CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



by a few thousands of people, chiefly engaged in 

 husbandry. In these cantons there are no great 

 properties, and though there are many ancient 

 families which enjoy much consideration, and to 

 whose members, in the smaller cantons, magis- 

 terial offices are generally intrusted by a sort of 

 tradition, there are none which in wealth are equiva- 

 lent to the richer English landed gentry. There 

 are some wealthy and intelligent merchants in the 

 large towns ; but the bulk of the population are 

 a hard-toiling race of small farmers, who, in means 

 and education, are little above a condition of medi- 

 ocrity. The legislative and executive functions 

 are conducted in accordance with this state of 

 things ; and it is no doubt owing to the smallness 

 of its territory, and the comparative equality in 

 wealth and intelligence of its inhabitants, that 

 Switzerland has so long preserved its republican 

 institutions. The constitutions of the separate 

 cantons are divided into two classes, absolute 

 democracies and representative democracies. In 

 the former, the chief power belongs to the assembly 

 of the whole adult male population, which meets 

 once a year to pass laws and regulate the revenue 

 and expenditure of the canton. Seven of the can- 

 tons have constitutions of this purely democratic 

 kind. In the others, the people elect a council, to 

 which they delegate their powers. These republics, 

 centring in a general diet or congress, are greatly 

 under the influence of the greater nations which sur- 

 round them, by which, indeed, they are in a great 

 measure tolerated only from mutual jealousy, and 

 because the country is in some places almost 

 inaccessible to hostile invasion. Since 1848, the 

 power of the central element has been increased, 

 and from being a league of semi-independent 

 states, Switzerland has become a United Con- 

 federacy. The present constitution vests the 

 supreme legislative and executive authority in a 

 parliament of two chambers, a State Council and 

 a National Council. The first is composed of forty- 

 four members, chosen by the twenty-two cantons, 

 two for each. The National Council consists of 

 about one hundred and thirty representatives of the 

 Swiss people, chosen in direct election, at the rate 

 of one deputy to every 20,000 souls. Both cham- 

 bers united constitute the Federal Assembly, and 

 represent the supreme government of the republic. 

 The chief executive authority is deputed to a 

 Federal Council, consisting of seven members, 

 elected for three years by the Federal Assembly. 



On the continent of America, various republics 

 have been founded on the wreck of the colonial 

 institutions of Europe. The principal is the 

 United States of North America, dating from 

 1776. The legislature and executive bear traces 

 of their English origin ; the main difference being 

 an elective President as chief magistrate, instead 

 of an hereditary sovereign, and the appointment 

 of judicial and other functionaries by the people, 

 instead of by the crown. The country is not one, 

 but an aggregation of republics ; each state being 

 independent of the others as respects internal 

 management. The power of legislation for the 

 States, in their united character, is vested in a 

 House of Representatives and a Senate, jointly 

 forming a Congress. The House of Representa- 

 tives is composed of members chosen every second 

 year by the vote of all male citizens over the age 

 of twenty-one, of the several states of the Union. 

 Representatives are apportioned among the several 



states of the Union according to their respective 

 numbers, which are determined by the census 

 taken every ten years. A law passed in April 

 1872, after the results of the ninth census of the 

 United States, taken in June 1870, had been 

 ascertained, provides that from and after March 

 3, 1873, the House of Representatives shall consist 

 of two hundred and eighty-three members. When 

 new states are admitted to the Union, it is pro- 

 vided that their representatives shall be additional 

 to the number of two hundred and eighty-three, 

 which otherwise shall be the limit till the tenth 

 census. No person is eligible as representative who 

 has not completed his twenty-fifth year, and been 

 seven years a citizen of the United States, and 

 who is not, when elected, resident in the state for 

 which he is chosen. In addition to the repre- 

 sentatives from the States, the House admits 

 a 'delegate' from each organised territory, 

 with right to debate on subjects in which his 

 territory is interested, but not to vote. Delegates 

 are chosen in the same way as representatives, 

 except in the territory of Wyoming, where the 

 franchise is accorded to women. The Senate of 

 the United States is composed of two senators 

 from each state, elected by the legislature thereof 

 for six years. One-third of the Senate goes out, 

 and is replaced by a new election every two 

 years. A senator must be thirty years of age, 

 nine years a citizen, and resident in the state for 

 which he is elected. All members, both of the 

 general and state legislatures, are paid for their 

 services. 



The President is elected by the whole people, 

 for a term of four years : at the close of that period, 

 he may be re-elected ; and, with two or three ex- 

 ceptions, all the presidents of the United States 

 have been re-elected for a second term. Each 

 state appoints a number of electors, equal to the 

 whole number of senators and representatives to 

 which the state may be entitled in the Congress ; 

 but no senator or representative, or person holding 

 an office of trust or profit under the United States, 

 can be appointed an elector. These electors meet 

 in their respective states, to vote for President and 

 Vice-president, one of whom at least shall not be 

 an inhabitant of the state. In Delaware, South 

 Carolina, and Tennessee, the legislature chooses 

 the electors ; in Maine and Maryland, electors are 

 chosen by the people voting for one or more in 

 each district ; in all the rest of the states, they are 

 chosen by a ' general ticket/ upon which the whole 

 of the electors vote. The electors transmit sealed 

 lists of all the persons voted for as President, and 

 all those voted for as Vice-president, to the Presi- 

 dent of the Senate, who opens the lists, and counts 

 the votes, in the presence of the Senate and House 

 of Representatives. If for the person having the 

 greatest number of votes for President, a majority 

 of the whole electors have voted, he is declared 

 President ; if fewer, the House of Representatives 

 elects by ballot one of the three who stand highest 

 on the list. If for the person having the most 

 votes for Vice-president, a majority of all the 

 electors have voted, he is declared Vice-president ; 

 if not, the Senate names one of the two who stand 

 highest on the list The President and Vice- 

 president must be natural-born citizens, thirty- 

 five years of age, and fourteen years resident 

 within the United States. The principle of elect- 

 ing representatives to the state legislatures is 



