The Swiss are quite a military people. Every artizan is a soldier, or must be enrolled in the na tional militia, at the age of twenty, and be clothed according to the military uniform of his canton. Each canton, in the event of a war, furnishes a con tingent; and all the contingents amount to men. The Swiss, in military affairs, have for cen turies been remarkable for a very peculiar practice, namely, letting- out troops for hire to foreign pow ers, on the condition of their forming separate re giments, and not intermingling with the troops of any other country. This practice was acted upon so recently as during the late war, and in Spain till 1820. Swiss mercenaries have gained a name for valour and skill inferior to that of no other country. To provide for the maintenance of the army, and for other expenses, the cantons impose on them selves a tax in proportion to their relative popula tion and resources. The revenue of the confedera tion, cannot, on this account, be great; indeed it was so small in 1826 as L.500,000; but the debt was only the fourth of that sum, or L.I25,000.
Of the towns of Switzerland we mean not to give any account, as of the most important of them such an account has already been given under the proper articles. None of them arc large. Geneva, the largest, contains only 25,000 souls; Berne, the next in size, 17,600; Basil, 16,300; Zurich, 10,400; Lausanne, the rest contain fewer, varying from 9,000 down to 1,700, the population of Altorf.
The history of Switzerland, previously to the time of Cxsar, may be regarded as unknown or uncer tain. It may, as has been believed ny one class of writers, have been visited and colonized by the Greeks, who founded Marseilles several centuries before the time to which we refer. This opinion has been supposed to gain countenance from statements made by Herodotus and Appolonius Rhodius; and an expression made use of by exsar seems farther to corroborate it. In eastiis Heleetiortun tabulae re pertae stint, litteris Graccis eonfeclae, ( Comment. de Gall. lib. i. cap. xxix.) But whether the opin ion be correct or otherwise, cannot now be ascer tained. Nor do we stop to inquire. At the dawn of authentic history, we find the country inhabited by the Helvetii and the Rhaetii; the latter inhabit ing, in addition to Swabia and the Tyrol, what af terwards formed the Swiss cantons of Appenzell, Glaris, Uri, and the Grisons; the Helvetii occupy ing the remaining cantons. These people were of Celtic origin; and remains of the Celtic language, which was long their native speech, still exist. Their defeat by Cxsar is well known. They were af terwards ranked among the people subject to Rome. and were exposed to all the hardships which such a connexion always imposed on conquered nations.' On the downfall of the Roman power, the Helve tians, like the other people of Europe, were over run by hordes of barbarians; they were successively conquered, and nearly extirpated by various tribes, the Alemanni, the Franks, the Huns, the Bur gundians. From the beginning of the eleventh
century, the provinces which now constitute Switz erland, began to be regarded as an appendage of Germany; and are mentioned in history as receiv ing at different times certain privileges and immu nities from the head of that empire. These, how ever, did not proceed from the spontaneous policy of the emperors: they were wrested from them in consequence of the repeated applications and ur gent remonstrances of the Swiss themselves, who seem from the earliest periods to have abhorred dependence, and to have been animated with prin ciples of liberty. In truth, the inhabitants of Uri, Schwitz, and Underwalden, (three territories known by the name of the Waldstetten) possessed from time immemorial the right of being governed by their own magistrates, and of enacting their own laws; they had always declared themselves averse to the authority of the emperor's representative among them; and when, like the rest of the coun try, they did consent to acknowledge this officer, it was on the condition that he would govern ac cording to law, and make no encroachments on their rights and privileges. Usurpation, however, followed after usurpation, till at length the whole country was reduced under the power of the house of Austria. Tyranny in truth was carried to the utmost extent, and freedom seemed to be for ever extinguished in Helvetia. But it was checked, not destroyed; its spirit still continued to linger among them; and at length it burst forth with a greater energy than ever. A confederacy to shake off the yoke of their oppressors, and to achieve the independence of their country, was formed in 1307 by three individuals, natives respectively of the three cantons that composed the Waldstetten. The conspiracy was embraced with delight by all to whom it was communicated; the names of the he roes who organized it have ever since been revered throughout Switzerland; and the spot where it was first formed is regarded as sacred. The revo lution which was contemplated, was accelerated, or rather secured, by the insults shown on the part of Gessler, the representative of the Emperor, to William Tell, one of the early conspirators, and the greatest of Swiss patriots, and by the intrepid spirit he showed in return. Tell was taken pris oner by his oppressor; but while being conveyed on the lake Lucerne to Kussnacht, the residence of the latter, he made his escape, and hastening by land, surprised the tyrant near his castle, and shot him on the spot with an arrow. This brought matters to a crisis. The \Valdstetten at once avail ed themselves of the advantage they had gained; the intestine troubles of Austria prevented that power from taking effective retaliatory measures; the authority of the empire was thrown off; and the independence of the oppressed country estab lished. On the 7th of January 1308, the people of the Waldstetten assembled, and took an oath of perpetual alliance.