having disposed of

his goods, and has none of his near relations about him, his property

shall be sent to Russia to his heirs; and, if he have bequeathed them by

testament, they shall be in like manner remitted to the legatee.”

The names of Oleg’s ambassadors who negotiated this treaty of peace,

show that all of them were Northmen. From this we may conclude that

the government of the country was as yet wholly in the hands of the

conquerors.

THE REIGN OF IGOR

Igor, the son of Rurik, who was married to a Scandinavian princess named

Olga (Helga), was nearly forty years of age when he succeeded Oleg in

913. He ascended the throne under trying circumstance, for the death

of the victor revived the courage of the vanquished and the Drevlians

raised the standard of revolt against Kiev; but Igor soon quelled them,

and punished them by augmenting their tribute. The Uglitches, who dwelt

on the southern side of the Dnieper, contended longer for their liberty

against the voyevod Sveneld, whom Igor had despatched against them. One

of their principal towns held out a siege of three years. At last they

too were subdued and made tributary.