elections will be held upon the principle of proportional representation, each of the 25 cantons forming a single election district.

Seven of the cantons (Schaffhausen, Zug, Glaris, the two Appenzells (Inner and Outer) Uri, and the two Unterwaldens (Upper and Lower) elect no more than one or two deputies each. No one of these, consequently, will fall properly within the change of principle contemplated by the new amendment until their population so increases as to enable them to elect at least three deputies. It is not expected, indeed, that any serious dislocation of the electoral machinery will take place under the new plan. For some time past Canton Grisons has elected its own Council of State and its delegation to the National Council in an election district comprising the entire canton, which is geographically the largest of all the Swiss states.

The Federal Council of States is composed of 44 members, the Constitution providing for two members from each whole canton. There are constitutionally 22 cantons in all, but since one of these was divided a half-century or more ago and two in the far past, Switzerland has at the present time, properly speaking, nineteen cantons and six half-cantons, and each one of these six half-cantons (Basel City, Rural Basel, Outer and Inner Appenzell, Upper and Lower Unterwalden) elects a member to the States' Council-that is to say, 19 cantons choose two each, making 38 delegates, and six half-cantons choose one each, completing the constitutional number of 44. The delegates are chosen, by constitutional permission, in such manner as each canton may direct. In practice, today, those cantons, Uri, Glaris, Appenzell, Outer and Inner, Unterwalden, Upper and Lower, which retain the ancient purely democratic or Landsgemeinde system of government, choose their delegates in these annual cantonal assemblies. In constitutional theory the two Houses of Parliament are clothed with equal powers, although the States' Council is supposed to preserve the ancient theory of an alliance of independent cantons for federal purposes, while the National Council in its source and structure objectifies the new Swiss nation with an increasingly centralized government.

Parliament holds two sessions annually, summer and winter, each of these being followed by a continuation session, and at each session there is usually a meeting of the two Houses for the granting of

pardons or (at the December session) for the election of the Federal Council every third year, the election of a president annually, the election of a chancellor every third year, and the election of 24 members and 9 alternates of the Federal Tribunal at Lausanne every sixth year, a presiding justice of this, the only federal court, being chosen by the National Assembly every second year.

The actual summoning of Parliament and the preparation of subjects for its consideration (tractanda) devolves upon the Federal Council. The supreme constitutional authority, nevertheless, resides with the two houses of Parliament, whose statutes and resolutions are not to be challenged, and have the force of final law with respect to the courts, although subject to a referendum demand unless declared urgent.

Such being Switzerland's governmental machinery when, in the last week of July, 1914, the war cloud burst over Europe, the Federal Council on Friday, July 31st, summoned by telegraph the members of Parliament to meet on the following Monday, August 3d, and, at the same time ordered a general mobilization of the citizen-army, this latter process being so exactly and swiftly carried out that on Monday afternoon more than 400,000 men, fully trained, armed, and equipped, were in readiness along the various frontiers to protect the country's integrity and neutrality. It is well to note here, in view of the subsequent immunity of Switzerland from invasion, that these citizen troops were known to be the best shots in Europe, and although taken directly from their ordinary avocations, the longest aggregate of military service (from the 20th to the 48th year) being 200 days, they were and are beyond question the equals of any soldiery in all that goes to make up the requirements of a modern army of defense.

Already before the Houses of Parliament had come together at ten o'clock on Monday morning, August 3d, the Federal Council issued a proclamation forbidding the export of foodstuffs and cattle, prohibited the employment of wireless telegraphy, save under strict government control, and prepared detailed messages to be laid before Parliament proposing the issue of five-franc bank-notes to relieve the drain of small silver, making national bank notes a legal tender,

and authorizing the Council to issue a general notification of neutrality addressed to the Powers. The Council asked furthermore that Parliament approve the mobilization and confer upon the Council authority to act at its own discretion with respect to all measures necessary to preserve the security, integrity, and neutrality of the country, to maintain its credit, and assure adequate supplies of food for the people. Said the Council:

Il ne peut avoir de doute sur l'attitude que la Suisse doit prendre dans ce conflit. La ligne de conduite politique que notre pays a librement choisie, la reconnaissance de notre neutralité inscrite dans des traités internationaux, enfin tout le cours de notre histoire ne permettent pas de douter que le bien de notre pays réside dans l'observation d'une complete neutralité.

Nous vous demandons de nous autoriser a notifier aux puissances étrangères cette décision de neutralité de la Confédération suisse. Toutes les mesures seront prises en vue d'assurer le respect et la stricte observation de cette neutralité. La neutralité, l'indépendence et l'intégrité de la patrie ont pour condition la ferme resolution de notre peuple de repousser par la force des armes toute attaque étrangère, d'où qu'elle vienne. Surs de cette puissante volonté du peuple suisse, nous avons mobilisé hier l'armée, élite, landwehr et partie du landstrum. Nous avons voulu par là, des le premier jour, être en état d'opposer notre armée entière à toute tentative de violation de notre territoire. En évitant les demi-mesures, nous ne liasons rien perdre des grands sacrifices que notre peuple a consentis depuis longtemps pour son armée et nous n'avons pas reculé devant la mise en ligne de l'ensemble de nos forces, parce qu'elle nous a paru être la seule mesure répondant à la situation.

