present divided and distracted state Switzerland, there are but too few of such rallying points for the affections.

of place where their fortified gates once stood. Many have for years not been able to resolve to set foot on any of these desecrated spots, though it is very The old town of Zurich, with its dull narrow hard to know what in fact they are grieving about. streets, and tall, gloomy, old houses, whose narrow windows admit scarcely any light, is assuredly no agreeable place of abode.

The enthusiasm with which the Swiss, sober as they are, look back to this period of their history, was exemplified on this occasion by the applause they bestowed on certain broad-shouldered men of Schaffhausen, who, attired in the costume of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, with long beards and enormous halberts, and looking appropriately grim, were planted at the gates which the choruses of singers had to pass through, and greeted, as the playbills have it, with "immense applause.'

We pass the remainder of the festival, and the natural but delusive anticipations. of the restoration of peace and goodwill in the hearts of those who could thus unite, for purposes of social and refined enjoyment, to accompany the traveller to Zurich, "the intellectual centre of German Switzerland."

"But on the site of the ancient fortifications, magnificent mansions are to be found, built quite in the modern style, with gardens and all improvereach up to the declivity of the mountain, stately ments. Far-stretching streets and roads, that public buildings-as, for instance, the Cantonal School, and the new Hospital, bearing witness to the impulse which its young freedom has given to their city-might, one would think, console these worshippers of the past for their lost privileges, and if they could be induced to reflect on the transitory nature of all earthly advantages, teach them they have been robbed. not to think of these as of a property of which

"The Commune of Hottingen, with its beautiful buildings, raising its head as if in triumph above the old town, is wholly the work of the last fifteen years. This is the place to live in for Few if any of the Cantons are more fa- any one who wishes to make any stay in Zurich, and to become well acquainted with the country. vored by nature, for fertility of soil and mildness of climate. To its abundant pro- ed here than in any other part of Switzerland. A stranger will find himself more pleasantly situat ductiveness in corn and wine and fruit, and Zurich is not only most distinguished for intellectual the active industry which secures its mate- activity, and the residence of many men of emirial prosperity, it unites the advantage of nent attainments, it is also the gayest and most a greater unity among the inhabitants, who pleasure-taking place in the country, is surroundare nearly all Protestants of German race, is legion, and which, by their beautiful situation, ed with coffee gardens and taverns, whose name and followers of their native reformer, offer the greatest attraction to the visitor." Zwinglius.

"Few great towns in Switzerland can boast of Zurich has been particularly favored in environs of such surpassing beauty; the country the beauty of its position. It lies on the round is like one great garden full of orchards and point of transition, just where the gentle vineyards, corn-fields and rich plantations of every hills begin to assume a mountainous chakind. Not a spot of waste land is to be seen, and racter. The hill on the eastern shore of every foot of ground has yielded its tribute to the the lake, on whose slope lies the village of industrious hand of man; while scattered all round Hottingen, is not more than six hundred lie the clean, neat, comfortable dwellings of the feet high; but on the south-west the waters owners of these industrious hands. Along the

two shores of the lake of Zurich, runs a continued bathe the foot of the Albis chain, whose chain of country houses, manufactories, farms, summits reach a height of nearly three villages, peasants' cottages, and the dwellings of thousand feet above the sea. From these industrious weavers and artizans. The city seems we obtain the first glimpse into the mounto throw out two arms around the bright water--tain world of the chalk formation-the Rigi polypus arms of prosperity and industry, which and Mount Pilate, the peaks and horns of reach even into the lap of the mountains. "Fine roads also run along both shores of the Schwyz, and the mountains of Glarus and lake, which form the frontiers of several Cantons, St. Gallen-seldom visible, however, from and meet in Zurich, which in the course of the Zurich, unless at sunset or before rain, last fifteen years, has begun a new era of political when the atmosphere has a peculiar translife. The ancient walls and bastions have been parency. broken down; the remains of the dark prison One of the circumstances most striking tower on the lake, which has so often echoed to to a stranger in Zurich, is the evidence of the sighs of the victims of the old aristocracy, republican equality afforded by the mixture have sunk in its waves, and a new and brighter of ranks in the beer and coffee-houses. day of freedom has dawned upon the people.

