national bank and of the office of the public debt who are chosen by itself.

ART. IIO. No member of the Riksdag shall be prosecuted or arrested on account of his actions or utterances in that body unless the house to which he belongs has authorized such prosecution or arrest, by special resolution adopted by at least a five-sixths vote. No member of the Riksdag shall be banished from the place where it meets. Should any individual or body, civil or military, or any multitude of whatever name, either spontaneously or under direction of others, attempt injury to the Riksdag, its houses, its committees, or to any one of its members, or to disturb the freedom of its discussions and decisions, such actions shall be considered as treason, and the Riksdag may prosecute the offenders in accordance with law.

If a member of the Riksdag, during a session or when going to or from a session, is molested by word or action, the offender being aware of his errand, the offense shall be dealt with according to the general law with reference to assaults upon or insults to the King's officers. The same law shall apply to assaults upon or insults to the commissioners, auditors, or solicitor-general of the Riksdag, to the secretaries or officers of either house, or of any of their committees, during or in consequence of the performance of their duties.

ART. III. If a member of the Riksdag is accused of a serious offense he shall not be arrested until the judge, after investigation, considers such arrest justifiable, provided that he was not caught in the act; however, if he does not obey the summons of the court, he shall be dealt with according to the provisions of the general laws. No member of the Riksdag shall be deprived of his liberty except in the cases mentioned in this and in the preceding article.

The commissioners of the national bank and of the office of the public debt and the auditors of the Riksdag shall receive no orders relating to their duties except from the Riksdag or

in consequence of its instructions, nor shall they be called to account except by the action of the Riksdag.

ART. 112. No officer shall make an improper use of his authority in the election of members to the Riksdag. Should he do so he shall be deprived of his office.

ART. 113. Assessors whose duty it is, on behalf of the Riksdag, to apply the provisions of the appropriation law shall not be held liable because of the performance of their duties.

ART. 114. The ancient privileges, advantages, rights, and liberties of the estates of the kingdom shall remain in force, except where they are indissolubly connected with the right of representation formerly belonging to the estates and have consequently ceased to exist with the abolition of that right. The rights of the estates shall not be altered or annulled except by agreement between the King and the Riksdag, and with the consent of the nobility if their privileges are in question or of a general church council if the privileges of the clergy are affected.

SWITZERLAND

The Swiss Confederation dates from the league of the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden in 1291. Between 1332 and 1353 the five cantons of Luzern, Zürich, Glarus, Zug, and Bern became members of the confederation, which was later increased to thirteen members by the adhesion of Freiburg and Solothurn in 1481, of Basel and Schaffhausen in 1501, and of Appenzell in 1513. No new members were added to the confederation before 1798 although other territories were allied with the cantons, and some lands gained by the confederates were governed as subject territories.

The administration of the Swiss cities became aristocratic and oppressive; the people, influenced by French example and by French intrigue, rose in insurrection; in January, 1798, a French army invaded Swiss territory to aid the revolutionary forces. Under French influence the country was organized into a centralized republic under the title of the Helvetic Republic, with a constitution which was practically a copy of the French constitution of 1795; the constitution of the Helvetic Republic bears the date of April 12, 1798. This constitution was superseded by a constitution of July 2, 1802.

The destruction of the cantons and the centralization of government did not please the majority of the Swiss people. Napoleon, recognizing this fact, called representatives of the Swiss governing bodies to Paris in December, 1802, and on February 19, 1803, the Act of Mediation was promulgated. By this instrument a federal government was re-established, but with greater power than that existing before 1798; the cantonal governments were re-established on the basis of their organization before the creation of the Helvetic Republic, and the subject territories were erected into independent cantons, six in number; the old equality of the cantons was to an extent destroyed by the powers given to the six larger cantons of Bern, Zürich, Vaud, St. Gallen, Aargau, and Grisons, each of which had two votes in the new federal diet, while the other cantons had only

one vote.

From 1803 to 1813 Switzerland was treated as a dependency

of France, and Swiss soldiers were enrolled in the French armies. With the fall of Napoleon the Act of Mediation ceased to be in force. Although Switzerland attempted by a declaration in November, 1813, to remain neutral in the struggle between France and the Allies, the allied troops occupied the country in the succeeding month. On the 29th of December, 1813, a conference of fourteen cantons met at Zürich and formally declared the Act of Mediation no longer in force.

Bern and seven of the other old cantons now wished to re-establish the system in existence before 1798, and to reduce to subjection the six new cantons added in 1803. The Allies, however, took the side of the more liberal cantons. An assembly composed of representatives of the nineteen cantons met at Zürich on April 6, 1814, and on August 7, 1815, a constitution or rather a treaty between the cantons was agreed upon. The three cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel, and Geneva were added to the confederation by the Congress of Vienna, entering the union upon an equality with the other cantons.

The constitution of 1815, which restored to the cantons almost all of their former independence, continued in force until 1848. Under the influence of the liberal movement started by the French revolution of 1830, many of the cantonal constitutions were revised so as to give the people a greater share in the government. The liberal cantons were anxious to revise the federal constitution, and a new constitution was drawn up in 1832, but they were not strong enough to accomplish their purpose. Seven of the cantons, unable to obtain the federal guaranty of their new constitutions, united into a league to maintain their liberal institutions. Five conservative cantons united into the league of Sarnen, in November, 1832, which was dissolved after an armed conflict had occurred between Luzern and Schwyz. Religious troubles now contributed to widen still further the breach in the confederation. Beginning in 1834 the Protestant cantons carried on a vigorous movement against the power of the Catholic church over marriage and education, and for the abolition of convents and the expulsion of the Jesuits. In 1845 the seven Catholic cantons entered into a separate league or Sonderbund, which was only dissolved after a short war in 1847.