490 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



number and firm resolve, without 

 betraying their names. When the 

 number was thought sufficient, this 

 pageant was carried throughout the 

 country, and placed before such 

 houses and castles as were doomed 

 to destruction. Whoever reproba- 

 ted the violences committed by the 

 insurgents was threatened with the 

 mace ; and the person who was the 

 principal object of the conspiracy, 

 had no option but that of flying the 

 country.' 



In Chap. II. Mr. Planta makes 

 the following observations, as a clue 

 to guide us through the maze of 

 the ensuing melancholy events : 



' The state of security in which 

 the cantons now found themselves, 

 soon induced them to turn their 

 thoughts to objects of private ad- 

 vantage, or at best to conceive that 

 a tender regard for the welfare of 

 their particular city or canton was 

 all the patriotism that could now 

 be demanded of them. Each can- 

 ton thus gradually acquired a dis- 

 tinct character.* Berne became 

 lordly and domineering; but tliis 

 very spirit, and the prevailing in- 

 fluence of that city, proved in the 

 sequel the main spring of the con- 

 sequence of the confederacy as a 

 state. Zuric carried on an exten- 

 sive trade, and hence sufiered its 

 commercial views to warp all its 

 public as well as private delibera- 

 tions ; and we accordingly seldom 

 find it in unison with the rest of the 

 confederates. The three forest can- 



tons preserved, indeed, their pas- 

 toral simphcity ; but their emula- 

 tion being once excited, even Mount 

 St. Gothard was not high enough 

 to restrain Uri and Underwalden 

 from attempting conquests in Italy, 

 in which they were feebly assisted 

 by their allies.' 



This chapter contains the sad de- 

 tails of the war of Zuric ; a contest 

 as inveterate and destructive, as 

 those usually are which arise among 

 friends and confederates. The splen- 

 did Stussi, who exercised absolute 

 sway over the minds of the Zuri- 

 chers, is a character which the poli- 

 tical reader will carefully survey. 

 Author of incalculable ills to his 

 country, and to the confederacy, 

 and compromising the very existence 

 of both as independent powers by 

 his treaty with Austria, he retained 

 his influence over the people undi- 

 minished, to the day in which he 

 bravely fell, fighting for the cause of 

 which he was the soul. The descrip- 

 tion of the bloody combat at the lines 

 of Hirzel is exquisitely pathetic. If 

 the ambition of the dangerous Stussi 

 had in the course of the narrative 

 called forth our resentment, yet, at 

 the view of his noble fall, we are 

 not enough masters of ourselves to 

 refuse him our regret. The frantic 

 valour of the small band of intrepid 

 Swiss, who sold their lives at so dear 

 a rate to the dauphin of France, 

 (afterward Louis XI.) in the action 

 of St. Jacob, near Basle, is drawn 

 in its true colours. The curious 



• 'Their rulers, and not the people at large must be here understood. These, 

 cheerfully contented in the enjoyment of their dear bought liberty, confined with- 

 in a narrow circle of communication, and chiefly addicted to their domestic con- 

 cerns, have never suffered new-fangled doctrines, or specious political speculations, 

 to bias or perplex theif honest purposes. Should their modern reformers succeed 

 to guide tliein into new paths of morality, the late conduct of the Swiss guards at 

 the Louvre will probably be the last instance of the sincerity and inviolable truth to 

 their engagements, which, together with undaunted courage, have ever been con- 

 sidered as the distinctive features of the national character of this people.' 



