tional and what are not, and what laws or regulations can be placed in the framework of the Constitution, and so hedged about with constitutional sanctity. If 50,000 people can be found to sign a request that a clause shall be placed in the Constitution regulating the speed of motor cars or the muzzling of dogs, and annex to their request a settled scheme for legislation upon either of these subjects, and if the other conditions precedent to constitutional amendment can be satisfied, the speed of motor cars and the muzzling of dogs may become as much a part of the Constitution as the duration of Parliament or the qualifications of electors. As a matter of fact, this machinery has been used in Switzerland for purposes which are wholly foreign to the purpose of constitutional amendment as usually understood. Thus in 1892, when an anti-Jewish movement was on foot in Switzerland, the anti-Semites seized the opportunity to embed in the Constitution a measure prohibiting the slaughter of animals in the Jewish fashion.

With regard to total revision of the Swiss Constitution, then, the appeal to the people is taken near the beginning and at the end of a period of revision. Before the people are first polled, a good deal must have been done. The movement for revision must have commenced either in the Upper or Lower House, or in both (in agreement), or else must have been started by 50,000 electors. If the two Houses of the Swiss Parliament are found to be in agreement as to the total revision, whether it is proposed by one of the Houses or by 50,000 electors, there is no need for the preliminary poll of the people. The Houses at once revise the Constitution and present it, as revised, for a poll. But if the movement in favour of revision comes either from one House of Parliament only, or from 50,000 electors (either with or without the assent of one House of Parliament), then there must be a preliminary poll of the people on the

general question, "Shall the Constitution be totally revised or not?" If the people vote "Yes," the next thing which must take place is a general election.

This of course gives time for elaboration and comparison of competing views as to the coming revision. The newly elected Parliament then works out the revision and presents the result of its labours for final approval of the people; but the result does not become law unless approved by the majority of the people and the majority of cantons.

It is clear, therefore, that either House of the Swiss Parliament, by opposing that revision, can face a first appeal to the people. Even though 50,000 electors petition for total revision, yet, if either House opposes it, a first poll of the nation must be taken before anything is done. Then, if the people are generally in favour of revision, there is a general election, with its accompanying process of sifting views and educating voters, and then, after the revision has been worked out in detail, there is a second—or really a third-poll, at which the majority of voters and of cantons must approve the change before it can become law.

Partial revisions of the Constitution, or the addition of an article to the Constitution, may be effected with less difficulty than total revision; for in these cases no general election is necessary even in the cases where one House agrees to the suggested alteration and the other does not. If the two Houses agree to the proposed alteration, and it is framed in general terms, they work out a scheme in accordance with the general proposal and submit the scheme to a poll of the people. If they do not agree to it, there is a first poll of the people on the general issue, and if the people vote "Yes," a scheme is at once worked out by the Legislature and presented for a final poll. If the partial change proposed is presented in the form of a settled scheme, and both the Houses do not agree to it, a contingency arises for which the Swiss Constitution has made

no provision. The framers of that Instrument left a gap in their work here; and if we import their machinery into England we shall have to fill it up.

The conditions necessary for a change of the Constitution being so many and so difficult of fulfilment, it might be expected that such changes would be few and far between. But this is far from being the case, and although between 1875 and 1911 no fundamental changes have been made in the Constitution, the people have polled again and again on public questions, and the curious reader may easily collect and compare the results of these numerous polls.1 The grave scandal of different marriage laws in different States, which is such a reproach to the United States of America, was avoided in Switzerland by an amendment of the Constitution (in 1875), rendering civil marriage compulsory throughout the Republic. In 1877 a Factory Act was passed as an amendment to the Constitution. The State purchase of the railways was accomplished in the same way by additions to the Constitution in 1879 and 1898, and the cantons were set free to make their own laws as to capital punishment by a constitutional amendment in 1879; but a law making vaccination compulsory was rejected by a large majority in an appeal to the people in 1882. In 1892 the anti-Semitic law, prohibiting the slaughter of cattle in the Jewish manner, was carried as a constitutional amendment by a large majority, on a poll of the people, after it had been rejected in both Houses of Parliament; and in 1894 the people refused to make it a part of the Constitution that the State should guarantee remunerative labour to every citizen. In March, 1903, a new tariff, which increased the protective duties on goods imported into Switzerland was put en bloc to the people and approved, on a poll, by 327,000 to 229,000.

