Attached alike to liberty and to arms, the Swiss are no less famous for their undaunted intrepidity than their simple and pure democracy. From early times the hardy mountaineers of the Alps were eminently and splendidly martial. History is full of their steadiness and bravery on the field of battle. When Rome was in its highest military glory, its armies under the Consul Lucius Cassius were routed by the Helvetians on the shores of Lake Leman, 111 B.C. The two armies are supposed to have met about where the Rhone falls into the lake, and the conquerors of all Italy, the masters of Greece and Macedonia, who had carried their victorious armies over Asia and Africa, were overcome by a people hitherto unknown. Julius Cæsar speaks of their “military virtue and constant warfare with the Germans.” Livy and Tacitus refer to them as a people originally of the Gallic nation, “renowned for their valor and their exploits in war.” About the middle of the fourteenth century attention began to be attracted towards these mountaineers, and great was the wonder that cavalry, which made the only effective part of the federal armies of those ages, should be routed by men on foot; that warriors sheathed in complete steel should be overpowered by naked peasants who wore no defensive armor, and were irregularly provided with pikes, halberds, and clubs, for the purposes of attack; above all, it seemed a species of miracle that knights and nobles of the highest birth should be defeated by mountaineers and shepherds. The repeated victories of the Swiss over troops having on their side numbers and discipline, and the advantage of the most perfect military equipment then known and confided in, plainly intimated that a new principle of civil organization as well as of military movements had arisen amid the stormy regions of Helvetia. The signal victory over Charles the Bold of Burgundy, in which they routed the celebrated Burgundian ordonnance, constituting the finest body of chivalry of Europe, demonstrated their capacity as infantry. This, no doubt, contributed to the formation of that invincible Spanish infantry which, under the Great Captain and his successors, may be said to have decided the fate of Europe for more than half a century. The “Swiss whiskered Infantry” became distinguished in all the continental wars by pre-eminent valor and discipline. Their principal weapon was a pike about eighteen feet long; and, forming in solid battalions, which, bristling with spears all around, received the technical appellation of the hedgehog, they presented an invulnerable front on every quarter, and received unshaken the most desperate charges of the steel-clad cavalry on their terrible array of pikes. In the Granadine war (1484), among the volunteers that flocked to the Spanish camp was a corps of Swiss infantry, who are thus simply described by Pulgar: “There joined the royal standard a body of men from Switzerland, a country in upper Germany; these men were bold of heart and fought on foot. As they were resolved never to turn their backs upon the enemy, they wore no defensive armor except in front, by which means they were less encumbered in fight.” The astonishing success of the French in the Italian wars (1494) was largely imputable to the free use and admirable organization of their infantry, whose strength lay in the Swiss soldiers they had. Machiavelli ascribes the misfortunes of his nation chiefly to its exclusive reliance on cavalry; this service, during the whole of the Middle Ages, being considered among the European nations so important that the horse was styled by way of eminence “the battle.” The arms and discipline of the Swiss were necessarily different from those of other European nations. The hill-sides and the mountain-tops and the deep valleys of Switzerland have felt as frequently as any part of Europe the mailed footstep of the warrior, and run as red with his blood. Zschokke, in his history, remarks that, in its wars of the last five hundred years, but particularly those growing out of the great French revolution, “battle-field touched battle-field.” During the long struggle for their liberties, they found that their poverty, with at that time a barren and ill-cultivated country, put it out of their power to bring into the field any body of horse capable of facing the enemy. Necessity compelled them to place all their confidence in infantry. With breastplates and helmets as defensive armor, together with long spears, halberds, and heavy swords as weapons of offence, they formed into large battalions, ranged in deep and close array, presenting on every side a formidable front to the enemy. They repulsed the Austrians, they broke the Burgundian Gendarmerie, and, when called to Italy, bore down with irresistible force every enemy that attempted to oppose them. Bacon, in his “History of King Henry VII.,” says: “To make good infantry, it required men bred not in a servile fashion but in some free manner. Therefore, if a state run most to noblemen and gentlemen, and that the husbandmen and ploughmen be but as their workfolks or laborers, you may have a good cavalry, but never good, stable bands of foot, in so much as they are enforced to employ bands of Swiss for their battalions of foot.” It was a trusty sword these brave and hardy peasants offered. Some thought that nature certainly only meant the Swiss for two classes, soldiers and shepherds. It is easy to convert husbandmen into good soldiers. According to the institutions of the Lacedæmonians, the employments of husbandmen and soldiers were united, as alike the highest training-schools for the qualities that make the best citizen and the best soldier. The plough was readily exchanged for the sword by those engaged in peaceful occupations that seemed to place them at an immeasurable distance from the profession of a soldier. Happy had it been for Switzerland had she gained nothing beyond simple liberty in her contest with her ancient masters, and had continued to cherish pure and healthful feelings. When peace had crowned their heroic struggles, their warlike spirit sought in foreign states the excitement and military glory which were denied them at home. The cravings of avarice and the thirst of plunder are inseparable from the pride of victory. While the hardy mountaineers exulted in the defeat and humiliation of Austrian chivalry, they purchased their triumph, for a time at least, at the expense of the simplicity of their nature. They accepted the dangers and privations of soldiers fighting battles in which their own country bore no part. They became the ready agents of the highest paymaster. These military capitulations dated from the period of the Burgundian war. Treaties were often concluded between foreign governments and one or more Cantons.66 They made a trade of war, letting themselves out as mercenaries. The Holy Father himself entered the list of bargainers, and in 1503 Pope Julius III. engaged the first of those Swiss life-guards whose name became famous in Europe. From Louis XI. to Louis XV. the Swiss are said to have furnished for the French service over half a million men. In the wars between the French king and the Emperor Maximilian, in 1516, the Swiss fought on both sides. In its last extremity, it was neither in its titled nobility nor its native armies that the French throne found fidelity, but in the free-born peasant soldiers of Luzern. Of the undaunted ranks of the Swiss guard, defending the French royal family at the Tuileries on the 10th of August, 1792, seven hundred and eighty-six officers and soldiers fell in the place where they stood, unconquered even in death; and for two days their bodies lay in the gardens of the palace and the streets near by, exposed to the derision and insults of the frantic populace.

