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The foreign troops were received with different feelings by different parties in Switzerland. They were welcomed as liberators by the old aristocratic cantons, which hoped that the old regime would be unconditionally re stored. On the other hand they were regarded with disfavour by the cantons which the Act of Mediation had brought into existence. An aristocratic revolution broke out at Berne on Dec. 24, 1813, and this example was immediately followed in the other cantons. Everywhere the old Governments were restored to power; the Act of Mediation was denounced. This created oppositions and rivalries of so profound a character that war was several times on the point of breaking out between the cantons. The representa tives of the Powers, among them Stratford Canning, were obliged to intervene, sometimes in a friendly way and sometimes with threats, to induce the Swiss to agree upon a new Federal Pact (Sept. 1814), which restored the old federal institutions, including the practically absolute sovereignty of the cantons; the diet was a diplomatic body with hardly any real power. At this time a great movement of liberation took place in the districts which Napoleon had detached from Switzerland, and certain of the neighbouring territories : the bishoprics of Basle, Neuchatel, Geneva, Savoy, the Valais and Valtellina expressed a wish to form part of the Con federation. Neuchatel recalled its prince, the king of Prussia. The Treaty of Paris (May 3o, 1814), which fixed the frontiers of France, left most of these districts outside that country. On Sept. 12, 1814, Neuch5.tel, Geneva and the Valais were officially received into the Confederation as cantons.
. The final settlement of internal and external questions relating to Switzerland was undertaken by the Congress of Vienna. This was done, after long discussions and a great deal of criticism, by two acts dated March 20 and 29, 1815. The first act laid down the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland, which was given its old frontiers, with the exception of Mulhouse, which remained with France, and Valtellina, which went to Austria. The internal diffi culties of the country were settled by the confirmation of the ex isting frontiers between the cantons and by a series of com promises on financial indemnities claimed by the various cantons from one another. By the second act, Switzerland received a slight accession of territory in Savoy, and its neutrality was extended to Northern Savoy.
Swiss neutrality did not, however, survive Napoleon's return. The very Powers which had just proclaimed its neutrality at once required the Confederation to enter into alliance with them, since they needed its aid in the struggle with France (May 20, 1815). The Federal troops entered Franche-Comte on July 3. When, however, the second Treaty of Paris was concluded on Nov. 20, 1815, the Swiss were not rewarded for their help as they had hoped. All they obtained was a slight rectification of their frontier on the French side, and the creation of a free zone near Geneva. These provisions were supplemented a few months later (March 16, 1816) by the Treaty of Turin, concluded with Sardinia. The
frontiers of Switzerland have remained unchanged since that time.
The early part of the Restoration period was characterized in Switzerland by an enthusiastic return to the political forms of the past, and at the same time by a serious economic crisis, due to the war. Swiss industry, which had for a long time been protected by the Continental blockade, now found all the markets of the Continent closed to it at the very time when it was again faced with the competition of England, especially in the textile trade. A strong Government at home and abroad would have been needed to deal with the situation; but no such Govern ment existed. The cantons possessed and exercised the right to im pose internal customs duties; but they were never able to agree upon a common customs policy. The Confederation exercised no central authority worthy of the name, and there was no spirit of solidarity among the Governments of the cantons, which were to a large extent dependent on the foreign countries with which they entertained direct relations. In particular the system of capitula tions, which made the aristocracy of the cantons directly dependent on foreign countries, had again come into being on a large scale.
Switzerland was consequently obliged, under the pressure of Russian diplomacy, to become a member of the Holy Alliance on Jan. 27, 1817. Similarly it was obliged to persecute the liberal refugees wbo flocked into the territory of the Confederation from all the neighbouring countries. Switzerland made every effort to avoid being forced into action so contrary to the traditions of the country, but it was nevertheless compelled in 1823 to yield to the pressure of the Holy Alliance and to restrict the press.
The political, economic and moral influences described above made themselves felt in the revision of the constitutions of several cantons—Schaffhausen, Appenzell, Lucerne, Vaud, etc.—which was undertaken in 1828 and 1829. The movement gained in strength under the influence of the Revo lution in France, and between 183o and 1833 about ten cantons, including the largest, Zurich, Lucerne and Berne, revised their constitutions in the sense of greater liberalism.
The liberal movement of 183o, which has been called the period of regeneration as opposed to the restoration, had to face obstacles both in the cantonal and in the Federal sphere. At Neu chatel the revolution which broke out against the government of the prince (the king of Prussia), was a failure. In Schwyz, civil war and the division of the canton into two parts were only averted by Federal mediation. Disturbances accompanied by loss of life broke out in the canton of Basle, and on Aug. 17, 1833, the diet decided to separate the canton into two half-cantons, one urban and the other rural. The liberals were anxious to obtain the re vision of the Federal Pact. Taking advantage of the majority which they possessed in the diet, they obtained a decision to this effect on July 17, 1832.