Seven letters concerning the politics of Switzerland : pending the outbreak of the Civil War in 1847

Introduction

A reprint of the Swiss Letters, originally published in the " Spectator," has been found desirable on more than one ground. For thirty years this passage of domestic strife has only been casually reverted to by attentive observers of political events, and the subject had almost dropped out of the circle of topics possessing a modern interest when the recent German difficulties with the Catholic Church awakened the recollection of the Sonderbund quarrel.

These difficulties have their origin in the very causes which engendered the disturbances of 1847 among the Cantons of Switzerland. On the one hand there is the influence of the Vatican, sustained by the free application of its vast revenues ; on the other, an able and resolute representative of the secular power, backed by the authority of a puissant temporal sovereign. It is the same piece

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playing over again, only that the theatre on which the drama is enacted occupies a more extensive area of territory. The actual dispute excites memories in connection with Swiss affairs, which memories prompt numerous enquiries for the little work of Mr. Grote — a work clearly setting forth the causes of the struggle of 1847, and explaining the complex nature of the political relations existing among the members of that interesting Republic.

But the original edition had long been out of print, and it has not been without difficulty that a copy has been found to meet the demands of those who now desire to re-peruse the " Letters." When it was determined to reprint them, it was deemed a fitting occasion to produce a letter addressed by the Author to M. Alexis de Tocqueville, wherein he takes a retrospective view of the closing incidents of this internecine conflict. It finishes the story, as it were ; and the reader will have the leading points more clearly fixed in his mind than they would have been left at the end of Letter VII.

The letter itself was included among a packet

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v of correspondence restored to the writers, in 1860, by the heirs of M. de Tocqueville.

This contest between the clerical element and the lay element — personfied in the Priest and the Civil Magistrate — is one that will in all probability be maintained, in one quarter of Europe or another, for all time. The actors change, the conditions of the quarrel fluctuate, but the sources of the discord never dry up, and may, in fact, be characterised as sempiternal.

H. G.

London, March 1876.

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Letter I

Character of Swiss politics — The Sonderbund — The Diet and its Bepresentatives — M. Guizot's speeches and articles— The Federal Pact — Cantonal selfishness.

Lettee II.

Unpopularity of the Federal Pact — Ultramontanism in the Catholic Cantons — Dr. Strauss' appointment resisted — Disturbances in Zurich — The New Constitution for Lucerne.

Letter III

Eevision of the Constitutions of Argau and Soleure — Ultramontane tendencies — Politico-religious agitation — The monasteries instigators and promoters of the insurgents — Suppression of four monasteries.

Letter IV

Presidential years of the Canton of Lucerne — Contests between the Upper and Lower Valais— The brothers Barman — Young Switzerland — Activity of the Jesuits — Indignation viii

CONTENTS.

against Lucerne and M. Meyer at the shooting-meeting at Basle — Proposition for the expulsion of the Jesuits brought before the Diet.

Lettek V.

The Jesuits introduced into Lucerne — Protest of the Great Council of Zurich — The Corps Francs — Extraordinary Diet at Zurich — Anti-Jesuit feeling — Revolution in the Canton de Vaud.

Letter VI

Formation of the Sonderbund — Revolution of Berne — Colonel Ochsenbein — Revolution of Geneva — Revision of the Constitution of Bale-Ville — St. Gallen and its population.

Letter VII

Unitary Government — Lucerne the head of the Catholic Clerocracy of Switzerland — The Federal Pact and the Sonderbund — Ameliorated management of the Communes — Education — Pauperism.

Letter to M. de Tocqueville.

Termination of the war in Switzerland — Want of resolution in the Sonderbund — Lord Palmerston's influence in Italy and Switzerland — Dismissal of the J esuits.

Preface

The following letters embody the results of reading and enquiry during the course of a recent excursion in Switzerland. I thought at first that what I had to say would have been comprised in three letters at farthest ; but the matter has insensibly grown under my hands into the bulk of a small volume.

