dependent state will continue to govern itself." In order to remove the conflicts between the cantons regarding their territorial limits, the Congress of Vienna invited the Swiss to send ambassadors to Vienna, to treat with the representatives of the allied powers there assembled. The Congress then laid before the Swiss ambassadors certain propositions, on the acceptance of which the Allies promised to extend to Switzerland a formal and legal recognition of her perpetual neutrality. These propositions were: (1) That the nineteen cantons, as they stood on the 13th of December, 1813, should continue as the basis of the Confederation; (2) that Wallis, the territory of Geneva, and the principality of Neufchâtel, should be embodied in Switzerland as three new cantons; (3) that the bishopric of Basel should be added to the cantons of Bern and Basel, and the city of Bienne to the canton of Bern; (4) that the territorial claims of Schwyz, Unterwalden, Uri, Glarus, Zug, and Appenzell against Aargau, Vaud, Ticino, and St. Gallen. should be met by the payment by the latter cantons of five hundred thousand francs; (5) that a yearly stipend should be fixed for the Abbot of St. Gallen. These propositions were accepted, and Switzerland received from Austria, Spain, France, Great Britain, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden the desired documentary guarantee

of her perpetual neutrality. As in the Treaty of Westphalia, after the Thirty Years' War, the powers of Europe recognized Switzerland's independence of the empire long after it had been established as a fact, so here at the close of the Napoleonic wars the powers represented in the Congress of Vienna acknowledged the neutrality of Switzerland, which, according to the Swiss view, was a recognition of what had long existed in fact, and of a principle that had long been fundamental in Swiss politics.

After much wrangling and hesitating, a new constitution for the Confederation was completed, and finally accepted by the twenty-two cantons, August 7, 1815. As compared with the Act of Mediation, it laid little stress on the central authority. Under the preceding organization the individual cantons recognized their obligations to conform themselves to the principles of the federal law, and it was definitely stated in the Act of Mediation that the cantons should exercise all those powers which had not been expressly delegated to the federal authority. But in the constitution of 1815, limitations on cantonal sovereignty were made less conspicThe cantons are described as united for the "maintenance of their liberty, independence, and security against the attacks of foreign powers and the preservation of internal peace and

uous.

order." They mutually guaranteed their constitutions and their territories. They provided for a common military force of two men from each one hundred of the population. They established the principle of arbitration for settling intercantonal disputes, prohibited the existence of subject lands as they had previously existed, and determined that the several cantons should form no alliances detrimental to the Union or to any canton. But alliances between cantons were not definitely prohibited, as they had been by the Act of Mediation, nor were the several cantons prohibited from making certain military capitulations and treaties on commercial affairs and on police affairs with foreign powers, but it was required that such treaties having been made they should be reported to the Diet. "The Act of Mediation did not by any means organize Switzerland as a Bundesstaat, but there was in the Landamman a standing central organ through which a series of measures for the protection of the common interests could be carried out. The essential character of the new articles of union lay in this, that they made the Confederation once more purely a Staatenbund, placed the sovereignty in the cantons, and made no mention whatever of the central power, or at least crowded it into the background.”

1 Von Orelli, "Das Staatsrecht der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft," 19.

Under this constitution, " the enjoyment of political rights was never to become the exclusive privilege of a class of the citizens of a canton." Moreover, the inequality of cantonal representation in the Diet, which had existed under the Act of Mediation, was set aside, and the ancient equality restored, in spite of the vigorous opposition of the larger cantons. Each canton had one vote; still, the superior moral weight of the larger cantons made itself felt on the course of events. The ambassadors of the cantons in the Diet voted, as previously, according to instructions; but, in contrast with the previous condition of things, the principle of majority rule was gradually gaining acceptance. In certain cases, however, such as decisions relative to war and peace, and alliances with foreign states, the specified majority of threefourths required under the Act of Mediation was here continued. The powers delegated to the Diet extended to the formation of commercial treaties with foreign states, the appointment of ambassadors, the determination of the organization of the troops, the control of the army, the appointment of the generals, the officers of the general staff, and the colonels of the confederate army, the supervision of the discipline and equipment of the troops, and to all measures for the external and internal security of the Confederation.

The office of Landamman of Switzerland fell with the Act of Mediation. It became necessary, therefore, to provide an organ for the administration of general affairs between the sessions of the Diet. It was proposed to make Zurich the sole Vorort, and her burgermeister the president of the Diet and of the Confederation; and to intrust him with the daily correspondence and the current business of the general administration. This proposition, however, together with all the provisions of detail depending upon it, failed of acceptance. Bern opposed with special vigor the plan to make Zurich the sole Vorort. It was finally determined to make three cities, Zurich, Bern, and Luzern, in turn the seat of the general government, each exercising for a period of two years the powers of the Vorort before 1798. The burgermeister of the Vorort stood at the head of the confederate administration, but under certain circumstances the Diet might commission a body of six representatives, one from each of six groups of cantons, to take in charge the affairs of the Confederation. These representatives received instructions from the Diet, which determined the period of their activity. In any case their power ceased at the reassembling of the Diet. The agreement of two-thirds of the members was necessary to authoritative action.