(c) That they have been ratified by the people, and may be amended whenever the majority of all the citizens demand it.
All separate alliances and all treaties of a political character between the Cantons are forbidden. The Confederation has the sole right of declaring war, of making peace, and of concluding alliances and treaties with foreign powers, particularly treaties relating to tariffs and commerce. No military capitulations shall be made.[16] Members of the Federal Government, civil and military officials of the Confederation, and Federal Representatives or Commissioners shall not accept from foreign Governments any pension, salary, title, present, or decoration. The Confederation has no right to maintain a standing army: every Swiss is subject to military service. The Confederation may construct at its own expense, or may aid by subsidies, public works which concern Switzerland or a considerable part of the country: the Confederation has the right of general supervision over the water and forest police measures in the upper mountain regions. It is authorized to adopt regulations as to the right of fishing and hunting, especially for the preservation of the large game in the mountains, and for the protection of birds which are useful to agriculture or forestry. Legislation pertaining to the construction and operation of railways is an affair of the Confederation. It has the right to establish, in addition to the existing Polytechnic school, a Federal University and other higher institutions of learning, or assist in their support. The customs are in the province of the Confederation; it may levy export and import duties; but the collection of the Federal customs shall be regulated according to the following principles:
1. Import duties.
(a) Materials necessary to the manufactures and agriculture of the country shall be taxed as low as possible.
(b) Likewise all articles which may be classed as necessaries of life.
(c) Luxuries shall be subjected to the highest duties.
2. Export duties shall also be as low as possible.
3. The customs legislation shall include suitable provisions for the continuance of commercial and market intercourse across the frontier.
The freedom of trade and of industry is guaranteed throughout the whole of the Confederation: excepted from this rule are the salt and gunpowder monopolies, the Federal customs, measures of sanitary police against epidemics and cattle diseases, import duties on wines and other spirituous liquors, and other taxes on consumption expressly permitted by the Confederation, under certain restrictions: but all the import duties levied by the Cantons as well as the similar duties levied by the Communes to cease, without indemnity, at the end of the year 1890. The Confederation has power to enact uniform provisions as to the labor of children in factories, and as to the duration of labor fixed for adults therein, and as to the protection of workmen against the operation of unhealthy and dangerous manufactures. The business of emigration agents and of private insurance companies shall be subject to the supervision and legislation of the Confederation. The opening of gambling-houses is forbidden (those in existence allowed until December 31, 1877, to close); necessary measures may also be taken concerning lotteries. The post and telegraphs (now includes the telephone) in all Switzerland are controlled by the Confederation, and the proceeds belong to the Federal Treasury; the tariff charges shall be regulated according to uniform principles in as equitable a manner as possible, and inviolable secrecy of letters and telegrams is guaranteed. To the Confederation belongs the exercise of all rights included in the coinage monopoly: it alone shall coin money, establish the monetary system, and enact provisions, if necessary, for the rate of exchange of foreign coins, and to make by law general provisions as to the issue and redemption of banknotes: it shall not, however, establish any monopoly for the issue of banknotes, nor make them a legal tender. The Confederation fixes the standard of weights and measures. The manufacture and the sale of gunpowder throughout Switzerland pertains exclusively to the Confederation (the manufacture and sale of spirituous liquors was made a Federal monopoly December 22, 1885). Every citizen of a Canton is also a Swiss citizen, and as such he may participate in the place where he is domiciled in all Federal elections and popular votes, after having duly proven his qualification as a voter.[17] A Federal law shall establish the distinction between settlement and temporary residence, and shall at the same time make the regulations to which Swiss temporary residents shall be subjected as to their political rights and their civil rights. A Federal law shall make provision as to the cost of the care and burial of indigent persons of one Canton who may become sick or die in another Canton. Freedom of conscience and belief shall be inviolable; no one shall be compelled to take part in any religious society or in any religious instruction, or to undertake any religious act, nor shall he be punished in any way whatever for his religious views. The person who exercises the parents’ or guardians’ authority has the right, conformably to the principles above stated, to regulate the religious education of children up to the close of their sixteenth year. The exercise of civil or political rights shall not be abridged by any provisions or conditions whatever of an ecclesiastical or religious kind. Religious views shall not absolve from the performance of civil duties. No person is bound to pay taxes of which the proceeds are specifically appropriated to the expenses of any religious society to which he does not belong. The free exercise of religious worship is guaranteed within the limits of morality and public order; the Cantons and the Confederation may take suitable measures for the preservation of public order and of peace between the members of different religious bodies, as well as against any interference in the rights of citizens or of the state by church authorities. Contests in public and private law which arise out of the formation or the division of religious bodies may be brought by appeal before the competent Federal authorities. No bishopric shall be created upon Swiss territory without the consent of the Confederation; neither the order of the Jesuits nor the societies affiliated with them shall be suffered in any part of Switzerland, and all participation of their members either in church or school is prohibited; this prohibition may be extended also by Federal ordinance to other religious orders whose action is dangerous to the state, or disturbs the peace between sects. The establishment of new convents or religious orders or the restoration of those which have been suppressed is forbidden. The civil status and the keeping of records thereof is subject to the civil authority (taking it away from the clergy, who were formerly the custodians). The disposition of burial-places shall belong to the civil authorities; they shall take care that every deceased person may be decently interred (to prevent denial of burial by the church). The right of marriage is placed within the protection of the Confederation; this right shall not be limited for confessional or economic considerations, nor on account of previous conduct or other police reasons; no tax upon admission or similar tax shall be levied upon either party to a marriage. Freedom of the press is guaranteed; the Confederation may enact penalties against the abuse of the freedom of the press when directed against it or its authorities. The right of petition is guaranteed. No person shall be deprived of his constitutional judge, and there shall consequently be no extraordinary tribunal established.[18] Ecclesiastical jurisdiction is abolished. Suits for personal claims against a solvent debtor having a domicile in Switzerland must be brought before the judge of his domicile; in consequence his property outside the Canton in which he is domiciled may not be attached in suits for personal claims; with reference to foreigners, however, the provisions of the respective international treaties shall apply. Imprisonment for debt is abolished. The exit duty on property is abolished as respects foreign countries, provided reciprocity be observed. The Confederation shall have power to legislate:
1. On civil capacity.