To their memory a colossal lion, twenty-eight feet long by eighteen feet high, carved by Thorwaldsen out of the face of a solid sandstone rock, in high relief, was dedicated in 1821 at Luzern. The lion is holding the fleur-de-lis in his paws, which he is endeavoring to protect, though mortally wounded by a spear which still remains in his side. Above the figure is the inscription: “Helvetiorum fidei ac virtuti.” When the afternoon sun falls upon this effigy, it is reflected beautifully in the dark pool close below; the gray rock rises perpendicularly some little height above and ends in a crown of acacias and drooping bushes and creepers.

The fame of the Swiss, in every war which desolated Europe from the fifteenth century down, rose to an extraordinary pitch; but this influence, which, as the hired soldiers of belligerent powers, they exercised in the affairs of Europe, was neither conducive to the weal of the state nor worthy of the Swiss people. Addison wrote in 1709 of them: “The inhabitants of the country are as great curiosities as the country itself; they generally hire themselves out in their youth, and if they are musket-proof till about fifty, they bring home the money they have got, and the limbs they have left, to pass the rest of their time among their native mountains.” He also relates that “one of the gentlemen of the place told me, by way of boast, that there were now seven wooden legs in his family; and that for these four generations there had not been one in his line that carried a whole body with him to the grave.”

From their being so frequently in the personal service of foreign potentates, the name of Switzer with some writers became synonymous with guards or attendants on a king. The king in “Hamlet” says: “Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.” In 1594, Nashe, in his “Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem,” states that “Law, Logicke, and the Switzers may be hired to fight for anybody.” Even the French were so ungrateful as to chide the Swiss by saying, “We fight for honor, but you fight for money;” to which the Switzer rejoined, “It is only natural that each of us, like the rest of the world, should fight for what he has not got.” These Swiss soldiers were in great demand and liberally paid. They were not only hardy and patient of fatigue, but bold in action and obedient in discipline. The very sight of them alarmed the enemy, suggesting a passage in Tacitus of which every soldier will probably feel the truth, “The eye is the first to be vanquished in battle.”67 Then these troops were as noted for their fidelity to the service they engaged in as for their courage; and in all their history there is scarce to be found any example of treachery.

From the dawn of the Reformation there was produced a material change, and its effects were chiefly visible in the improvement of moral feeling and the growing aversion to this mercenary service. The Constitution of 1848 altogether swept away this system of military capitulations. At the time of the adoption of the constitution there was only one such convention in force, being that of the King of Naples and several of the Cantons; but public sentiment was so greatly aroused by their participation in the defeat of the revolution, that the Cantons were compelled to recall them, and thus the last of these capitulations came to an end. There were certain bodies of troops who, bearing the Swiss name or composed for the most part of Swiss soldiers, still continued to fight for foreign governments; and to prevent this, as far as possible, a federal law in 1859 prohibited every Swiss citizen from entering, without the consent of the Federal Council, those bodies of foreign troops which were not regarded as national troops of the respective states. This did not hinder individual citizens from enrolling themselves in the national troops of a foreign state. To further avoid any complication of foreign relations through such military connection, the cantonal constitutions first forbade the reception of pensions and titles from foreign states; and a similar provision was embodied in the federal Constitution of 1874, whereby “members of the federal government, civil and military officials of the Confederation, and federal representatives or commissioners, shall not accept from foreign governments any pension, salary, title, present, or decoration. Decorations shall not be worn in the Swiss army, nor shall titles conferred by foreign governments be borne. Every officer, under-officer, and soldier shall be forbidden to accept any such distinction.”

