territory were made. The Constitution proved too narrow for the purposes of the nation, and did not prevent political and religious struggles, which culminated in civil war. In 1848, a new Constitution, modelled in many respects after that of the United States, was adopted. Still later, in 1874, under the influence of the triumph of the federal principle in the American Civil War, and the foundation of the Canadian and German federations, that Constitution was remodelled in the form shown above. Several amendments have since been passed and incorporated into the body of the Constitution. By far the best books in English on the constitutional history of Switzerland are: "The Federal Government of Switzerland, An Essay on the Constitution," by Bernard Moses, San Francisco, 1889; and "The Swiss Confederation," by Sir Francis Ottiwell Adams and C. D. Cunningham, London and New York, 1889. Both books are elaborate descriptions and discussions of the workings of the Swiss government. Briefer accounts in English may be found in Woolsey's "Political Science," Vol. II. pp. 208 - 223; and in Woodrow Wilson's recent treatise on "The State,” §§ 505 577. Edward Freeman in the introduction to his "History of Federal Government" (London, 1863) alludes to, rather than describes the Swiss government, but his essay on "Presidential Government" (National Review, November, 1864: reprinted in his "Historical Essays") is an interesting and valuable comparison of the American and Swiss systems. A somewhat detailed historical account will be found in May's "Democracy in Europe," Vol. I. pp. 333-403. The article in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth edition, may also be consulted. Statistical and political details for each year are best obtained in the annual "Statesman's Year Book." The topography of the country is excellently shown in. Baedeker's standard "Handbook of Switzerland," which is revised every few years, and which abounds in local historical details. The elaborate works on the Swiss Constitution are almost all in German. Oechsli in his "Quel-' lenbuch," Zürich, 1886, gives the texts of all the documents embodying the Swiss Constitution from its foundation. Texts of present Constitutions, federal and cantonal, may be found in Demombyne's "Constitutions Européennes," Paris, 1881, Vol. II. pp. 271-320; and in the official" Sammlung" or "Recueil," Berne, 1880. The laws and resolutions of the Confederation, including constitutional amendments, are in the official “ Amtliche Sammlung der Bundesgesetze und Verordnungen," Berne, 1889. Meyer has issued a succession of works: "Geschichte des schweizerischen Bundesrechts," 1875 and 1878; Eidgenossische Bundesverfassung, Bundesgesetze und Bundesbeschlüsse," 1876; “Staats Kalender der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft," 1883. Bluntschli has published a "Staats und Rechts Geschichte der Schweiz," 1849, and a more important " Geschichte des schweizerischen Bundesrechts von den ersten ewigen Bunden bis auf die Gegenwart," two vols., 1849-52, 2d edition, Vol. I. 1875. More useful are the compact treatises of Jacob Dubs, "Das öffentliche Recht der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft," 1877 – 78, two parts (also, in 66 a French edition, "Droit publique de la Confederation Suisse," Zürich, 1878), and of A. von Orelli, "Das Staatsrecht der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft" (in Marquardsen's "Handbuch des offentlichen Rechts"), Freiburg, i. B., 1885. Dubs devotes himself to a critical discussion of the workings of the Constitution, with much information not usually to be found in legal works, and with frequent references to the United States. The most voluminous work on Swiss history is Dändliker, "Geschichte der Schweiz," 3 vols., Zürich, 1884 – 1887. In French two works need to be mentioned: A. Morin, "Précis de l'Histoire Politique de la Suisse," 5 vols., Geneva, 1856-1875; and Dareste's "Constitutions Moderne," Paris, 1883 Vol. I. pp. 439-469. There is also a Spanish work, by Moreno, " Principales Constituciones o Instituciones Politicas... de la Confederacione Helvetica," Madrid, 1881. Brief bibliographies of the subject are in Wilson's "State," p. 333; the "Statesman's Year Book," end of article on Switzerland; Dubs' "Droit Publique," pp. 62-63; Oechsli, pp. 562-566; Dareste, Vol. I. p. 469. A COMPARISON of a republican system like that of Switzerland with our own, such as is provoked by the present commemoration in Switzerland and by certain notable new departures in Swiss political methods, is certainly fruitful. But more fruitful still is a study of the political ideals of the Puritan age in England, of which we ourselves were directly born, in comparison with the ideals and social aspirations of the time in which we stand. We are impressed by the singular degree of attention which this subject of the ideas and ideals of the time of Puritanism and the Commonwealth is receiving at this particular time. In the April number of the English Historical Review is a thoughtful and scholarly article by John G. Dow, upon "The Political Ideal of the English Commonwealth," the most valuable special feature of which perhaps is the notice of the prophetic political speculations of Harrington, more careful and appreciative than any recent notice of Harrington which we remember to have seen. In the last two numbers of our own Political Science Quarterly is an able article by Prof. H. L. Osgood, on "The Political Ideas of the Puritans "; and the author calls attention in a note to a thorough paper just published in a recent number of one of the French reviews, the writer of which had treated the subject in a spirit and with conclusions