our independence and welfare, and is its delay only
the result of its doubts as to the true wishes of the Helvetic
nation?"

Stapfer soon found that the real cause of delay was the non-completion
of the cession of Valais, which Bonaparte urgently desired for the
construction of a military road across the Simplon Pass; and as the
Swiss refused this demand, matters remained at a standstill. "The
whole of Europe would not make him give up a favourite scheme," wrote
Stapfer on April 10th; "the possession of Valais is one of the matters
closest to his heart."

The protracted pressure of a French army of occupation on that already
impoverished land proved irresistible; and some important
modifications of the Swiss project of a constitution, on which the
First Consul insisted, were inserted in the new federal compact of
May, 1801. Switzerland was now divided into seventeen cantons; and
despite the wish of the official Swiss envoys for a strongly
centralized government, Bonaparte gave large powers to the cantonal
authorities. His motives in this course of action have been variously
judged. In giving greater freedom of movement to the several cantons,
he certainly adopted the only statesmanlike course: but his conduct
during the negotiation, his retention of Valais, and the continued
occupation of Switzerland by his troops, albeit in reduced numbers,
caused many doubts as to the sincerity of his desire for a final
settlement.

The unionist majority at Berne soon proceeded to modify his proposals,
which they condemned as full of defects and contradictions; while the
federals strove to keep matters as they were. In the month of October
their efforts succeeded, thanks to the support of the French
ambassador and soldiery; they dissolved the Assembly, annulled its
recent amendments; and their influence procured for Reding, the head
of the oligarchic party, the office of Landamman, or supreme
magistrate. So reactionary, however, were their proceedings, that the
First Consul recalled the French general as a sign of his displeasure
at his help recently offered to the federals. Their triumph was brief:
while their chiefs were away at Easter, 1802, the democratic unionists
effected another _coup d'etat_--it was the fourth--and promulgated one
more constitution. This change seems also to have been brought about
with the connivance of the French authorities:[221] their refusal to
listen to Stapfer's claims for a definite settl