The first approach towards the establishment of a federal army was after Swiss independence had been recognized at the peace of Westphalia, when the Confederation in 1648 adopted an arrangement called the “Defensional,” by which, in case of urgent danger, the Federal Diet could call upon the several Cantons to supply troops for the general defence, in such numbers as were stipulated. In 1848 it was proposed that the Confederation should be charged with the entire military administration. This was rejected. In 1874 the effort was renewed, and this most important power was substantially vested in the Confederation by the constitution adopted that year, which contains the following provisions:

Every Swiss is subject to military service. Each soldier receives without expense his first equipment, clothing, and arms. The arms remain in possession of the soldier, under conditions prescribed by federal legislation. The Confederation enacts uniform laws on fees for exemption from military service:

The federal army consists:

1. Of the cantonal military corps.

2. Of all Swiss who, though not belonging to such military corps, are yet subject to military service.

The Confederation exercises control over the federal army and the material of war provided by law.

In cases of danger, the Confederation has the exclusive and direct control over all troops, whether incorporated in the federal army or not, and over all other military resources of the Cantons.

The Cantons may exercise control over the military forces of their territory, so far as this right is not limited by the federal constitution or laws.

Laws on the organization of the army are an affair of the Confederation. The execution of the military laws within the Cantons is intrusted to the cantonal authorities, within limits fixed by federal legislation, and under the supervision of the Confederation.

The entire military instruction and arming of the troops are under the control of the Confederation. The clothing and equipments and subsistence of the troops are provided by the Cantons; but the Cantons are credited with the expenses therefor, in a manner to be determined by federal law.

So far as military reasons do not prevent, bodies of troops are formed out of the soldiers from the same Canton. The composition of these bodies of troops, the maintenance of their effective strength, and the appointment and promotion of the officers are to be reserved to the Cantons, subject to general rules to be established by the Confederation.

On payment of reasonable indemnity, the Confederation has the right to use or acquire drill-grounds and buildings intended for military purposes within the Cantons, together with the appurtenances thereof. The terms of the indemnity shall be fixed by federal law. The Federal Assembly may forbid public works which endanger the military interests of the Confederation.

No decoration or title conferred by a foreign government shall be borne in the federal army. No officer, nor non-commissioned officer or soldier, shall accept such distinction.

The Confederation has no right to keep up a standing army.68 No Canton or half-Canton, without the permission of the federal government, shall keep up a standing force of more than three hundred men; the mounted police (gendarmerie) is not included in this number.

By these provisions, while the military system, as a whole, has fallen under the authority of the Confederation, many important details are left to be exercised by the Cantons. Upon them devolves the responsible duty of carrying the federal laws into execution. They appoint all officers below the rank of colonel, keep the military registers, provide the equipments, uniforms, and necessary stores for the troops (to be reimbursed by the Confederation), recruit and maintain the effective strength of the body of troops formed within their respective limits. The infantry, field artillery, and cavalry are all recruited by the Cantons and called cantonal troops; the engineers, guides, sanitary and administrative troops, and the army train are recruited by the Confederation and called federal troops. The enrolling of men belonging to the same Canton, as far as practicable, in the same corps is known as the système territorial. Every man fights under the banner of his own Canton, follows the regiment of his own Commune, keeps step with the company of his own hamlet, or dies beside his brother, son, or neighbor. These were the tactics of nature, and probably of heroism, with mutual enthusiasm and reciprocal attachments, with common interests and similarity of manners; like the children of Israel who went out to battle, each “under the colors of the house of his father.”

For the proper execution and furtherance of the constitutional provisions, several federal laws have been enacted, establishing these general rules:

Every Swiss citizen is subject to military service from the time he enters his twentieth year to the close of his forty-fourth year of age. There are seven classifications of officials who are exempted, during the time they are in office or employed:

1. Members of the Federal Assembly during the session of the Assembly.

2. Members of the Federal Council, the Chancellor of the Confederation, and the clerks of the Federal Tribunal.

3. Those employed in the administration of the post and telegraph (the latter now includes the telephone); employés in government arsenals, workshops, and powder magazines; directors and wardens of prisons; attendants in public hospitals; members of cantonal and communal police, and frontier guards, or Landjäger.

4. Ecclesiastics who do not act as army chaplains.

5. Those employed in the public schools, only so far as it would interrupt their school duties.

6. Railroad officials and employés of the steamboat companies that have received concessions from the government.

7. All those who have been deprived of their civil rights by sentence of court are excluded from the service.

The omission of the members of the Federal Tribunal from the list of exempts, while the executive and legislative officials, together with the clerks of the Tribunal, are embraced, can be accounted for only upon the principle of inter arma silent leges.

