w ones--Aargau, Thurgau, Vaud, Ticino, and the
Grisons (St. Gall and Graubuenden)--the first four formed from
districts which under the old regime had occupied the status of
subordinate territory, the last two having been formerly "allied
states." In the Diet six cantons (Bern, Zuerich, Vaud, Aargau, St.
Gall, and Graubuenden) which had a population in excess of 100,000 were
given each two votes. All others retained a right to but one. The
executive authority of the Confederation was vested by turns in the
six cantons of Bern, Freiburg, Lucerne, Zuerich, Basel and Solothurn,
the "directorial" canton being known as the _Vorort_, and its chief
magistrate as the _Landammann_, of the Confederation. The principle of
centralization was in large part abandoned; but the equality of civil
rights which the French had introduced was not allowed by Napoleon to
be molested. It may be observed further that by the accession of the
newly created cantons, containing large bodies of people who spoke
French, Italian, and Romansch, the league ceased to be so (p. 408)
predominantly German as theretofore it had been.[584]

[Footnote 583: It is in this instrument that the
Confederation was for the first time designated
officially as "Switzerland."]

[Footnote 584: Cambridge Modern History, IX., Chap.
4 (bibliography, pp. 805-807). The best general
work on the period 1798-1813 is W. Oechsli,
Geschichte der Schweiz im XIX. Jahrhundert
(Leipzig, 1903), I.]

*450. The Pact of 1815 and the Revival of Particularism.*--The Act of
Mediation, on the whole not unacceptable to the majority of the Swiss
people, save in that it had been imposed by a foreign power, continued
in operation until 1813. During the decade Switzerland was essentially
tributary to France. With the fall of Napoleon the situation was
altered, and December 29, 1813, fourteen of the cantons, through their
representatives assembled at Zuerich, declared the instrument to be no
longer in effect. Led by Bern, eight of the older cantons determined
upon a return to the system in operation prior to 1798, involving the
reduction of the six most recently created cantons to their former
inferior status. Inspired by the Tsar Alexander I., however, the
majority of the Allies refused to approve this programme, and, after
the Congress o