The inhabitants of the twenty-two Cantons of Switzerland are interesting, on every ground, to the general intelligent public of Europe. But to one whose studies lie in the contemplation and interpretation of historical phenomena, they are especially instructive — -partly from the many specialities and differences of race, language, religion, civilization, wealth, habits, &c, which distinguish one part of the population from another, comprising between the Rhine and the Alps a miniature of all Europe, and exhibiting

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the fifteenth century in immediate juxtaposition with the nineteenth — partly from the free and unrepressed action of the people, which brings out such distinctive attributes in full relief and contrast. To myself in particular, they present an additional ground of interest, from a certain political analogy (nowhere else to be found in Europe) with those who prominently occupy my thoughts, and on the history of whom I am still engaged — the ancient Greeks.

In listening not only to the debates in the Diet, but also to the violent expressions of opposite sentiment manifested throughout the country during the present summer, I felt a strong impulse to understand how such dispositions had arisen ; to construe the present in its just aspect as a sequel to the past — and to comprehend that past itself in conjunction with the feelings which properly belong to it, not under the influence of feelings belonging to the present. The actual condition, and reasonable promise, of Swiss Federal politics, were different in 1841 and 1844, and have become again materially different in 1847 : we have to study each period partly in itself,

PREFACE.

xi partly with reference to that which preceded it, and out of which it grew.

A man must have little experience of historical phenomena to suppose that in any violent political contention, all the right is likely to lie on one side and all the wrong on the other. I have not disguised my conviction that both the Swiss parties have committed wrong, nor is my statement likely to give satisfaction to either of them : to shew the prolific power of wrong deeds in generating their like, is in my judgment one of the most important lessons of history. Whether I have distributed praise and blame in right proportion, is a matter on which there is room for difference of opinion ; but I shall at least help my readers to conceive the main points of Swiss political dispute in historical sequence, and along with their concomitant circumstances. The English or French criticisms which I have as yet seen, rarely attempt to do this ; yet without it no criticism can be either equitable or instructive.

In regard to the future, I am sparing of predictions. Amidst phenomena so complicated, so full of reciprocal excitement, and so little amenable xii

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to precedent as those which Switzerland now exhibits, a foreigner can do nothing more than put together the past in order to interpret the present. The business of prediction, as well as that of counsel and guidance, he must leave to natives ; and deeply indeed is it to be wished that the Swiss leaders may shew themselves at the actual crisis not incompetent to these lofty functions.

G. Gr.

• London, October 14, 1847.

POLITICS OF SWITZERLAND.

Letter I

Of the numerous travellers who during the course of every summer visit the magnificent scenery of Switzerland, there are not many who interest themselves in the political or social condition of the people. But in the present year, this latter topic has stood to an unusual degree in the foreground ; and the proceedings of the Diet, which has been sitting at Berne for the last two months, have attracted more notice than ever that assembly received before, not merely from visitors, but from the general public of Europe. Such increased notice is indeed abundantly justified by the serious character which Swiss politics have now assumed, and by the open collision, seemingly but one degree removed from actual hostilities, of a majority and minority of the Diet. On the

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POLITICS OF SWITZEELAND. [Letter I.

20th of last July, a majority, including twelve Cantons and two Half-Cantons, came to the important vote, that the separate league of seven Cantons, called the Sonderbund, was a contravention of the Federal Pact ; directed its dissolution ; and threw upon the Cantons composing it the responsibility of all the consequences of disobedience. Those Cantons — Lucerne, Friburg, Schwytz, Unterwalden, Uri, Zug, and Yalais — have not only protested against this decision, and refused to obey it, but have even persisted, and are still persisting, in military preparations, for the purpose of repelling any attempt on the part of the majority of the Diet to enforce its decision by arms. As yet, no proposition for forcibly executing the sentence has been submitted to the Diet, whose sentence of condemnation against the Sonderbund has been formally proclaimed, but remains unexecuted. It has been followed up only by one or two other resolutions against the Sonderbund, adopted by the same majority. A supply of arms and ammunition, sent by the Austrians from Lombardy to the Cantons of the Sonderbund, but detained by the inhabitants of Tessin in its

