SWITZERLAND. 



725 



kilometres. The number of steamboats kept 

 on the lakes of Switzerland was eighty-six, of 

 3,500 horse-power. 



The most prominent feature of the history 

 of Switzerland during the year 1873 was the 

 continued conflict between the Federal author- 

 ities and the majority of the cantons, on the one 

 hand, and the Catholic Church on the other. 

 In January the cantons belonging to the Dio- 

 cese of Basel (Aargau, Busel City, Basel Coun- 

 try, Berne, Thurgau, Soleurc, Lucerne, and 

 Zujr) held a new conference for arranging 

 their difficulties with Bishop Lachat. It was 

 resolved: 1. To recall the authority given to 

 Bishop Lachct in 18C3, to occupy the Episco- 

 pal See of Basel. 2. To forbid Bishop Lachat 

 from exercising any episcopal functions in the 

 cantons consisting of the Diocese of Basel. 



3. To request the government of the Canton 

 of Soleure, in the capital of which the 

 bishop resides, to give to tho bishop notice to 

 quit the episcopal palace within a stated time. 



4. To request the cathedral chapter to appoint 

 as administrator of the diocese, pro tern., a 

 person acceptable to the government of the 

 canton. 5. To open at once negotiations for 

 a revision of the original Diocesan Pact (DiO- 

 cesan-Vergleich), which defines the relations 

 of the cantons constituting the Diocese of 

 Basel to their bishop, and to invite the Cantons 

 of Zurich, Geneva, Ticino, and Schaflfhausen, to 

 take part in the work of revision. 6. To re- 

 quest the Federal Council to communicate 

 tln"<e resolutions to the Pope. Two cantons 

 belonging to the diocese, Lucerne and Zug, 

 protested against the deposition, and declared 

 that they would not recognize any one else as 

 their bishop. The Governments of Berne, 

 Aargau, Basel Country, Soleure, and Thur 

 gau, at once carried out the resolutions, and 

 requested the Catholic priests of their cantons 

 to break off at once all official correspondence 

 with Bishop Lachat. As the Cathedral Chap- 

 ter of Soleure declined to elect an adminis- 

 trator of the vacant diocese, the Diocesan 

 Conference resolved, on February 14th, to 

 take the election of an administrator into its 

 own hands, and to request the Government of 

 the Canton of Soleure to make a suitable 

 nomination. In April the bishop and his 

 chancellor. Duret, were forced by the Govern- 

 ment of Solenre to leave the episcopal pal- 

 ace. As the bishop, who took up his provi- 

 sional residence in the Canton of Lucerne, con- 

 tinned the exercise of his functions throughout 

 the diocese, the Government of Lucerne asked 

 him, for the sake of peace, to avoid more 

 serious conflicts by omitting to force his claims 

 upon the cantons which had declared against 

 him. In accordance with this advice, the 

 bishop, in May, notified the Federal Council 

 Mint, although he still regarded himself as the 

 lawful bishop of the entire diocese, he was 

 willing to restrict the actual exercise of his 

 funr-tions for the sake of peace. A serious 

 conflict arose in consequence of the deposition 



of Bishop Lachat, in the Canton of Berne. 

 All the parish priests of the canton, ninety- 

 seven in number, protested against the order 

 of their government, which forbade the further 

 recognition of the bishop, and the continuance 

 of all official correspondence with him, and 

 declared that they would not conform to this 

 order. In consequence of this declaration, 

 the government of the canton resolved to 

 move the deposition, by the Court of Appeal 

 and Cassation, of all the parish priests who 

 had signed the above protest, and who would 

 not, within fourteen days, withdraw their 

 signatures; and, for the present, to suspend 

 them from their priestly functions. The sus- 

 pended priests were requested, by the can- 

 tonal authorities, to surrender the civil regis- 

 ters; and the mayors and common councils 

 were reminded of thcta responsibility in case 

 attempts should be made to cause riots and 

 disturbances. In order to avoid any con- 

 fusion in the celebration of marriages, the 

 provisional introduction of civil marriage, in 

 the Catholic districts of the Jura, was resolved 

 upon. The parish priests held a meeting to- 

 ward the close of March, at which they re- 

 solved to persevere in their opposition. 



On September 15, 1873, the Court of Appeal 

 and Cassation pronounced the deposition of the 

 parish priests, who, in the opinion of the court, 

 were unconditionally to be regarded as officers 

 of the state. On October 7th the Government 

 of Berne issued an ordinance, providing for the 

 consolidation of some of the parishes, reduc- 

 ing their number to eighteen. The new priests 

 were to be introduced into their offices by the 

 representatives of the Government ; they were 

 required to take the oath prescribed for state 

 officers in the presence of the assembled con- 

 grcgation, and to promise not to enter without 

 the consent of the state Government into an 

 official correspondence with any episcopal or 

 other ecclesistical authority, nor to accept any 

 orders from it. As the deposed priests con- 

 tinned to exercise their priestly functions in 

 private buildings, and as from several places 

 disturbances were reported, the Government, 

 in December, forbade the deposed priests from 

 celebrating divine worship in any building 

 placed under the superintendence of the state, 

 and imposed a fine of two hundred francs npon 

 the misuse of private worship for the disturb- 

 ance of the public peace. As Bishop Lachat 

 admonished the Catholics of Berne to be firm 

 in their resistance to the cnntonal government, 

 and as he excommunicated the priests whom the 

 Government of Berne had appointed for some 

 of the parishes, the Government of Berne offi- 

 cially remonstrated with the Government of 

 Lucerne for allowing the bishop, while residing 

 upon its territory, to perform such acts, and 

 the Government of Lucerne, in December, de- 

 clared that a letter of Lachat to the otherSwiss 

 bishops, dated November 30th, pronouncing 

 the excommunication of the new priests, was 

 an act of external jurisdiction which the bishop 



