Switzerland in 1847, and its condition, political, social, moral and physical, before the War ... Edited by Mrs. P. Sinnett

Preface

. It appears necessary to state that the present Translation is greatly abridged from the Original — not by the omission of any one chapter — but by the general condensation of the whole work, which was thought, in some points, unnecessarily diffuse, especially since the rapid course of affairs in Switzerland has rendered obsolete many speculations concern ing what some months ago appeared the pro bable course of events. From this cause, perhaps, the author was somewhat more in haste to publish his work than he would otherwise have been, and has occasionally run out to greater length than he might have deemed advisable on a more though tful revision. According to the old excuse of the voluminous correspondent, he has written a long book, because he had not time to write a short one.

PREFACE.

. IV Mr. Theodore Miigge, though never yet, I believe, introduced to the English public,* has for some years past been favourably known in Germany as the author of several works on Norway, Denmark, &c, which have met with general and deserved approbation. The present one appears chiefly valuable for the quantity of information it contains on a complicated and difficult subject, and the picture it presents of a political and social condition, now in all probability about to suffer very material changes, if not to pass away for ever, but which must, nevertheless, exercise a powerful influence in modifying the future character and history of Swit zerland. The reader is requested, in such passages as relate to the state of parties, to bear in mind the events of the last two months, and to remember that the author's " now " refers generally to the earlier part of the year 1847.

May I be permitted also to express a hope that I may not be considered responsible for all the opinions of Mr. Miigge, with some of * Except in the notice of his present work in the last Number of the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review.

PREFACE.

. V which, as for instance the approbation he bestows on the celebrated expeditions of the Free Corps to Lucerne, I find it impossible to agree. But, as he appears to be a most candid and honest observer and narrator of facts, it is perhaps of little importance if we do not always agree with the inferences he has drawn from them. The course taken by the party now triumphant in Switzerland, though in many particulars little justifiable, may ulti mately prove beneficial even to those who have suffered defeat ; possibly more beneficial to them than to their conquerors. A storm has swept through those still valleys, where ages, long past to the rest of the world, seemed yet to linger ; and its course, though momentarily destructive, may be succeeded by a purified atmosphere and a more vigorous growth. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. PAGE

Chapter I

From Mannheim to Switzerland — The Swiss Frontier — Physical Resemblances — Differences in Popular Character and Mode of Life — Foreigners in Switzerland — Hotels — Extortion — System of Swiss Mountains — Races and Languages — Parties and People . . . . 1 CHAPTER H. The Canton of SchafFhausen — The Great Council — Sovereignty of the People — Ruling Families — The Commonalty — The Clergy and their Power — National Musical Festival in Schaffhausen — Popular Festivals in Switzerland, and their Signification — Orators 24 CHAPTER HI. The Canton of Zurich — Intellectual Centre of Switzerland — Immense Population — Glance at Swiss History — The Old Swiss Freedom — Old Institutions — Serfdom of the Country-people — Subject-territories . . .38

CHAPTER IV.

The Pastoral Cantons and Towns — Catholics and Protestants — Complete Oppression of the People in the CONTENTS. VIII PAGE Eighteenth Century— French Revolution and its Conse quences for Switzerland— Helvetic Republic— Napoleon's Act of Mediation— The Reaction from 1815 to 1830— Struggles of the People against their former Lords ; against Priests, Methodists, and Jesuits . . • • 48

CHAPTER V.

New Swiss Regulations since 1830 — Aristocrats, Ultra - montanists, Pietists, Liberals, and Radicals— Separation and Struggle of Parties — Romish Influence— Sarner-league — Leagues of Aristocrats with Priests 72

CHAPTER VI.

Impotence of the Diet — The Priestly Oath — The Baden Articles — Disturbances — Revolutionary movement in Zurich — Its Progress and Triumph — Conservative Liberals — Their overthrow — Zurich again Radical — The Free Corps — Berne and its Schultheiss — The Radical Association — Party Papers — The Government of Neuhaus — Discontent of the People — Revision of the Constitution — Movements in Vaud — New Constitution — Affairs in Aargau — The Forest Cantons — Historical Summary — Political Character of the Cantons 9] CHAPTER VH. Situation of Zurich — Old and New Town — Coffee House Life — Sunday in Zurich — Coffee House Politics — Education — Universities — German Professors — German Fugitives — Relations of Swiss and Germans — Swiss and French — Literature and Art — Domestic Life — Language — Marriages — Swiss Women — Simplicity of Life — Diet of the Peasantry — Their Content . . .119 CONTENTS.

