a
committee of gentlemen recently presented themselves at the State
House to urge the adoption of this principle in local matters.

There are, besides, a host of minor differences between the Swiss and
American Constitutions, of more or less interest to students of
politics and economics.

The central government in Switzerland maintains a university, the
Polytechnic at Zuerich, and by virtue of the constitution also exerts
an influence over education throughout the Confederation. Article 27
prescribes that the Cantons shall provide compulsory primary
instruction to be placed in charge of the civil authorities and to be
gratuitous in all public schools. In practice these provisions have
been found difficult to enforce where the spirit of the population was
opposed to them, as in Uri, the most illiterate of the Cantons, where
the writer found educational matters entirely in the hands of the
priesthood. Fortunately, however, the Swiss people at large have a
very keen appreciation of the value of education, so that illiteracy,
as we have it in this country, among the negroes and the poor whites
of the South, as well as amongst certain classes of our immigrants, is
really unknown in Switzerland. Someone has jestingly said that there
"the primary business of the state is to keep school," and really, in
travelling through the country which gave birth to Pestalozzi, one is
continually impressed with the size and comparative splendor of the
schoolhouses; in every village and hamlet they have the appearance of
being the very best which the community by scrimping and saving can
possibly put up. On the subject of import duties, the Constitution
lays down in Article 29 as general rules to guide the conduct of
legislators, that "materials which are necessary to the industries and
agriculture of the country shall be taxed as low as possible; the same
rule shall be observed in regard to the necessaries of life. Articles
of luxury shall be subjected to the highest taxes." From this set of
principles it will be seen that Switzerland levies her duties for
revenue only, as the phrase is, although it must be confessed that
there is a perceptible tendency now manifested to raise the duties in
consequence of the high protectionist wave which is sweeping over the
continent of Europe at the present moment. When the statistics of
Switzerland's general trade, including all goods in transit, which, of
course, make a considerable portion of the