substantially the same as his own. This notable present attention to the Puritan political ideas, of which these able articles thus appearing together are one striking indication, is, we say, impressive; and the reason for it interesting and, we think, not far to seek. Political thought, like the general course of civilization, seems to move in spirals - ever moving onward and upward, but constantly, in that movement, returning to a point nearer that of some preceding great epoch than any point in all the intervening time. At such a point we have arrived with reference to Puritanism and the Commonwealth, and especially with reference to the political ideals of that time-the ideals of Cromwell and Milton and Vane and Harring. ton and Algernon Sidney. These men seem more like our contemporaries than it was possible for them to seem to our fathers or our grandfathers—just as, for quite another reason, in this time of quickened perception of the universal and pervasive reign of law, men write so much better about the Greek tragedies, and read them so much more, than a hundred years ago. The Puritan had wonderfully deep and commanding thoughts about individual liberty and individual rights; but along with these went always thoughts just as deep and commanding about the authority of justice and the obligation to establish a state which should be the nearest possible reflection of the "Kingdom of God." Hence the theocratic idea, and the remarkable union on this side of the Atlantic of Church and State; here the motive and key to Cromwell's great speeches. This high religious feeling about the state and politics has been largely lost in the ultra individualism of the last hundred years. It is now being restored- often accompanied by many vagaries, as all great social and political movements are, (but it is being restored, as every significant utterance in political theory and in social and economic discussion is reminding us. It is natural that at such a time, thoughtful students should turn back to the ideas, the aspirations and endeavors of the bold idealists of the Commonwealth; and they are turning back to them. THE effort that is being made to establish in Boston an Independent Theatre, to do a work like that of the now famous Theatre Libre in Paris, the Freie Bühne in Berlin, and the Independent Theatre in London, is attracting the attention and sympathy of all genuine lovers of the drama the country over. The statement of the aim of the new enterprise, as made by the committee charged with its organization, is substantially as follows: "The objects of the Association are first and in general to encourage truth and progress in American dramatic art; second, and specifically, to secure and maintain a stage whereon the best and most unconventional studies of modern life, and distinctively of American life, may get a proper hearing. We believe the present poverty of dramatic art in America due to unfavorable conditions rather than to a lack of play-writing talent, and it is the purpose of the Association to remove as far as possible the commercial consideration and give the dramatist the artistic atmosphere for his work, and bring to its production the most intelligent and sympathetic acting in America. "The theatre is designed to be distinctively but not exclusively modern and American, and it will encourage the use of the wealth of native material lying at our hand. Its scope may be indicated thus: "I. Studies of American Society. (a) Social Dramas. (b) Comedies of Life. "II. Studies in American History. (a) Dramas of Colonial times. (b) Dramas of the Revolution. (c) Dramas of Border History. (d) Dramas of the Civil War. "III. Famous modern plays by the best dramatists of Europe. "We believe that the above plan is sufficiently extensive to claim the support of all lovers of the drama, while at the same time it maintains its distinctive character. We believe that with the encouragement of a fair trial for their plays, a part of the confessedly great talent of our novelists could be directed to the production of plays as true, as modern, and as American in flavor as our famous short stories. "The Association, while it has in mind the great work done by a few unknown men in the Freie Bühne of Berlin, the Theatre Libre of Paris, and the Independent Theatre of London, does not propose to model itself upon either of these organizations, but to take all helpful hints and use them in its own way. It is designed to have all enterprises conducted upon the co-operative principle as far as possible. A corporation will be formed to build within the coming year a small theatre, and to sell season tickets by subscription, very much as in the Freie Bühne. The season will last thirty weeks and will include the production of ten or twelve new plays - tickets to admit subscribers three nights in the week and to be transferable. The unsold seats on subscribers' nights and the entire house on alternate performances will be open to the general public. "A Reading Committee will have entire charge of the selection of plays. To place all plays on equal footing, the MSS. must be submitted to the secretary, in typewriting, unsigned, accompanied by the name of the author in a sealed envelope. If the play is accepted, the envelope will remain unbroken till the last performance of the first week's trial. If the play is returned, no one but the secretary will know the name of its author. It is designed to extend the co-operative principle to the plays, the association to retain an interest in the plays it produces. "It seems to us that the most fitting city in America to begin the great work is Boston. Boston is at once the most conservative and the most progressive