IX PAGE CHAPTER VHI. Zurich since 1839 — The Lawyer Government — Division of the Soil — Manufactures — Farming Weavers — Silk Weavers — Universal Suffrage — Position of Work People — Dependence on Masters ...... 141

CHAPTER IX.

Courts of Law — Communes. — The " Homeless" — Right of Settlement — Burgher-Rights — Poor and Rich Communes — Schools and the Clergy — Salaries . . .154

CHAPTER X.

Taxation in Zurich — Public Officers — State Servants in Prussia — Military Officers — Rage for Titles— Military Expenses — Orderly Administration — Swiss Emigrants . 166

CHAPTER XI.

Swiss Newspaper Press — Journals of Geneva — The Free Voice — The Diet — The People's opinion of it — Opening of the Diet— Dreadful Conduct of Mr. Peel— Sitting of the Diet — The Debates — The Deputies from St. Gall — Schwyz — Lucerne — Mr. Druey, &c. . . . .175

CHAPTER XII.

Internal and Transit Trade — Salt Monopoly — Foreign Commerce — Balance of Trade — Dependence on Foreigners — Manufacturing Industry — Commercial Enterprise — Security of Industry — Proposed Reforms. . . 1 95 CHAPTER XHI. The Lake of Zurich — Ulrich Von Hutten — The Bridge of CONTENTS. X PAGE Rapperschwyl— City of Rapperschwyl— The Linth Ca nal—The Rigi— Public Carriages— Pedestrian Travelling —Fine Scenery— Canton of Zug — Social Organization — Administration — A Criminal Landamman —The Ass of Schwyz— Moral of the Story— Fall of the Rossberg — Glorious View — Site of Lucerne 206

CHAPTER XIV.

The City of Lucerne — Changes of Government — Power of the Priesthood — Demands of Rome — The Liberal Party — Leu of Ebersohl — Ignorance of the People — Altered state of Lucerne — Dr. Steiger's Escape — Free Corps — Failure of the Expedition. ...... 228

CHAPTER XV.

Depth of Swiss Lakes — The Lake of the Four Cantons — Defensive Warfare — Unterwalden — Antiquated Forms of Society — Stationary Condition — Reigning Families — Rights of Citizenship — The Homeless — Seclusion of the old Cantons — Ancient Valour — Criminal Law — Financial Department 243

CHAPTER XVI.

Pastoral Life of the Alps — The Convent of Engelberg — Singular Anomaly — The Canton of Uri — The Mountain Herdsmen — Hunting on the Alps — The Chamois Hunters — The Constitution of Uri — The Road of the St. Gotthard — The Devil's Bridge — The French Invasion — Passage of the Russians 260 CHAPTER XVH. The Canton of Schwyz — The Landsgemeinde — Judicial CONTENTS. XI PAGE Authorities — Claw-men and Horn-men — Taxes — The Village of Schwyz — Great Families — The Jesuits — The Old Cantons — Religious Houses — The Abbey of Einsiedeln 275 CHAPTER XVHI. The Origin of the Abbey — The Consecration — Pilgrims — The Clergy in Schwyz — Trade in Masses — The Abbey Church — Hamlet of Einsiedeln — Peculiar Industry — The Abbey at Twilight— The Chapel of the Dead- Devotional Games — Souls in Purgatory . . . S W I T Z E R L A N 13 IN 1847.

CHAPTER I.

