Switzerland; or, a Journal of a tour and residence in that country, in the years 1817, 1818 and 1819 ... Second edition

Front matter

SWITZERLAND; OR, A JOURNAL OF A TOUR AND RESIDENCE IN THAT COUNTRY, IN THE YEARS 1817, 1818, and 1819: FOLLOWED BY AN HISTORICAL SKETCH ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN HELVETIA, IN WHICH THE EVENTS OF OUR OWN TIME ARE FULLY DETAILED ; TOGETHER WITH THE CAUSES TO WHICH THEY MAY BE REFERRED. By L. SIMOND, AUTHOR OF JOURNAL OF A TOUR AND RESIDENCE IN GREAT BRITAIN, DURING THE YEARS 1810 AND 1611. TWO VOLUMES. THE SECOND EDITION. VOL. II. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. MDCCCXXIII. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES, Noi III il in ber 1. 1 ml-. ..nil. CONTENTS or VOL. II. Chap. I. — Helvetia discovered by the Greeks, and described by them— Cæsar it first Historian — He repressed the Helvetic Invasion ofthe Roman Provinces. ......

Page 1 Chap. II.— Geographical Description — The Rhetians or Hetrurians — Ancient Helvetia, a League of Four States, resembling the Swiss Confederation — Helvetian Character changed under Roman Control, and Civilization advanced — Aventicum — National Manners — Rapacity of Rom an Travellers — Helvetia subjected to military Execution — Affecting Story of Julia Alpinula ...... 13 Chap. III. — Last Struggles ofthe Roman Empire — Attila and the Huns, Burgundians, Allemani, Ostrogoths, occuping Helvetia in the Fifth Century — The Burgundians dispossessed by the Franks — Burgundian Laws described — Government of the Descendants of Clovis — Hermits' Cells and Monasteries — Utility of the latter .... 26 Chap. IV. — Christianity introduced into Helvetia by Scotchmen — Invading Huns from the North defeated at Dissartes — The Arabs from the South vanquished by Charles Martel- — Age of Darkness without an Historian — Pepin and Charlemagne — Government of the latter — Feudal Institutions — The Influence and Authority of the Clergy useful in those Ages — Marvellous Tales about Charlemagne ... 37 Chap. V.— The Invasions of Turks or Hungarians— Queen Bertha — End ofthe World — Monasteries founded— House of Hapsburgh — Ida of Lorraine — Learning ofthe Monks described — their Husbandry — Mode of Living 47 Chap. VI.— The TreugaDei— Burgundy, and the whole of Helvetia, fall under the Protection of the Emperor — Noble Families ruined — New Monasteries and Abbeys founded in the Deserts of Helvetia — Glaris — Rise of Towns — Henry I. fortifies them, and institutes the middle Class of Burghers — Arnold of Brescia — Degeneracy ofthe Clergy— Curious Clause in the Agreement between the Bishops and the Count de Genevois . . 65 Chap. VII.— Rise of the Waldstetten— Constitution of Berne — Anecdote of the Heroic Count Peter of Savoy — He obtains a Grant of Fiefs in Switzerland from Richard, Earl of Cornwall, Emperor for a while — The Swiss resist a papal Interdict and their own Clergy — The three Waldstetten receive a Diploma from the Emperor in testimony of their Valour 05 Chap. VIII. — Rodolph of Hapsbonrgh protects the Townsmen against the Nobility — An Account of him and his Reign — Traits of his Wars, showing the Tactics and Manners of the Times— The Jews— Rodolph besieges Berne— His Son likewise — Bravery of the Bernese . . 72 b CONTENTS.

Chap. IX.— The Emperor Albert— His Character— He is defeated by the Bernese— Gessler and Landenburg— Their Insolence and Cruelty— 1 ho Waldstetten Patriots— Story of William Tell— General Insurrection ofthe three Waldstetten, who establish their Independence— Assassination ol the Kmperor Albert— Vengeance of his Daughter— Monastery of Kccnigsfelden. Page bl Chat. X.— Warfare ofthe Dukes of Austria against the Waldstetten— Battle of Morganten— Kibourg Inheritance— Importance of the Towns— Warlike Bernese— Lucerne joins the Waldstetten Confederacy— The cruel Baron Donat— Manufactures and Traffic— An Instance of Humanity and Magnanimity in War ...••«••■* Chap. XI.— Zurich— The Jews oppressed— Schools, Literature, and Poets— Kndolph Braun's Usurpation— Zurich joins the Helvetic League — A Conspiracy against the Usurper cruelly punished— Claris joins the League — Cowardice of Rodolph Braun— Courage of Roger Manesse — Zug and Berne join the League .....'. 90 Chat.