When a Swiss citizen reaches his twentieth year he must present himself at the levy of troops of the Canton of his domicile and be enrolled. This must be done before an application for exemption can be made. The raw recruits are sent direct to one of the Écoles des Recrues, for which the Confederation is divided into eight territorial departments, for infantry, for cavalry and artillery, three each, and two for engineers. The federal military forces, or Bundesauszug, are divided into three distinct classes:

1. The Élite or active army, in which all citizens are liable to serve from the age of twenty to thirty-two.

2. The Landwehr or first reserve, composed of men from the age of thirty-two to forty-four.

3. The Landsturm, consisting of men from seventeen to fifty, not incorporated in the Élite or Landwehr. This last reserve cannot, as a rule, be called upon for service beyond the frontier. Men are not discharged from the Élite until their successors have been enrolled, and in case of war the Federal Council is authorized to suspend discharges both from the Élite and the Landwehr. The recruits at the Écoles des Recrues undergo a course of instruction for periods ranging from forty-five to eighty days, after which they are drafted into the different arms of the service, and (with the exception of the cavalry, who turn out annually) are called out on alternate years for a course of training (cours de répétition), continuing from sixteen to twenty days. Periodically, once or twice a year, the troops of a number of Cantons assemble for a general muster. The infantry soldier has five periods of training during the ten years he remains in the Élite or active service:

First year, forty-five days as a recruit.

Third year, sixteen days as a trained soldier.

Fifth year, sixteen days as a trained soldier.

Seventh year, sixteen days as a trained soldier.

Ninth year, sixteen days as a trained soldier.

Total, one hundred and nine days.

The cavalry is called out annually instead of biennially, and as a compensation for this additional drill service, the men are discharged from the Élite two years sooner than the infantry, or at the age of thirty.

The standard of height required of the recruit is five feet one and a half inches, and the chest measurement in no case less than thirty-one and a half inches.69 Men not of the required height, if specially fitted, by profession or business, for service in the administrative troops or as drummers, trumpeters, armorers, or other military handicraftsmen, may be recruited to serve in these capacities if their height is not less than five feet five-eighths of an inch. The number of recruits examined annually—that is to say, the number of young men who become subject every year to military service—is about thirty thousand. A permanent corps of one hundred and eighty-seven instructors of various grades, and representing all the arms of the service, is maintained. The members of this corps are about the only permanently paid officers of the Swiss army. But they must have undergone a thorough course of education and passed an examination at one of the training establishments erected for the purpose. The centre of these is the military academy at Thun, near Bern, maintained by the Confederation, and which supplies the army both with the highest class of officers and with teachers to instruct the lower grades.

Besides this academy or Central Militär-Schule there are special training-schools for the various branches of the service, especially the artillery and the Scharfschützen or picked riflemen. During the period of instruction eight hours is laid down as the minimum of daily drilling. The arms, clothing, and personal accoutrements remain in the possession of the soldier, and he is expected to keep each article in good condition and in readiness for inspection at any moment; and he is not permitted to wear his uniform except when on active duty. The inspection of arms, accoutrements, etc., is made annually, and is conducted with much strictness; any repairs needed are ordered to be done at the owner’s expense; and negligence in complying with the law subjects the party to a fine, and in some instances to imprisonment. At the termination of the Élite service, the uniform is retained by the recruit, but the arms and accoutrements are surrendered to the Canton. Horses are provided for the cavalry in this manner: the horses are first purchased by the government through officers designated for that purpose; these are sent to the government cavalry stable, thoroughly broken, then sold to such cavalry recruits as may require them. The sale is made at public auction to the recruits, and one-half of the price at which the animal is knocked down is paid by the Confederation and the other half by the recruit. One-tenth of the recruit’s share, however, is refunded to him at the end of each year’s service, so that after ten trainings the horse becomes his personal property. During the years of service the horse remains at the disposal of the government, but in fact is only required during the annual drill, and in the interval remains in the possession of its part owner, at his own cost. He may work the animal, but it cannot be let out for hire or lent, and he is responsible for its care and good condition. If the horse dies in the service, one-half of the value of the recruit’s share is refunded to him; if, on the other hand, the horse dies when not in the service, the recruit pays the government a corresponding amount, unless he can show that the death was in no way occasioned by carelessness or culpable negligence. The same liability is incurred in case of injury to the animal, unless it occurred from ordinary fair usage. In either case, if the recruit be found in fault he is compelled to provide himself with another horse. These horses are inspected at least once a year by military veterinary surgeons. Mounted officers must provide their own horses. In time of war the Piketstellung can be declared by the Federal Council, by which the sale of horses throughout the Confederation is forbidden.