From Mannheim to Switzerland — The Swiss Frontier — Physical Resemblances — Differences in Popular Character and Mode of Life — Foreigners in Switzerland — Hotels — Extortion — System of Swiss Mountains — Races and Languages — Parties and People. Steamboats and Railroads transport the traveller now, in little more than a day, from the banks of the Rhine to Switzerland. Leaving Cologne early in the morning, he reaches Mannheim before the next sunrise, can dine in Freiburg (in Baden), and find himself comfortably established in Schaff hausen in the evening ; or, if he should prefer going by Strasburg to Basle, he may reach that city in the same time. Thus easy has travelling become. As we fly along, we see places, formerly separated by wide tracts, crowded together, we hear by the way many pathetic complaints of sentimental people concerning the destruction of all the poetry VOL. I. B THE RHINE. of travelling — but wish nevertheless that the trains could manage to go — a little faster.

From year to year the Rhine, that great high road for all nations, becomes more and more crowded ; more and more considerable the human freight that every railroad and every steamer carries up and down ; and the summer of 1846, when I began my tour, was so favourable, so sunny, warm, and unchange able, that it invited a greater number of visitors than usual to that enchanting mountain-land of rocks, and glaciers, and waterfalls, and pastures of firing emerald, that lies between Germany and France and Italy. The object of attraction to me, however, was not in the present instance the beauty and magnificence of Nature — not so much Switzerland, as the Swiss — and for this reason I hurried forward that I might not lose the opportunity of being present at a great national festival that was to take place in Schaffhausen on the 14th and 15th of June.

It was the Great Choral Association, to which most of the musical societies in the various cantons contribute their " contingent." Free Switzerland ! — I knew well how many SWISS FREEDOM. 3 contradictions this expression involved ; I knew what passionate exaggerations have been employed in its favour by one party — what falsehood and calumny resorted to, to depreciate it, by the other. I have now looked closely into the character of this free dom, and can bear my testimony that, though it involves many things that one would wish altered, it has still the elements of sound and vigorous health. For six hundred years it has maintained itself in its republican form in the very midst of monarchical and despotically - governed states ; it has had strength to resist struggles from within and countless storms from with out, and has still vigour enough to commence a new era of better and truer liberty.

Whatever we may have to say against Switzerland, we cannot deny that it possesses an energetic political life, that we look for in vain among its neighbours. It has uncon ditional freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of association, a willingness to co-operate for all objects in which co-operation is required, and a lively interest in all departments of public affairs. A deep conb THE SWISS FRONTIER. sciousness of his rights as a freeman dwells alike in the breast of every Swiss, however uncultivated, whether herdsman, farmer, or mechanic, and even in the districts of Ger many which lie next to Switzerland its influ ence in this respect is very perceptible. In the Black Forest, in Baden, we find a robust, intelligent race of men, who have both the will and the power to compare their position with that of their republican neighbours.

The physical character of the two countries is in this part the same ; there is the same hilly conformation, the same fruitful soil, bringing forth the same productions. The people are obviously of the same race, their idiom, their customs, their characters have the most complete resemblance. Yet how different has been their history ! Here we find subjects of a Grand Duke, there citizens of a republic ; who, instead of having a costly apparatus of a court with all its appendages to maintain, find the whole amount of their pecuniary obligations to the state included in the sum of about eighteen pence sterling per head. Yet you may step across the frontier with- THE SWISS FRONTIER. 5 out observing it, or if you did, it would be only because you are stopped by no gen d'armes; no policeman inquires after your passport, or puts his head into your carriage to look after articles liable to duty ; you pass a custom-house perhaps, but it is one belonging to the Grand Duke, who will let anything out (only nothing in) ; and then you jog on quietly into the city of Schaffhausen, without any great man taking the least notice of you.

Switzerland closes her frontier by no line of police or custom-house officers ; that is the first beneficent sign of her freedom, and this gives a comfortable feeling to the traveller as he rolls along the well-kept road into the pleasant old town, with its painted, gable-roofed houses, and its air of the Holy Roman Empire. Like many of the Swiss cities, it has little ap pearance of internal activity ; but six or seven thousand men five in their old-fashioned, quiet way, as their forefathers did before them, seldom disturbed by any new growth of time. In Freiburg it is surprising what new life the railroad has brought in, how it is building and increasing on all sides. There is nothing of this in Schaffhausen ; but it has one pecu- SUMMER VISITANTS. liar source of profit in common with nearly all Switzerland, namely, the troops of strangers who flock to it from all parts of Europe, and whose appearance is watched for as anxiously as in some countries huntsmen and fishers watch for shoals of fish or flights of migratory birds.

