before the meeting, and in others but ten days. "To give opportunities
for individuals and authorities to make proposals and offer bills, the
official gazette announces every January that for fourteen days after a
given date petitions may be presented for that purpose. These must be
written, the object plainly stated and accompanied by the reasons. All
such motions are considered by what is called the Triple Council, or
legislature, and are classified as 'expedient' and 'inexpedient.' A
proposal receiving more than ten votes must be placed on the list of
expedient, accompanied by the opinion of the council. The rejected are
placed under a special rubric, familiarly called by the people the
_Beiwagen_. The assembly may reverse the action of the council if it
chooses and take a measure out of the 'extra coach,' but consideration
of it is in that case deferred until the next year. In the larger
assemblies debate is excluded, the vote being simply on rejection or
adoption. In the smaller states the line is not so tightly drawn....
Votes are taken by show of hands, though secret ballot may be had if
demanded, elections of officers following the same rule in this matter
as legislation. Nominations for office, however, need not be sent in by
petition, but may be offered by any one on the spot."[B]

[Footnote B: Vincent.]


_The Initiative and the Referendum._

It will be observed that the basic practical principles of both the
communal meeting and the Landsgemeinde are these two:

(1) That every citizen shall have the right to propose a measure of law
to his fellow-citizens--this principle being known as the Initiative.