tons. The Nationalrath' consists of 147 representatives of the Swiss people, chosen in direct election, at the rate of one deputy for every 20,000 souls. On the basis of the general census of 1888, the cantons are represented in the National Council as follows:

:

A general election of representatives takes place every three years. Every citizen of the Republic who has attained the age of twenty years is entitled to a vote; and any voter, not a clergyman, may be elected a deputy. Both chambers united are called the Bundes-Versammlung,' or Federal Assembly, and as such represent the supreme Government of the Republic. It is to be noted, however, that laws passed by the Federal Assembly can still be vetoed by the popular voice. Whenever a petition demanding the revision or annulment of a measure passed by the Legislature is presented by 30,000 citizens, or the alteration is demanded by eight cantons, the law in question must be submitted to the direct vote of the nation. This principle, called the referendum, has frequently been acted on. The chief executive authority is deputed to a Bundesrath,' or Federal Council, consisting of seven members, elected for three years by the Federal Assembly. Every citizen who has a vote for the National Council is eligible for becoming a member of the executive. Any modification of the constitution decreed by the Federal Assembly must be submitted to the popular vote, and be supported by a majority both of the citizens voting and of the cantons.

The president and vice-president of the Federal Council are the first magistrates of the Republic. Both are elected by the Federal Assembly for the term of one year, and are not re-eligible till after the expiration of another year. The election takes place at a united meeting of the State Council and the National Council. The president and vice-president of the

GOVERNMENT-AREA AND POPULATION

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council, by the terms of the Constitution, hold office for only one year, from January 1 to December 31.

President for 1891.-Dr. Welti, Canton of Glarus.

Vice-President for 1891.--Walter Hauser, Canton of Zurich.

The seven members of the Federal Council-each of whom has a salary of 4807. per annum, while the president has 6007.—act as ministers, or chiefs of the seven administrative departments of the Republic. These departments are:-1. The Foreign Department. 2. The Home Department. 3. The Department of Justice. 4. The Military Department. 5. The Financial and Customs Department. 6. The Department of Agriculture and Industries. 7. The Postal and Railway Department. The city of Bern is the seat of the Federal Council and the central administrative authorities.

II. LOCAL Government.

Each of the cantons and demi-cantons of Switzerland is 'souverain,' so far as its independence and legislative powers are not restricted by the federal constitution; each has its local government, different in organisation in most instances, but all based on the principle of absolute sovereignty of the people. In a few of the smallest cantons, the people exercise their powers direct, without the intervention of any parliamentary machinery, all male citizens of full age assembling together in the open air, at stated periods, making laws and appointing their administrators. Such assemblies, known as the Landesgemeinde, exist in Appenzell, Glarus, Unterwald, and Uri. The same system is carried out, somewhat less directly, in several other of the thinly populated cantons, which possess legislative bodies, but limited so far that they must submit their acts to the people for confirmation or refusal. In all the larger cantons, the people delegates its sovereignty to a body chosen with universal suffrage, called der Grosse Rath, which exercises all the functions of the Landesgemeinde. The members of these bodies, as well as most of the magistrates, are either honorary servants of their fellow-citizens, or receive a merely nominal salary.

Area and Population.

I. PROGRESS AND PRESENT CONDITION.

A general census of the population of Switzerland was taken on December 1, 1888, when the ordinary resident population was found to be 2,917,740, the whole population, in fact, being 2,933,334 (1,427,057 males, 1,506,277 females), showing an increase since the previous census of 0.375 per cent. per annum. At the census, taken December 1, 1880, the people numbered 2,846,102, of whom 1,394,626 were males and 1,451,476 females. At the preceding census, taken December 1, 1870, the population numbered 2,669,138, showing an increase of 176,964 inhabitants during the ten years, or 0.66 per cent. per annum.

The following table gives the area and population of each of the 22 cantons, according to the census of December 1, 1880, and that of December 1, 1888 :

The German language is spoken by the majority of inhabitants in fifteen cantons, the French in five, the Italian in one (Tessin), and the Roumansch in one (the Grisons). It is reported in the census returns of 1888 that 2,092,530 speak German, 637,972 French, 156,606 Italian, and 38,375 Roumansch. The number of foreigners resident in Switzerland at the date of the census was 238,313. In 1880 it was 211,035, of whom 95,262 were German, 53,653 French, 41,645 Italians, 12,735 Austrian, 2,812 British, 1,285 Russian.

