because he knows he can make them pay for it in hard money. "The next morning, as might be anticipated, he hands in a bill of nearly as many dollars as they had expected francs, without doubt exorbitant and overcharged, but at any rate there are plausible excuses for this exorbitancy. "The host will shrug his shoulders, in answer to their ill-expressed and angry expostulation, and merely say, that the gentlemen must not expect to have articles which, however plentiful in towns are luxuries on the mountains, without paying well for them. "The worst is that, little by little, the show of justice that there once existed, and the distinction which was made between the individual who gave no trouble, and was contented with what entertainment was easily provided, and those last described, is fast waning away; and to be a foreigner is sufficient to excite the plundering propensities of mine host and his coadjutors. He has frequently a regular system to pursue, according as the visitor announced is an Englishman, a Frenchman, or a German. The latter obtains the most grace in his eyes, and pays perhaps only ten or twenty per cent; the Frenchman must expocket something more in consideration of his polish and politeness, and the old grudge borne him for past events; and the poor Englishman may esteem himself very happy if, after partaking of the same fare, he finds himself desired to lay down a sum which only excites his surprise and keeps him on the grumble for the next three miles, and does not at once make him fly into a passion and get a prejudice for life against everything Swiss. "And it is not only those parts of the country through which the great stream of travellers sets that have by this means become degraded the fame of these doings has gone abroad throughout the greater part of the whole community, and very few are the retired corners where you do not detect more or less of this dishonourable bent in the lower orders, if any way exposed to temptation. 66 But it is not only in this point that the moral character of the common people is debased. It will not be a matter of wonder that the present Swiss peasantry as a nation cannot longer be supposed to be the simple, virtuous, patriarchal race, that their forefathers were. It is evident, from the perusal of their history, that the deterioration had been steady and gradual for some time previous to the close of the last century; and that nothing contributed more to it than that system of foreign military service which, it would appear, had become necessary to the existence of the community. 66 "Then the overpowering deluge of the French Revolution swept over the Jura, and gave accelerated impulse to the downward current of moral feeling in every rank of society in this unhappy country. What evil influence this had at the time upon the principles of the people in general, as well as the virtue of families and individuals, it would now be a difficult and ungrateful task to decide. Much of that evil may at this time be supposed to have been already obviated; yet, now that the waters of that fearful political phenomenon have retired, we may still see left behind the scum and the mud with: which their polluted stream was heavily charged. 'I have not been in the Oberland for years,' is an expression I have heard time after time from worthy natives; and the reason is perfectly com¬ prehensible. A true lover of his country may well grieve over the dishonour and the loss of moral feeling in Switzerland, and avoid going where he must be constantly reminded of its downfall."p. 324-328. Another point to be considered in reference to the condition of the people, is the influence of the Roman Catholic religion in those cantons where it prevails. And here it may be observed, that the least enlightened portions of the country at present are the Vallais, Uri, Unterwalden, Schwytz, Tessin, a large part of the Bernese Oberland, and the Grisons. In passing from a Catholic to a Protestant canton, the travelier will scarcely fail to remark a striking change. Yet, in his comments thereon, let him bear in mind the benevolent precept so beautifully conveyed in the following verses, composed in one of the Catholic cantons of Switzer land: 66 Doom'd, as we are, our native dust To wet with many a bitter shower, The Altar, to deride the Fane I love, where spreads the village lawn, And to the chapel far withdrawn, That lurks by lonely ways. Where'er we roam, along the brink Of Rhine, or by the sweeping Po, Through Alpine vale, or Champaign wide- Be Charity-to bid us think And feel, if we would know.-WORDSWORTH. We are so accustomed to look upon Switzerland as the land of liberty," that the generality of travellers will take the thing for granted; and it is only after diving to a certain depth in Swiss annals, that the question arises, what was the nature of this freedom, and how far was it calculated to foster nobility of sentiment and public spirit among the people? Was the abolition of the Austrian dominion succeeded by a more equitable government, extending to all the same privileges, and dividing among all alike the public burthen? Was political equality accompanied by religious tolerance and harmony? Did the democratic principle produce fruit in the disinterestedness and patriotism of the children of the land? To all these inquiries there remains but one answer-a negative. The cowherds of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden, who had so nobly, and with so much moderation, emancipated themselves from a foreign yoke, in process of time became themselves the rulers of subject states, and, so far from extending to them the liberty they had so dearly purchased, and which they so highly valued, that they kept their subjects in the most abject state of villenage; so that, down to the end of the last century, the vassals of no despotic monarch in Europe exhibited a picture of equal political debasement. The effects of this tyrannical rule were equally injurious to the governors and the governed, and the marks of it may be traced in many parts of Switzerland, even down to the present day, in the degraded condition of the people, morally as well as physically. It will be discovered from Swiss history that ambition, and a thirst for territorial rule, is inherent in republics as well as in monarchies, as we may learn from the encroachments and aggrandizing spirit of Canton Berne. She retained, as tributary to her, for two centuries and a half, the district called Pays de Vaud, deriving from it an annual revenue of 1,200,000 francs, and yet denying to the inha d. bitants all share of political rights. Geneva, a weaker state, after throwing off the yoke of the Dukes of Savoy, with difficulty escaped the wiles of the Bernese Government, which would have plunged them in a slavery not more tolerable than that from which they had just escaped. Religious dissensions were a source of a long series of troubles to the Confederation, dividing it into two opposite parties, which not only were arrayed against each other in the field of battle, but also interfered with the internal peace of the individual cantons. Although by the laws the two parties in religion were allowed equal freedom of worship, the enjoyment of this privilege was embittered to either party, in the state where the other faith was predominant: it was, in fact, but a nominal tolerance. It is curious to observe, that even in these days of liberal ideas and Catholic emancipation, a citizen of Lucerne is deprived of all political privileges, if he be a Protestant. Until the two French revolutions, the common people of Switzerland, except in one or two of the cantons, had no more share in the constitutional privileges, which all Swiss were supposed to possess as their birthright, than the subjects of the despotic monarchies of Austria or Prussia. The government was vested in the hands of aristocratic oligarchies, as exclusive, and as proud of birth, blood, and descent, as the most ancient nobility in Europe. The burgher patricians of the great towns managed, by gradual encroachments, to deprive the lower orders of the exercise of their rights, and gradually monopolized all places and offices for themselves and their children. The Towns of Switzerland exhibit many interesting marks of antiquity; their buildings are frequently found unchanged since a very early period, |
