SWINE SWITZERLAND. 



487 



3f the French institute ; and lie belonged to the 

 principal learned societies in Europe. He also oc- 

 cupied the office of member of the executive di- 

 rectory, under the Batavian republic, and that of 

 counsellor of state in the service of the king of the 

 Netherlands. He died March 9, 1823. Van S win- 

 den was the author of several works besides those 

 already mentioned, of which notices may be found 

 in the annexed authorities. Biog. Nouv. des. Con- 

 temp. Biog. Univ. 



SWINE. See Swinemunde. 



SWINEMUNDE (that is, mouth of the river 

 Swine} ; a town in Pomerania, on the isle of Use- 

 dom, on the Swine, one of the branches by which 

 the Oder empties into the Baltic. It is the har- 

 bour of Stettin, (q. v.) Long and expensive moles 

 have lately been built, to render the harbour safe, 

 and prevent the river from being choked with 

 sand. The beacon is in lat. 53 15' N. ; and Ion. 

 14 15' 15" E. Depth of water from Swinemiinde 

 to Stettin, twelve Prussian feet ; inhabitants, 

 3800. 



SWITZERLAND (German, Schweitz ; French, 

 Suisse); the Swiss or Helvetic confederacy. The 

 northern and southern nations of Europe have been 

 singularly intermingled in the ancient Helvetia, 

 whose Alpine walls seem like a barrier, separating 

 them from each other. The Roman legions, in- 

 deed, conquered the Gauls, Rhaetians and Alemanni 

 in their forests and marches; but they could not 

 destroy the northern spirit of freedom. The traces 

 of its ancient subjugation to Rome are still visible, 

 in the Romanic language of a part of Switzerland. 

 Helvetia (q. v.), under the Romans, had a flourish- 

 ing trade, which covered the land with cities and 

 villages; and Switzerland still forms the connect- 

 ing link between Northern Germany, the Nether- 

 lands and France on the one side, and Italy on the 

 other. Before the fall of the Roman empire in the 

 West, the northern and largest part of Switzerland, 

 occupied by the Alemanni, had been conquered by 

 the Franks. (See Clovis.") On the Jura dwelt the 

 Burgundians, and Rhaetia was under the Ostro- 

 goths. Three German nations, therefore, freed the 

 country, about A. D. 450, from the dominion of 

 Rome. Christianity had already been introduced 

 into Helvetia from Italy, and as early as the fourth 

 century there were Christian churches at Geneva, 

 Coire, and other places. The Alemanni and Bur- 

 gundians gave their laws and their habits to the 

 Helvetians ; and the Alemanni occupied the greater 

 part of the country. Each soldier received a farm ; 

 a judge, or centgrave, was set over one hundred of 

 these farms (forming a cent, or hundred) ; and the 

 place of judgment, where he settled all questions 

 between the free citizens, was called Mallus. 

 Several cents formed a Gau (hence Thurgau, Aar- 

 gau, &c.), the judge of which was styled count 

 (graf); and the counts were under a duke. The 

 great irruption of barbarians swept through the 

 peaceful valleys of the Alps, and Roman civiliza- 

 tion disappeared. Ostrogoths, Lombards, and even 

 Huns, settled in different parts of the country. At 

 last, the Franks, who had taken possession of the 

 lands of the conquered Alemanni, drove the Ostro- 

 goths over the Rhaetian mountains. In 534, they 

 likewise subjected the Burgundians, and all Swit- 

 zerland became a portion of the Frankish empire. 

 The country, however, retained its ancient consti- 

 tution ; the Romans and the old inhabitants were 

 governed by Roman, the Alemanni by Alemannic 

 laws; and each of the other nations by its peculiar 



code. The Christian religion was restored anew, 

 and the desolated fields were again brought under 

 cultivation. On the partition of the empire of the 

 Franks among the Merovingians, Switzerland was 

 divided between two sovereigns one reigned over 

 Alemannian, and the other over Burgundian Swit- 

 zerland, or Little Burgundy. (See France.) Pe- 

 pin re-united the whole country, and Charlemagne 

 encouraged the arts and sciences in Helvetia. Un- 

 der his feeble successors, the counts became more 

 and more independent of the royal authority, and 

 finally made the possession of their Gaus heredi- 

 tary. One of them (Rodolph) established (888) 

 the new kingdom of Burgundy, between the Reuss 

 and the Jura. Nine years previously, Boso had 

 established the kingdom of Aries, in the territory 

 between the Jura and the Rhone. Thirty years 

 afterwards, the two Burgundian kingdoms were; 

 united. (See Burgundians.} The counts in the 

 other parts of Switzerland were still nominally 

 subject to the German kings; but they conducted 

 themselves as princes, assumed the name of their 

 castles, and compelled the free inhabitants of their 

 Gaus to acknowledge them as their lords. Hence 

 arose a multitude of independent and complicated 

 governments, whose chiefs were engaged in con- 

 tinual feuds with each other. War was the busi- 

 ness of the nobles, and misery the fate of the peo- 

 ple in the distracted land. The emperor Conrad, 

 therefore, set a duke over the counts in Alemannia 

 in 911. But the emperors of the Saxon house 

 (919 1024) were the first who compelled the 

 dukes, counts and bishops, in Switzerland, to respect 

 their authority. After the death of Rodolph III., the 

 fifth and last king of Burgundy (1032), the emperor 

 Conrad II. re-united Burgundian Switzerland with 

 Alemannic, which belonged to the German empire. 

 But under Henry IV. grandson of Conrad II. the 

 royal authority in Switzerland was again over- 

 thrown. Henry (see Henry IV. of Germany), per- 

 secuted by the pope, sought adherents. He gave 

 to the duke of Zahringen the Alemannic part of 

 Switzerland, to which, in 1125, after the conquest 

 of the count of Hochburg and of Raynold of Cha- 

 lons, Conrad of Zahringen added the Burgundian 

 portion. The dukes of Zahringen humbled the 

 proud and quarrelsome nobility, but favoured Zu- 

 rich and the other imperial cities ; and built several 

 new cities, among which were Friburg, in Uchtland, 

 in 1178, and Berne in 1191. The country people 

 became more secure ; the feuds among the nobility 

 less frequent ; manufactures and industry flourished; 

 Geneva and Lausanne, among the Romanic, and 

 Zurich and Basle among the German cities, became 

 thriving towns. The families of Savoy, Kyburg 

 and Hapsburg were the most powerful among the 

 noble families. Many nobles went, about this time, 

 to Palestine ; and thus the country was delivered 

 from their oppression. After the death of Berthold 

 V., last duke of Zahringen, in 1218, Alemannia 

 again came into the possession of the emperors. 

 His hereditary estates in Uchtland and in Little 

 Burgundy passed, by his sister Agnes, to the house 

 of Kyburg. From this time, the Hapsburgs in 

 northern Helvetia, and the counts of Savoy in the 

 south-west, grew more and more powerful. The 

 emperor appointed some nobleman as governor of 

 each city, or community, which was not under a 

 count, to collect the public revenue and to punish 

 violations of the public peace; still, however, pri- 

 vate feuds continued. The German kings were no 

 longer able to afford protection; might gave right, 



