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 marriages, 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 be does not belong. No bishoprics can be created on Swiss territory without the approbation of the Confederation. The order of Jesuits and its affiliated 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 gratui tously. 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.

INSTRUCTION-JUSTICE AND CRIME-FINANCE

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The following table shows the numbers of Swiss students in the various branches of study in each of the four universities and in the academies of Lausanne and Neuchâtel in the summer of 1889:

At the same time there were 630 foreign students, bringing the number of matriculated students up to 2,062, or, including 350 listeners,' to a total of 2,412, of whom 196 were females.

The Federal Polytechnic School consists of sections for architecture, civil engineering, industrial mechanics, industrial chemistry, forestry, agriculture, and a normal section. In 1887-88 there were 580 regular students (226 Swiss and 354 foreigners), and 390 listeners,' in all 970.

Justice and Crime.

The Bundes-Gericht,' or Federal Tribunal, which sits at Lausanne, consists of nine members, appointed for six years by the Federal Assembly, It decides, in the last instance, on all matters in dispute between the various cantons of the Republic, as well as between the cantons and the Federal Government, and acts in general as high court of appeal. It is divided into a civil and a criminal court, the latter having three sections, Anklagekammer,' or chamber of accusation; the Kriminalkammer,' or jury department; and the Cassations-Gericht,' or council of appeal.

On March 1, 1890, there were in Switzerland, in all, 3,130 convicted prisoners and 917 unconvicted. The number convicted of criminal offences was 1,483, of whom 184 were women. During the month of March, 2,598 beggars and tramps were detained.

The penalty of death is enacted only in the cantons of Luzern and Uri.

Finance.

The public revenue of the Confederation is derived chiefly from customs. A considerable income is also derived from the postal system, as well as from the telegraph establishment, conducted by the Federal Government on the principle of uniformity of rates. The sums raised under these heads are not left entirely for Government expenditure, but a great part of the postal revenue, as well as a portion of the customs dues, have to be paid over to the cantonal administrations, in compensation for the loss of such sources of former income. In extraordinary cases, the Federal Government is empowered to levy a rate upon the various cantons after a scale settled for twenty years. A branch of revenue proportionately important is derived from the profits of

various Federal manufactories, and from the military school and laboratory at Thun, near Bern.

The following table gives the total revenue and expenditure of the Confederation in each of the years 1886 to 1890, showing actual receipts and disbursements for the first four, and estimates for 1890:

The following table gives the budget estimates for 1891 :

A supplementary budget provides for the expenditure of 192,800 francs on public buildings, bridges and roads.

The deficit will, it is expected, be covered, as the budget estimates are always drawn up in rather a pessimist fashion.

The public debt of the Confederation amounted, on January 1, 1890, to 54,873,000 francs, at 3 per cent. On the other hand there existed at the same date a so-called Federal Fortune,' or State property, valued af