Letter I.] POLITICS OF SWITZERLAND.

passage through that Canton, has been placed under sequestration by order of the Diet, in the hands of the Government of Tessin : the Cantons of the Sonderbund have been formally admonished to discontinue their military preparations : moreover, a Commission has been nominated to examine and communicate with such officers of the Federal military force as hold commissions under the refractory Cantons ; and a resolution has been passed by the Diet, to dismiss them from the former unless they voluntarily renounce the latter. Still, no real progress is made towards the dissolution of the Sonderbund ; which continues inflexible — obstinate, and even insolent in the language of its Deputies — and unremitting in its warlike preparations. Presently the Diet will also pass a resolution, by the same majority, directing or inviting the expulsion of the Jesuits from Switzerland : but this resolution will meet with the same angry opposition, and the same proclaimed disobedience, as the others.

How long such open dissension can continue, or by what steps it will be brought to a close, no reasonable man will venture to pronounce. But

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POLITICS OF SWITZEELAND. [Letter I.

it is most certainly grave and menacing : it is pregnant with the possibility, not to say more, of civil war in Switzerland, and with the farther possibility of foreign interference in that country. Assuming even that such interference does not take place, the sympathies of Europe are of no mean account in reference to every individual country ; and it is therefore worth while to form some rational estimate of the direction which those sympathies ought to take. The causes of what happens in a Swiss Diet are not a little complicated : for that assembly represents the result of what has been done and felt in each of the twenty-two Cantons — each a little political world, distinct from, though sympathising with, the rest. Switzerland consists of twenty-two Cantons, each having one vote in the Diet, though there is the greatest inequality between them in wealth and population; Berne containing about 430,000 inhabitants, and Zurich about 230,000, while Uri comprises only 15,000. Each Canton is independent and sovereign, except in so far as it is bound by the provisions of the Federal Pact, or by resolutions of the Diet in fulfilment of and in

Letter I.]

POLITICS OF SWITZEKLAND.

conformity with the Pact. Indeed, even this multiplicity of elements does not represent the full complexity of Swiss political affairs : for three out of the twenty-two Cantons — Bale, Appenzell, and Unterwalden — are divided each into two Half- Cantons, each Half-Canton sovereign and independent, subject to the restriction above mentioned. The two sections of Bale (town and country), and of Appenzell (Inner-Ehoden and Ausser-Ehoden), not only differ from each other on the most material points, but are almost always politically opposed ; and whenever they are so opposed, their votes are of course neutralized in the Diet. So multiform are the elements — not to mention the many and important differences of race, religion, language, wealth, civilization, habits, residence in mountain, plain, town, or country, &c. — which go to form political society among the 2,400,000 inhabitants of Switzerland: of whom about 900,000 are Catholics, the remainder Protestants.

To trace the working of these various causes, which have co operated more or less to form the majority called Eadical, and the minority called Conservative, in the present Diet, is no very easy

POLITICS OF SWITZERLAND. [Letter I.

problem even for a native : a foreigner can only seize the principal and prominent circumstances. There is, however, one source of error which especially deserves to be pointed out, and of which more will be said presently — that of estimating the character and tendencies of Swiss parties by the names which they bear of Radical and Conservative, These names have now got a footing in every language of Europe, and have very strong feelings of esteem or hatred associated with them ; they are nowise correct as designations of the two Federal parties prominently opposed in Switzerland, and of the points at issue between them : yet foreigners easily transfer to that country the established sentiments or established interests which they have contracted towards the parties so called at home. This is especially necessary to be borne in mind when we read the speeches delivered by M. Guizot in the French Chamber, or the articles in the Journal des Debats, which have so wide a circulation in Europe. Whoever judges of Switzerland from these sources, will carry away an impression not merely partial and inaccurate, but in many respects the direct reverse of real truth.

Lettbb I.] POLITICS OF SWITZEELAND.