Chapter. I

Helvetia discovered by the Greeks, and described by them — Cæsar its first Historian — -He repressed the Helvetic Invasion of the Roman Provinces. 1 HE obscurity which so often attends the origin of nations is not wholly due to the absence of all early records, but also to the variety of descent of the first inhabitants, brought together from different countries, at different periods. We might as well ask what waters first penetrated into the Mediterranean, as what race of men first discovered, or first occupied, any par ticular spot of the earth. In an attempt to remove this obscurity, in regard to Switzerland, Muller, its learned historian, establishes on certain passages of the classics the following ingenious theory. A colony of Phoceans*, reduced by the arms of Cyrus, abandoned their own country, and founded, near the mouth of the Rhone, a city called Massilia, (Marseilles), which soon became rich and powerful.

They afterwards, he says, explored the whole course ofthe Rhone, as far as its junction with another river, (the Saone), where Lyons arose in after times ; and, * Herodotus. Vol. II. B HELVETIA DISCOVERED 2 still guided by the Rhone, they reached a chain of mountains, the Jura*, through which that river pours its waters by a narrow channel. They discovered beyond those mountains the melancholy abode of the Celts f, on the banks of a great lake, which they called the lake of the wilderness^. Pursuing their journey along its banks, they found the Rhone again entering it, and observed the difference between the colour of the waters. They marked the long narrow vale, dark abode of eternal night §, along which the Rhone pur sues its rapid course to the lake. The lofty mountains, where its source is hid, they poetically compared to the pillars ofthtsmi\\, (solis columnas,) probably from the circumstance of its rays dwelling upon them long after it was apparently set.

It is curious to imagine such a country as Switzer land, in the state in which the interior of America is in our days, and to hear Grecian adventurers speaking of the Rhone and the Lake of Geneva, much as Cana dian hunters do of Lake Michigan and the Blue Fox River ! When the Helvetians invaded the Roman provinces * " Jou Rag, in Celtic, reign of God," says Loys de Bochat, " is the name of one of the Hebrides, very high and mountainous, and the ancient name of Grand St. Bernard was Jou, which is more likely to be of Celtic than of Roman origin, Mons Jovis." t Apollonius Rhodius. I Rufi Festi Avieni. Descriptio Oræ Maritimœ k Gadibus ad Massiliam usque. § Apollonius Rhodius. || Festus. BY THE GREEKS. 3 in Cæsar's time, they carried a return of their forces in the Greek language, and this circumstance, mentioned in the Commentaries*, might in some degree countenance the foregoing historical theory, and even the suppositions that the Greeks established colonies in Helvetia, between the Reuss and the Rhine.

Yet when, at this day, we find the archives of every Ger man state full of Latin documents of the middle ages, we do not conclude that the inhabitants are of Roman origin. Helvetia received the name of Switzerland about the middle of the fifteenth century, and the Helvetians are noticed, for the first time in Roman history, little more than a century before our era, as allies of the Cimbres and Teutones, invading the Roman provinces. These confederates defeated the consul Silanus, near Marseilles ; but another Roman army passing the Alps in their rear, compelled them to return in haste to defend their own country. A young hero, (Diviko), certainly the first Helvetic name on record, com manded his countrymen; Lucius Cassius,the Romans. The two armies met about the place where the Rhone falls into the Lake of Geneva, and the conquerors of all Italy, the masters of Greece and Macedonia, who * Cæsar says, that this return of the Helvetian forces, found in their camp after their defeat, was written in Greek letters, which might mean in the Grecian language, or Grecian characters only, probably the latter. t The Swiss antiquarian, Loys de Bochat.

HELVETIA INVADED 4 had carried their victorious arms over Asia and Africa, were again overcome by a people hitherto unknown. fi4fi The consul and his lieutenant fell, and of Rome. the defeat was so total, that the vanquished were compelled to give hostages, and to pass under the yoke, before they were permitted to retire. Cæsar speaks positively as to this extraordinary fact. The astonishment and terror of the Romans became ex treme, when soon after these disasters a third consular army of eighty thousand men was defeated in like manner, and almost totally destroyed. Rome never was in greater peril, but the barbarians did not know how to avail themselves of their success ; and conti nuing to carry on a desultory war, with divided forces, Caius Marius obtained a victory over a large body of them near Aix, (Aqua Siatia) in Provence, and soon after another in Italy, on the banks of the Adige.