1 See Adams and Cunningham, The Swiss Confederation, p. 83, Curti's Appendix at the end of his work Le Referendum, &c. (p. 297 seq.), and the Annual Register for 1890-1910, in which the most important popular decisions are given, either separately or in collected abstracts.

The towns and industrial parts of the country voted against it, but the country people supported it—a remarkable episode, and one which might well be cited and studied in England. In 1907, the people approved by their votes a Federal military law which slightly increased the burden of military duty on every male citizen, and on which the Socialists obtained a poll of the people by whipping up over 30,000 voters.1 In 1908 the Federal Legislature was authorised by an amendment of the Constitution to make a law as to trades and professions; and in 1909 a Statute prohibiting the manufacture, sale, importation, and storage of absinthe throughout the Confederation, was approved, on a poll, by 327,000 to 136,000.

A number of other cases might be cited, and the matters which have been the subject of these appeals have varied very much; but it is noticeable that none of them has really touched the framework of the Constitution, which exists in 1910 as it was moulded in 1874. In a Federal State the question of jurisdiction, as between the Federal and the State authorities, is certain to come up frequently. In Switzerland the general tendency has been to increase the power of the central authority at the expense of that of the cantons; but apart from this, it may be said that the Swiss people have, on the whole, shown themselves conservative, and that no serious modifications of the Constitution have been passed or even initiated by popular vote.

Great efforts have been made to induce the Swiss people to exercise, when occasion arises, the right which the Constitution gives them, and the Swiss Legislature have not, I believe, yet gone so far as to make voting compulsory2 on pain of a fine (as has been done in some provinces in Austria), but it has been provided that all polls shall take

So as to comply with the requirements of Art. 89 of the Constitution of 1874, which is mentioned below. 2 But see the next note.

place on a single day, and that a Sunday, and the polling booths have been brought up into the most remote districts, so that voters may have no excuse for not voting. On the whole, the Swiss citizen votes with a fair amount of energy, but there have been special occasions on which he has been slack in the performance of this civic duty. Thus, in 1884, when there was a poll on the question of the reorganisation of the Ministry of Justice, and on the expenses of the Swiss Legation at Washington, only 60 per cent. of the total electorate voted, and in the canton of Neuchâtel only 26 per cent.!

The provision for an optional poll of the Swiss people, known by the pedants as the "facultative referendum,” is contained in the eighty-ninth article of the Constitution. The relevant portion of this article may be translated as follows:

"Federal laws and Federal decrees which are to be in force throughout the Republic must, unless they are of an urgent nature, be submitted to the people for acceptance or rejection if such a submission is demanded by 30,000 citizens who are entitled to vote, or by eight cantons."

The demand must be made within 90 days of the publication of the law; and, in fact, no Federal law, except it be of an urgent nature, takes effect until 90 days after its publication, when the time for challenging it expires. This provision is not of great value to the people of the Republic, for the Legislature can always, as it seems, vote that a measure is "of an urgent nature," and so oust the right of the people to call it up for a popular poll. It has been used occasionally in Switzerland, but as I do not understand it to have been in Mr. Balfour's contemplation on the occasion of his recent speech, and as this article is

1 Apathy is greater in the case of cantonal polling (see Hymans, op cit., p. 112 and 112 n.), and on this account the Zurich Government authorised the local authorities to insist on the exercise of the right, to impose a fine for abstention and to permit voting by proxy.