The derbund. the Cantons might make separate treaties with one another or with Foreign Powers. Under the Confederation of 1815, the individual Cantons were precluded from concluding any alliance which might be prejudicial (nachtheilige) to the General Confederation, or to the right of the other Cantons. The § 52. The French Revolution of 1830 led to various changes in the Internal Constitutions of the different Cantons, and a plan for the revision of the Federal Pact of 1815 was drawn up by a Committee of the Diet in 1832. The object of the revision was mainly to assign to the Federal Authorities more of the attributes of a Central Government than they had hitherto possessed; but the scheme was vigorously opposed by Seven Cantons, namely, Schwytz, Uri, Unterwald, Bâle, Tessin, Neuchatel and Valais. These Cantons united themselves together in a separate Confederation, called the League of Sarnen. Diet of 1833 took the necessary measures for dissolving the League of Sarnen, and for compelling the seceding Cantons to send Deputies to the National Diet. The question of the revision of the Federal Pact was renewed in 1834, but unsuccessfully. In 1846 a separate armed League of the Seven Catholic Cantons was formed, under the title of Sonderbund, which was in fact an armed Confederation within the Confederation. This association being at variance with the Sixth Article of the Federal Pact, it was resolved by the Diet that it should be put down by force of arms, which was accordingly effected. The eventful political changes, which convulsed Europe in 1848, contributed to bring about a change in that year in the Constitution of the Confederation, whereby it more nearly approximates at present to the model of the Federal Union of the North American States. Confedera § 53. The existing Constitution of the Swiss Con- The Swiss federation was voted by the Diet, on 12th September, tion of 1848. The Confederation consists, as under the set- 1848. tlement of 1815, of twenty-two Cantons; but of these Bâle is divided into Bâle-town and Bâle-country; Underwalden into Upper and Lower Underwalden ; and Appenzell into Outer and Inner Rhodes. The object of the Confederation is declared to be to secure the Independence of the Country (la patrie) against foreign assault, to maintain tranquillity and order in the Interior; to protect the liberty and rights of the Confederates; and to promote their common prosperity. The Cantons are respectively Sovereign in all matters in which their Sovereignty has not been delegated to the Federal Power. The Cantons are forbidden to enter into any private alliance or any treaty of a political character with one another, but they may conclude with one another Conventions upon matters of Legislation, Administration, and Justice, subject to the approval of the Federal Authority. The Confederation alone has the right of declaring war and concluding peace, as well as of making alliances and treaties with Foreign Powers, and more especially treaties of commerce, and of regulating the custom-duties on foreign imports. The Cantons retain the right of concluding with Foreign States conventions on matters of Political Economy and relations of Neighbourhood and Police; but these conventions must contain nothing prejudicial to the Confederation, or to the rights of the Cantons, and all official relations between the Cantons and Foreign Governments are carried on through the medium of the Federal Council. The Confederation has also power to expel from its territory strangers who compromise either the Internal or the External security of Switzerland. The ral Assem bly. The Fede Federal Authorities consist of a Federal Council and a Federal Assembly; the latter consisting of two Sections or Councils, a National Council, and a Council of States. The National Council is composed of Deputies of the Swiss People, in the proportion of one Deputy for every 20,000 citizens, and every natural born Swiss of the age of twenty years complete, unless under some legal disability, has a right to vote for members of the National Council; and, if a layman, is eligible as a Deputy. The National Council is elected for three years, and the whole body is renewable at each election. The Council of States, on the other hand, is composed of forty-four Deputies of Cantons, two Deputies being nominated by each Canton; and in the case of the divided Cantons, one Deputy is nominated by each Half-Canton. Each Council chooses for each Session a President and a Vice-President from its own body. These officers are not reeligible. One of the most important functions of the Federal Assembly is to select the Federal Council, which is the Supreme Executive body, and the directing authority of the Confederation. For this purpose the two Councils meet in one body, and elect seven persons, who must be Swiss Citizens, qualified to be members of the National Council, and who upon their election beThe Fede- come members of the Federal Council for three years, ral Coun- and during such time are precluded from any other cil. employment. The Federal Council must be renewed entirely upon each renewal of the National Council. The President of the Federal Council is the President of the Confederation, and he is selected, as well as the Vice-President of the Federal Council, from amongst the seven members of the Federal Council by the National Assembly. The President of the Confede ration holds office for one year, and is not reeligible. Four members must be present to enable the Federal Council to deliberate. The Federal Council nominates to Foreign Missions, examines all treaties concluded either amongst the Cantons or with Foreign States, and approves them, if it thinks fit. It watches over the interests of the Confederation abroad, and more particularly over its International relations; and is in general charged with the superintendence of the external relations of the Confederation, and with the maintenance of its Independence and its Neutrality. between tion and States of § 54. It will be seen that the existing Constitution Analogy of the Swiss Confederation bears a very close resem- the Swiss blance to the Federal Union of the North American ConfederaStates, and to the Federal Union of the Argentine the United Provinces. Each of these Confederations is for all America. International purposes a single Independent State. Each of them is only known to Foreign Powers through the medium of the Supreme Federal Government, which for all external purposes represents the Nationality of the entire Federal Body. A Federation of this kind is essentially a very different body from what is ordinarily understood by a Confederation of States. Heffter 25 accordingly, and other German Jurists, have employed the term Bundesstaat, Bundeor Federative State, to denote an Union of States, Federative which is formed on a basis of equal rights, and rests upon a compact of Public Law (fœdus), under which the individual States are merged for all International purposes in the Union. The term Confederation of States, (Staaten-Bund,) according to these writers, is Staaten properly applicable to an association of Independent Confedera States, each member whereof severally retains its tion of 25 Heffter, § 20. staat or State. Bund, or States Origin of the Ger own Nationality, whilst it participates at the same time in the common Nationality of the Confederation. The Germanic Confederation is an association of this latter character. It is composed of Independent States, which have substituted for their ordinary rights and duties in relation to one another under the Law of Nations, special rights and duties under the Articles of Confederation. They at the same time severally retain, in regard to non-Germanic Powers, all their rights and duties under the Law of Nations; whilst they have collectively acquired in relation to those Powers special rights and duties, as a Community of States, by virtue of the International recognition of the Articles of Confederation. Thus the Germanic Confederation was acknowledged by the representatives of the European Powers, at the Congress of Vienna, to have the right in its Collective capacity of making war and peace, of sending and receiving Embassies, and of forming alliances and treaties within the scope of its institution; which is declared by the Articles of Confederation to be the maintenance of the Independence of the individual States, and the inviolability of their territory. The Confederation is in fact an association in the nature of a permanent League of Independent States, differing so far from an ordinary League, that it is clothed with a common National character for certain purposes, and its Right of common action within a certain sphere of International rights and obligations forms part of the Conventional Law of Europe. § 55. The origin of so anomalous a body as the manic Con- Germanic Confederation is traceable to a political federation. necessity. In consequence of the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine under the protection of the Emperor Napoleon, and the subsequent abdication of |