There are indeed still among the old citizens Reigning burgomasters, deputies, judges, those who sigh for the good old times, and shake presidents, counsellors-all the first men of their heads mournfully as they contemplate the the radical party-are to be met with smok

66

ing their modest cigars and drinking their arms and breast-a method of rowing that must unpretending beer. be excessively fatiguing. The heaviest of the vessels employed sometimes carry a square sail, "By this abolition of all attempts at exclusive- but on these mountain lakes these require the ness Zurich gains much in freedom of movement, greatest caution—as sudden squalls often break and amalgamation of different classes, which must through the rocky clefts and ravines, which throw lead to good results, and is perfectly in harmony the waters into such violent commotion as to with a republic." compel all vessels to run immediately for shelter. The lake of the Four Cantons, though lying Whether it may be judicious in the chiefs about thirteen hundred feet above the level of the of a republic thus to cast aside all the dig- breadth very unequal. It is hemmed in by rocks sea, is nine hundred feet deep in some parts; in nity of office, is a point that may, never- from six to eight thousand feet high-of wild theless, admit of discussion. The "di- and magnificent form. On the banks of this beauvinity that doth hedge" a burgomaster can, tiful lake the formations of sandstone separate we apprehend, hardly bear such familiarity, from the chalk, which lies heaped upon its and they might, perhaps, be wiser to keep their state and eschew the beer-shops. The following passage gives a pleasing picture of the condition of the people :

southern shores in vast piles.

"This lake is both geographically and historibasin lie the four states which formed the first concally the centre of Switzerland, and around its federacy. Lucerne occupies the west; looking down the deep bays to the right we see the towers "On a fine bright Sunday Zurich is full of of Stanz, the principal town, or rather village, of life and movement. Troops of well-dressed Unterwalden; following the winding of the lake people are seen pouring out over the hills and to its southern point Uri lies before us; and on the meadows, or the beautiful shores of the lake, left rise the summits of Küssnacht and Rigi, bewhile other pleasure-seekers float about in gaily neath which, on the declivities of its mountains, decked boats and gondolas on its blue surface, or crowd the numerous and picturesque places of public resort, and the prosperity of the city is evidenced by the dress of the ladies and gentlemen, the style of the carriages and horses, and the mass of the people who are abroad in search of enjoyment."

No

reposes the beautiful canton of Schwyz.
other lake equals it in grandeur of scenery, or in
variety of light and shade; in snowy peaks and
glaciers, lovely meadows, valleys whose deep rich
green contrasts alternately with the dark forest
and dark grey naked rock, or the fertile sunny
spots along its margin.

"This rapid change of scenery is, however, one
of the peculiar characteristics of Switzerland,
where fat cattle graze up to the very edge of the
by ice and snow.
glaciers, and fruit trees blossom almost overhung

The coffee-houses serve, it seems, as what artizans denominate "houses of call" for the various political opinions. Every one knows where his friends and partizans are "It is scarcely possible at a distance to conto be found, and many of the citizens of ceive how these minikin pastoral states could ever Zurich find it, according to our author, in- have been able to offer the resistance they did to dispensable to their happiness to visit some the Dukes of Austria. But at the sight of the one of these places every evening to drink steep rocky paths, the narrow passes, the deep coffee, read the papers, and play at the inter- valleys, with their smooth inaccessible walls, we cease to wonder at this, or at their similar success esting and intellectual game of dominoes. in the obstinate struggle with the French in 1798. As these are, however, pleasures, which, A few hundred men could in many places easily however delightful in enjoyment, are apt to maintain their ground against as many thousands. be somewhat tiresome in description-we Behind projecting points of rock they might take pass at once to the very different scenes aim and load and re-load deliberately, long before presented by the still life of pastoral Swit- a foe less acquainted with the country could find zerland.

the way to ascend the heights. In the attack on Stanz, for instance, at the above-mentioned period,

by their wives and children, who loaded their guns for them, shot hundreds of the French belast reached and surrounded the heroic family, but fore they could find the path, by which they at then bayonet and sabres did their work on every member of it. Against 20,000 of these men, properly armed, on their native mountains, the best army in Europe could do nothing. Their artillery and cavalry would be totally useless."

