SWITZERLAND. 



730 



Canton of Aargau, and the Vice-President, Dr. 

 .F. I leer, of (ilani-i. Tike area of SwitzrrLnd 

 is 15,91)2 square miles, and the population, ac- 

 cording to the census of 1870, 2,609,147. The 

 total revenue of the Confederation for 1875 

 amounted to 42,408,029 francs, and the ex- 

 penditures to 48,235,696 francs. The budget 

 for 1876 estimated the receipts at 41,487,400 



francs, nnd the expenditures at 42,622,000. 

 The liabilities of the republic amounted, at the 

 close of 1875, to 81,809,486 francs, as a set-off 

 against which there was Federal property 

 amounting to 85,872,955 francs. 



In August, 1876, there were 2,248 kilometres 

 of railroads in operation ; besides which there 

 were 64 kilometres of foreign railroads on 



Swiss territory. The Post-Office in Switzer- 

 land forwarded, in 1875, 51,267,244 inland and 

 16,808,029 foreign letters, making a total of 

 68,075,273 letters. The length of the Govern- 

 ment telegraph-lines at the close of 1875 was 

 6,343 kilometres, and of wires 15,517 kilo- 

 metres, with 1,002 stations. The length of 

 railroad telegraph-lines was 227 kilometres, 

 and of wires 2,282 kilometres. There were 

 493 telegraph-offices, of which 141 are open to 

 the public. The number of inland dispatches 

 was 2,062,439 ; of foreign dispatches, 594,315 ; 

 and of transit dispatches, 240,171 ; besides 

 68,079 official dispatches. 



In the Canton of Wallis a revised consti- 

 tution was adopted in February, the vote polled 

 being very light. The new constitution of 

 Soleure was accepted by the Federal Council 

 in February, while that of Zug was returned, 

 to be subjected to another popular vote. On 

 March 12th, at an election for the Grand 

 Council of Soleure, the Liberals elected 105 

 members, and the Catholic party 9. On May 

 21st a new constitution was adopted in Schaff- 

 hausen by a large majority, after having been 

 previously rejected three times. In Schwytz a 

 new constitution was adopted on June 12th. 

 Considerable excitement was created in the 

 Canton of Ticino in October, by the action of 

 the Liberal Council of State in dissolving the 

 Grand Council, in which the Catholic party 



had a majority, and ordering a new election. 

 This led to disturbances, and on October 22d 

 a bloody affray took place at Stabio, in which 

 several persons were killed. The Federal Coun- 

 cil sent a commissioner with full powers to 



the cnnton to settle the difficulty. On Novem- 

 ber 9th the Federal Council revoked the order 

 of the Council of State of Ticino. A delega- 

 tion composed of deputies of both parties went 



