II. "THAT GIRL IN BLACK." Conclusion, English Illustrated Magazine, IV. THE WAITING SUPPER. By Thomas Hardy, Murray's Magazine, 645 669 Gentleman's Magazine, 682 POETRY. For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co. Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents. Chambers' Journal. TO HIS LOVE ERIMUS. (WHO IS YOUNGER THAN HE). WHAT shall I call thee heart mine? Song-bird? Sweet How shall I woo thee?-if, in truth, I dare How shall I woo thee? Stretching forth my Unto that icy night that broods afar, A gulf of darkness and vacuity; Ultimate dread and doom of all that are, As a scared child affrighted by the sea; Round which the dear familiar faces stand, As elms in spring stretch forth their boughs Happy to be aware of even pain! to greet Wing'd wanderers from sunny far-off lands? Ah, seek some younger, fresher shade, my sweet! Cornhill Magazine. From The Westminster Review. clergy, it met with the persistent antagonism of the Liberal elements in the counTHE Swiss Constitution, in its present try; but it was only after a protracted form, is the product of two tendencies. period of bitterness and strife, culminating The first has helped to subordinate the in the Sonderbund war, that the Constitumaintenance of cantonal rights to the at- tion of 1848 established upon a satisfactory tainment of federal unity; the second has basis the relation of the cantons to the had the effect of giving almost universal Confederation. In order to satisfy the practical expression, alike in the cantons new wants and the new conditions that and in the Confederation, to the principle have arisen since that day, it has become of the sovereignty of the people. It is necessary to draw still closer the bond of mainly in consequence of the operation union, and to increase yet further the of those two tendencies that the political power of the central government. Armed system of Switzerland, reconciling as it discord, however, has long since given does the welfare and security of the whole way to peaceful agitation, and the Constiwith the local claims and diversified insti- tution of 1874, carried by the votes of tutions of the component parts, and blend- three hundred and forty thousand citizens, ing harmoniously the parliamentary and opposed only by one hundred and ninetythe democratic form of government, pre-eight thousand, has done little more than sents to the observer a spectacle of deep work out in a more complete and logical and unique interest. form the principles laid down in 1848. The essential characteristic of federal government is that each of the States which combine to form a union retains in its own hands, in its individual capacity, the management of its own affairs, whilst authority over matters common to all is exercised by the States in their collective and corporate capacity. It is evident that serious differences of opinion may arise with regard to the respective prerogatives of the two sovereignties which are thus brought into existence, and the delimitation of their respective spheres of action. More than ten years elapsed before the loose and imperfect connection which had been formed between the American States by the Articles of Confederation was exchanged for a real and effective union by the great settlement of which the hundredth anniversary has just been celebrated at Philadelphia. A similar transition from a Staatenbund to a Bundesstaat was effected in Switzerland during the first half of the present century. The Federal Pact of 1815, itself the result of a reaction against the excessive unification introduced at the time of the revolutionary wars, contained in itself the seeds of its own dissolution; imposed as it was by the aristocratic families, which, like the Bourbons, had "learned nothing and forgotten nothing," and maintained, in a great measure, through the efforts of the Catholic Under the existing arrangement the cantons are still declared to be sovereign in so far as their rights have not been delegated to the federal authority. They are bound, however, to refrain from inserting in their constitutions provisions at variance with the express enactments of the Federal Constitution; so that it would be impossible, for instance, for the government of a canton to abolish the liberty of the press, or the right of public meeting, or the equality of citizens before the law. The conduct of foreign affairs is delegated, as a matter of course, to the Confederation, though the cantons retain the right, under special circumstances and subject to federal revision, of concluding extradition treaties and other arrangements of minor importance with foreign powers. The same is the case with regard to the organization of the army; though it is upon the cantons that devolves, in part, the duty of carrying the military law into execution. They have to appoint all officers below the rank of colonel; they keep the military registers, and provide the necessary stores and equipment for the troops. All expenses thus incurred are subsequently reimbursed by the Confederation. Some cantons, however, notably Berne, are manifesting at the present time a natural anxiety to be relieved from what is to them an irksome and unprofit ninety centimes per head of population. Hitherto, however, it has not been found necessary or desirable to have recourse to these contributions. The federal government has now put an end to the octroi duties (ohmgelder) on spirits formerly levied by certain cantons, but in other respects has no control over the method by which they may choose to raise their revenue. In several instances they have established a graduated income-tax. Experience alone will teach the cantons how far it is possible to go without driving away capital. able task. Elementary education is in the | fixed in 1874 for a period of twenty years, hands of the cantons, subject to the con- and which vary in proportion to the estitrol of the Confederation; throughout mated wealth of the canton, from ten to Switzerland it is compulsory, gratuitous, and open to a without distinction. The provision and organization of higher education rest with the cantons; the Zurich Polytechnic, however, belongs to the Confederation, which also grants subsidies to other institutions. The federal government owns the postal and telegraphic system; it enjoys the monopoly of spirits, as well as the exclusive right of coinage and of the manufacture of gunpowder; it controls the issue of bank-notes; it orders the execution of public works affecting the interests of the community at large; and numerous questions of social and economic importance, such as those which relate to railways, factories, insurance companies, bankruptcy, copyright, debt, marriage, the law of contract, and general measures of sanitary precaution, fall within the purview of the federal sovereignty. it formerly possessed. It was established As a rule, however, the Confederation confines itself to the