"I went down the lake of the Four Cantons an old man with his two sons-in-law, supported in a steamer to Brunnen, the landing place for Schwyz, and if any of the Swiss lakes resemble the fiords of Norway, it is this, with its high; rocky, wildly romantic shores, its deep bays and groups of firs crowning the most precipitous crags, and its air of profound loneliness. The old method of traversing these waters, by sail or oar, is both more expensive and more uncertain, for the art of navigation in either way is in its infancy here. The craft is of the clumsiest description, keel boats are unknown-oars are used crossed-the The canton of Unterwalden, small as it man standing and pushing them from him with is, is divided into two half cantons-Nied

wald and Obwald-each of which has its times even pass as if by inheritance from father to general assembly, its great and small coun- son, or at all events remain in the circle of certain cils, and other independent authorities. families, which, becoming allied by blood and Nature has determined that it shall be, in the resolution to allow of no innovations." marriage, form an indissoluble league firmly united like Uri and Schwyz, wholly a land of herdsmen; cheese and butter are made in abundance, and cattle and wood also bring ask how it has happened that a form of Our readers perhaps may be inclined to in money. The rushing mountain torrents set in motion more than forty saw-mills, government, which on a superficial glance and there has been a cotton-mill erected, while the letter remains the same, in spirit appears the extreme of democracy, should, besides paper-mills, rope-manufactories, have become so much the reverse? We &c., though these establishments are only believe it arose in this way.* On first in their infancy, and they have been chiefly set on foot by the monks of Engelberg and gaining their independence the cantons registered the names of all the inhabitants, and assigned to each a portion of land; "The inhabitants live in small villages and but they were registered by their names acscattered farms; there is no such thing as a town cording to families, and not to the districts in all Obwald; whose inhabitants, cut off from they inhabited, and, therefore, though it the world, and following their cattle along their was settled at that time that the whole elevated valleys and Alpine pastures, are usually body of citizens beyond the age of sixteen content to leave to the monks the care of all other should be members of the General Assemtemporal affairs, as well as the welfare of their

of other convents.

commands of God."

souls. The monks have money and lands, and bly, in which the sovereign power resided, take very good care that no one meddles with as the number of original families declined their revenues; and they have it also in their this body necessarily became smaller and power to prevent the establishment of any rivals to smaller. Since 1681 no one in Unterwaltheir commercial undertakings. With a few in- den has been allowed to obtain citizenship fluential families they are on the best possible by purchase. The jealousy with which this terms: and the mass of the people is so depen- right is guarded is at least intelligible, dent, so humble, and so pious, that the abbot or when we consider that all who are recog the priest may say what he pleases, and be always sure that his words will be listened to as the nised as citizens have a right to share in the wood, hay, and pastures of the Alps of the commune, and the old corporation is, of The separation of Unterwalden took course, unwilling to admit new claimants. place as early as the year 1366, and its Those who, in addition to these rights of condition is very little altered from what it the commune, possess Alps and forests of was at that remote period. Whatever their own, are the capitalists of the counchanges were effected during the brief do- try, in whose hands, or in those of their minion of the Helvetic republic, were im- families, the government has lain from time mediately reversed on its overthrow, and immemorial. the state of things restored which had subsisted for ages past.

It is, of course, not very easy for property to be dissipated among a people whose customs and mode of life are so simple, and of the communal lands nothing can be alienated.

age

"It seems as if for these cantons time had been annihilated; the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries still hang over these mountains, and Women as well as men enjoy the econobring forth the men as unchanged as the herbs and grass beneath their feet. The men of Un-mical, if not the political rights of comterwalden and Uri live as their forefathers did; monality, but either must be of the of they have little book learning, and desire no twenty-five years, and have "light and more; they have faith in their Great Council and fire" of their own, as not heads but firetheir Little Council, their Weekly Council and hearths are counted, as among the Tartar their Council Extraordinary, and willingly aban- tribes who count the population by ketdon to a few families all claim to offices of go-tles. It is common, for this reason, for vernment, especially as these are either miserably ill paid, or not paid at all. young men and women to keep house for "In this circumstance lies one of the chief causes themselves, and even those who go out to why the caste of reigning families has established work for others have always a little abode itself so firmly in Schwyz, Uri, Unterwalden, and of their own, that they may not lose the adall the small cantons. None but people of some property can undertake the offices of government;

*It was thus at least in Appenzell, and probably

and many of these are given for life, and some-in other cantons also.

vantages of their birth-right. They gene-thing; and the poor herdsmen cutting their wild rally come home on the Saturday night, hay high up among the Alps, have no means of and make fire and light in their habita- comparing their condition with any other, and live for the most part a contented, peaceable life, and are not troubled with any wicked longings after shares in the privileges of the communes.

tions for this purpose.

