and its intended accomplishment, the sonin-law of Walter Furst, the heroic Tell of Burglen, rid Switzerland and the world of Gesler, and, as is well known, retrieved the fortunes of his country.

Eight years later Prince Leopold, brother of Frederic, came against the Waldstaaten to take an Austrian vengeance, with more than ten thousand men. These he had considered amply sufficient wherewith to chastise a handful of unruly mountaineers. Some thirteen hundred Swiss assembled and met them on the henceforth classic heights of the plain of Morgarten. Leopold escaped with the remnant of his shattered host. Hitherto the Swiss had lived together as a band of brothers; we have now no record of the slightest internal troubles having ever disturbed their repose. But as usual, prosperity brought them friends. Zug, Glarus, and Lucerne, sought admission to so valiant a confederacy. Why not admit them? The same greedy house of Hapsburg, with its double-faced eagle, was seeking their destruction, that had sought the ruin of the Waldstaaten. Besides, to have them for allies would be not only to increase the numerical strength of their fighting men, but to throw a friendly wall between the German empire and the original cantons. They were admitted. Then Zurich, and at length Berne, sought part in the league. The latter had domestic feuds to be thus appeased, as well as foreign enemies to be repelled. The principle of new accessions had been once acted upon-why should the action not be repeated? No reason was found, and anew the hand was extended to them also. With one partial and temporary exception, the Waldstaaten have always sufficed for themselves and their own defence, but how seldom have they sufficed for the fickle Lucernese, and the factious men of Zurich and of Berne.

Nevertheless, hitherto the admission of the latter cantons seemed almost acts of generosity, and it cannot be denied that for a while the new allies rendered important aid in the wars of the Swiss with the Austrians. But as their arms were always successful, new territories were from time to time falling into their hands, or were ceded to them by feudal powers. Among these were Baden, Bremgarten, Mellingen. It was here that the evil

influence of the later confederate cantons became active. Lucerne, Zurich, and Berne were republican, not by fundamental constitution, but by the force of circumstances; they had never the sentiment of liberty at heart, and accordingly they were eager to seize on foreign possessions, not to free them from oppression, but to substitute themselves as new masters. After this evil example, the original cantons were drawn away, and they too would become suzerains. To this unhappy course Uri presented a glorious and a holy exception. It refused its share in the partition of the foreign possessions, professing that the wars they had undertaken were in obedience to their conscience and their country, and that they would not defile themselves by receiving any other recompense.

But

Schwytz pursued for a while another course, and was thereby led to quarrel and at length to fight with Zurich, in the maintenance of only probable rights. Zurich, which had been a traitor from the beginning, forgetting her solemn covenant with the confederacy, and forgetting the special obligations that she owed to the elder cantons, called in the aid of Austria, and had France likewise to a certain extent engaged to assist her with troops.

The faith of treaties was guarded by the ancient Swiss with unparalleled fidelity. That their forefathers had given their word for such or such a thing, sufficed them for a reason to forego or to suffer, rather than to violate the legacy of their manly honor. The confederates, therefore, were stung to the quick by the turpitude of Zurich's conduct, and willingly espoused the cause of Schwytz. The armed forces that were assembling to attack them seemed certain to overwhelm them by their numbers, and were of noted valor. But a band of only sixteen hundred men, mostly from the Waldstaaten, burst upon them like an avalanche of their native Alps, and swept them from the country. Zurich, left to herself, soon felt the misery of her isola tion, and begged to be received again into the confederacy. The professing penitent was forgiven by the good Swiss, and once more took her place in the league-soon again to give its members fresh trouble. The date of its reconciliation was A. D. 1460.

New wars followed, with Austria and

with Burgundy, and the successes of the Swiss arms and the possessions they thus acquired, were again the bane of their internal peace. Lucerne, Zurich, and Berne, the feeblest on the field of battle, wished to be stoutest in dividing the booty, on account of their numerous aristocracy and superior wealth already acquired. At the diet of Stantz their bitter contentions came to a head, and they were about to separate to engage in the bloodiest of their civil wars, when in a manner marvellous, (miraculous say the chronicles,) all passions were quelled by the sudden appearance in the diet of a gray-haired hermit named Nicholas Von Fluhe. This was one of those wonderful characters that we find from time to time in the pages of history, particularly during the middle ages, living in continual and utter solitude; but who at length, at some imminent national crisis, burst upon the theatre of events, the most foreign to their habits and thoughts, concentrating and expending in a few short days, or even hours, the intellectual energies of an entire and remarkable life, holding every eye, hushing every murmur, captivating every heart by the uncarthly majesty of their mien, rebuking error, rectifying mistakes, denouncing judgments of terror upon disobedience, finally restoring order to the distracted state, setting the political vessel upon her true course, and then delivering up the helm to capable governors, and vanishing as suddenly as they had appeared, and leaving those they had delivered thankful for the benefit, but bewildered at the method.

