S WITZERL AND.

federal government. The consequence was a civilwar. Ziirich was besieged to no purpose by the troopsof the Helvetic republic, against whom its gates wereshut. Rodolph von Erlach and general Auf derMaur, at the head of the insurgents, occupied Berneand Friburg. The Helvetic government retired toLausanne. Aloys Reding now summoned a generalassembly, which was held at Schweitz. Three daysafter the first consul of France offered to the cantonshis mediation, but the small cantons, guided by AloysReding and Hirzel of Zurich, persevered in theiropposition. Twelve thousand French troops enteredSwitzerland under Ncy, and the diet separated, Redingand Hirzel having been imprisoned. In Decemberboth parties sent deputies of the eighteen cantons toParis, to whom Bonaparte transmitted,by Barthelemv,Fouche, and Roderer, the act of mediation of Feb. 19,1803, restoring the cantonal system, but grantingfreedom to the former subjects of the cantons.

The cantons were now nineteen in number, Aargau,Appenzell, Basle, Berne, Friburg, Glarus, Grisons,Lucerne, St. Gall, Schaffhausen, Schweitz, Soleure,Tessin, Thurgau, Underwalden, Uri, Pays Tie Vaud,Zug, and Zurich. The republic of Valais was changed,by a decree of Napoleon, in 1810, into a Frenchdepartment; and he granted Neufchatel (which hadbeen ceded to him by Prussia, but which was underthe protection of Switzerland,) to general Berthier, asa sovereign principality. Napoleon assumed thetitle of “ mediator of Switzerland and the militaryservice required of the Swiss became more and moreoppressive. It was only by great firmness and thesacrifice of immense sums of money, that most of thecantonal governments could avert greater oppression ;they were obliged to adopt the continental system,and the canton of Tessin was long garrisoned byFrench troops.

In 1813, when the theatre of war approachedSwitzerland, France permitted the Swiss to maintaintheir neutrality; but the allies expressed themselvesambiguously, and large armies were soon marchedthrough the country in various directions to France.Their arrival excited a fermentation in many quarters.The act of mediation was annulled, Dec. 29, 1813, atZurich, and several cantons, of which Berne wasthe first, laboured to revive their old constitutions.Through the influence of the allied monarchs, thecantons were finally prevailed on to assemble a generalcouncil, but revolutions and counter-revolutions agi-tated several of the cantons. Some of them were inarms against each other, others enjoyed a happytranquillity and the respect of the foreign powers.All, meanw'hile, were engaged in settling their consti-tutions. The old cantons adhered more or less closelyto their former frames of government, and the newcantons endeavoured to give to those which theyadopted more stability. A diet was at length assembledat Zurich, and new articles of confederation wereagreed upon by nineteen cantons. They resembledthe old federal compact in many respects. This confe-deracy was acknowledged by the congress of Vienna.The bishopric of Basle, with Bienne, was given to thecanton of Berne, excepting the district of Birseck,which fell to Basle, and a small portion which fell toNeufchatel. The former relations of the latter place

Prussia were restored, and, with Geneva and theValais, it joined the confederacy of the Swiss cantons,Waking their number twenty-two.

The compact of Zurich was publicly and solemnly

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adopted in 1815, after the deputies of the confederacyat Vienna had given in their accession to the acts ofthe congress of Vienna, so far as they related toSwitzerland. Soon after Switzerland became a mem-ber of the holy alliance. But the political state ofthe Swiss cantons, as settled by the congress ofVienna, and jealously watched by the holy alliance,gave rise to much disaffection in tbe great body of thepeople. Though republics in name, nothing could beless republican than many of their law s and customs -.privileges of orders, of corporations, of localities, andof family, interfered with the equal rights of themajority of the citizens. The federal diet was over-awed by the holy alliance, and oppressed, in turn, thecantons ; the chief towns tyrannised over the countrydistricts, and a few trades or families tyrannised overthe towns. Refugees for political offences from theneighbouring states were refused an asylum, andthe press was shackled by the diet, in opposition tothe voice of the nation, and in compliance with therequests of the great powers.

In the democratic cantons, in which the peoplewere not oppressed by their cantonal authorities,they were often disgusted with these servile compli-ances of the diet; but in the aristocratical cantons,in which almost all the authority was in the hands ofsome patrician families, or the corporations of thetrades, it was often abused to oppress the mass of thepeople. This was particularly the case in Berne,Basle, Friburg, Lucerne, Zurich, Schaffhausen, andSoleure. Still a third class of cantons was composedof the new members of the confederacy, professedlyorganised on popular representative principles, but inwhich, in 1815, the elections were so arranged, thatthe whole power, in fact, was possessed by a smallexecutive council. In this state of things, the generaldemand for reform in the electoral assemblies of Tessin(one of the new cantons), compelled the council, in1830, to yield to the public voice, and establish asystem of direct elections, and of publicity of proceed-ings in the great council, and to guarantee the libertyof the press, and the inviolability of persons, as partsof the constitution. This event, and the French revo-lution of July, 1830, set the example for generalrisings in various parts of the country. In the newcantons, the popular demands were generally so readilycomplied with as to prevent any serious disturbances,and the democratic cantons took hardly any part inthe troubles; but in the old aristocratic cantons, theopposition was stronger and more systematic. Still,as many of the towns people were favourable to morepopular institutions, the governments, even in thesecantons, generally yielded, with little opposition, tothe wishes of the citizens ; and in Friburg, Berne, Lu-cerne, Soleure, and Schaffhausen, the revision of theconstitution, the abolition of privileges, the extensionof the right of election, abolition of censorship of thepress, &c., were among the concessions to popularrights.

In Basle, where the peasantry are more ignorantand rude than in the other cantons, the insurgentswere not satisfied with the concessions ; and a secondinsurrection, in the summer of 1831, was not putdown without bloodshed. The ordinary session ofthe diet took place at Lucerne, July 4, 1831, and thecommon concerns of the confederacy, both in itsforeign and domestic relations, were found to be in asatisfactory condition. But towards the close of 1831,the canton of Neufchatel was disturbed by risings of