of cities. She has an autonomy that is lacking in most of our towns, and her influence for art is greater than that of any other American city. The establishment here of a theatre with "Truth for Art's Sake" as a motto would unquestionably result in the formation of similar enterprises in other places. We appeal to the art-loving population of Boston to assist us in the carrying out of this plan, which we believe will result in the birth of a genuine, truthful, buoyant American drama. Any one subscribing to the purposes set forth in the prospectus can become a member of the association. Signers to the articles of association are not bound in any way to become subscribers, or to perform any services other than voluntary support of the principles here set forth." It seems to us that such a theatre, if kept in the hands of men of courage, enthusiasm, culture, and breadth, can do a very great work in the encouragement of dramatic writing and of good acting in America; and we shall watch the development of the enterprise with interest. We catch with our net from the newspaper ocean the following suggestive communication from Professor Edward S. Morse of Salem, touching principles which might profitably be adopted in this modern time by the enterprising American towns which, especially in the South and West, so suddenly and rapidly jump to maturity. We like to make this Table, so far as possible, a place for records of progress or hints for progress; and we welcome to it such useful suggestions for our rising cities as those of Professor Morse. Professor Morse was thinking, when he wrote, of the vigorous new towns which in these days are springing up so marvelously, almost in a night, in Virginia and other parts of the South- and of how much might be done for the broadening of the public intellectual life by wise methods in the foundation days; but the suggestions are germane for every American longitude, and not without force for many a town whose foundation days are far behind. "The wonderful mineral resources now being so rapidly developed in that region of our country which includes Virginia, Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, northern Georgia and Alabama is accompanied by a development of town and city which is quite as marvellous. A region as large as France and richer in coal and iron, lying nearly in the centre of the country's population, has been until recent years, as Mr. Edward Atkinson says in a letter to the Manufacturers' Record, a terra incognita. By some magical process there is going on in this region a visible growth of cities. In the evolution of a city, as we know it in all parts of the world, there is first a small settlement with a single store, combining postoffice, village club house and every variety of merchandise in demand. The dwellings are ordinary, but each one stands in an ample lot of land. It is only when the village becomes a town and the trunk main of a street branches into a number of smaller streets and alleys, that the more penurious or less thrifty inhabitants part with slices of their territory. Slowly or quickly, as the case may be, the town aspires to be a city, with its mayor, uniformed police and, in varying order, gas, street cars, water works, electric lights, etc. Indeed, some of these luxuries may have appeared at an earlier stage of the city's growth. Observe now what is taking place in this phenomenal region. Cities are immediately shaping themselves without the trace of preliminary stages, unless one regards a few squalid huts, with a hundred equally squalid inhabitants, as the germs of a city, germs which have been arrested in their development for fifty years. It would seem as if a schedule of the natural stages in the evolution of a city had been carefully prepared, and the projectors of these enterprises had deliberately turned the list upside down, and begun with the last and latest feature a city acquires. Enormous hotels, horse but cars, electric lights, water works, public parks, paved streets stretching for miles through vast tracts of pasturage that a few years ago would have been dear at $10 an acre. Now this same region is divided into microscopic lots such as one finds in dense London streets, with prices almost as high. This seems all absurd, it seems unnatural. The brainy men directing these matters, and presumably accustomed to luxury, can find certain of these comforts in the great hotels which accompany these developments; the bone and sinew in the thousands of brawny workmen need cheap and wholesome houses and good water as sanitary measures. The electric lights, horse cars, paved streets, opera house, etc., may well come later. The development of a city has its natural stages, usually superimposed in the same order, and the making -we cannot say growth of a city in any other way is fraught with disaster. Now let us admit at this point that we may be wrong, and that this Aladdin-like performance of making a city outright may be an epochal feature in our history. In thus electing to build a city as we please at either end of the work, we but follow the course of those who undertake the much smaller but equally difficult task of calling into existence a university. If this happy era is really dawning upon us, it behooves the student of municipalities to formulate the best way in which this work is to be accomplished. Obviously, the comfort of the citizen is to be looked after, and comfort implies good health. Now health boards look after vitiated water supplies, contagious diseases, and the like, but take no cognizance of dust, smoke, rattle of carts over ill-paved streets and, least of all, that entirely useless nuisance, the factory whistle, arousing