The downfall of the arbitrary “Mediator” was for the Swiss, as for the greater part of Europe, the signal of a happy deliverance. The apparent interest taken by Bonaparte in the welfare of Switzerland, and his anxious desire to suit its civil institutions to the local prejudices and habits of each small community, were wholly military and political. He looked upon Switzerland as a watch-tower between the three great divisions of Europe, of which the Act of Mediation secured possession to him, without the trouble of a garrison. Soon after his defeat at Leipsic in 1813, the Allies invaded Switzerland, and in December of that year the Swiss Diet met at Zurich and formally annulled the Act of Mediation. A general council was assembled, and new articles of confederation agreed upon, known as the Federal Pact, in September, 1814. This Confederacy was acknowledged by the Congress of Vienna, November 20, 1815; by which the eight powers, Austria, Russia, France, England, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, and Sweden, proclaimed the neutrality of Switzerland and the inviolability of its soil. It must in justice be said that at that epoch of sweeping annexations and unblushing bartering of countries, Switzerland was better treated than she had reason to expect,—Russia and England were her steadfast friends.
The nineteen Cantons were increased to twenty-two by the addition of Geneva, which had been annexed to France under the Directory in 1798, and Neuchâtel[7] (a Prussian possession), and the Valais. The greater Cantons demanded a return to the old status and their ante-revolutionary supremacy. The relapse would have been worse, had it not been for the Allied Powers, who would guarantee neutrality only on the condition that the new Cantons be maintained free.
In 1817 Switzerland, upon the invitation of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, joined the Holy Alliance. The restoration of peace to Europe, and the securities obtained for the neutrality and independence of Switzerland at the Congress of Vienna, gave great encouragement to the intellectual and material progress of the country, wealth increased, and industry prospered. Public works of great utility were undertaken, including noble roads over the passes of the St. Gothard, the St. Bernard, and the Splügen. In July, 1830, the peace of the country was suddenly disturbed by the French Revolution. Violent political agitation broke out in riots and insurrection. Political wrongs were rudely redressed; but life and property were respected. The general aim of this movement was to wrest from the aristocratic class and the capital towns the exclusive privileges which they had gradually recovered since the beginning of the century, and to increase the power of the people. The Cantons were forced to reorganize their constitutions on a more liberal and democratic basis. This movement naturally drifted into a plan for revising the federal constitution; but the effort to do this in 1832 was defeated by a popular vote.
The old religious jealousy of the Catholic and Protestant Cantons now revived with increased violence. These troubles were attributed by many to the influence of the Jesuits, and an active agitation was commenced for obtaining their expulsion. Under the claim that religion was in danger, delegates from seven Catholic Cantons assembled at Rothen, in the Canton of Luzern, and formed a separate League, called the Sonderbund, or separate confederation. In violation of the Federal Pact of 1815, these Cantons engaged to defend each other by an armed force, and appointed a council of war to take all necessary steps. The Federal Diet, in session at Bern in July, 1847, realized that prompt action must be taken to suppress a movement which was threatening the country with a civil war. Friendly negotiation having failed, the Diet declared the League to be dissolved, and at once hostilities broke out. A sharp, decisive contest of only eighteen days’ duration brought the strife to an end; the seceding Cantons were overwhelmed and forced back to their allegiance.
The strength of the Confederation being so decisively proved, it was regarded an opportune time to revive the effort for a thorough reformation of the federal system. This was accomplished the following year by the constitution of 1848.
Swiss history is largely the history of the drawing together of parts of three adjoining nations for common defence against a common foe, little by little winning their independence.
“A liberty that sprang to life in Greece; gilded next the early and the middle age of Italy; then reposed in the hallowed breast of the Alps, and descended at length on the coast of North America, and set the stars of glory there. At every stage of its course, at every reappearance, it was guarded by some new security; it was embodied in some new element of order; it was fertile in some larger good; it glowed with a more exceeding beauty.”[8]
The name “Swiss” and “Switzerland,” German “Schweiz,” French “La Suisse,” supposed to be derived from the Canton of Schwyz, though long in familiar use, did not form the official style of the Confederation until 1803. Schwyz, according to Gatschet, signifies “clearing the ground by fire;” and, again, it is derived from “Sweiter” and “Swen,” two brothers who are said to have founded it; and these family names, common in Sweden, are now heard in the valleys of Schwyz.