A good summer brings travellers by thousands, a bad one drives away the gold dropping visitants ; and since every Swiss brings with him into the world, planted deep in his inmost soul, the instinct of money getting, a rainy season is felt as a national calamity. The Swiss are a prudent, moderate, saving, calculating nation ; indeed I can hardly imagine such a thing as a Swiss spendthrift pos sible ; and they are all well aware of how much of the prosperity of Switzerland de pends on the influx of visitors. There are, it is true, parts of the country where a stranger is scarcely ever seen, and where the people yet manage to five, indeed live often much better than in those where they are demoralised and filled with a greedy desire of gain by the perpetual passage of strangers ; but in the regular routes all tra- ALLIED INNKEEPERS. 7 vellers must make up their minds to be deli vered up as a prey to the innkeepers, who, without the help of oaths or acts of congress, have formed the firmest league amongst them selves.

The coalition has nevertheless not been without public formalities ; for, as it was found that on account of the shameful extortion to which they were exposed the stream of visitors, especially of the English, threatened to dry up, the owners of the first hotels had a meeting, in which they agreed on a price current, according to which guests were to be treated. The names of these allied innkeepers, and of their houses, are to be found in every guide book, and whether the house be good or bad, large or small, furnished with every luxury or barely provided with necessaries, the price to be paid is always the same ; the only difference ever made depending upon the nation the traveller belongs to. The Englishman pays most of all, then the Russian, then the Frenchman, then the German ; and the Swiss we may be sure the least, but he is seldom to be met with at the first hotels.

The English man is of course not always satisfied with his place at the top of this scale ; and sometimes THE CURRENCY. also, it cannot be denied that, notwithstanding their reputation for prodigality, the tra velling English show themselves exceedingly stingy, and I have often enough witnessed amusing scenes between them and their hosts, in such cases ; for, though nothing can exceed the politeness of the Swiss as long as he has a prospect of making anything by it, he can show himself determined enough if he sees symp toms of an inclination to resist his demands. His respect for money is, however, prodigious, and much will always be forgiven to a man who has the reputation of being wealthy. The difficulties of the traveller in this country are greatly increased, and not unfrequently serious losses occasioned him, by the state of desperate confusion into which he is plunged by the differences in the currency.

It varies in every canton ; and, since there is no uniting power to effect an amalgamation of various interests, and make regulations with a view to the general welfare, and no feeling of national unity, each little state thinking and acting only with a view to its private advantage, and clinging to its right of sovereignty with all the obstinacy of petty selfish ness, this evil is not very likely to be remedied. THE CURRENCY. Switzerland is not so much a federal state as a federation of states, in which the smallest member is at perfect liberty to act without regard to the general welfare. This is what must always be kept in mind, for it is the key to many of the present difficulties. This has been the grand cause of the struggle that has continued ever since 1 830 ; the object of one party being to overthrow the present federal constitution, and replace it by another better adapted to the time, by which the national unity would be secured, and the will of the majority of the Swiss people rendered more efficient.

In this affair of the coinage, many attempts have been made to establish some more regu lar system ; but they have not yet been successful. In the year 1834, twelve cantons, Berne, Zurich, Lucerne, Glarus, Zug, Freiburg, So leure, Basle, Schaffhausen, St. Gall, Aargau, and Thurgau, entered into negociations, but with very little result. The utmost they could effect was a reform and equalisation of the weights and measures ; and even this was rejected by some of the cantons. The money B SWISS MONEY. has remained precisely as it was, and is never likely to be in a much better state until some alteration has taken place in the political relations of the various members of the Federa tion. But it must at the same time be re membered, that the position of Switzerland, between Italy, Germany, and France, would of itself be sufficient to occasion many difficulties of this kind.