Such an one was the venerable hermit of the Alps, Nicholas Von Fluhe, who appeared in this diet of Stantz in 1481, composed the disputes of the cantons, induced them to renew their federal league with each other, and moreover to admit the states of Friburg and Solothurn to the standing of confederate cantons, assuring them, on the faith of prophetic vision, that these two cantons would continue thankful for the favor, and would yet render signal services to the interests of the league. In the then actual state of the confederacy their admission was undoubtedly sound policy, both from the local position they occupied, and from the stable character of their population. They have, or at least Friburg has, verified also the promises of

But the golden age of the Swiss republic seemed already past. Some cantons, indeed, more, and others less, and the ancient Waldstaaten least of all, yet all in their degree, were infected with the desire of the riches and aggrandizement with which they had been brought into contact. Thence began the disposition to sell their services to foreign princes, for the hope of greater gain; and in the pursuit of this they treasured up for themselves causes of deeper sorrow, or abandoned themselves to the evil courses of the nations with whom they mingled. And thus the sons of this virtuous and heroic republic, after that, like Samson, they had with their naked hands rent the jaws of the lion of imperial despotism that roared against them, returning after many days to the decaying carcase, drew forth indeed meat from the eater and sweetness from the strong; but in the end found something sweeter, to their corrupted taste, than honey, and something stronger than a lion,-and the Nazarite laid down his head in the lap of European vices, and was shorn of the locks of his glory.

To the dissensions and quarrels between the cantons, was now soon to be added the intensity of religious hatred; for we are arrived at the period of the great ecclesiastical revolutions of the sixteenth century. Zurich and Berne were predisposed to change, and were accordingly the first to embrace the new doctrines of Calvin and Zuingle. God knows they had need enough of a change, if it could but have inspired them with some sentiments of virtue or of honor. Zurich became the champion of the reformed creed, and exerted itself to the utmost in its propagation. As to the ancient Waldstaaten, such a revolution must have been impossible till the prime

elements of their nationality should be abolished. Outside the city of Rome, it would be difficult to find a place where patriotism and religion are so thoroughly identified, as in these three primitive cantons. Their greatest patriots have been those who for their virtues are honored in their sacred temples, and the patron saints of their race have been the preceptors of their political laws. Whoever, then, attacks their civil institutions, appears to them a profane person, and he that reviles their religion as one who plots against their political liberties. And how, in effect, could the chapel of Morgarten battle-field be stript of its Catholic ornaments without destroying the monument of Schwytz's most classic ground? Or how could the vivid connection of the living race with the deeds of Tell and Werner Van Stauffach, be preserved if the pilgrimages to Burglen and Steinen, and to the other chapels erected to their memories, should be abolished? Schwytz in these new quarrels became the head of the cantons that remained Catholic, as Zurich did of the Protestant. This was the most fatal wound of all to the Swiss leagne. The cantons were no longer brethren. Henceforth they for a long time made war on one another, or patched up a hollow peace from a common fear of the surrounding powers.

No new principle was introduced, but only the old ones were left to work out their various effects, till the breaking out of the French Revolution, when the year 1798 saw the total subjugation of Switzerland by a French invasion, and the temporary abolition of the constitutional confederacy. Down to this period the independent sovereignty of each canton was one of the principles most urgently enforced, and most explicitly guarantied. Indeed, it was a capital point of their cherished liberties. There were degrees in this sovereignty, however; for some of the smaller cantons, that had been admitted at a later date, were bound to obey the determination of the majority of the confederacy in matters of war or peace with all foreign powers. But in what related to the interior government of each canton, it was of the essence of a canton to be independent. Moreover, as regards the principal cantons, especially the old Waldstaatan and Lucerne, Zurich and Berne, even

in case of foreign war, each canton could only be invited to take part, and had full liberty to refuse.

The great vice of their system, hitherto, was the admission to their confederacy of states foreign to themselves in sentiments and in fundamental constitution, and as unequal in natural virtue as they were unlike in national character. But they had committed another fault, which, from this time forth, was to work them still greater evil. This was the permitting within their borders a class of persons who were not to coalesce with the citizens and become one people, but under a foreign name to gather in parties, contradistinguished, isolated from the inhabitants proper of the country. The true policy of Switzerland was certainly to prevent immigration. The territory of their jurisdiction was narrow in extent, and limited in productiveness. Moreover, they were a people who sufficed for themselves, and were not likely to be truly benefited by a mixture of foreign ingredients. Their measures for discouraging the advent of foreigners were therefore, in the given circumstances, wise. But when the strangers were permitted to settle in the country, to marry and to propagate their offspring, the arrangements of their laws should have provided for the incorporation of the race.