The Cimbres and Helvetians united were, at this last battle, 150,000 strong ; their infantry is represented as fight ing in close order, armed with long pikes ; their cavalry wore iron armour, with shields and crested helmets. These circumstances are worthy of some attention, for the art of working metals, and especially iron, shows a state of civilization considerably ad vanced, yet the geography of the Romans scarcely extended to such a people in their neighbourhood. Marius, much inferior in numbers, was very near losing a day which might have proved the last of Rome, and, satisfied with having for this time saved BY THE ROMANS. 5 the republic, he did not attempt to follow the Helve tians to their native mountains. It was fifty years after this event that their power sank before the rising genius of Cæsar, whose Commentaries furnish us with a few facts concerning them.

They were, he tells us, pre-eminently brave among the Gauls, from their being in a constant state of warfare with their neighbours on the other side of the Rhine. The ex tent of their country was much what it is at this day. A distinguished chief among them, called Orgeto rix*, was possessed of 10,000 slaves, and of great wealth acquired in wars ; his restless ambition led him to propose the extraordinary measure of an armed emigration of the whole nation into Gaul. The people approved his project, and employed three years in * An engraving of a medal of Orgetorix may be seen in Boute loue's work on coins. Paris, 1 666, page 51. It bears his name ; the head on one side, and the wild horse on the reverse, (an emblem of liberty,) are not ill executed, and indicate an advanced state of the arts.

As the characters of this medal are Roman, a doubt might arise as to its authenticity, if the medals ofthe Gauls, whose language was not that of the Romans, had not Roman characters likewise. Some antiquarians, such as Gasper, Odericus, and Eckhel, will not admit that this medal belonged to the Orgetorix of Cæsar, principally on account of the different orthography of the name ; spelt Orciterix. t Tacitus observes, that the slaves of the Helvetians did not live in the family of their masters, as was the custom among the Romans, but furnished them with stated quantities of grain, cattle, clothing, fye In general they were not ill used, nor over-worked, although a master might kill his slaves with impunity. Cæsar and Tacitus are almost the only sources from which we learn any thing of the state of society among the ancient Germans.

ARMED EMIGRATION 6 raising a great stock of provisions for the use of the expedition, in which they invited their German allies to join. Orgetorix became, in the mean time, an object of suspicion to the people ; accused of criminal views, imprisoned and brought to trial, he at last perished by his own hand ; but the preparations for the intended invasion were nevertheless continued, and the time appointed for its execution was the 28th March, of the year 696 of Rome, fifty-eight years before our era. The sick and the old, the women and children, with their most valuable effects, and three months' provisions, were placed on carriages drawn by oxen* ; and it is positively asserted by Cæsar that the Helvetians, before their departure, set fire to all their towns, twelve in number, and 400 villages ; in short, they destroyed all they could not carry away ; and their allies followed the example.

There were, as Cæsar afterwards ascer tained from their Grecian register, 263,000 Helvetians, and 105,000 allies from the Jura, the Lake of Con stance, the Grisons, and the Tyrol, amounting together to 368,000 persons, of whom 92,000 f were fighting men, commanded by Divico, the conqueror of the Romans half a century before. At the first appearance * We may from this form an idea of the manner in which the armed emigrations of northern barbarians, that overran the Roman empire, were conducted. t This is a great proportion of fighting men, yet as no able male was excepted, they might muster that number. INTO GAUL. 7 of this gathering storm, Cæsar hastened from Rome to Geneva, a town of which no mention occurs before ; it was not a part of Helvetia, but belonged to the Allobroges, allies or subjects of Rome, whose territory comprehended all Dauphine and Savoy, having the Rhone for their northern boundary.

The Helvetians applied for a free passage through the country of the Allobroges, with an assurance that they would abstain from all depredations. Cæsar, who had only one legion to oppose to the vast multitudes, gained time by evasive answers, but refused at last. He had in the mean time thrown up an intrenchment, extending from the lake to the mountain, in order to prevent their passage. This great work, sixteen feet high, and five leagues in length*, has occasioned much learned controversy in our day. Some historians, and Spon in particular, place it on the north side of the Rhone, from Nion, on the Lake of Geneva, to the Ddle, the highest part of the Jura, in the direction of Gingin, and some remains of ancient walls seemed to countenance the idea. The two passages through the Jura, l'Ecluse and les Echelles, would thus have been equally shut out.

