e
government, stating that they wished to remain at Grenchen, and obtain
the rights of citizens. By a new decree, the mayors were ordered to
examine the papers of settlers, and to send to their own homes all
whose papers were not according to rule. These had no papers, and were
therefore in danger of losing their domicile. On my inquiring how long
they had lived in the place, the man answered, that he and his brother
had been born there, also their father and mother; their grand-parents
had wandered there as young people, and, indeed, not from a foreign
country, or from another canton, but from a Solothurn village, only
four hours from Grenchen, where, however, they would no longer know
anything about them. The community had dealt well with them, giving
them an equal share with the citizens in the communal property, but
they denied them the rights of citizens. The government then signified
to the community, that they had neglected to demand from their sires
the papers, and that the grandchildren must not suffer from it. They
became citizens, but still remained foreign joiners.

"After a year was passed, fortune was favourable to me. The neighbours'
children chose mine as playfellows, and the wives sought intercourse
with mine, whilst many of the men persuaded me to join a union which
was engaged in objects of general utility; it soon attained a great
development, and introduced much improvement into the administration
and economy of the property of the community. I learnt to esteem many
excellent country people; many have passed away in the vigour of
manhood. Her Vogt, justice of the peace, a genuine Allemanni, with a
long thin face and dark hair, adapted by his understanding and
acuteness to be the champion of the rising enlightenment, was killed
not long ago by the fall of a tree which he was felling with an axe.
The common councillor, Schmied Girard, met with an accident in the
flower of manhood, on the occasion of a bonfire, which was lighted on
the Warinfluh, high up on the edge of a rocky precipice, in order to
show the Bernese neighbours sympathy in the celebration of the festival
in honour of their constitution. He pushed a great log with his foot
into the fire, slipped, and fell backwards over the rock into the
abyss. He was an uncompromising opponent of the rotten system in the
State, and had not feared to make known his sympathy for David Strauss,
whose call to Zurich in 1839 had brought about the noted Zuric