M. Guizot speaks from the French tribune the language of an exaggerated Swiss party politician : omit the name and translate his speech into German, it might pass for one of the bitter invectives of M. Meyer, the Deputy of Lucerne in the Swiss Diet, against Radical spirit and aggressions. The Journal des Debats and other French journals are written in the same vein : to them, as well as to M. Guizot, it is sufficient if they find an opportunity of inflaming their readers against Radical principles, and of impressing upon them the dignity of Conservative politics sanctified by religious zeal. With M. Guizot, probably, such discourses are more than an ebullition of feeling : they are also a useful manoeuvre in reference to his own position in France. For he owes that position not to any esteem or confidence entertained towards him by the French people — still less to any hopes which they feel of progress or improvement under his Ministry; but chiefly to the fears which the French electoral body have been taught to entertain of Radicalism. And the menaces, so offensive and indecent in the mouth of any foreign Power, which he addresses to the Swiss Diet, are intended

POLITICS OF SWITZERLAND. [Letter I.

to tell quite as much upon French Conservatives and French Eadicals as upon Lucerne and Berne.

Two points deserve particular notice in the bitter animadversions which M. Gruizot and the French Conservative journals pour forth against the recent course of Swiss politics.

1. They dwell continually, and almost exclusively, upon two facts in the recent history of that country — the invasion of the Canton of Lucerne, in the end of 1844, as well as in the beginning of 1845, by bands of volunteers from the other Cantons, called the Corps Francs — and the separate league of seven Cantons, called the Sonderbund, which is represented as a consequence of this unjust invasion, and resorted to only as a means of defence.

2. They depict the present majority of twelve Cantons and two Half-Cantons, which has just pronounced the Sonderbund to be unconstitutional and directed its dissolution, as a majority bent upon complete subversion of the Cantonal independent action throughout Switzerland, and upon the transfer of the twenty-two separate Govern-

Letter I.]

POLITICS OF SWITZEELAND.

ments now existing, to one central and united republic at Berne. To add to the terrors of this impending republic, it is described as likely to become aggressive and formidable to all its neighbours ; since the 2,400,000 souls which the whole country contains would be so immensely strengthened (we are told) by this concentration, that they would forthwith overstep their own rights and limits, for the purpose and with the power of imposing unjust conditions on others.

Such are the two points principally insisted upon by M. Guizot, and many of the leading critics on Swiss affairs. In regard to the first of the two, they mislead by isolating one single event and presenting it apart from its preceding and accompanying circumstances : in regard to the second, they mislead yet more, by imputing to a great party in Switzerland, designs which none of those who really represent that party have given the least ground for suspecting, and by holding forth as likely to be accomplished a centralization to which all present tendencies stand irrevocably opposed.

That there may be persons in Switzerland, and

POLITICS OF SWITZEELAND. [Letter I.

those too not among the least patriotic of her citizens, who wish that such a centralization or something approaching to it could be established, is probable enough : and it is not easy to see why any impartial foreigner, who desires nothing but the tranquillity, happiness, and improvement of the country, should denounce them for it; although it may suit the purpose of a French Minister, who wishes to see Switzerland at all times open to attack, to foment the maximum of disunion. Among the 2,400,000 people who dwell between the Lakes of Constance and Geneva, there are now twenty-five independent establishments, each fitted up (better or worse) for the complete execution of all the purposes of government. In the time of Aristotle, and with his political experience, such minute subdivision would have appeared an indispensable condition of freedom and responsibility : but in the present state of political knowledge, it is surely neither crime nor folly to conceive that all the great purposes of society might be better fulfilled by locallychosen governing bodies subordinate to one common centre. And this is the ground actually

Letter L] POLITICS OF SWITZEELAND.

taken by some of the French Opposition journals against M. G-uizot: they seem to admit that the Swiss political leaders do contemplate an entire subordination of the Cantonal to the Central Government, and defend them in this supposed project. Both the attack and the defence are here founded on the same mistaken supposition : still the defence is perfectly well grounded to this extent — that if the Swiss leaders really did entertain the project imputed to them by the French Minister, and were striving to bring their own people to the same view, they would in nowise deserve those bitter denunciations which he has poured forth against them, though the particular circumstances of the case might render it inadmissible and impracticable.