from tired sleep "the softhanded sons of toil" who are plotting and planning for this work, wearied women and invalids to whom an hour's sleep in the morning means everything. So, in the plan of a city, it stands to reason that fresh air, good water, and well-paved and well-lighted streets are the first things to consider. An instigator of a factory whistle should be imprisoned for life in an active boiler shop. The city's great factories and workshops, furnaces, and the like, should be in one great region by themselves; her lighter shops of dry goods, books, etc., on some pleasant boulevard lined with trees; her working classes in wholesome tenement houses far away from the sight of mill chimneys; if possible, little plots of ground to encourage kitchen gardening; a reward, if necessary, as a stimulus to such work; a series of large, welllighted rooms for a public library, industrial art museum, scientific collections, etc.; above all, a good city hall that can be let at the mere cost of light and janitor for every lecture or entertainment of an instructive or elevating nature. Public schools, of course. If prohibition is elected, let it be absolute. If high license, then see that the liquors sold are pure. There is more reason for a city chemist than a city marshal. See also that the city makes its own light, owns tramways subject to suitable conditions for their use, and supplies its own water. In other words, let a competition go on among the land improvement companies as to which one shall make up and de liver to the country the best city, running without noise as a good machine does, giving citizens pure air as they now have in most cases pure water, and able to retain within its boundaries in the summer those who usually migrate to the country. Finally, that no injustice may be done to the booming towns, let it be said that in some of these regions the tendencies are in the directions indicated. Indeed, so magnificent are the conditions of nature in this land of the sky, as to mineral wealth, agricultural resources, and salubrity of climate, a city might be begun with an art museum filled with old masters, and the city would grow up to it." THE portrait of Old Governor Chittenden which accompanics the article on Vermont in the preceding pages had an interesting origin. As in the case of Seth Warner, so of Chittenden - no actual portrait of him is known to be in existence. But the editors of an important historical collection published In Vermont some years ago, feeling the great importance of having some portrait of the old Governor, secured the preparation of a careful portrait, based on traditions and recollections of his personal appearance, and upon portraits of members of the later generation of the Chittenden family, who in this feature were said to resemble their distinguished ancestors. this portrait our engraving is a copy. Of Many readers will undoubtedly notice with surprise the absence of a portrait of Starr King in the article on the Literature of the White Mountains. A portrait will appear in the magazine in another connection. IN 1776, the rattlesnake did duty for the American crest much more than the eagle. A correspondent sends us the following passage, taken from the Scots' Magazine, published at Edinburgh in July, 1776, the very month of the Declaration of Independence, to which we are glad to give place, no more on account of its historical interest than as showing how many good things can be said of a rattlesnake: "The colors of the American fleet have a snake with thirteen rattles, the fourteenth budding, described in the attitude of going to strike, with the motto, DON'T TREAD ON ME: It is a rule in heraldry that the worthy properties of the animal in the crest borne shall be considered, and the base ones cannot be intended. The ancients accounted a snake, or a serpent, an emblem of wisdom and, in certain attitudes, of endless duration. The rattlesnake is properly a representative of America, as this animal is found in no other part of the world. The eye of this creature excels in brightness that of most other animals. She has no eyelids, and is, therefore, an emblem of vigilance. She never begins an attack, nor ever surrenders; she is, therefore, an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. When injured, or in danger of being injured, she never wounds until she has given notice to her enemies of their danger. No other of her kind shows such generosity. When undisturbed and in peace, she does not appear to be furnished with weapons of any kind. They are latent in the roof of her mouth, and even when extended for her defence, appear to those who are not acquainted with her, to be weak and contemptible; yet her wounds, however small, are decisive and fatal. The power of fascination attributed to her, by a generous construction, resembles America. Those who look steadily on her are delighted, and involuntarily advance towards her, and having once approached, never leave her. She is frequently found with thirteen rattles, and they increase yearly. She is beautiful in youth, and her beauty increases with her age. Her tongue is blue, and forked as the lightning." A RAILWAY REVERIE, SHE muses! -a far-away look Steals into the hazel eyes, THE OMNIBUS THE TROUBADOUR. O IT must have been quite charming, To have been a Troubadour. Find a lady to adore! For in sooth no better trade is He would sing of love and war! What to him was wind or weather, He was never in a hurry, without herald travelled he- - For in turret and high tower A convenient place obtaining,- How he made the brave knights frantic, Till they swore with jealousy; O'twas charming and 'twas jolly, Like the dashing Troubadour; |