Of the total population in 1880, 1,138,678 were dependent on agriculture and dairy farming; 971,052 on manufacturing industry; 206,003 on commerce; 112,440 on transport; 42,879 on the public service; 56,055 on their incomes or pensions; 86,837 on 'alimentation'; 30,616 on service; 24,926 were without calling; the remainder depending on mining, silk culture, the chase, professions, &c.

II. MOVEMENT OF POPULATION.

The following table gives the total number of births, deaths, and mar riages, with the surplus of births over deaths, in each of the five years from 1885 to 1889:

In 1889, of the births 3,103, or nearly 4 per cent., were stillborn, in addition to the above; the illegitimate births numbered 4,061, or 4.8 per cent.

In 1879 there were 4,257 emigrants from Switzerland; in 1883 there were 13,502, the average for the five years ending 1883 being 9,582. The number of emigrants in each of the five years up to 1889 was:-1885, 7,583; 1886, 6,342; 1887, 7,558; 1888, 8,346; 1889, 8,430.

In 1888 the most numerous class was that of those employed in agriculture, 2,632; next, domestic servants, 532; then those in trade, 291, watch and clock makers 193, masons and plasterers 149. Of the whole number, 5,257 were males, of whom 808 were married, and 3,089 were females, of whom 796 were married. Of the males 1,835, and of the females 1,182, were under 20 years of age, while in all, there were 2,369 children under the age of 15. The cantons which supplied the largest contingents of emigrants were Bern, 2,166; Zurich, 961; Ticino, 794; and Basel, 672. Of the whole number in 1889, 6,966 went to the United States, 1,419 to South America, 23 to Australia, 7 to Asia, 15 to Africa.

III. PRINCIPAL TOWNS.

The population dwell chiefly in small towns, hamlets, and villages. In 1888 the populations (communal) of the following towns were-Geneva, 71,807, including suburbs; Basel, 69,809; Bern, 46,009; Lausanne, 33,340; Zürich, 90,008 with suburbs (27,664 without suburbs); Chaux-de-Fonds, 25,603; St. Gallen, 27,390; Luzern, 20,314; Neuchâtel, 16,261.

Religion.

According to the Constitution of 1874 there is complete and absolute liberty of conscience and of creed. No one can incur any penalties whatsoever on account of his religious opinions. No one is bound to pay taxes specially appropriated to defraying the expenses of a creed to which he does not belong. No bishoprics can be created on Swiss territory without the approbation of the Confederation. The order of Jesuits and its affiJiated societies cannot be received in any part of Switzerland; all functions clerical and scholastic are forbidden to its members, and the interdiction can be extended to any other religious orders whose action is dangerous to the State, or interferes with the peace of different creeds. The foun dation of new convents or religious orders is forbidden.

The population of Switzerland is divided between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, about 59 per cent. of the inhabitants adhering to the former, and 40 per cent. to the latter. According to the census of December 1, 1888, the number of Protestants amounted to 1,724,257, of Roman Catholics to 1,190,008, and of Jews to 8,386. The Roman Catholic priests are much more numerous than the Protestant clergy, the former comprising

more than 6,000 regular and secular priests. They are under five bishops, of Basel, Chur, St. Gall, Lausanne, and Sion, and an Apostolic administrator in the canton of Tessin. The government of the Protestant Church, Calvinistic in doctrine and Presbyterian in form, is under the supervision of the magistrates of the various cantons, to whom is also entrusted, in the Protestant districts, the superintendence of public instruction,

Instruction.

Education is compulsory, and is very widely diffused through Switzerland, particularly in the north-eastern cantons, where the vast majority of inhabitants are Protestants. In these cantons the proportion of schoolattending children to the whole population is as one to five; while in the half-Protestant and half-Roman Catholic cantons it is as one to seven; and in the entire Roman Catholic cantons as one to nine. The compulsory law has hitherto not always been enforced in the Roman Catholic cantons, but is rigidly carried out in those where the Protestants form the majority of inhabitants. In every district there are primary schools, and secondary schools for youths of from twelve to fifteen. In both these schools the rich and the poor are educated together, the latter being admitted gratuitously. Of the contingent for military service in 1888, only 0.11 per cent. were found to be illiterate.

The following are the statistics of the various classes of educational institutions for 1885-86 (the latest issued) :—

There are four universities in Switzerland. Basel has a university, founded in 1460, and since 1832 universities have been established in Bern, Zürich, and Geneva. These universities are organised on the model of those of Germany, governed by a rector and a senate, and divided into four faculties,' of theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, and medicine. There is a Polytechnic School for the whole Confederation at Zürich, founded in 1855, and a Military Academy at Thun, both maintained by the Federal Government.

There are also academies and high schools with faculties similar to those of the Universities at Lausanne and Neuchâtel.