Wise or foolish as the conception of a single or unitary Government, embracing all Switzerland, may be in itself, it is not the conception entertained either by the leading politicians or by any one of the leading Cantons in that country. Revision of the Federal Pact is indeed what they strongly insist upon : but to revise the Pact is one thing — to constitute an unitary or single

POLITICS OF SWITZERLAND. [Letter I.

Government for the administration of all Switzerland is another. It may safely be pronounced that a revision of the Pact, in such manner as to give too much power to the Central Government and to weaken the Cantonal Governments too much, is of all contingencies the most improbable ; though there are so many French and English critics who represent this as a plan already organized by an oppressive majority in Switzerland, and only to be arrested by foreign interference. Of the two extreme and opposite political changes conceivable — first, complete fusion of the Cantonal Governments into one common and unitary Government, or secondly, complete disruption of the Pact and formation of several Governments out of it, altogether distinct from each other — the latter is decidedly the least improbable : nay, if we look at the present unyielding temper and excitement of the Swiss parties it might almost appear the least improbable solution of all, in a problem so essentially embroiled.

The tendencies of the present time, indeed, are not to strengthen the authority of the Diet over the Cantons, but to reduce it still lower — from

Letter I.] POLITICS OF SWITZEKLAND.

extreme weakness down to absolute nullity. The conduct of the recusant minority in this present affair of the Sonderbund, and still more the arguments by which they defend that conduct, amount to nothing less than a complete nullification of all imperative authority in the Pact, even as to its most positive and specific provisions. Assuredly, if there is to be any federation at all, one of its most essential provisions must be, that the members shall contract no separate alliances among themselves injurious or dangerous to the entire confederacy. The sixth Article of the Federal Pact distinctly says — " No alliance shall be formed among the several Cantons, detrimental either to the general confederacy or to the rights of other Cantons :" so that, under the terms of this Article, the competence of the Diet to entertain and pronounce upon the legality of the Sonderbund cannot be impugned except by arguments which go to deny its competence universally. Now a majority of the Diet has pronounced the Sonderbund to be illegal and an infringement of the Pact : to which the members of the Sonderbund reply by a protest and a peremptory refusal

POLITICS OF SWITZEELAND. [Letter I.

to obey. Such proclaimed resistance, by so many Cantons at once, is of itself the most fatal blow which has yet been aimed at the authority of the Diet : and the dissolving effect of this practical measure is still further enlarged by the arguments upon which it is made to rest. " We maintain," say the Cantons of this separate league or Sonderbund, " that our league is not at variance with the provisions of the Pact ; it is purely defensive, and has been rendered necessary by aggressions on the part of other Cantons or their citizens against the Government of Lucerne : we intend no evil to others, if they do not attack us ; and we shall maintain our league as long as our own security seems to us to require." To employ such arguments as these while the question was under discussion in the Diet, and for the chance of influencing the decision of that body, was their incontestable right : but they still continue to hold the same language, and act upon the same principle, even after the Diet has decided against them. When it is urged that to apply the general provisions of the Pact to a particular case, and to decide judicially whether the case does or does

Letter L] POLITICS OF SWITZEELAND.

not fall under a rule there laid down, is among the most indispensable attributes of the Diet — the Sonderbund meet this proposition by an unqualified negative. " We are sovereign Cantons," they say, "and recognise no authority in the majority of the Diet to apply or interpret the Pact against a recusant minority ; we admit no right to interpret the Pact except by the unanimous decision of the twenty-two sovereign Cantons ; we construe the sixth Article of the Pact in a manner perfectly consistent with our separate league, and we shall therefore, as sovereign Cantons, continue to act upon our own construction of it, though a majority of the Cantons may decide otherwise." Here we find an act of avowed and unqualified resistance, sustained by arguments which amount to a complete negation of the authority of the Diet over individual Cantons in any case whatever — to a complete nullification of the Diet as a body acting by its majority. For if the decision of the majority is not to hold good against that of one or a few Cantons, as to the judicial application of an express article of the Pact to a given particular case, it is plainly

POLITICS OF SWITZERLAND. [Letter I.

of no binding authority on any question which may be conceived. The Federal Pact, in this reading, becomes a mere alliance of independent and sovereign States, each of them at liberty to put their own construction upon it and break it whenever they choose — of course at the hazard of war, if contradiction or provocation assume a character sufficiently grave.