The strength of the several lines of the army in 1888, as obtained from an official of the military department, was—Élite, 117,179, Landwehr, 84,046, which, with the Landsturm, reckoned at 200,000, gave in case of extreme emergency an available force of 401,225.

The Landsturm has recently been divided into two classes, the armed Landsturm and the auxiliary forces; the latter is composed of pioneers, administrative troops, guides, and velocipedists: both of these classes, under a federal law of 1887, when called out, are placed on the same footing, with reference to the rights of combatants, as the Élite or the Landwehr. The first line, or Élite, must be regarded as the only active force homogeneous in its parts and complete in its equipment. Preference for infantry is still preserved among the Swiss, the cavalry representing only one twenty-seventh of the force. This disproportion may be somewhat ascribed to two facts: first, on account of the expense involved in the advance payment to be made on the purchase of a horse, and then that in Switzerland cavalry would hardly ever be required except for reconnoitring or vedette duties. The election on the part of recruits to join the cavalry is voluntary; but having selected that branch they must remain in it.

The Vetterli rifle, with a magazine containing eleven cartridges, has been used by the army; but after long and thorough experiments under government expert commissions with the Rubin rifle, a later and improved patent, in June, 1889, it was accepted, and is being rapidly substituted. The budget for 1890 contains an appropriation of 5,734,600 francs for the purchase of these rifles and 3,000,000 francs for ammunition.

The highest rank in the Swiss army is that of colonel. In the event of war the Federal Assembly nominates a general, who takes command till the troops are disbanded. The only officer at present in the service who has held that temporary rank is General Herzog, the commander of the troops in 1871, and who is now doing regular duty as a colonel. Then come lieutenant-colonel, major, captain, and first lieutenant; these constitute the commissioned officers. The non-commissioned officers are sergeant-major, quartermaster-sergeant, sergeant, and corporal. Colonels command divisions and brigades; lieutenant-colonels, regiments; majors, battalions; and captains, companies. The Cantons nominate officers up to the rank of commandant de bataillon, subject to the approval of the federal military authorities. Officers of higher rank than commandant de bataillon hold their commissions from the Federal Council. Then there is a general staff or État major, appointed by the Federal Council, consisting of three colonels, sixteen lieutenant-colonels or majors, and thirty-five captains. The chief of this staff is appointed by the Council for a term of three years, and is practically in charge of the forces during peace.

The pay of the army, like all branches of public service in Switzerland, is on a very economical scale. With the exception of the members of the general staff and corps of instructors (the former substantially constitutes the latter), who are permanently in the service, officers and privates only receive pay during active service,—that is, during the short drill periods or in time of war. The commander-in-chief (who only serves in time of war) receives fifty francs per day.

Personal allowance for uniform and equipments:

The private soldiers are paid eighty centimes per day, and from this a sum, to be fixed by the chief of the corps, is deducted to meet certain contingent personal expenses of the private. Rations in the field daily embrace 750 grammes of bread; 375 of fresh meat; 150 to 200 of vegetables; 20 of salt; 15 of roasted coffee; 20 of sugar. Commutation to officers is one franc per day. If a private furnishes his own coffee, vegetables, and wood, a proportionate allowance is fixed by the Federal Council. The rations are the same during the drilling terms, but the pay is reduced to fifty centimes per day. The constitution declares that “soldiers who lose their lives or suffer permanent injury to their health in consequence of federal military service shall be entitled to aid from the Confederation for themselves or their families in case of need.”

A federal law grants pensions:

1. Up to 1200 francs in case of complete blindness, the loss of both hands, or both feet, or other injury causing absolute incapacity to earn a living.

2. Up to 700 francs in case of partial incapacity for work.

3. Up to 400 francs in case where business or calling must be changed to one less profitable, in consequence of injury.

4. Up to 200 francs when this change is necessitated in a modified degree.

Pensions to widow, children, or parent:

1. Widow without children up to 350 francs; with children up to 650 francs.

2. Children one or two, each 250 francs; more than two, total of 650 francs.

3. Father or mother (where no widow or children), 200 francs; if both living, total of 350 francs.

4. Each brother or sister (when neither widow, children, nor parent survive), 100 francs each.

5. Grandfather or grandmother (where neither widow, children, parents, nor brother or sister survive), 150 francs; if both living, 250 francs total.

These amounts may be increased in special and meritorious cases. Women divorced or living apart from their husbands, and children eighteen years of age, are not entitled to receive pensions.

Every Swiss citizen subject to military service, whether he resides in the Confederation or not, who does not personally perform it, is subject in lieu thereof to the payment of an annual tax in money. Foreigners established in Switzerland are likewise subject to this tax, unless they are exempt therefrom by virtue of international treaties or belong to states in which the Swiss domiciled there are neither liable to military service nor to the payment of any equivalent tax in money. This is the only direct tax levied in the Confederation; and the gross sum realized is shared proportionately between the Confederation and the Canton.