Families who have settled in these mountains later than the middle of the seven- "Stanz, the chief town of the half canton of teenth century, cannot enjoy any share in Niedwald, lies half buried in a forest of fruit these advantages; but if they date before trees in a beautiful valley, and thence the way 1756, they have a voice in the General As- leads still through fruit trees to Sarnen, the capiThe most sublime mountain sembly, and can be chosen for any office. tal of Obwald. fills these little cantons, and whoever has Below these stand the "Strangers," ," or scenery time to become acquainted with the communities Swiss from other cantons, who can produce that lie hidden in its recesses, will discover, inthe certificates of their citizenship and place deed, much ignorance and superstition, but a simof birth; then come "Foreigners," who are ple and uncorrupted race of men. On the great "tolerated;" and lastly, the "Homeless," roads, on the contrary, throughout these Catholic who either from carelessness in the loss of pastoral states, mendicity has erected its throne. papers, or from some other cause, cannot One is surrounded by cripples, by cretins, by ragestablish their claim to any canton. These ged children, who regard the traveller as their three latter classes are entirely without po- song till they are silenced with a piece of money. regular prey, and never cease their importunate litical rights; they or their children may Many of these urchins have parents by no means be driven from the country at any moment, in a destitute condition, but they consider it as abat the pleasure of the government, and no solutely meritorious to levy this toll upon a stranlength of residence can give them any further ger; and the parents often rejoice at seeing these claims. The whole constitution of society talents for business thus early manifested by their offspring. Many, however, appear to be really in appears to be as nearly as possible what it was want, notwithstanding the assistance of the conamong the ancient Germanic peasant comOvents and the numerous charitable institutions; munities of the tenth and eleventh centu- and there can be no doubt that the frequent holiries. The whole administrative and judi- days of the Catholic Church contribute much to cial power of Unterwalden lies with the the increase of poverty. One is enchanted with small councils, consisting of fifty-eight the poetical descriptions of this country, its Alpine members in Niedwald, and sixty-five in shepherds and verdant vales, and icy mountains Obwald. These, as well as the deputies and glaciers, and thundering waterfalls; its grazsent to the Diet, the Landammans, and all ing cattle, and the music of the Ranz des Vaches among the hills; but how mournfully is one unother government officers, are chosen by the deceived at the aspect of these hordes of ragged General Assembly, which meets once a beggars, the dirt of the Senne huts, and the greedy, year, and the elections go off in general covetous ways of their inhabitants, who will not very quietly, though the appointments are offer a stranger so much as a glass of milk or a often for life. To the outcast classes above piece of bread without expecting an enormous paydescribed, even the right of petitioning is not freely granted, since it is forbidden (as This is somewhat at variance with the it is in Prussia) to collect signatures, and a above remark on the "simple and uncorpetition can only be presented by an indi- rupted race of men to be found in the revidual. mote valleys." The Senne or herdsmen's The revenues of these little states are huts, we presume, are not situated on the supplied by taxes on trade and commerce, high roads. Many of these beggars, it approperty and land, the post, stamps, &c., pears, come from the south of Germany as and according to law, the accounts of the pilgrims, attracted by the reputation of the canton ought to be laid on a table in the sacred shrine of Einsiedeln, and other chancery every year, for fourteen days, for places, and are induced to remain in this public inspection; but this law appears to part of Switzerland by the advantages be usually evaded, and, according to Mr. it affords, from the number of travellers, Mugge, there have been instances of the for their peculiar branch of industry. treasurer roundly declaring he would give They are also, of course, encouraged by the assistance they receive at the convents. On the mischief of this recognition of mendicancy there can be little difference of reigns of the canton-the people are nothing. opinion; but the problem is not solved by Change is impossible, for the chiefs and the priests having poverty merely hunted down and take care to prevent even the thought of such a trodden out of sight, as it often is in great

no account.

"This is what is called freedom in these d mocratic cantons. The old families are the sove

ment."

lief?

In the canton of Unterwalden there are, it appears, no less than five convents, though the communities are mostly small. The most considerable is that of Engelberg.

