G56 



SWEDENBORGIANS. 



SWITZERLAND. 



by individual members, and on behalf of the 

 different associations. A book is in course of 

 publication in German, which, is designed to 

 aid in disseminating the doctrines of the New- 

 Church among the Germans in the United 

 States. Prof. K. L. Safel has been engaged, 

 at Stockholm, Sweden, and London, under the 

 direction of a committee of the convention, in 

 examining the condition of the manuscripts 

 of Swedenborg, with a view of having them 

 copied by photolithographic or other process. 

 This work was attended with interesting re- 

 sults in the discovery of new manuscripts, and 

 writings which had been before inaccessible. 

 The idea of photolithographing the manuscripts 

 was, however, abandoned, because of the small 

 amount of the subscriptions to the work that 

 were obtained in the United States, and be- 

 cause the Swedenborg Society of England de- 

 clined to cooperate in the enterprise. The 

 thanks of the convention were voted to the 

 Eoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences, for the 

 courtesies and assistance which it had ren- 

 dered Prof. Safel. A complete copy of all 

 the publications of the convention was or- 

 dered to be presented to the Eoyal Library 

 at Stockholm. 



The Tract Society have published three tracts, 

 printing 32,000 copies in all. It has a mem- 

 bership of 68, 39 life-members and 29 members. 

 Its receipts for the year were $1,253.97. 



The numerical statistics of the New Church 

 are imperfect in shape and incomplete. The 

 following is a view of the associations and 

 societies : 



The title " ministers " includes licentiates. 



In connection with the Massachusetts asso- 

 ciation, there is a New Church Union, which 

 has a free library, and supports a missionary. 

 Sunday-school unions are connected with sev- 

 eral of the associations. Besides the theologi- 

 cal school at "Waltham, Mass., there is a chil- 

 dren's school at the same place, which has 

 given instruction, since its establishment, to 

 nearly three hundred children. The church 

 school at Urbana, Ohio, had sixty to seventy 

 pupils. It reports the receipt of legacies and 

 donations amounting to $30,000. A school at 

 Foster Hill, near Glendale, Ohio, had twenty- 

 one pupils. Lay teaching has been tried by 

 the New York Association with successful re- 

 sults. Isolated societies reported to the Gen- 

 eral Convention from Philadelphia, Edenfield, 

 Pa., and Milwaukee, Wis. There is a society 

 at Laporte, Indiana, which is not connected 

 with the association. 



SWITZERLAND,* a federal republic in 

 Europe. Area, 15,722 square miles; popula- 

 tion, in 1860, 2,510,494. President of the 

 Federal Council, from July 5, 1869, to the close 

 of the legislative session ending in 1869, L. 

 Ruchonnet, of the Canton of Vaud. The bud- 

 get, for 1869, estimates the revenue at 20,812,- 

 700 francs; the expenditures at 20,740,000 

 francs ; the surplus at 72,700 francs. 



On April 18th, the electors of the Canton of 

 Zurich adopted, by 34,000 votes against 22,000, 

 the new Constitution submitted to them. It 

 is assumed that this vote marks the beginning 

 of a new era in the internal politics of 

 Switzerland. Taken by itself, it is the adhe- 

 sion of the most advanced, the best educated, 

 and richest canton of the Confederation to a 

 system of government in which the people are 

 called upon to play a more immediate and 

 more important part in the management of 

 what most nearly affects themselves than they 

 have ever yet done. The Constituent Assem- 

 bly, which sprang from this vote, devoted the 

 greater part of last year to a revision of the 

 cantonal constitution, and the changes which 

 it has introduced may be briefly stated. The 

 liberty of the press is henceforth to be com- 

 plete; no special legislation with regard to 

 press offences will be recognized; editors, 

 like other citizens, will be subject to common 

 law alone. Public functionaries are to have 

 no special privileges. The whole penal code is 

 modified, and the punishments are made less 

 severe. Capital punishment is abolished ; any 

 citizen illegally arrested is to be indemnified 

 by. the state; a habeas corpus act similar to 

 our own is introduced ; civil marriage is sanc- 

 tioned, but compliance with it is purely volun- 

 tary ; at the same time, all services necessary to 

 constitute a marriage, whether civil or religious, 

 are to be wholly gratuitous. Some of the other 

 enactments are interesting to foreigners as in- 

 dicative of the peculiar customs of the people. 

 That important person in a Continental town, 

 the notary, is to be elected in each district by 

 the votes of his fellow-citizens from a list of 

 candidates, none of whom shall present them- 

 selves without proper certificates of qualifica- 

 tion. All actions for debt are to be undertaken 

 by the municipal authorities of the district. 

 Such are the law reforms. The financial are 

 scarcely of less importance. The sliding-scale 

 of income-tax is introduced, applicable, how- 

 ever, only to moneys raised for the purposes 

 of the whole canton. Legacy and succession 

 duties, in imitation of our own, will be raised. 

 All monopolies are abolished. No taxes upon 

 the necessaries of life are to be imposed ; those 

 already existing are to be reduced or removed 

 with all possible dispatch. The care of the 

 poor is to be left to each district or township, 

 but the state will aid any district overburdened 

 with poor, as well as make grants to all asso- 



* For an account of the Council of State, the Na- 

 tional Council, and the Army, see ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA 

 for 1868. 