The western and south western cantons, which stand in the most intimate commercial relations with France, naturally prefer the coinage of that country. The east and the north find that of Ger many more convenient; and, in addition to these two systems, every little state has its own small money, that will not pass beyond its frontier : here we have batzen and rapps — there kreutzers and schillings, besides sous, and centimes, and blutzgers, and many others. The French five-franc piece passes some times for six-and-thirty, sometimes for five and-thirty, sometimes for four or even three and-thirty batzen ; and one has to reckon, now by guldens, now by Swiss francs, now by crowns or Milan livres ; and the stranger gene rally finds that on every change he is a loser. FALLS AT SCHAFFHAUSEN. 11 Before all things, let him beware of bringing Prussian money, whether gold, silver, or paper ; for then the loss becomes quite too formidable.

The real Swiss money it is often not easy to get, as Berne is the only canton that has a tolerably abundant currency ; so that, perhaps, the most advisable plan on the whole is to furnish oneself with French napoleons and five-franc pieces, for these will always pass, though at different valuations ; but with the Swiss coinage, it sometimes happens that if one has got it, one may keep it, as it will only pass in its native land. The falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen have been so often described, that I may spare myself and my readers any further re marks, than that, if they should happen to visit them, they would do well to cross to the left bank of the river, to the Castle of Laufen, and go along the gallery beneath the fall ; for there only can they become aware of the immense mass of water, for which chiefly it is remarkable.

Seen from the right bank, it seems scarcely to deserve its reputation ; but from this point, when you stand veiled in a shower of dazzling PHYSICAL CHARACTER. water-drops, and see the heavy, solid-looking foam-lashed water, sinking— sinking for ever down— the eye is fascinated by the everlasting movement ; the ground trembles and groans ; and the spray, dashing itself against the rocks into glittering dust, sparkles in the sun like diamonds, and forms rainbows that fill the whole atmosphere with their radiant colours ! An error very common among strangers with respect to Switzerland, is to imagine it entirely a land of high rocks and mountains. This is by no means the case ; for in the part lying next to Germany we find the same gentle hills and wooded slopes as in the neighbouring Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria.

The Black Forest is indeed much more rugged and mountainous than Switzerland until the Albis chain is reached, and the cantons of Schaffhausen, Basle, Aargau, Thurgau, Soleure, Zurich, and a great part of Berne and St. Gall, are merely steppe countries, whose highest points do not exceed two thousand feet, and which are adapted to the cultivation of all kinds of grain. The greater part of this hilly district rests on a bed of soft sandstone, which affords an excel lent material for building ; this is succeeded MOUNTAIN CHAINS. by a rock of heterogeneous character, called nagelflue, consisting of fragments of marble, greywacke, and porphyry, held together in a paste of sand and chalk. This nagelflue appears in immense masses just where the Swiss lakes commence ; and near the Lake of Geneva it runs into moun tains which extend through the cantons of Freiburg, Berne, Lucerne, Glarus, and St. Gall to the Lake of Constance.

This chain has, near its centre, mountains between five and six thousand feet high ; and it may be considered as the first mountain girdle of Switzerland. Behind this, to the south, the more recent formation of the Alpine chalk forms a higher chain, stretching also from the Lake of Geneva to that of the Four Cantons. The third mountain wall, principally of the transition chalk, extends from Mont Blanc to the Grisons, and to this chain belongs the enormous semicircle of gigantic peaks crowned with everlasting snow, which includes the Grossorn, the Jungfrau, the Fihsteraarhorn, and many others, and mingles with the mightiest primitive range of granite, and gneiss, and slate, which fills the Tyrol and RACES AND LANGUAGES. forms the barrier between Switzerland and Italy. It appears from this, that only a part of Switzerland, namely, the interior and southern part, is really the country of the High Alps ; and that this rises ever higher and higher as it approaches Italy.

Almost all the important cities, as well as the greater part of the can tons of which they are the capitals, lie in the milder and lower region : and here is the seat of all the manufacturing industry of Switzer land, as well as of its corn and wine. To reach the pastoral highlands, one must cross the nagelflue, for in this and the succeeding ranges lie the cantons of Zug, Schwyz, Glarus, Appenzell, Uri, Unterwalden, Valais, the Gri sons, and a part of St. Gall and Lucerne. Beyond the St. Gotthard, extending south ward to the Lake of Lugano, lies Ticino, or Tessin, the Italian canton of Switzerland ; the southern points of the canton of Grisons, where also Italian is spoken, reach to the Lake of Como. The Alps on the Italian side descend pre cipitously into the plain of Lombardy, forming a striking contrast to the gentle decline RACES AND LANGUAGES. on the north ; and even as suddenly does the Italian language commence.

