Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE CONFEDERATION AND THE CANTONS The Swiss Confederation is composed of twenty- two states which differ widely in area and population. Three of these are divided into
half-cantons, as they are called, so that altogether there are twenty-five cantonal governments within the confines of the territory. So far as local government is concerned the half-canton is an independent state, but in federal affairs it has only one-half the power of other cantons. Thus Inner Appenzell has one federal senator and Outer Appenzell another, while Glarus has two. This singular condition of things dates in some cases from primitive times. The division of Appenzell occurred after the Reformation, when the Catholics, in order to maintain their worship in peace, withdrew into one part of the canton and the Protestants took another. In Basel, disputes between city and country caused a rupture in government. The rural population organized its own state but maintained the ancient name. This method settled difficulties by scission instead of secession. In extent the cantons1 vary from 2765 square miles for the largest, down to 14 square miles for the smallest, and in population from 542,000 to 13,000, though territory and population do not vary according to the same scale, since some of the smaller states contain comparatively more people. Altogether the Confederation covers about 16,000 square miles of territory, the habitable part of which is about as large as the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island combined, and contains about three millions of people.2 Differences in the physical character of the various parts of the country are also very marked, causing differences of occupation to the inhabitants, variations in personal characteristics, and leading, espe…