Such is the state of public law in Switzerland, as proclaimed and now acted upon by one-third of the twenty-two Canton s, and tacitly sanctioned by a minority, more or less considerable, in the others ; and it is strange, in the face of this obvious fact, to hear the French Minister proclaim, that the power to be feared in Switzerland is, an overruling and oppressive interference on the part of the Diet, with an extinction of Cantonal independence ! Never before has the judicial competence of the Diet been so glaringly defied in practice, and so explicitly denied in theory, as in the present year; and this too by a very powerful minority. That minority, in the excitement of party contest, may perhaps in part really believe themselves to be the defenders of Cantonal

Letter I.] POLITICS OF SWITZERLAND.

rights unjustly assailed by their opponents ; but among them are those who, knowing the case too well to believe in the reality of such danger, also know that the pretence of such belief is the most popular of all topics in reference to Swiss feeling.

It is in fact impossible to study attentively the march of Swiss affairs without seeing, that what really lies next to the hearts of the people is, their Cantonal and communal system ; and that, although on some particular questions connected with Swiss Federal politics, there may be rare and temporary moments of excitement — although there is a growing desire, and a very rational desire, for better-assured nationality in the event of foreign danger — nevertheless, the idea of interference on the part of the Diet in Cantonal affairs is habitually unfamiliar and repulsive. This is not less true of the Cantons called Radical than of the Cantons called Conservative— in both of them alike, the citizens look for protection, as well as for command, to their own Cantonal authority. Nothing can be more memorable, throughout the history of the

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POLITICS OF SWITZEKLAND. [Letter I.

past years, than the uniform indecision and impotence of the Diet ; indeed, one reason why so much has been said about terrible projects of over-centralization at the present moment, is, that now, almost for the first time, a majority of the Diet has been found to take a decisive resolution on an important subject. Throughout the past history of the Diet, we find discussion after discussion without determination ; no majority at all being found to agree in any — sometimes not even in a negative or vote of rejection. To prevail upon twelve Cantons to agree in any positive vote, has been generally found a difficulty all but insurmountable. Among the many different questions put to the vote, those which are the most trying and important do not often obtain a majority ; because several Deputies abstain altogether from voting, some reserving to themselves the liberty of voting, subsequently, when they shall have asked and received instructions from their Canton. It is to be remarked that every Deputy present votes, not agreeably to any opinion of his own, but to instructions received from the Great Council, or supreme

Letter I.]

POLITICS OF SWITZEKLAND.

legislative authority, in his own Canton — which may sometimes, though this does not often happen, confer upon him plenary powers of self-decision upon some given subject ; but, excepting in these cases, the instructions, prepared in each separate Canton, include conditions or adopt modifications different from each other, which usually prevent any number of Deputies from concurring in one substantive proposition. Speaking from his instructions, as a counsel speaks from a brief, a Deputy may sustain his opinion by powerful arguments — and the speeches of some of them are eloquent and creditable ; but his conclusion is prescribed to him before the meeting of the Diet. And in fact, the forms and language of the Diet consider each Deputy as an ambassador from his Canton : he is always styled " Der

Gresandte des Standes ," by the President,

when inviting the opinions of every one at the table seriatim, and most frequently so styled throughout the course of discussion. The relations of the Deputy to his Canton are doubtless those of a delegate bound by instructions ; yet the relations of the Cantons towards each other

POLITICS OF SWITZERLAND. [Letter I.

are not those of independent States, but of States which have bound themselves in confederacy to obey the provisions of a solemn and common Pact, and have formally constituted the body called the Diet to uphold and enforce the Pact.