LECTURE ON SWITZERLAND. 133 



been the abode of both parents and cubs. How difficult it must ue for 

 the men of Berne among the scenes of the Middle Ages, and with his- 

 tory and tradition both fettering them, to keep up Vvith the progress of 

 the times ; and yet they have done so in a very great degree, as a glance 

 at the institutions of the republic will show. 



In 1785 there were but two hundred and thirty-six families, the 

 members of which were eligible to the grand council, the governing 

 body of a canton of three hundred thousand inhabitants, and of its 

 tributaries, Vaud inclusive. These were the descendants of the original 

 burghers of Berne, and of those whom they had admitted from time to 

 time into their fraternity. Many of them were members of one of the 

 five guilds, the bakers, butchers, tanners, smiths, and carriers, originally 

 an aristocracy of working men. Of the two hundred and thirty-six 

 families only seventy-six were eligible to the executive or lesser council, 

 and twenty of these, by the preponderance of numbers, governed the 

 State.- In ITDG there were twenty-two persons of the name and family 

 of Steiger in the grand council, tifceen of Watwyl, and so on. It was 

 certainly no easy task to undo the Gordian knot of such institutions, 

 but the French invasion vSuudered it, and the complete seiiaration of 

 social and political ties which followed prevented a firm reunion of the 

 parts. A feeble aristocratic government v,'as restablished under the 

 protection of Austria, after the French occupation ceased, and was 

 continued until lcS30. At this time the revolution of the three days in 

 Paris gave a new impulse to popular institutions by the support which 

 it promised to hold out to their friends. The people of the country 

 parts of Berne met in tiieir arrondissements and petitioned the govern- 

 ment for an extension of popular rights. They were answered by pro- 

 hibiting their assembling. They continued to meet, and the govtn'u- 

 ment ordered out the militia to suppress these meetings, and collecting 

 their most trustvvorthy troops in the town, closed the gates and pre- 

 pared the cannon upon the ramparts for action against the peasantry. 

 The militia refused to turn out ; the troops in the town declared their 

 unwillingness to act against their countrymen. No attack was made, 

 but the government wisely determined on abdication, declaring that on 

 a certain day they would cease their functions if such was the will of 

 the people. This was all that was desired. An assembly was called to 

 frame a constitution, and without any violent shock, in October, 1831, the 

 old aristo(;ratic government gave place to the new republican, in which 

 although there is some leaven of the former aristocracy, it is not sufti- 

 cient to leaven the lump. This is a true history of a Swiss republican 

 revolution. The new constitution declares the sovereignty of the people, 

 the liberty of the press, the right of the representative council to origin- 

 ate measures, toleration of religion with an established national church. 

 Every citizen is an elector of the first grade; and every hundred of 

 them chooses an elector of the second grade, who votes for the repre- 

 sentative council. As in the other cantons, with few exceptions, the 