Exempt from this tax are:

1. Paupers assisted by the public charity fund, and those who by reason of mental or physical infirmity are incapable of earning their subsistence, or who have not a sufficient fortune for the support of themselves and family.

2. Those rendered unfit through previous service.

3. Swiss citizens in foreign countries, if they are subject to a personal service or to an exemption tax for the same in place of domicile.

4. The railway and steamboat employés during the time when they are liable to the military service organized for the working of the railways and steamboats in time of war.

5. Policemen and the federal frontier guards.

This military tax consists in a personal tax of six francs, and of an additional tax on property and income; the amount exacted from any one tax-payer not to exceed 3000 francs per annum. The additional tax is one franc and a half for each one thousand francs of net fortune, and one franc and a half for each one hundred francs of net income. Net fortunes less than 1000 francs are exempt, and from the net income are to be deducted 600 francs. Net fortune is the personal and real property after deducting debts of record, chattels necessary for household, tools of trade, and agricultural implements. Real estate and improvements are assessed for this tax at three-fourths of their market value. In computing the property of a person for this tax, half of the fortune of the parents, or if not living, then of the grand-parents, is included, proportionately to the number of children or grandchildren, unless the father of the tax-payer shall himself perform military service or pay the exemption tax.

Net income embraces:

1. The earnings of an art, profession, trade, business, occupation, or employment. The expenses incurred to obtain these earnings are deducted, also necessary household expenses, and five per cent. of the capital invested in the business.

2. The product of annuities, pensions, and other similar revenues.

From the age of thirty-three to the completion of the military age, only one-half of the tax is exacted. The Federal Assembly has the right to increase the tax to double the amount for those years in which the greater part of the Élite troops are called into service. The military tax for Swiss citizens residing abroad is calculated every year by special rolls, and the persons advised by the officials of the Canton of their birth, if their address be known, otherwise by public advertisement. The tax for exemption is paid in the Canton where the tax-payer is domiciled when the rolls are prepared. Parents are responsible for the payment of the tax for their minor sons, and for those sons who, though of age, remain a part of the household. The period for prescription is five years for tax-payers present in the country, and ten years for those absent from the country. The Cantons are charged with making out the annual rolls and collecting the tax. By the end of January following the year of the tax the Cantons must remit to the proper federal official the half of the gross product collected. A portion of this is assigned by the Federal Assembly to the fund for military pensions. In each Canton there is a tribunal to pass upon appeals on the correctness of the rolls of tax-payers. All disputes arising as to the tax are referred to and decided by the Federal Council. With a view of insuring a uniform application of the law of military service, the Confederation reserves supreme supervision; and the ultimate decision upon all questions arising out of the operation of it, and likewise upon decrees relating to the imposition and collection of the tax, rests with it. The estimated receipts from this tax for the share of the Confederation are placed in the budget for 1889 at 1,330,000 francs. An eminent Swiss publicist, Dr. Dubs, in criticising this tax-law, asserts “that in many points it is equally irrational, and, in the construction of its details, leads moreover to further absurdities of all kinds, of which undoubtedly the claiming to tax those in foreign countries and the taxation of the heir’s possible expectations form the highest point.” He might have added that this tax, so far as levied upon incomes of persons liable to military service but exempted therefrom by reason of disability or other cause, partakes rather of the character of a law to raise revenue than as providing a penalty for the non-performance of military service. The failure to render such service on the part of one enjoying a specified income is not more heavily punished than the failure of one with less or no income. The operation of this tax has caused much complaint on the part of citizens of the United States “established” in Switzerland. Nearly all of the European states have concluded treaties with Switzerland, since the enactment of this “military tax-law,” bringing themselves within the conditions it prescribes for the exemption of their citizens “established” in Switzerland, from any personal service or any tax in lieu thereof.

