mediation produced its fruit in due season, and these plots and dissensions were adjourned for a time, until the feelings excited by the new constitution should subside. Many particulars of this great political act being yet unknown, they offered matter for speculation sufficient for the present to occupy every mind.

CHAPTER II.

ALL that was yet known was, that the new constitution established the political rights of all the cantons, abolished subjection, made every Swiss citizen equal, and gave to each a right of voting even in the most unimportant affairs of the state. Twenty years of age, a wife, and landed property worth two hundred francs, were the qualifications for an elector, who could vote for the appointment, as well as for the dismissal of those called to wield the powers of state. But the nature of the general bond by which these independent populations were to be connected, was not yet stated; and each was impatient to know what happy combination had been hit upon that would make so many contending interests merge into one general interest. M. de Talleyrand had alluded to it in his despatches as likely to satisfy all parties, and put an end to all their differences.

"The publication of the act of mediation," he wrote to Ney, "exposing to all Europe, in a noble, candid, and generous manner, the wise and beneficent views of the First Consul with regard to Helvetia, will have refuted, in a manner worthy of him, the

infamous and absurd imputations which the enemies of the peace of Europe have had the boldness to cast upon him, and which can have found believers only among those servile beings as incapable of scanning the greatness of his ideas, as of feeling that his power needs no dissimulation, and that it is not the consciousness of strength, but of weakness, which inspires statesmen with thoughts of injustice and tyranny."

This brilliant announcement, far from making the general impatience subside, was like oil thrown upon fire. After much speculation and anxiety, the particulars at length came, and the clauses of the federal pact which it had taken so much time to invent, were now made public.

The nineteen cantons were confederated according to the principles established in the constitution of each. They mutually guaranteed their respective institutions, territories, freedom, and independence, whether against the enterprises of foreign states, or against the usurpation of any one canton, or any particular faction. The respective contingents which each was to furnish in men and money, were determined; and there were to be no subject countries, nor any privileges of place, birth, persons, or families. Each Swiss citizen might settle in any canton he pleased, there to exercise his industry, and enjoy the political rights sanctioned by the local constitutution of the canton.

The cantons abolished the old dues of traite intérieure and traite foraine. They decreed the free cir

culation of produce, cattle, and goods; the abolition of all droits d'octroi, whether entrance or in transitu; and they established a uniform standard for their coin.

The direction of the public force, and the framing of the laws, treaties, alliances, and declarations of war, were vested in an assembly of deputies from each canton, who were to meet alternately at Berne, Friburg, Soleure, Basle, Zurich, and Lucerne. Each of these deputies received instructions from his constituents, and could vote only to the extent expressed in such instructions. The diet, as this assembly was termed, was to act in the name of the entire confederation, and alone to possess the right of communication with foreign powers. The avoyer of the canton in which it assembled, was to add to his title that of landamman, and preside over the diet whilst it remained in that canton. He was also to supply its place in the intervals between the sessions. He was to keep the seal of state, pursue the diplomatic relations of the country, and give credentials to the agents which the Helvetian republic might send to foreign states. And, as nothing was to remain vague or uncertain, but all be precise and determinate, the period of the delivery of the powers was also fixed. The new magistrates were to assume the direction of affairs on the 10th of March; the constitution was to be in force on the 15th of April; and the elections were to be over by the 1st of June. The diet was to assemble in the beginning of July, and the duration of its session was not to exceed a See Appendix at the end of the volume, No. I.

month. To these provisions were added some regulations not less praiseworthy, but which afterwards led to very stormy debates in the new diet. The act of mediation had regulated the use to be made of national property, and had provided for the liquidation of the Helvetian debt; it had, in short, protected the interests, as it had secured the freedom of every citizen.

Thus was the great problem solved which had so long agitated Helvetia. The act of mediation guaranteed and co-ordained her rights; and it gave her that which she had vainly sought at the cost of much trouble and bloodshed: namely, a joint connexion, and a common focus of power, which, by repressing disorder and putting down resistance, should satisfy the wants and exigencies of the confederation. The measure was hailed with general satisfaction; it extinguished all party hatred, destroyed the conspiracies against which the country had so painfully struggled, and every one acknowledged the wisdom by which it was dictated.

But what contributed more especially to render it popular, was the enthusiasm of the commissioners appointed to organize the cantonal constitutions. They had been eye-witnesses of the conduct of the First Consul; they knew the sentiments by which he was actuated; they had seen his zeal and anxiety in settling the rights of each canton, and securing to the whole the benefit of wise institutions. Their praises of his benevolence, and their accounts of the