* * * * *

In Switzerland, then, the military leader appears only when needed, in
war; he cannot for years afterward be rewarded by the presidency;
pensions cannot be made perquisites of party; the army, _i.e._ the whole
effective force of the nation, will support, and not attempt to subvert,
the republic.


_The True Social Contract._

The individual enters into social life in Switzerland with the
constitutional guarantee that he shall be independent in all things
excepting wherein he has inextricable common interests with his fellows.

Each neighborhood aims, as far as possible, to govern itself, so
subdividing its functions that even in these no interference with the
individual shall occur that may be avoided. Adjoining neighborhoods
next form a district and as such control certain common interests. Then
a greater group, of several districts, unite in the canton. Finally
takes place the federation of all the cantons. At each of these
necessary steps in organizing society, the avowed intention of the
masses concerned is that the primary rights of the individual shall be
preserved. Says the "Westminster Review": "The essential characteristic
of the federal government is that each of the states which combine to
form a union retains in its own hands, in its individual capacity, the
management of its own affairs, while authority over matters common to
all is exercised by the states in their collective and corporate
capacity." And what is thus true of Confederation with respect to the