The citizens of the United States residing in Switzerland, of whom there are quite a number engaged in prosperous and large industries, still come under the treaty concluded between Switzerland and the United States in 1850, long previous to the passage of the tax-law (1878), Article II. of which reads: “The citizens of one of the two countries, residing or established in the other, shall be free from personal military service, but they shall be liable to the pecuniary or material contributions which may be required by way of compensation, from citizens of the country where they reside, who are exempt from that service.” This article seems to contemplate the imposition of a penalty for the non-performance of a duty from which the party is specially exempted. It is susceptible of a plausible argument, that a proper construction of this article does not warrant the collection of the tax imposed by the Swiss law of 1878, from the United States citizens residing there. For this tax is not in fact a “pecuniary contribution” required from citizens of Switzerland who are exempt from personal military service, but is a tax required only from citizens who by reason of their age are subject to military service, but who in consequence of physical or other disability cannot perform it. That the words, “by way of compensation,” were not intended to qualify the phrase, “pecuniary or material contribution,” but refer to, “shall be free from personal military service.” Should a citizen of the United States residing in Switzerland prefer to render personal military service rather than pay the tax, his service would not be accepted; he would be informed that by virtue of the treaty with his country he is “free from personal military service, but liable to the pecuniary or material contribution,” and he must pay his tax,—“your money and not your service is what we wish.” If his service was accepted, it would carry an implication of the right to enforce either personal service or in lieu thereof the payment of a commutation tax for exemption. The language of the treaty obviously contemplated only such general contribution as might be required of all classes of citizens, and excludes the idea of a special tax levied upon an exceptional class. During the last war in the United States the tax exemption or commutation, to which a certain class of citizens were subjected by the draft law, did not interfere with domiciliary rights. There is to-day no exaction on the part of the United States government from foreign citizens domiciled or established within them, of any pecuniary or material contributions of a military nature; nor is it believed that there is any such exaction on the part of any of the States.70 The Swiss construction of the treaty, as to the liability of the United States citizens residing therein to this tax, was substantially conceded by our Department of State in 1876, and left the remedy to be sought by an international treaty. The Swiss government has indicated its willingness to enter upon the negotiation of such a conventional agreement to effect the relief of United States citizens from this tax, after the manner prescribed by the law of 1878, and which was promptly acted upon by all the European powers. The government of the United States has not found it expedient to do this. Many difficulties are suggested.

In parts of Switzerland there has appeared some dissatisfaction with the military service and tax. It is alleged to be an unnecessary waste of money expended on the country’s armed forces, draining its limited resources to no practical purpose, and that an unprofitable and irksome task is imposed upon them by this assessment. The statesmen of Switzerland stand united in the expression that it is the only way to be sure of their neutrality being respected; as was abundantly proven by the prompt presence of the federal troops compelling Bourbaki’s corps of 80,000 men, when in 1871 they were driven into the Swiss territory, the moment they crossed the line, to lay down their arms; and thereby saved the German army from crossing the frontier of the Confederation and engaging the French on Swiss soil. The President of the Confederation, in his address to the Tir fédéral of 1887, voiced the prevailing sentiment when he said: “The government of Switzerland would remain foremost in maintaining peace and pride in its arts as the supreme glory of the republic; and would constantly endeavor to preserve her neutrality, but to do this she must not rely altogether on treaties, but also look to her own strength and energy; to keep her soldiery in condition to show that the adequacy of the Confederation to all the needs of national life is, in no single department, taken on trust. He therefore would urge them to be assiduous in improving military training, to add such training to the education of the youth, to hold rifle contests and to perfect drills, all of which should be animated by a free fraternal spirit.” Notwithstanding the constitution forbids the Confederation to keep a standing army, or any Canton to have more than three hundred men as a permanent military body, every able-bodied Swiss is a soldier of the republic; not on paper merely or by legal and constitutional fiction, but actually. The necessity of self-defence forced Switzerland to be the very first power in which universal liability to military service was introduced in Europe, many years and even centuries before other countries had recognized the principle, which is now almost universal. The Swiss army is based upon a “voluntary-compulsory” system. It is essentially a force of militia intended for defensive purposes only. Admirable as it is in a military and economic sense, it is scarcely more than a summer holiday, compared with the rigid and grinding martial duties under the other European systems. Two things make it a light burden, if not a diversion, for the Swiss. They have a strong natural military instinct coming down through generations.71 Then this instinct is in every possible manner encouraged and developed by the government, the Canton, and the Commune. The elements of drill begin with the very first week of a boy’s schooling, as soon as he can stand erect or poise a stick. All kinds of games are practised that tend to open and expand the chest, to nerve the limbs, give carriage to the form, and serve to strengthen, temper, and adjust it. All these exercises fit him and, in fact, contemplate his becoming in time a soldier. He not only learns in his youth the elements of drill and the use of arms, but habits of obedience, order, and cleanliness; and even those yet higher duties of a camp, the will to mingle class with class, to put down personal hopes and seek no object but the public good.

The Schützenfest, liberally encouraged by the government, is held biennially. This is in many respects the parallel of the ancient Greek festival game, which served the purpose of keeping alive the national spirit. It is the most important and popular public gathering in Switzerland; the entries for the various prizes running as high as 100,000. It is uniformly opened by a formal address from the President of the Confederation and attended by all the leading men of the country. It is a national fête day. Then there are the Sociétés de tir, cantonal and communal shooting societies, which number about 1600, with over 100,000 members. These societies compete one with the other, and in event of their conforming to certain regulations receive subsidies from the Confederation. These regulations require:

1. Every member of the Élite or Landwehr must, on application, be admitted to the club, if he is able and willing to pay his share of the expense for targets, markers, etc.

