Wars

Two other types of Government were represented by the allies of the League : the federal type by the Valais and the Raetian Leagues and the monarchic type by the principality of Neuchatel (which had passed into the hands of the Prussian king to counter act French influence) and the territories of the prince-bishop of Basle, the abbots of St. Gall and of Engelberg. The public law of the League consisted of those few charters commonly accepted in the 14th and i5th centuries and completed by the Defensionale of 1647, the renewal of which had not always been generally ac cepted. The absolutist tendency of the time, which in Bern ex cluded all but 67 families from the Government, further divided the population into a ruling and a ruled class. Besides the often badly treated subjects of the "common bailiwicks" the country subjects of the gild cantons were not much better off, and in the towns there was opposition from the non-admitted citizens and from those burghers who—though they were long established— had been deprived of some of the privileges of Government. It is, however, just to remark that in the aristocratic cantons (chiefly in Bern) the peasants were less exploited and agriculture was better developed than in the gild cantons. In Vaud for instance the dis contented class were not the farmers, but the descendants of the old Savoyard aristocracy. Different attempts at a reform were made ; some had their origin within the ruling class itself (Henzi's action at Berne, 1749) others came from the subjects (the Staf ener articles, 1794-5), but they were suppressed. In the second half of the century there was a general movement among the edu cated classes of the whole country to promote a political pro gramme on a national basis and a society was formed to this end (Helvetische Gesellschaft, 1760).

Revolutionary and Napoleonic Period.

The League could not but be affected by the French Revolution, but without the French armies Switzerland would never have been revolutionized as it was in the years from 1798 to 1802. The revolution was actually imported into the League's territories. The invasion of French troops was suggested to the Revolutionary Government by members of the Helvetian club in Paris, but mainly by Frederic Cesar La Harpe (formerly tutor to the later Tsar Alexander I.) and Peter Ochs, the burgomaster of Basle, who believed that the French influence would have a salutary effect on the reform move ment in Switzerland. In reality it brought the country the burden of a foreign occupation, which was nowhere enjoyed; in certain places, as in the Forest districts, it provoked a heroic, but natur ally vain resistance. Apart from the strategic value of Switzerland the French could reckon with a splendid booty of which the State treasuries—symbols of accumulated wealth—were only a part. For years the country had to feed the French troops which Bonaparte kept ready for future campaigns. Switzerland got its first constitution, drawn on the principles of the French constitu tion of the Directory in April 1798. If the "Helvetic Republic"

had worked, it would have transformed the League into a central ized State after the example of France.

With the French occupation, Switzerland became a part of the European theatre of war, and shared the fate of other certain European countries. The Valtellina and the Valais were cut off from the League (1797, 1802) as Napoleon needed the Valais for his communications with the Cisalpine Republic and the Val tellina as direct passage from Lombardy to Tirol. He also took Ticino in 181o, but soon offered to return it.

Napoleon's attitude towards Switzerland changed after i8oi. Until 18o1 Switzerland remained an occupied territory and was several times involved in the great struggle for or against France. The two battles of Zurich (June and Sept. 1799), one a defeat, the other a victory, for the French, were important incidents in the fight for the possession of the Swiss territory between France and the allies, Austria and Russia. France was victorious in the end. When Germany was reconstructed according to the terms of the Treaty of Luneville, the occupation of the Swiss territory was no more a necessity. It was on the contrary an advantage for Na poleon to help the Swiss to settle down, and so to be sure of this strategically important territory. Thus Napoleon became the author of the first Swiss constitution of practical value—the Act of Mediation (1802-3), which he worked out with the help of delegates from the different Swiss parties. This constitution rec ognized the sovereignty of the cantons (joining to the old cantons the "common bailiwicks" and some allied districts) and revived the old diet. The president (Landammann) of the diet was for mally to represent the central Government, but he was invested with no executive power. Napoleon realized that by giving back to Switzerland its federal Governments he diverted the country from taking an active part in the war against France. In a treaty of alliance he secured for himself the monopoly for the recruitments of Swiss troops, thus breaking the practice of many centuries, on which was built the principle of neutrality (1807, Swiss recalled from England). Independence was therefore a mere word. The Mediation period showed conclusively that there could be no free dom for Switzerland as long as Europe was dominated by a single power. Actual freedom was only restored when the Napoleonic power was definitely broken. (M. Si.) On Oct. 18, 1813, the Allies defeated Napoleon at Leipzig. This event, in which the Swiss were in no way involved, profoundly affected their history. Some weeks later the Allied armies reached the frontiers of the Swiss Confederation. It was at first doubtful whether they would cross. Opinion among the Allies was divided; the Russians and the Prussians objected, but the views of Austria, supported by England, finally triumphed. On Dec. 21, 1813, the neutrality of Switzerland was violated.