The learned commentator of Spon, and after him Clarke, have adopted a different opinion. They remark, that Cæsar, as soon as he arrived at Geneva. destroyed the bridge over the Rhone, or at least that * By murum in altitudinem pedum 16, fossamque perducit, we must understand a rampart formed of the earth of the ditch thrown up, and bound together by means of fascines, and not a wall. THE HELVETIAN INVADERS 8 half of it which extended from the island to the Helve tian side, building a strong tower on the island. He would not have done this, had he meant to occupy the other side ; nor could he, with only five or six thousand men, have a structed such a work in presence of a host of The probability is, therefore, that this inti t$ at was constructed from Geneva, along • ' of the Rhone, to the gap through hich, being on his own ground, and the Rhone be ween him and the enemy, he could effect without interruption.

Besides, the distance agrees with the 19,000 paces* mentioned by Cæsar, whilst there are only about 5,000 steps from Nion to the Ddle. The Helvetians, after many fruitless endeavours to force the intrenchment, by crossing over on rafts, and at various fords, gave up the enterprise, and pursued their way along the Pas-de-l'Ecluse. Cæsar might ex pect that the people on the other side of the Jura, north of the Rhone, called Sequanians, would defend the entrance into their country, but the Helvetians had gained over a powerful chief among them, Dumnorix, and they passed unmolested. It is certainly difficult to understand how this inva sion, the subject of public debates in popular assem blies during three years, and in actual preparation all * The distance in a straight line is four leagues of twenty to a de gree, and, following the course of the river, something less than five leagues, being very nearly the 19,000 paces required.

OPPOSED BY CÆSAR. 9 that time, should have found the Romans so little on their guard, and the blame seems to rest with Cæsar himself, who was pro-consul in Gaul a year before ; but he repaired his fault most ably. Destitute of means to stop the Helvetians, he saw them pour their multitudes through the Jura, without opposition, and leaving the defence of his camp to his lieutenant, La bienus, he hastened to Italy, in order to feet a levy of troops. Having raised two legions, anc jailed out three more from their winter-quarters, he fought his way by the nearest road over the Alps (Mount Cenis,) to Lyons*, and, with incredible diligence, appeared in the rear of the Helvetians before they had entirely * The learned Muller seems to have fallen into an unaccountable error here ; he makes Cæsar pass by Duomo d'Ossola, instead of by Mount Cenis.

The original passage in the Commentaries runs thus : — " Qua proximum iter in ulteriorem Galliam per Alpes erat, cum his quinque legionibus ire contendit. Ibi Centrones* et Graiocelif et CaturigesJ, locis superioribus occupatis, itinere exercitum pro hibere conantur. Compluribus his preeliis pulsis, ab Ocelo§, quod est citerioris Provinciæ extremum, in fines Vocontiorum || ulterioris Provinciæ die septimo pervenit, unde in Allobrogum fines : ab Allo brogibus in SegusianostT exercitum ducit: hi sunt extra Provinciam trans Rhodanum primi." * People of the Tarentaise. f People of the Valley of Maurienne. X People of Embrun. § Exiles — a small town of Piedmont, or, according to d'Anville, Usseau, Non Exiles, above Susa, at the foot of Mount Cenis. Muller supposes Ocelo to mean Duomo d' Ossola. || People of Die and of Vaison. fl People of Lyons.

The above explanation of names of places and people is taken from Count Turpin de Crisse's Notes on Cæsar's Commentaries. We have not tbe smallest pretensions to original criticism on the subject, but Count Turpin appears to us in the right. CÆSAR DEFEATS THE HELVETIANS, 10 effected their passage over the Saone. It had taken the unwieldy multitude twenty days to transport them selves across the river, and their rear-guard, forming one-fourth of their number, was cut off by the Romans, who passed in a day. This celerity astonished the barbarians, and their old chief, Divico, in a personal interview with Cæsar, proposed terms, which were, however, too high, and too proudly offered, for accept ance. The Romans were 40,000 strong, but their cavalry, furnished by allies of doubtful fidelity, experienced a check from the sudden attack of the Helve tian horse ; they were, besides, in great want of pro visions.

In this extremity, an opportunity for which Cæsar had been anxiously watching occurred, of indu cing a general attack from the enemy at a disadvan tage, when, availing himself of the superior discipline of his troops, he defeated them in a sanguinary and long-disputed battle, of which Plutarch gives a detailed account. This action was the first of those which were to place the Roman hero so far above all other military commanders ; a disorderly multitude of 300,000 souls, scarcely more than one-fourth of them fighting men, would now be deemed no match for a well-appointed army of 40,000 men, even without Cæsar at its head ; yet when we consider that armies did not then fight at distance, by means of artillery, but came to close encounter on all occasions, the odds between able-bodied barbarians and trained soldiers appear very much diminished.

