used to solemnise mixed
marriages, or to baptise the children; thus such couples had to seek
for marriage and baptism elsewhere; but the officials of the district
took care that they were entered in the registers. How well Munzinger
understood republican freedom may be learnt from an example. The parish
of Grenchen possessed extensive woodlands, the property of which was
divided between them and the State. The parish had the right to supply
themselves with wood, the remainder of the produce went to the State, a
condition of things which was evidently not favourable to the
cultivation of timber. The government proposed, therefore, that the
wood should be divided in proportion to the rights of both sides, and
to ascertain this more precisely, sent a commission to Grenchen. The
peasants, accustomed from ancient times to be over-reached by the
government, were suspicious of being defrauded, and drove the
commissioners out of the village. Next morning the landjaeger of
Solothurn took the most considerable of the country people into
custody, and carried them to prison at Solothurn. This had not passed
without some heart-breaking scenes; women had been alarmed, the
children cried, and the whole village was filled with lamentation and
anger.

"From the feeling excited by these circumstances, I went soon after to
the Landammann, and lamented the harshness of the proceeding. The men
should have been summoned, none of them would have failed to appear,
they were not such as would have evaded it. 'Yes,' said Munzinger, 'I,
alas, was not here.'--'I thought so,' replied I, 'the affair in that
case would have been managed differently.'--'Undoubtedly,' exclaimed
the Landammann, colouring, 'I should have sent out the military and
occupied the village, the seizure would still have taken place.' I
could not conceal my astonishment at this outburst of anger. 'Yes,'
continued Munzinger, 'you, with your monarchical notions, can be
cautious and indulgent; there are always gendarmes and soldiers enough
at hand to step in if necessary. We have not these means; the people
have a great degree of freedom, but we cannot allow that in one single
case even a hair's-breadth should be over-stepped.' A true and manly
word.

"The Landammann had the welfare of the Confederation as much at heart
as that of the Canton, and as the people at home submitted to his
discipline because they recognised that it was for their good, so also
his guidance was followe