2. The club must number at least twenty members.

3. The firing exercises must be done with the regulation arms and ammunition; each soldier must use his own gun; regulation targets must be had, and at least ten shots fired at every meeting, at each of the distances named.

4. To receive the subsidy, every member of the club must annually take part in at least three firing exercises, and must fire a total of fifty shots, of which at least ten must be at one of the regulation distances and regulation targets.

Every Swiss man therefore is drilled, armed, and ready to turn out and fight; in his house, within arm’s reach, must hang his gun, his uniform, and sword. The concierge who accepts your pourboire may be a captain in the line, and the driver of your voiture a corporal. Some one, writing of the universal fusion between the military and civic elements, tells this incident: A gentleman called to see a lawyer on business; asking the servant if the lawyer was in, he answered, “The colonel is not here, sir, but you can see the major.” So the visitor was shown in, and saw the major, who was the lawyer’s partner, and when he made a statement of his business, he was told, “That is not in my department, the captain will look after it.” The captain was the firm’s clerk, and while talking to him, a second clerk came into the office, whom the captain saluted, saying, “Good day, lieutenant.”

In the public schools even the girls receive some training which fits them to be useful auxiliaries in the army. They learn to stanch the flow of blood, to dress a gunshot wound, and to nurse the sick; they know some chemistry and are quick at sewing, binding, dressing, and such medical arts. And if need, they would march in line with knapsacks on their backs, as their mothers did in times past. The Helvetic women fought against the army of Octavianus Augustus in 16 B.C., and when all was lost, hurled their young children at the Roman soldiers and rushed forward to meet their own death. In the old days of trial by judicial combat, assumere duellum, the chronicles of 1288 contained this curious entry: Duellum fuit in Bern inter virum et mulierem, sed mulier prevaluit. Not only men but women fought at the battle of Stantz, and among the killed were counted one hundred and thirty women. During the French invasion of 1798, upward of eight hundred women took up arms in the Landsturm, and bore all the fire of the enemy in the last actions. At Fraubrunnen two hundred and sixty women received the enemy with scythes, pitchforks, and pickaxes; one hundred and eighty were killed, and one of them, whose name was Glar, had two daughters and three granddaughters who fought by her side,—these six heroines all were found among the dead. In the Swiss Reformed Church, in administering the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper, the men go up first and the women afterwards, with the single exception of Geiss, in Appenzell, where, on account of their service at the battle of Amstoss, the women go up first.

The Swiss owe their reputation to their freedom, and their freedom to their valor. Their military spirit is entirely free from greed of territory, lust of power, “the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war,” and other forces far from admirable in their motive, which give prominence and predominance to modern armaments; it is inspired by motives of civic manhood and manly self-assertion. A small and by no means rich nation that relaxes not from its attitude of defence is less likely to be attacked, though surrounded by powerful and ambitious neighbors, than another nation which possesses wealth, commerce, population, and all the sinews of war in far greater abundance, but is unprepared. The more sleek the prey, the greater is the temptation, and “no wolf will leave a sheep to dine upon a porcupine.”

The spirit which animated the brave old Swiss was not that of revenge, or plunder, or bloodshed. They fought simply when and because it was necessary to insure the liberty of their native land. It was a sense of duty rather than love of glory that strengthened and filled them with an invincible heroism and inspired them with the sentiment so often heard on the battle-field, Wir müssen unsere Pflicht thun (“we must do our duty”). The set of military regulations drawn up after the battle of Sempach, more than five hundred years ago, might furnish a model for to-day; a few taken at random will show their tenor:

1. Not to attack or injure any church or chapel unless the enemy have retired into it.

2. Not to insult any females.

3. It is forbidden to any man to straggle for the sake of plunder, or to appropriate to himself any part of the booty, which must all be reported and be divided equally in good faith.

4. Every Swiss engages to sacrifice his life or property, if required, for the defence of his countrymen.

5. No Swiss shall abandon his post even when wounded.

6. No Swiss shall take away anything from any of his countrymen either in peace or war.

War has been the great training school of hardihood, endurance, courage, self-sacrifice, and devotion to public duty. There is no profession more favorable to the growth of noble sentiment and manly action than that of the soldier; and to its beneficial action in the formation of States, every page of history bears flaming testimony. A great German professor declares: “Our army is not simply the organized power of the state; it is also a great school, nay, our greatest school for the masses, of intellectual culture, morals, politeness and patriotism.” Let the Swiss ever cherish and imitate the simple lives, the undaunted courage, the obstinate and enduring spirit, and the lofty patriotism of their ancestors who, in the great contests which rolled round the fort of their mountains, died on the fields of Morat and Morgarten.