The little council was divided into two parts, over each of which a burgomaster presided, together with a grand tribune, who succeeded the burgomaster, in case of his death. Each division governed for a year. This council had the right of judging petty crimes, of deciding causes of appeal from the Citizens, and disposing of benefices in the church, and the inferior offices in the state. It was confirmed annually by the great council, each member of which was likewise confirmed by the other members of the two councils, who belonged to the same tribe with himself.
• The canton is divided into seven bailliages : of the bailifs, whose jurisdiction generally continues eight years, four are chosen from the little council, and two others indifferently from the great council, or from the company of burghers.
The mode of electing magistrates and members of the councils was sufficiently singular. Formerly the choice used to be made by a plurality of voices ; but as the intrigues and influence of the more opulent and powerful gave them the ascendency in every elec tion, it became necessary to adopt some other expe dient. Three citizens were therefore selected, one of whom was chosen by lot to the vacant office. This was called the ternaire. Even this method, how ever, not being sufficient to counterbalance the influ ence of the wealthy, six candidates were selected in stead of three. Their names, enclosed in silver eggs, were placed in one bag ; and six cards, on one of which v:as inscribed the vacant employment, were put into another. The reigning burgomaster and the great tribune drew at once from these two bags ; and lie wasthe successful competitor whose name was brought out at the same time with the ticket on which the destined office was inscribed. This mode of election was called the senaire.
The same republican jealousy gave rise to a re gulation which rendered it impossible for a father and son, a father-in-law and son-in-law, or two brothers, to be admitted at the 8117.1C time either into the little council, or into the number of members of the great council chosen from the same tribe. While a noble man, who was unwilling to resign his title of nobility, could not be elected a member of the supreme coun cil, that honour was open to the meanest of the com munity ; for the vacancies in the two councils were ti supplied from all ranks of citizens, the members of the university alone excepted.
.It is natural to suppose that many inconveniences must have resulted from the absurd practice of sup plying the vacant posts in the government by lot. Candidates, whose talents and integrity would have secured the deliberate preference of their countrymen, might constantly fail to obtain the successful ticket ; which fortune might bestow on one altogether un qualified for the employment to which he aspired. Notwithstanding these inconveniences, however, tire government was In general well conducted ; and very few instances occurred of the abuse of civil justice, or of innocence being sacrificed to the powerful or the opulent.
The same mode of election was employed, stilt more absurdly, in supplying the vacant chairs in the.
university ; as if genius and knowledge were equally shared among the literati of Balle, and selection were a matter of perfect indifference. The professors, however, were extremely accommodating to one ano ther ; for as it frequently happened that the succes ful candidates were but little acquainted with the sci ences which they were appointed to teach, they merely, exchanged chairs, and thus matters were set to rights. In this case the ternaire was employed, and the three candidates were nominated from those who had taken the degree of doctor..
• With regard to the military constitution of Basle,. the town and its suburbs are divided into six companies of burghers. The country furnishes two regiments of militia, each consisting of nine companies of fusi leers, a company of grenadiers, and one of dragoons...
The /3asilians are Protestants, and the clergy form. in the capital a conventus, and three chapters in the country. Over all these, the first pastor of the ca thedral presides. In all the reformed churches of Swisserland, the ministers are entitled to sit with the. secular judges in the consistory, which tribunal can. decide in cases of fornication and adultery, as well as• on causes of matrimony or divorce.
The inhabitants of this canton are remarkabli for their gravity of deportment, and would consider any indulgence in playful levity, as very derogatory from their dignity. In general they are extremely attach-• ed to their own country, which they seem to regard as the only abode of terrestrial happiness. They. were, indeed, one of the happiest nations on earth, till the emissaries of France, deluding them with the visionary prospects of absolute freedom and equality, involved them in all the miseries of civil revolution and foreign subjugation. Basle was the first canton which separated from the Helvetic confederacy, and. adopted the new constitution fabricated for Swisser land by its French oppressors. The progress of the revolution was here almost instantaneous. The pea sants, ahN%ays jealous of the monopolies of privileges. vested in the burghers,. and now urged on by the artful intrigues of the French, rose in different dis tricts, demolished the castles of the bailiffs, and loudly demanded emancipation and independence. The magistrates, overawed by the enemy's army,„ which had already overrun the bishopric of Basle, and now threatened their capital, were obliged to submit withnut a struggle. On the 24th of January 1798, the tree of liberty was planted on the walls of the city ; and on the 5th of February, the magis trates resigned their authority, and sixty delegates, appointed by the people, were invested with tempo rary power, till the new constitution should be pro-' perly organized. With the addition of the lower part of the Frickthal to Seckingen, Basle forms one of the departments into which Swisserland was divi ded by the constitution of the 29th of May 1801, with the right of sending three representatives to the diet. See Dietionaire de its Suisse, and Coxe's Travels in Switzerland, vol. i. p. 66. of the intro duction, and Letters 15 and 16. (p)