It could not apparently force a way beyond the mountain chain. At the foot of St. Gotthard, the Splugen, the Simplon, and all the mountain passes, the German tongue in all its native toughness opposes it ; to the west, in Savoy, the French does the same, and with yet greater success. The long range of the Jura, with its continua tion the Jorat, forms a natural wall of sepa ration against the monarchy of the French ; but language creates a powerful bond of union, so that Napoleon found it easy to annex a considerable portion of this country to his empire. Geneva, Neufchatel, and Vaud form the core of French Switzerland. In Freiburg the French language is triumphant ; Berne possesses a portion of the Jura, which gives her also Catholic citizens speaking French : and the lower Valais is peopled by a French race ; thus it is evident, contrary to the ge neral opinion, that the prevalence of three different languages (or four, reckoning the Romanesque* of the Grisons) does not prevent the formation of one political body.

It is true that, according to monarchical ideas of * The Romana Rustica. state unity and nationality, the Swiss have neither the one nor the other. Their political fife is federal-republican, receiving its im pulse from no common centre, but each part maintaining its independence, exercising so vereign rights within its own limits, and form ing one organic body only for the common defence against internal and external danger. What in this system is faulty or defective has long been decided among the people them selves. But the citizens of Geneva, of Schaff hausen, Lausanne, Lugano, or Berne, feel that they are all Swiss, all parts of one whole, and this feeling is much stronger among them than foreigners believe. A love of freedom too is deeply rooted in every heart, is stronger than any cantonal separation, and would as suredly make itself felt on the first breath of foreign intervention.

The difference of language among them is perhaps of far less consequence than the differ ence of social development in the several can tons, the different modes of life, and, above all, the unhappy divisions between Catholics and Protestants, which are the most powerful ob stacles to national unity. It is the mode of thinking on religious and political subjects which draws people most strongly together ; and in Switzerland, where the majority of the people make the laws, and see their will directly become deed ; where the press is very nearly free, and the people independent, party strife takes unavoidably a much ruder and more energetic form than in monarchies, where an armed force, a strong police, official influence, and difference of rank, with its consequent ideas of the becoming and decorous, all tend to moderate the expression of opinion.

In Switzerland the hardy offspring of the soil flourishes in all its native vigour. There are vast differences to overcome, yet the threads of the social system fie far nearer to each other than in any other part of Europe. There is less distance between the president, burgomaster, schultheiss, or landamman, of one of these little republics, and the least of the citizens, than betweean German geheimrath and a German peasant. The geheimrath remains all his life a being of another species, while the schultheiss of Berne, or president of the confederation, after his four or six years of service, descends from his curule chair, and retires modestly to his counting-house, or his country seat, whence he can only emerge at the call of his fellow-citizens. Yet, nevertheless, the difference is still great between the herdsmen of Uri and Schwyz or the poor grass-mower, and the rich descendants of the old families, who have for centuries exercised a right of dominion over the pas toral cantons of interior Switzerland ; and, in spite of their nominal democracy and much cherished equality, the vilest tyranny is not unfrequent.

The influence of birth and pro perty is no where heavier than in those little democratic cantons whose institutions date from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Poor, isolated, superstitious, and stultified by priest and leader, what an enormous gap there is between these shepherds and the educated and enlightened citizen of Lausanne, or Berne, or Zurich, or the banker of Geneva, who keeps his hotel in Paris ! What a conflict of views and interests in life ! How can one wonder that the wildest contradictions should jostle one another, or that a fanatical party should have succeeded in inflaming the people of the Forest Cantons by the cry " The holy Catholic religion is in danger ' " against their greater, wealthier, and more industrious Protestant neighbours ! These rude and simple herds men and peasants believe all that their priests tell them, as devoutly as they did in 1799, when the latter stirred them up against the French in the name of God and the Virgin, and pro mised them the help of legions of angels.