SWITZERLAND. 



713 



Prince of the Netherlands, and uncle of the 

 King of Holland, born August 5, 1828 ; died 

 at Stockholm, March 29, 1871. She was mar- 

 vied to the present King of Sweden, then Prince 

 Charles Louis Eugene, on the 19th of June, 

 1850, and ascended the throne in 1859, on the 

 demise of King Oscar. The royal pair had 

 one daughter, Louise Josephine Eugene, now, 

 by her marriage in 1869, Crown-princess of 

 Denmark. Queen Louise's life was uneventful, 

 but she had by her gentleness and amiability 

 won the love of her subjects. 



SWITZERLAND, a federal republic of 

 Europe. President of the Federal Council for 

 the year 1871, Dr. C. Schenck, of the Canton 

 of Bern. The Swiss Republic consists of 

 twenty-two cantons, three of which, Basel, 

 Appenzell, and Unterwalden, are divided into 

 two half-cantons, each of which has its own 

 government. According to the new census 

 of December 1, 1870, the area and population 

 of the cantons and half-cantons were as fol- 

 lows: 



1,664,119. Receipts, 1,326,818 francs; expen< 

 diture, 1,023,052. 



The army of the Swiss Confederation is 

 composed as follows : 



The number of Evangelicals in 1870 was 

 1,566,001; of Catholics, 1,084,665; of mem- 

 bers of other Christian sects, 11,420 ; of Jews, 

 7,009. The division of the population, with 

 regard to the languages spoken in the various 

 parts of the country, was, in 1870, as follows : 

 German was spoken by 384,447 families, or 69 

 per cent, of the entire population ; French by 

 133,467, or 24 per cent. ; Italian by 30,149, or 

 5f per cent. ; the Romanic languages by 8,778 

 families, or If per cent, of the entire population. 



The budget for 1871 estimates the revenue 

 at 22,269,300 francs; expenditure, 22,391,500 

 francs; showing a deficit of 134,700 francs. 



On January 1, 1870, the length of railroads 

 in operation was 848 miles; number of post- 

 offices, 663 ; number of letters during 1869, 

 46,272,856; length of the telegraph-lines, 

 3,197 miles; length of wire, 6,850 miles; 

 number of dispatches received and forwarded, 



The staff of the army is composed of 76 colo- 

 nels, 93 lieutenant-colonels, 130 majors, 226 

 captains, 222 lieutenants, and 77 secretaries: 

 total, 824 officers. 



As the French departments bordering on 

 Switzerland became in January, 1870, one of 

 the principal seats of the German-French War, 

 the Swiss authorities deemed it best to con- 

 centrate a considerable force for the purpose 

 of guarding the frontier. On February 1st 

 the French army under the command of Gen- 

 eral Clinchant, retiring from Besancon, en 

 tered Swiss territory, General Clinchant hav- 

 ing previously concluded, a convention with 

 General Herzog. The French army numbered 

 about 84,000 men and 10,000 horses. The 

 troops were disarmed, distributed among the 

 cantons, and by the Swiss Government sup- 

 plied with provisions. The Swiss, on tho 

 whole, sympathized more with the French 

 than the Germans ; and when, on March 9th, 

 the French soldiers disturbed at Zurich the 

 peace festival celebrated by the Germans, the 

 lower classes of the populace took sides with 

 the French. The disturbances were of so 

 serious a character that the Federal Govern- 

 ment deemed it necessary to send troops to 

 Zurich to quell them. With regard to the in- 

 surgents of Paris who subsequently sought a 

 refuge in Switzerland, the Federal Council re- 

 solved to adopt no general measures, but to 

 examine every individual case, and to deny 

 the right of asylum to common criminals; 

 also to surrender them to the French Govern- 

 ment whenever it should be demanded. 



The Federal Assembly, which was opened 

 on November 6th, had the important task of re- 

 vising the Constitution. The majority of the 

 two Councils showed itself to be in favor of a 

 greater centralization, but all the measures 

 proposed by them were hotly contested by 

 theParticularists, Catholics, and Conservatives. 

 The President of the National Council, in his 

 opening speech, recommended as a counter- 

 poise to the greater centralization which, it 

 was regarded as certain, would be favored by 

 the majority, the universal introduction of the 

 "Referendum," that is to say, the submission 

 of every law adopted by the Federal Assembly 

 to the final vote of the whole people for rati- 

 fication. At the close of the' year the Federal 

 Assembly had not completed the work of re- 

 vision. 