work of legislation and general supervision, leaving to the cantons, as far as possible, the duty of administering the law. In spite of the concentration of powers effected by the Constitutions of 1848 and 1874, the cantons still exercise unlimited sovereignty in regard to certain matters; each has, for example, its own land laws, its own system of taxation, its own administration of justice and police. The exigencies of the dyarchy, or dual sovereignty, of the cantons and of the Confederation, necessitate an equitable distribution of resources. The customs constitute the principal source from which the Confederation derives its revenue. To this should be added the interest on the federal fortune, invested in land and other securities; the profit obtained from the postal and telegraphic services, from the manufacture of gunpowder, and (under the new law) from the spirit monopoly, and half the receipts from the tax imposed upon persons exempt by reason of physical infirmity from the obligation of serving in the army. The Confederation is also entitled to certain contributions from the cantons, the amount of which was It stands to reason that, with the increase in the number and importance of the questions that have been brought within the competence of the Confederation, the Swiss Parliament, or Federal Assembly, has acquired more weight than in its present shape in 1848, with the object of creating a representation alike of the Swiss people as a whole, and of the various States of which the Confederation was constructed. Of, the two chambers into which it is divided, the National Council is elected for three years by manhood suffrage, on the basis of one member for every twenty thousand inhabitants, care being taken, however, that the constituencies shall not overlap the boundaries of cantons; while the Council of States, the lineal successor of the old Diets, is composed of forty-four representatives, two from each canton, the divided cantons of Unterwalden, Appenzell, and Basel returning one member for each of their divisions. Members of the National Council are paid by the Confederation, members of the Council of States by their respective constituencies. A bill has to pass through both chambers before it can become law, and, as will be seen later on, the process does not always end at that point. In a democratic country the position of the executive presents features of greater interest than the position of the legislature. The Federal Council constitutes no exception to the rule. It is chosen for three years by the two chambers, which | the right of veto, the presidential veto of sit together for the purpose. The seven America being replaced in the Swiss pomembers of whom it consists apportion litical system by another check, of which among themselves the duties connected the working will be explained farther on. with the headship of the different de- Again, the American president is in reality partments of the administration; until an English constitutional monarch, who lately, for instance, the president of the has become elective, and who exercises Confederation retained in his hands the every-day powers which in the hands of so-called political department, including English sovereigns have been allowed to the conduct of foreign affairs, which is remain in abeyance. Subject, it is true, now, however, being organized on a new to the consent of the Senate, he chooses and separate footing; whilst of the other his own ministers, who are responsible to members of the Federal Council one has him. The Swiss president, on the other the Home Office (corresponding to our hand, is, as the phrase goes, primus inter Local Government Board and Education pares. He is merely the foremost among Office combined), one the Department of the members of the executive. In fact, it Justice and Police (analogous to our Home is in the Federal Council as a whole, Office), one the War Office, whilst a fifth rather than in the president of the Confedhas charge of the finances, a sixth looks eration, that one must look for a parallel, after the interests of commerce and agri- though a very imperfect parallel, to the culture, and a seventh administers the president of the United States. In the post-office and exercises control over the hands, however, of the present occupant railways. Their solidarity is as great as of the presidential office, M. Numa Droz, the solidarity of English Cabinet minis- a man of great ability, the position asters; in theory each is responsible for all, sumes far more importance than would and all are responsible for each. The appear likely from a mere analysis of amount of detail with which a Swiss federal the functions which the Constitution calls councillor is able himself to deal would upon him to perform; for it must be borne surprise the Cabinet ministers of larger in mind that not only is he entrusted with countries, who, with a greater volume of a certain control over the various departwork to transact, have, as a rule, a briefer ments of the executive, and not only does and more precarious tenure of office, and he represent Switzerland in the eyes of are in consequence more completely at the foreign nations, and has frequently in that mercy of the permanent officials. Most capacity to take the initiative in matters shades of political difference (with the ex- of general policy, but his personal influception of the Ultramontane Right and of ence is felt within the Federal Assembly the Extreme Left) have at various times, itself. Indeed, one of the most admirable and sometimes simultaneously, been rep-features in the Swiss Constitution is the resented on the Council, but no practical arrangement in virtue of which a federal difficulty has been experienced. Twice councillor is allowed to explain his views, only since its foundation in 1848 have federal councillors resigned office on the avowed ground of political divergencies from their colleagues, and twice only have retiring members who presented themselves for re-election failed to be returned. The president of the Confederation is elected for one year by the Federal Assembly from among the federal councillors, and is not allowed to hold that office during two consecutive years. His power is considerably less than that which is accorded to the president of the United States; he does not, for example, enjoy to introduce bills, and to render an account of his actions, alike in the National Council and in the Council of States; and that in spite of the fact that if, as is almost invariably the case, he belonged originally to one or other of the two chambers, he is compelled, on acceptance of office, to vacate his seat and to be replaced at a byeelection. The system has been found more convenient than that of presidential messages to Congress. The executive secures immunity from ministerial crises, without ceasing to be in touch with the legislature. If ever it is found desirable |