AND COMPELS THEM TO RETURN. 11 Cæsar followed the discomfited Helvetians some weeks longer, never departing a moment from his usual calmness and prudence ; ready to grant liberal terms, but punishing with the utmost rigour every attempt to deceive him. Whilst treating for a surren der, a body of 6,000 men escaped in the night, but being overtaken and brought back, they were all put to the sword ! After this sanguinary execution, the remainder of the invading multitude, reduced to 100,000 individuals, were permitted* to return to the country they had so lately forsaken, with nearly four times that number, and there to rebuild their houses, thenceforth to live at peace as allies of the Republic, protected from their northern enemies by the terror of her name, " Cæsar ne leur donnant," says Montaigne, " autre garnison que la mimoire de sa douceur et cle mence."

A reputation for clemency was cheaply obtained in Cæsar's time, and the feeling may be said to have been nearly unknown in antiquity ; if any other fact was necessary, besides the execution just mentioned, to give an idea of Cæsar's clemency, the following may assist in the estimate. Cæsar himself tells us, without disguise, or the slightest appearance of regret, that the * Rome did not always ratify the treaties made by her generals, and in that case gave up the general to the enemy. Such appears to have been their public law. The power of making peace and war, without consulting the senate, was conferred upon Cæsar for the first time after the battle of Pharsalia. THE HELVETIAN EMIGRANTS, &c. 12 Veneti (the people of Vannes in Lower Brittany,) reduced to great extremities by his arms, surrendered ; but he, willing to give an example of severity, had the whole senate put to death, and the people sold at public auction !

The sort of independence the Helvetians were allowed to retain, after their return to their own country, lasted only six years, and they, like the rest, were reduced to a state of unconditional subjection. The Romans themselves bear ample testimony to the nature of that state. " Remember," said Cicero to the people of Rome, " the marches of your armies through Italy, and judge what foreign nations have to undergo." IS

Chapter II

Geographical Description — The Rhetians or Hetrurians — Ancient Helvetia, a League of Four States, resembling the Swiss Confederation — Helvetian Character changed under Roman Control, and Civilization advanced — Aventicuni — National Manners — Rapacity of Roman Travellers — Helvetia subjected to military Execution — Affecting Story of Julia Alpinula. Helvetia was bounded, at that time, much as modern Switzerland, by the lake of Geneva, the chain of the Jura, from that lake to the Rhine, near the spot where Basle arose many centuries after, near the ruins of Augusta Rauracorum, a magnificent city, founded by the Romans, in the year of Rome 703 ; thence along that river to the lake of Constance ; thence by an irre gular and uncertain line over the mountains of Appen zel, and the high ridges and glaciers forming the northern skreens ofthe narrow valleys ofthe Upper Rhine, and the Upper Rhone, flowing in opposite directions from the St. Gothard.

The inhabitants of the valley of the Rhone retained their independence for some time after the subjugation of Helvetia, but having been accused of exactions upon the traders and travellers into Italy, by the St. Bernard, the St. Gothard, and the Simplon, the Romans established a camp at Octo durum, (on or near the present site of Martigny,) to keep them in check. This camp, commanded by Galba, was attacked by the people with great skill and courage, THE RHETIANS 14 and saved, with the utmost difficulty, by the valour of the Romans. A very interesting account of this action is given by Cæsar himself in his Commentaries. Ten thousand of the barbarians perished in the attempt, but Galba was obliged to withdraw his reduced forces nearer to Geneva. Another race of men occupied the valley ofthe Rhine, and the chain of mountains between that river and Italy : they were descended from that very ancient people, to whom the Greeks and the Romans had given the names of Tyrrhenians, Truscans or Hetrus cans, but who it seems called themselves Rhetians.

