ed, that no
Capuchin can do them any good,'--'Then I am content,' said Herr
Munzinger.

"I cannot part from this excellent man without consecrating a few words
to his memory. He was a tradesman, and had a public shop at Solothurn.
He had a philosophical education, was musical, and a man of genuine
benevolence. Unselfish, of agreeable appearance and manners, he was
inexorable when it was a question of the public weal; he was an
opponent of the rule of the old patricians who made use of their power
at home and their diplomatic service for their own advantage, and had
no feeling for the interests of the people. In the year 1830, Munzinger
was at the head of the movement, and the line he took at the popular
meeting at Balsthal, on the 5th December, decided the fall of the
Patrician government in the Canton of Solothurn. In the construction of
the new constitution and laws, in the organisation of the
administration, and in his co-operation in their labours for the
exemption of the land from burdens, for the establishment of schools,
for the formation of roads, for the advancement of agriculture, and the
administration of justice, he showed himself wonderfully gifted as a
statesman. Though the State only consisted of a few square miles, with
some sixty thousand inhabitants, yet the difficulties of constituting
it were not less than in a larger State. The old rulers and their
adherents, supported by the clergy, made use of the free press, the
right of assembly, and their rich ecclesiastical and worldly means, to
irritate the people against the new order of things. There was no want
of handles to lay hold of, as arrangements for good objects require
means, and thus some burdens must be imposed. Thus, for example, the
community was bound by a law to erect schools, and further, to endow
them with land; where there was no communal property, land had to be
bought. Many villages opposed this, but their resistance was forcibly
overcome. Later, the chief magistrates thanked the Landammann for
having put force upon them for their good. In a different way did the
government maintain itself against refractory ecclesiastics. No
compulsion was put on them, but care was taken that the peace of
families should not be disturbed by their insubordination. The
government chose as Chapter-Provost a liberal-thinking ecclesiastic;
Rome refused to confirm him; the situation remained unoccupied, and the
income went to the school-fund. The clergy ref