LECTUEE ON SWITZERLAND. 121 



and Winkelried ; that they required no lessons in self-government, and 

 would resist invasion of their civil and religions rights to the death. 

 Aloys Eeding, a descendant of Kndolph, who had defeated Frederick of 

 Austria at the i)ass of Morgarten five hundred years before, occupied 

 again that Thermopylas of his country. The mode of warfare had 

 changed ; personal strength has little advantage in contests with fire- 

 arms ; rocks and stones, though launched from mountain heights, are 

 imperfect substitutes for cannon balls ; numbers can no longer be coun- 

 terbalanced by valor. Four thousand men, aided by their women and 

 children, held this pass two days against forty thousand, but at last 

 were forced to yield, and the Forest cantons received the constitution 

 which they could no longer resist. 



The days of the Jacobins passed ; those of the First Consul and Empe- 

 ror dawned, waxed, and waned, and Switzerland was the battle-ground 

 on which the French, Austrians, and Kussians contended, everywhere 

 desolating the country with fire and sword. The pacification of Europe 

 put an end to the horrible scenes then enacted, and the republics of 

 Switzerland were left to reorganize themselves, affording in their rapid 

 recovery from their desolate condition a strong evidence of the energy 

 of the people. The organization then adopted, with soniC changes, exists 

 at present. Forty years of exemption from war have obliterated the 

 external marks of the misery of the country, but in the institutions of 

 the different States the influence of their past history is still entirely 

 visible. 



The rough sketches which I must pass rapidly before you, to give 

 some idea of the present condition of the country, will be taken from 

 the French and German cantons — those which exercise the most influ- 

 ence upon Switzerland as it is, and as it will be. 



Geneva, the oldest city of the confederation, is the frontier town upon 

 the southwest. Its foundation dates before that of Eome itself. The 

 inhabitants were among those Helvetians whom the fortune of war at 

 last put at the mercy of the Romans who occupied the cit}^ with their 

 legions. The Middle Ages found it a place of importance under the sov- 

 ereignty of the Duke of Savoy ; the see of a bishop, nominated by the 

 duke, who was the temporal as well as the ecclesiastical ruler. History 

 represents its moral and intellectual condition to have been low, its 

 commerce moderate. Under the preaching of Farel in 1535 the citizens 

 declared for the Eeformation, and drove the bishop from their walls. 

 In 153G, Calvin, a native of Picardy, came among them, and hj his pow- 

 erful preaching brought about a second reformation which changed 

 entirely not only the face of society, but the habits and modes of thought 

 and action of the people. 



At a little distance from the water the shores of Lake Leman, or the 

 Lake of Geneva, rise abruptly, and on this irregular ground, just where 

 the Ehone issues from the lake, the city is built. The nature of the site 

 thus divides Geneva into an upper and lower town. Below, and on the 



