be certain that his cause will triumph. The hero must suffer and die without knowing the issue of his sacrifices. Such heroes were the Netherland Reformers, and the pathos of it all will remain a memory and an inspiration; not only will it remain, but the glory of it will be heightened as the generations come and go.

CHAPTER III

SWITZERLAND

WITZERLAND to-day is the production of centuries

SWI

of conflict and change. For the first awakening of its higher life as a well-organised and prosperous state we have to go back to the year 1798, the date of the adoption of the Helvetian Republic. Previous to that time the civil and political institutions of Switzerland were of a very antiquated character. It was not a Confederation in the sense that it is at present, for there was no real common Parliament, no common judicial tribunal, and no central executive. There was no real political power, for the members of the Diet or Parliament were tied down to certain restrictions. They could not go beyond the instructions of their respective Cantonal authorities; the minority could not be bound by the decisions of the majority; there was no basis for federated or coordinated action; the whole social organism was loose, irregular, and fragmentary, and was held together with difficulty; whatever unity existed was unreal and superficial; subjects were held by right of purchase and conquest; the franchise was limited, and so was eligibility for State offices; the "Patricians" monopolised the Government; punishment by torture was recognised; monasteries abounded, and education was in a very imperfect condition. Of the science of government the mass of the citizens knew comparatively little, for they had not been educated in the manner of free countries. Neither can it be said that they at any time exhibited those modes of thought, elements of unity, and the psychological requisites so essential in a self-governing people. Ideal—the excelsior of every progressive soul and every progressive nation-the sense or the perception of something finer, truer, and higher

was absent, and so long as this nascent inspiration is wanting in any people they must of necessity remain in vulgarity and in incompetence. Without the upward motive and the springs of aspiration, social regeneration is impossible. The country was made up of combative fragments, and there was no sympathy or co-operative harmony between the various sections of the Confederation.

In

Instruments of instruction and opportunities for the interchange of thought were few; social misdemeanours were frequent and grievous, each party seeking to increase its own strength by dividing the strength of its antagonist. In no other part of Europe were such diverse religious, racial, and linguistic elements in contact as in Switzerland at that period-Lombards, Burgundians, Italians, Alamannians, Rhaetians, and Celts. the Protestant Cantons there were Calvinists and Zwinglians, animated and governed by the memory of the theological controversies of the sixteenth century when a wave of spiritual awakening swept across Europe; expressed and organised in Germany by Luther, in Geneva by Calvin, and in Scotland by Knox; rousing asperities, threatening dynasties, and agitating nations and continents. The Catholic Cantons, almost exclusively under ecclesiastical influences, were restive and ambitious, and eager to spread abroad the genius of their own faith; holding aloft the ark of the Middle Ages, and thundering at those who would not walk backward towards it. It was inevitable that the mingling together of such strange and jarring materials should produce discussions, agitations, and persecutions.

No contentions are so embittered, so lacking in charity, and so wanting in the elements of gentleness and of Christian grace, as those which belong to the domain of Theology and Religion. Ancient and modern history abounds with sad evidence of the deplorable fact. It is due partly to the over emphasis of trivial differences, partly to the fact that the subject-matters in dispute are so dimly lighted by revelation; partly because theologians are so visionary and unpractical and so wanting in sobriety; partly because theological controversies, however interesting, seldom lead to any tangible result. The spirit of religion is a peace-bearing spirit, but religion developed into a philosophy or into a theological doctrine is pugnacious.

Instead of operating upon the higher, it operates upon the lower portions of the disposition, and becomes a disturbing and a dividing force. Practise it, live it, and teach its ideal, it produces an intelligent morality, it encircles the household, the community, and the nation; but sectarianise it, or invest it in Governments, and it becomes exclusive, divisive, and dictatorial. It is as dangerous to put religion in the care of a Government as it is to place it in the care of a Pope or of a Hierarch. A combative conscience is one thing, an arbitrary conscience is another; the one is the nerve of progress, the other is the instrument that creates discontent and revolutions. No nation has yet found unity on sectarian or Church lines. No war has ever been prevented by the spirit of the Churches.

Such were the principles of mutual antagonism that were infixed into the organic structure of Switzerland in the days previous to the adoption of the Helvetian Republic in 1798; principles of attrition, discord, and disintegration. In this acrid bitterness of immaturity the nation had existed for generations: it was like a tenement house filled with quarrelling families. Regeneration was possible only through the spread of intelligence, through systematic culture, freedom of religious discussion and practice, a spirit of common interest, equality of treatment and opportunity, the substitution of individual for class aristocracy, protection from the greed of unjust passions in their fellow-men, toleration, universal education, a definition of the function and limits of state interference, a uniform citizenship, the eligibility of all citizens to all offices, the abolition of torture and the elimination of the antiquated restrictions that had fettered the people and disturbed their peace. This is what the Helvetian Republic of 1798 was destined to accomplish. It had its defects, but it set Switzerland well on to the road of freedom, unity, and prosperity. It obliterated the distinction between ruling burghers and subject peasants, between "Cantons" and " Associates," and established equality and uniformity of citizenship. It introduced common suffrage, liberty of belief, defined the province of the State in matters of religion; it gave freedom of residence and freedom of trade within the Confederation, the right of redemption of

land taxes, and provided for the separation of the " Executive,” the "Legislative," and the "Judiciary." Thus it was that the Helvetian Republic, notwithstanding its defects and limitations, began the work of cohesion, unity, and homogeneity. It helped to consolidate the national character by giving the people a sense of security, and making it the interest of each section to remain in unison and to cultivate a more just and generous sympathy between the various classes.

During the first consulship under Bonaparte, divisions of political belief assumed definite party shape, one party bearing the name of the "Unitary," which stood for the unity of the State and equality before the law; the other party calling itself the "Federalist" party, which stood for the old state of things, and drawing its adherents from the ranks of the Catholics in the Forest Cantons. The developments that followed pointed to the formation of a "Federal State," but Napoleon's intervention brought about the enactment of the "Act of Mediation" in 1803, and which thrust the nation back again to the state of things as they existed prior to the establishment of the Helvetian Republic, when Switzerland was made up of a bundle of states loosely held together under the name of a Confederation, but which did not possess the essentials of a free and real state, and which gave neither the "Directory" nor the "Diet" any tangible political power.

The "Act of Mediation," although apparently in accord with the prevailing sentiment of the Swiss people at the time, did not form the basis of a permanent settlement. Bonaparte preserved the principles of equality of all men before the law, a principle which had been established by the Helvetian Republic; he also guaranteed the continued freedom of trade and residence, but he made many important changes. He raised the number of the Cantons from thirteen to nineteen, and the tendency of the act was to weaken central authority; but towards the end of 1813 a reaction set in which had for its object a restoration of the old state of things as they existed before the Helvetian Republic. Even the Great Powers were in favour of the removal of the "Act of Mediation." The ultimate outcome was the establishment of the "Federal Pact," which remained the constitution of Switzerland till 1848.