SWITZERLAND. 



719 



Population, according to the census of 1870, 

 2,669,147, of whom 1,566,347 (58.7 per cent.) 

 were Evangelical; 1,084,369 (40.6 percent.) 

 Catholics; 11,435 members of Christian sects, 

 and 6,996 Jews. 



The total revenue of the Confederation in 

 the year 1874 amounted -to 46,844,809 francs; 

 the expenditures to 45,586,171 francs. The 

 budget for 1875 estimated the revenue at 39,- 

 516,000 francs ;' the expenditures at 39,766,000 

 francs. The liabilities of the republic amount- 

 ed, in 1874, to 30,635,552; as a set-off against 

 which there is Federal property amounting to 

 31,783,303 francs. 



The Federal army consists of the " Bundes- 

 auszug" and the " Landwehr." The Bundes- 

 auszug is composed of the men from twenty 

 to thirty-two years of age, and the Landwehr 

 of the men from the thirty-third to the com- 

 pleted forty-fourth year. The nominal strength 

 of the armed forces of the republic was .as fol- 

 lows, on January 1, 1876 : 



The aggregate length of Swiss railways, on 

 January 1, 1875, was 1,638 kilometres (1 kilo- 

 metre = 0.62 mile), and in October, 1875, 

 about 2,000 kilometres; that of telegraph-lines, 

 in 1873 r 5,843 kilometres ; of wires, 14,169 kilo- 

 metres. The Post-Office in Switzerland for- 

 warded 48,519,764 inland, and 14,733,122 for- 

 eign letters, in 1874, making a total of 63,252,- 

 884 letters. The number of newspapers for- 

 warded was 45,651,344, and of packages 19,- 

 925,200. The receipts of the Post-Office, in 

 1874, were 14,465,622 francs, and the expen- 

 ditures 13,932,545 francs. 



On February 13th the Federal Council ap- 

 pointed the following as division commanders : 

 Aubert in Geneva, Lecomte in Lausanne, 

 Meyer in Bern, Merian in Basel, Rothplass in 

 Aarau, Egloff in Tagerweilen, Vogeli in Zu- 

 rich, and Gingins in Lasarraz. 



The Federal Assembly met on March 8th, 

 and adjourned again on the 20th. Both Houses 

 were mainly occupied with the religious ques-. 

 tion, the various appeals of the Bernese Catho- 

 lics in favor of the extruded parish priests hav- 

 ing come before them in constitutional course, 

 after rejection by the Federal Executive, as 

 well as another set arising out of the deposi- 

 tion of Bishop Lachat, by the Diocesan Coun- 

 cil of the northwestern cantons which form the 

 bishopric of Basel. In the former case, the 

 decree of the Bernese Government, forbidding 



the nonjuring priests to reside within the dis- 

 trict in which they formerly officiated, was 

 represented by Catholic members as an act 

 of tyranny, and one, indeed, committed ultra 

 vires by the authority of any single canton. 

 In the case of the ex-Bishop of Basel, his advo- 

 cates laid stress on the gravamen of the of- 

 fenses charged against him being simply the 

 acknowledgment of the infallibility dogma, 

 which he but accepted in common with the 

 rest of the episcopate. These views were 

 combated by the speakers on the other side, 

 upon the facts of the cases themselves; but 

 the main argument against the appeals was, that 

 there appeared to be no proper constitutional 

 grounds for overruling the decisions of the ex- 

 ecutive, that the religious disputes appealed on 

 were matters within the privileges of the can- 

 tons to settle. On the Lachat affair, the vote 

 finally taken in the Lower House was 80 to 24 

 against the appeal ; and the Council of Can- 

 tons supported this on division, by the smaller 

 majority of 20 to 15. As to the Bernese ques- 

 tion, it was not pressed to a division in the 

 Upper House, which accepted the vote of 74 to 

 25 against the appeal in the National Council 

 as decisive. On April 7th the Federal Coun- 

 cil, in accordance with the law which provides 

 for a vote by the people on all bills passed by 

 the Federal Assembly on which it is demanded 

 by 30,000 voters, or the governments of eight 

 cantons, fixed upon May 23d as the day on 

 which the civil marriage and the electoral 

 laws were to be submitted to the vote of the 

 people. For demanding the popular vote on 

 the former, 107,476, and for a vote on the lat- 

 ter, 108,325 signatures had been obtained, thus 

 far exceeding the required 30,000. At the 

 election on May 23d the civil marriage law 

 was adopted by a vote of 212,854 against 204,- 

 700, while the electoral law was rejected by a 

 vote of 206,805 against 202,140. 



The Federal Assembly had another short 

 session from June 7th to July 3d, in which the 

 principal business transacted was the decision 

 on the Bernese question. The Assembly met 

 again on September 5th, and adjourned on Sep- 

 tember 18th. 



The newly-elected Assembly met on Decem- 

 ber 6th, and on December 10th elected the. 

 Federal Council for the year 1876. The fol- 

 lowing are the new members of the Council : 

 Welti (Aargau), Schenck (Bern), Scherer (Zu- 

 rich), Ruchonnet (Yaud), Heer (Glarus), An- 

 derwert (Thurgau), and Hammer (Solothurn). 

 The Council elected Welti, Federal-President ; 

 and Heer, Vice-President ; Numa Droz was 

 afterward elected in place of M. Ruchonnet, 

 who declined. 



On December 24th the assembly adjourned 

 to March, 1876. 



On January 30, 1874, the Executive Council 

 of the canton of Bern had issued a decree ex- 

 pelling ninety-seven priests from the territory 

 of the district for refusing to obey the laws. 

 An appeal for the abrogation of this decree 