Nous vous prions de donner votre approbation à la mobilization générale que nous avons ordonnée.

Le soin mis depuis des années à l'instruction de nos troupes, à leur armement, à leur équipement, à la préparation générale à la guerre nous donne la confiance que nous serons à la hauteur de la tâche qui nous incombe. Les mesures prises pour assurer l'approvisionnement de la population en pain nous sont un garant que nous pouvons, à vues humaines, aller sans crainte au-devant des événements.

Ce que seront ces événements, quelle extension prendra la guerre, quels Etats y seront impliqués, voila ce que personne ne saurait dire aujourd'hui. Mais nous prévoyons que nous aurons besoin de toute l'armée et de toute la force économique de la nation et nous devons vous demander de nous donner l'une et l'autre sans limite. Nous sommes conscients de la responsibilité qu'impose et de la confiance.

que suppose cet octroi de pouvoirs et de crédits illimités. Nous sommes surs toutefois que vous n'hésiterez pas, en cette heure grave, à nous donner et ces pouvoirs et ces crédits, dont nous ferons l'usage le plus consciencieux.

Nous avons la conviction que notre patrie, forte de l'union et de l'esprit de sacrifice de sa population, forte de sa préparation à la guerre et de l'esprits vaillant qui anime son armée fera face avec honneur à la serieuse épreuve à laquelle elle est soumise.

Parliament being met in a session lasting but a few hours, promptly passed a series of ordinances accurately responsive to the requests of the Council, and having, in pursuance of the Constitution (Art. 85, sec. 4) which recognizes no permanent military officer of higher grade than colonel, elected Colonel Ulrich Wille General of the Swiss army adjourned. On only three preceding occasions, under the present national Constitution, has it been deemed necessary by the Federal Assembly to place a general in command of its army. The first of these occasions was on December 20, 1856, when Switzerland's integrity was threatened by Prussia, unwilling to relinquish its ancient and royal control of the little principality of Neuchâtel; nor did it yield to the inevitable until Dufour, elected General and at the head of 30,000 men, and, eventually, supported by Louis Napoleon, evinced Swiss determination to bring Neuchâtel wholly within the democratic federal circle. The second occasion was on May 2, 1859, when Dufour was again named General on the occasion of the rapid approach of Austrian troops toward the SwissItalian frontier and the brief but decisive campaign, of which the battles of Magenta and Solferino were the most famous conflicts, the horrors of the latter giving rise to the Red Cross. The third occasion arose in the Franco-Prussian War of July, 1870, when Colonel Herzog, of Canton Aargau, then artillery instructor-in-chief, was named General of the army of defense, Colonel Rodolph Paravicini, of Canton Basel, being the Chief of Staff. The ceremony of electing Colonel Wille as General on August 3, 1914, closed with the solemn taking of an oath in Parliament on the part of the newly elected officer.

In passing the highly important ordinance granting unlimited executive functions to the Federal Council, and thus freeing that body from constitutional limitations in its prosecution of measures

looking to national protection, the Federal Assembly declared its unswerving determination to maintain the country's neutrality during the war now imminent, approved the order of general mobilization, and said:

ART. 3. L'Assemblée fédérale donne pouvoir illimité au Conseil fédéral de prendre toutes les mesures nécessaires à la sécurité, l'intégrité et la neutralité de la Suisse, à sauvegarder le crédit et les intêrets économiques du pays et, en particulier à assurer l'alimentation publique.

ART. 4. A cet éffet il est ouvert au Conseil fédéral un credit illimité. Autorisation lui est en particulier donnée de contracter les empruntes nécessaires.

ART. 5. Le Conseil fédéral rendra compte a l'Assemblée fédérale dans sa plus prochaine session de l'emploi qu'il aura fait des pouvoirs illimités qui lui sont accordés.

ART. 6. Le present arrêté, lequel est declaré urgent, entre immédiatement en vigueur.

It will be noticed that in the concluding pages of the Assembly's decree, the decree itself is declared to be urgent and thus withdrawn from the control of any referendum petition. This is in pursuance of Article 89 of the Federal Constitution, which provides that decrees of a general character which are not urgent shall be submitted to the adoption or rejection of the people upon a demand made by 30,000 citizens.

The above proceedings having been taken by the two Houses in joint session, Parliament adjourned, leaving the conduct of the country in the hands of the Federal Council. On the following day the Council issued a preliminary ordinance touching the maintenance of Swiss neutrality, this neutrality, it was stated, comprising those portions of Savoy heretofore brought within the protection of Swiss neutralization. In replying to this declaration, the French Government announced its determination scrupulously to observe the treaties touching Swiss neutrality, but added that with respect to Savoy there appeared to be need of a further special agreement:

Quant à la zone de Savoie, dont la neutralité est prévue par les traités de 1815 et 1860, le Gouvernement de la République croit devoir rappeler au Gouvernement de la Confédération que les conditions de