throw into
relief some features which can be of service to us.

To be perfectly frank, the Swiss constitution, when placed side by
side with our own, at first shows certain decided short-comings. The
Constitution of the United States is an eminently logical,
well-balanced document, in which a masterly distinction is made
between the executive, legislative, and judicial functions of
government, and between matters which belong by nature to organic law,
and those which may safely be left to the statute law. In the Swiss
constitution, however, the line which separates these departments is
not as clearly drawn, so that, in fact, a certain amount of confusion
in their treatment becomes apparent. In the primitive leagues which
were concluded between the early Confederates no attempt was made to
draw up regular constitutions, and the one now in force dates only
from 1848, with amendments made in 1874, 1879, and 1885, an instrument
still somewhat imperfect, perhaps, but none the less suggestive to the
student.

There are two institutions in the Swiss state which bear a very strong
likeness to corresponding ones in our own. Both countries have a
legislative system consisting of two houses, one representing the
people numerically, and the other the Cantons or States of which the
Union is composed, and both possess a Supreme Court, which in
Switzerland goes by the name of the Federal Tribunal. It is generally
conceded that the Swiss consciously imitated these American
institutions, but in doing so they certainly took care to adapt them
to their own particular needs, so that the two sets of institutions
are by no means identical. The Swiss National Council and Council of
States, forming together the Federal Assembly, are equal, co-ordinate
bodies, performing the same functions, whereas our House of
Representatives and Senate have particular duties assigned to each,
and the former occupies in a measure a subordinate position to the
latter. The Swiss Houses meet twice a year in regular sessions, on the
first Monday in June and the first Monday in December, and for extra
sessions if there is special unfinished business to transact. The
National Council is composed at present of 147 members, one
representative to every 20,000 inhabitants. Every citizen of
twenty-one is a voter; and every voter not a clergyman is eligible to
this National Council--the exclusion of the clergy is due to dread of
religious quarrels, with which the page