members are elected every six years by limited suffrage, and a House of fifteen deputies by the same suffrage every two years. The President appoints his ministers, who are responsible to Congress.

The Revenue of the country shows a tendency to increase, relatively to the Expenditure. In 1885 the amounts were about £282,000 and £157,400 respectively. The foreign debt amounts to about £600,000.

SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.

The South African Republic, or Transvaal (capital, Pretoria), was formed like the Orange Free State by Boers migrating northward from the Cape Colony, and across the Vaal river and the Drakensberg. The most numerous

settlement was made on the annexation of Natal by Great Britain, in 1845. The State has recently absorbed the new Republic of Zululand. It is bounded on the South by the Orange State, Natal, and Zululand; on the east by Zululand, Swaziland, and the Portuguese territory adjacent to Delagoa Bay; on the west by Bechuanaland, and on the north by the Limpopo river.

Area, about 140,000 square miles. Population, about 750,000, of whom between 50,000 and 60,000 are European -mainly Dutch.

GOVERNMENT.

The independence of the country was recognized by a Convention in 1853, and a very wordy Constitution was published in 1858. This document was based upon the Orange Constitution, with many additions on the subjects of law and justice, military organization, procedure, taxa-tion, and police.

Between 1877 and 1881 the independence of the country

was suspended, but it was again recognized in the lastnamed year, when a Convention was signed by the Queen's representatives and the Transvaal Government, laying down the principles on which the future administration of the State was to rest. This Convention modified the Constitution of 1858 in several important respects, and its main provisions may be noted here.

The Queen conferred and guaranteed " complete selfgovernment," on condition of the observance of her suzerainty, "in the terms, under the conditions and reservations, and with the limitations," set forth in the document. The Queen reserved the right of nominating a British Resident, the right of passage for her troops in time or danger of war, and the right of controlling the foreign relations of the State, including the treaty power, and diplomatic negotiations with foreign Powers. Natives received the power of acquiring land, and of free movement within the State, (these rights having been barred in the Constitution of 1858). Religious freedom was guaranteed (having been limited in 1858). Slavery and apprenticeship were abjured. The British Resident was charged with the protection of the natives. A Native Location Commission was established, including the President, the Resident, and a third member agreed upon by them, having for its object to secure the natives in their defined territories. Limits were imposed on the taxation of British merchandise, and stipulations were made for the free entry and residence of persons of all nationalities.

In 1884, however, a new Convention was signed, by which little more than the name of British suzerainty was retained.

The Constitution as amended on several occasions provides for a Volksraad of 44 members, elected by the

burghers and rural voters in the 15 Districts-the franchise being obtained by a residence of five years and a contribution to the State of £25. The President of the State and the Executive Council are elected as in the Orange State. The Revenue and Expenditure slightly exceed a quarter of a million. The Public Debt is about £400,000-equal to the estimated value of the State lands. The tariff is high and capricious, including in some cases almost prohibitory differential duties.

SWITZERLAND.

The Federal Republic of Switzerland (capital, Berne) has Austria on the east, Germany on the north, France on the west, and Italy on the south. Its position is therefore of the utmost importance from an international point of view.

A small Swiss Confederation was formed in 1308 by Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwald, to which other cantons adhered from time to time. At the beginning of the Napoleonic wars there were thirteen cantons, and Napoleon added St. Gall, Grisons, Aargau, Thurgau, Ticino, and Vaud. At the general readjustment of the map of Europe by the allied Powers, in 1814-15, the number of cantons was increased to twenty-two, by the confederation of Valais, Neufchâtel, and Geneva.

Switzerland had been a base of operations for the Allies in their war against France, until they were driven out by Masséna, in 1799. The Directory had written "Helvetic Republic" over the former "Confederation," and in 1803 Buonaparte secured at the same time its consolidation and its neutrality. The Treaty of Vienna contained a more formal recognition of the independence and inviolability of Switzerland than had been furnished by the Treaty of

Westphalia in 1648; and from that time forward the international position of the Republic has been conceded and confirmed on various occasions by all the Powers.

The foundations of the present Constitution were strengthened in 1830, between which year and 1848 a severe struggle was waged for the secular principle in national education. The cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, Freiburg, Zug, and Valais, formed a Sonderbund in 1846, pledged to support the schools of the Jesuits and the Roman ecclesiastical system generally. The remaining cantons declared the illegality of this combination, and at the same time decreed the expulsion of the Jesuits. On an appeal to arms the majority were victorious, the Sonderbund was broken up, and the secularization of monastic property followed. In 1848 a new federal Constitution was adopted, but not put into operation. Various objections were raised against it, and the discussion was continued for a quarter of a century; but at length the instrument was accepted, in a revised form, in 1874, by a popular vote of 321,870 against 177,800.

In the meantime, in 1861, an old frontier dispute with France led to a violation of Swiss territory by the French troops; and the question was ultimately arranged by a simultaneous cession of districts for the creation of a neutral zone, which both countries pledged themselves not to occupy at any time with fortresses or troops. The Vallée des Dappes is therefore a neutralized frontier between the two countries.

The following table shows the area and population of the country in 1880. The population is now (1887) estimated at about 2,960,000. The order of the Cantons is that of their admission to the Confederation.

Of the total population in 1880, it was computed that 2,030,792 spoke German, forming a majority in fifteen Cantons; 608,007 spoke French, with a majority in five Cantons. The majority in Ticino spoke Italian, and in the Grisons a form of Roumansch. The five Cantons in which a majority speak French in the main are Fribourg, Vaud, Geneva, Neufchâtel, and Valais. In the remainder German is the prevailing tongue, being spoken in most of them by 98 or 99 per cent. of the population.

GOVERNMENT.

The Confederating Act of 1815 was not added to or revised before 1848, though in 1832 an effort was made to