e referendum, and, it may be said, of radical
democracy in general. The results attained within a sphere so
restricted, and under conditions of race, religion, and historical
tradition so unusual, may or may not be accepted as evidence of the
universal practicability of these principles. At the least, they are
of acknowledged interest.

*447. The Confederation in the Eighteenth Century.*--In the form in
which it exists to-day the Swiss Confederation is a product of the
middle and later nineteenth century. The origins of it, however, are
to be traced to a very much remoter period. Beginning with the
alliance of the three forest cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden
in 1291,[579] the Confederation was built up through the gradual creation
of new cantons, the splitting of old ones, the reorganization of (p. 406)
dependent territories, and the development of a federal governmental
system, superimposed upon the constitutional arrangements of the
affiliated states. In 1789, when the French Directory, at the
instigation of Napoleon, took it upon itself to revolutionize
Switzerland, the Confederation consisted of thirteen cantons.[580]
With it were associated certain _Zugewandte Orte_, or allied
districts, some of which eventually were erected into cantons,
together with a number of _Gemeine Vogteien_, or subject territories.
The Confederation comprised simply a _Staatenbund_, or league of
essentially autonomous states. Its only organ of common action was a
diet, in which each canton had a right to one vote. Save in matters of
a purely advisory nature, the powers of this diet were meager indeed.
Of the cantons, some were moderately democratic; others were highly
aristocratic. The political institutions of all were, in large
measure, such as had survived from the Middle Ages.

[Footnote 579: For an English version of the
Perpetual League of 1291 see Vincent, Government in
Switzerland, 285-288. The best account in English
of the origins of the Confederation is contained in
W. D. McCrackan, The Rise of the Swiss Republic (2d
ed., New York, 1901). Important are A. Rilliet, Les
origines de la confederation suisse (Geneva, 1868);
P. Vauchier, Les commencements de la confederation
suisse (Lausanne, 1891); W. Oechsli, Die Anfange
der schweizer