Driven from the banks of the Tiber, they occupied, during several centuries, the celebrated vale of the Arno, in Tuscany, then (Tuscia,) forming a league of twelve independent cities. The first inroads of the Gauls induced many of them to abandon this luxurious abode, for one of greater safety in the deep recesses of the Alps, where, forgetting by degrees the arts and civilization of better times, they became mere barba rians, and, changing characters with their former tor mentors, now civilized and peaceful, were in their turn the terror of Cisalpine Gaul, committing the most cruel ravages in the great valley ofthe Po, and sacking, with impunity, the tributary towns of the mistress of the world. During these changes of residence, mode of life, and manners, the Rhetians preserved the same language they had at the foundation of Rome ; and, even at this day, after the lapse of 2500 years, the OR HETRURIANS. 15 Ladinum, spoken in the valley of the Inn (Engadine), and the Romansh, spoken in the mountains, and their northern slope towards Illantz, are still essentially the very language described by Livy ; and the names of many of their towns, such as Lavin, Ardetz, Susch, Flœsh, &c, recall the ancient Lavinium, Ardea, Susa, Faliscum.

Octavianus Augustus, in the year of Rome 738, sent an army against them, commanded by his sons-in-law, Claudius Drusus, and Claudius Tiberius Nero. Some brilliant qualities distinguished the latter at that period, and Drusus was a young hero, in whom the spirit of the great Cæsar seemed to revive. They encountered the most desperate resistance on the part of the Rhetians, whose very women, animated with a fury which extinguished every human feeling, were seen to hurl their infant children at the heads of Ro man soldiers, and rush upon their swords ! This peo ple were the last subdued among the nations of the Alps. Most of those who survived past the Rhine, and went under the guidance of a German chief, called Marbode, to seek among the Carpathian mountains, a country where the Romans had not penetrated*. * How far the conquests of the Romans extended in the Alps and in the Pyrenean mountains is not known, nor whether their civil and military system of government ever prevailed there.

Several districts in these high regions seem to have been like so many political oases, surrounded on all sides by the Roman dominions. The fact of the original language of the Basques in the Pyrenean mountains remaining ANCIENT STATE 16 Tiberius gave their lands, some years after, to a colony of 40,000 Swabians. Half Germany, half the world, remained at this period an unpeopled wilderness. Was then that world so new ? Had it but lately recovered from one of those wide-wasting catastrophes, which every geological appearance teaches us to believe have at different periods torn up, mixed together, and recast, as it were, the surface of our earth, sweeping off, as might be sup posed, its inhabitants all at once into their common tomb, and scarcely leaving a few solitary individuals to begin anew the long course of education of the suc ceeding race ?

Hunters, during many centuries, each family requiring a province and making war for a hare ; then shepherds, increasing their numbers in a state of comparative peace and affluence ; then husbandmen dividing the land, and erecting houses, villages, and towns — the slow progress of thousands of years ! Yet these same geological appearances, so eloquent on the natural history of a former world, say nothing of our species : not a vestige of human remains has ever been discovered among the fossil bones of animals, so pure and unmixed, while France and Spain lost theirs, is a strong in stance of the kind. F. L. Haller, the most exact and the most modern of all the antiquarians, who investigated this subject, designated on the map annexed to his excellent work, (Helvetia under the Romans, 2 vols. Berne 1812) all that portion of the Alps, extending from the sources of the Rhine to the valley of Lauterbrunn, by the name of Gentes Alpinee indomitœ.

OF HELVETIA. 17 profusely mixed with and embodied into our rocks and mountains. Inert matter bears the stamp of a living world, where man was not >. revealing thus more than one period of creation, and a difference, of origin assuredly very remarkable. Cæsar informs us, that Helvetia was divided into four states, called Pagi, a sort of league, like the present Swiss Confederation, for mutual defence, without any thing else in common. He frequently mentions the Council ofthe Gauls (totius Galliœ concilium), which was composed of deputies from all the towns. Far from abolishing the custom, Cæsar encouraged it, appointing the place of meeting, which was often changed, and showing displeasure when any of the towns de clined making use of their privilege. It was main tained under Augustus, notwithstanding the new divi sion of Gaul, and under his successors.

One of these assemblies we find to have been held during the reign of Vespasian : they continued in the kingdom of Bur gundy, and until the conquest by the Franks, who, in other respects, endeavoured to conciliate the people more than the Romans had done. Gregory of Tours says, these new masters were preferred : others ob serve, that the people were reduced to look for humanity among Barbarians, as it was no longer to be found among the Romans. Under the latter, a popular as sembly could hold out but a mere semblance of inde pendence, subservient to their interest. They took care Vol. II. C THE NATIONAL CHARACTER 18 to keep alive, in all the towns of their allies, two opposite factions ; and if their own was defeated, it furnished them with a pretence for sending a special magistrate, called corrector*, to assist in pacifying internal divisions, and reducing the refractory to obedience.