124 LECTURE ON SWITZERLAND. 



duties laid upon these manufactures by neighboring countries, and 

 especially by France, have led to a regularly organized system of smug- 

 gling, from which the government agents appear to derive a i)rivate 

 revenue, and which is, therefore, very difiicult to break up. It is said 

 that a prefect of police of Paris, having bought at Geneva jewelry 

 and watches to a considerable amount, the tradesman offered to deliver 

 them in Paris for an additional sum much below the cost of carriage 

 and the duties. The prefect made the agreement, and gave notice at the 

 frontier custom-houses, describing the articles, and requiring even more 

 than usual vigilance. The articles were, nevertheless, delivered to him 

 according to contract, and on investigation he found that they had 

 passed the frontier in his own baggage. This is one of the devious 

 ways of trade which is, I fear, not peculiar to any nation, and which 

 the better moral tone to be cultivated by associations like that which I 

 now address may and should correct. To elevate the watchmakers' 

 art, a society has been formed for the preliminary education of appren- 

 tices, and prizes for attainments in mathematics, drawing, and kindred 

 subjects, are awarded to successful competitors. 



The political changes in Geneva have been of an instructive kind. 

 The people declared for the Eeformation, and threw off the authority of 

 the Duke of Savoy. Thus the popular will was the basis of the exist- 

 ence of the present government. The necessity for constant resistance 

 to enemies without produced an easy concentration of i)ower in the 

 hands of a few, and by limiting the number of families from among the 

 members of which the rulers were chosen, the government was rendered 

 practically an aristocracy, not of rank, for the patricians of Geneva 

 have always refused even this title, but of wealth and intelligence. The 

 warfare of practice against principle has caused many revolutions, all 

 leading to an extension of popular privileges, and though likened by 

 the Emperor Paul, of Eussia, to storms in a tumbler, their influences, 

 direct and indirect, have spread widely. Between the year 1535, when 

 the Bishop of Geneva was violently expelled from the city, and the year 

 1837, there had been five revolutions, and including two unsuccessful 

 but violent j)opular commotions, and seven attempts to alter the gov- 

 ernment. And thus it must be until the end of the chapter, until i)rivi- 

 leges and rights are in harmony — until, in other words, Geneva is a true 

 republic. 



The chief points of dispute still are (unless recent events have settled 

 some of them) that the sovereignty of the people is not formally 

 acknowledged ; that the representative council has no right to originate 

 laws, but only to discuss those offered to them by the Council of State ; 

 that the right of petition is not recognized, and that the privilege of 

 voting is possessed only by those who pay a certain amount of taxes; 

 the amount being fixed so high as to exclude about two-thirds of the 

 citizens who are over age from the polls.* 



* All this has been changed by the constitutioa adopted May 24, 1847, the provisions 

 whereof are essentially democratic. 