On some of

cities. Our sight is not offended by a the same lovely sheltered valleys, with their throng of destitute suppliants at our church quiet and picturesque cottages hanging on doors; but is it because there is less desti- every declivity, sometimes alone, sometimes tution, or because it has less hope of re- clustering in little hamlets,—the same constitution of society, the same manners arising out of it;-only here and there a breath of Italian summer seems to have found its way into Uri, and ripened peaches and melons in favored spots the slopes of the St. Gotthard, the Italian "High up in the lap of the mountains, encir- language, too, is heard, and sparkling black cled by wild rocks, lies the rich and ancient Benedictine monastery of Engelberg, surrounded by the eyes, and sharply cut features, proclaim village of the same name. These Benedictines the approach of a different race. educate the children of the principal families of shepherds of these mountains are still reUnterwalden. They also carry on a considerable markable for strength and agility as they trade, and the abbot has found means to maintain are described to have been in early times; the lands of the Church in tolerable independence and these are qualities which their mode of of the state, to which he pays only a fixed yearly life of course tends much to encourage. sum. In former days the abbots were called the management of their dairies they are sovereign lords of Engelberg, and had the power accustomed to carry the heaviest weights of princes; but these fine old times are gone by.

The

In

The abbey has often had within its wails princes, down steep declivities, and to seek their and even emperors, and has seen its days of way through mist and rain and storm, along feasting and rejoicing; but now the monks are the edge of dizzy precipices, loaded with more modest in their deportment, and seek a more piles of their great cheeses, or with huge artful method of securing their influence and posi- bundles of hay. tion. The parish priests of the communes have very small salaries-scarcely ever more than 400 guilders (about £33); but they manage matters so that the pious gifts of their penitents always keep their larders and cellarsell supplied; and the Capuchins plunder the country all round in their begging expeditions. The richer and more cultivated Benedictines know how to employ their capital; they farm Alps, give instruction, and trade in cloth and various kinds of wares, by means of their agents and commissioners.

"From Engelberg you obtain the most magnificent views of the mountains, and whoever has a mind to ascend the Titlas, may here find skilful and trusty guides. Beyond this ridge lies the Bernese Oberland, which may be reached by a wild pass another still wilder between hills of everlasting snow, and lofty peaks of nine or ten thousand feet high, leads to Altorf, in the canton of Uri; and a descent of nine long Swiss miles brings you to the land of Tell, whose memory still meets the traveller at every turn.

"The whole story of the renowned shot of the apple is painted on the walls of an old tower; a figure of Tell with his cross-bow, is placed at the spring, which tradition says is the precise spot where it was taken; the place is shown where his house stood; in short, the people could be induced to part with the story on no consideration whatever, and wo betide the traveller who should be ill-advised enough to hint a doubt of its truth."

Through the canton of Uri passes the great road crossing the St. Gotthard, and leading through Ticino to Italy; by this road as many as twenty thousand travellers, it is said, yearly traverse the valley of the Reuss.

"It is one of the finest roads in all Switzerland, and the most glorious views accompany the traveller along every step of the way. Naked peaks and horns crowned with everlasting snows of dazzling white-the magnificent Uri Rothstock, the Blakenstock, the Galenstock, the Schneehorn, the enormous white pyramid of the Bristenstock, these stand like lines of giants on either side,— while between them lies the valley of the foaming Reuss, at first green and pleasant, and thickly sown with human dwellings, but growing ever narrower and wilder and more desolate as it proceeds south ward. The road winds right and left, crossing the mountain stream: here and there, hewn out of the solid rock, are places of refuge from falling avalanches,-and then up again it goes, zigzag, through steep, narrow ravines, which in winter are often suddenly filled by masses of falling snow, and at length across the Devil's Bridge and through the rocky gallery of the Urnerloch into the smiling valley that lies like an oasis in the desert.

The

"The Devil's Bridge is a bold work of human skill and industry, through whose mighty arch rushes the foaming Reuss, and The little canton of Uri appears to be in then dashes down in a beautiful fall. almost every respect the twin-brother of old Devil's Bridge lies far below, with the reUnterwalden. There is the same wild mains of the old road, and may well have appearsplendor of scenery,

"Mountains piled on mountains to the skies.”

ed the work of more than mortal hands to the pilgrim as he stood on its now blackened arch, and felt the thunder of the cataract below him."