Switzerland is triangular in shape, and occupies an almost imperceptible space upon an ordinary map of the world. Voltaire used to say he “shook his wig and powdered the republic.” It is bounded on the north and east by Germany, on the south by Italy, and on the west by France; and is situated between latitude 45° 50′ and 47° 50′ north, and longitude 6° and 10° 25′ east. Its greatest length from east to west measures two hundred and sixteen miles; its greatest breadth north and south is one hundred and fifty-six miles. Nearly its entire boundary is formed by rivers, lakes, and mountains. The Rhine constitutes almost two sides of its boundary, from the point where the various streams from the glaciers of the Grisons have met to form a river into the Lake of Constance, and from its exit thence to where the Jura Mountains turn its course to the Northern Ocean. The Jura separates it from France; and with merely an outlet for the Rhone, the Alps take up the line, dividing its rugged regions from the plains of Northern Italy. On the eastern side is an entangled mass of mountains; on the western side is a succession of parallel ridges, separated from each other by longitudinal valleys. The elevation varies from six hundred and forty-six feet, at Lake Maggiore, to fifteen thousand two hundred and seventeen feet on Monte Rosa. Only two per cent. has an altitude less than one thousand feet, and six per cent. of the whole surface is covered with snow-fields and glaciers. Two-thirds of its surface consist of lofty mountain chains and valleys; the remainder a plain thirteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. That portion which lies to the east of the Rhine rises from a platform no less than three thousand two hundred feet in height, even in the valleys. All of Switzerland, with Savoy, and indeed the Tyrol and other adjoining countries, lie on a huge mountain. They all have their valleys, it is true, but their valleys are more elevated than even the hills of the lower regions. Two of the mightiest European rivers, the Rhine and Rhone, have their sources in Switzerland. Their head-waters are separated only by the tangled mass between the Pizzo Rotondo and the Oberalp Pass,—the Rhine running towards the east and the Rhone towards the west. The St. Gothard may be regarded as the central point of the country, and from its sides these two rivers take their rise in a great transversal valley of the Central Alps. On the east, the Rhine, springing from the glaciers, flows through the Grisons to the north and loses itself in the Lake of Constance, issues from it at Stein, and flows to the westward as far as Basel, where it commences its perpendicular course towards the German Ocean. On the west, the Rhone, rising in the blue and glittering glacier of the same name, descends through the long channel of the Valais, expands into the Lake of Geneva, and takes its rapid course to the Mediterranean. Both of these rivers purify their waters in a large lake; and in their passage through the same Jurassic range of mountains they both form cataracts and waterfalls, though separated by that time by an interval of one hundred and eighty miles. Nine-tenths of the central table-lands of Switzerland belong to the Rhine system, and only one-tenth to the Rhone. In addition to these, two great rivers on the north of the St. Gothard, the Reuss and the Aar, descend in parallel ravines through rugged mountains, feeding the Lakes of Luzern, Thun, and Brienz; while on the south its snows nourish the impetuous torrents of the Ticino, which swells out into Lake Maggiore, and loses itself in the waves of the Po.
Within two degrees of latitude, Switzerland contains the climate of thirty-four degrees. The variety in the vertical configuration of the country naturally affects its climate, and nearly every valley and every mountain-side has a climate of its own. Besides “mathematical climate,” which is expressed by latitude, and depends on the elevation of the surface of the earth to the sun, modern science gives “physical climate.” It describes isothermal lines, which do not exactly coincide with the circles of latitude, but diverge to north or south, according as the temperature is modified by other factors, such as the height of the land above the sea, the modifying action of mountain chains, currents of wind and water, and the neighborhood of lakes and sea. The climate of Switzerland is specially modified by the influences which spring from the capricious consequences of the nearness of mountains, which are a bulwark against the periodical agitations of the atmosphere; they form a great barrier to the northward against the icy blasts sweeping down from the snow-fields of Russia and Siberia; and to the south, to the hot Libyan winds blowing across the Mediterranean. For regular isotherms, it would be idle to seek in such a broken region. The lakes, which are fed by the glacier waters, have a cooling effect on the temperature of the summer heat; the temperature of the water of Lake Brienz does not exceed from 48° to 53° Fahrenheit in the warmest days. It is a great benefit to the circulation of air which comes in contact with surfaces so relatively cold, nor do these bodies of air carry away with them any large amount of moisture, because the low temperature of the water does not favor any great evaporation. Within a short distance one may see at the same time all the seasons of the year, stand between spring and summer,—collecting snow with one hand and plucking flowers from the soil with the other. In Valais the fig and grape ripen at the foot of ice-clad mountains; while near their summits the lichen grows at the limit of the snow-line. There is a corresponding variety as regards the duration of the seasons. In Italian Switzerland, winter lasts only three months; at Glarus, four; in the Engadine, six; on the St. Gothard, eight; on the Great St. Bernard, nine; and on the Théodule Pass, always. Upon first beholding the peaks of the Alps, shrouded in their everlasting mantles of snow, one would little dream that in the valleys beneath ran musical streams of summer water, with emerald meadows spreading their velvet cloaks, dappled with clustering rose-bush, and the sun-loving flowers of the gardens of the tropics.