*

The Swiss cantons did not act on so discreet a principle. The foreigner that entered a canton, even if he were the citizen of another of the confederation, could never, nor his children from generation to generation, obtain the rights of an "inhabitant." He and his descendants still went by the name of the "homeless"-Heimathlosen-and posts of honor and even permanent possessions were denied them.

Had they imposed no laws for the protection of their nationality, it is certain their institutions would have been abused, and their ears stunned with the confused

*We here especially deprecate any captions misinterpretation of our honest sentiments. The priaciple enunciated in the text is, that when the true policy of a country is to encourage immigration, there thence arises a two-fold national duty: First, possible, the rights, privileges, and affections of the of extending in the speediest and most full manner nation to its new inhabitants, thus making them at home; and then, of discouraging and opposing all political organizations based upon foreign feelings, interests, or appellations.

ancestors left us on this plain of Morgarten. Let us not deceive one another at an hour so solemn. I had rather have an hundred men prepared for every event, and upon whom I can rely, than five hundred who would spread confasion by their flight, and render vain the sacrifice of the brave men who would still resist. For me, my course is taken. I will not forsake you, nor the peril of our dear country. Death on the field of Morgarten, and no retreat. If any are not ready for this, let them depart; but if you all share my sentiments, let two step from the ranks, and in your name plight with me our faith."

The soldiers, melted in the tears that brave men know how to shed-tears of admiration and affection-with united voices affirmed their constant purpose of standing by their heroic commander, and gave him the required sign. This was on the first of May in the fatal year of '98. Should we record the events of the next four days and nights, as they are narrated by the trustworthy and brave old men of Schwytz who took part in them, and still survive, the story would seem incredible. Who, that knows not the Swiss, could believe through what distances, and over what craggy pathways in mountain passes, trembling old men, with women and little children, dragged heavy artillery across the country? Or with what speed the little bands of Schwytz, with a few from Uri and Zug, gathered on the final battlefield? Or how they fought and labored almost without rest for ninety-six hours, in presence of the vast army of France? Never were the French more reckless in their bravery; but men, like the men of Schwytz, could not be vanquished. They might be slain, but even in death they must be conquerors. So long as the fighting continued, and so often as the French showed themselves on the plain, they were driven from it as the snowflakes before the tempest. Time would be given but for a single well-directed fire, when the drum would sound the charging home, and with fixed bayonets they would rush furiously upon their enemies. The French had previously affected to despise them as undisciplined herdsmen; but when they saw them, in spite of their best directed fire, rush over a level of 3000 feet, without one of them shrinking, or falling into test disarray, the very flower of the my were palsied with terror, and

if they were too brave to fly, they only remained to present defenceless breasts to the plunge of the Swiss bayonets.

But at length the very depth of their patriotism inspired them with a wiser thought. As they saw the race of their canton being extinguished part by part. like their altar candles during the service of Tenebra, the reflection grew urgent: Is then the canton of Schwytz to be wiped out from the face of the earth? Are the great deeds of our fathers to be forgotten, or to be rehearsed henceforth only by strangers? And in the breasts of some there sprang up a courage higher than that by which they had desired to die for their country. It was a great confidence in the vitality and force of their national constitution that made them willing to five for it-to live, and to submit, in the firm persuasion that thus they must at length regain their liberties. Yet this reasonable and heroic thought seemed too hard for many of them. At the rate of loss that they had hitherto sustained, two weeks! would suffice for their entire destruction; and though the loss of the French was very much greater, it was evident that it affected them but little, as their supply of new men was without limit. Resistance was therefore hopeless; yet they found it sweet to die for their country, to pour out their hearts' blood into her bosom while she was yet unpolluted by the foot of the conqueror. In a council of war, it required all the influence of the priesthood, and all the motives of their faith, to reconcile them to abandon the now fruitless Cuttest. They yielded, however, at length on the express stipulation that the French should respect their religion, their persons. and their property. This was promised by Schauenburg, the French General, and be kept his word; and struck with admirati at a heroism that had cost him fifteen of his best men for every one of the Swiss, he added, moreover, the most distinguished marks of a regard that did honor to his own sea timents.

In this rapid sketch of the written and unwritten history of Switzerland, and which we hope has not been without interest in itself, we have wished to devel the Swiss character and constitution, and thus prepare our readers for a better sp preciation of the political question now