1884) and A. von
Orelli, Das Staatsrecht der schweizerischen
Eidgenossenschaft (Freiburg, 1885), in
Marquardsen's Handbuch. The best treatise in
English upon the Swiss governmental system is J. M.
Vincent, Government in Switzerland (New York,
1900). Older works include B. Moses, The Federal
Government of Switzerland (Oakland, 1889); F. Adams
and C. Cunningham, The Swiss Confederation (London,
1889); and B. Winchester, The Swiss Republic
(Philadelphia, 1891). Mention should be made of A.
B. Hart, Introduction to the Study of Federal
Government (Boston, 1891); also of an exposition of
Swiss federalism in Dicey, Law of the Constitution,
7th ed., 517-529.]

II. THE NATION AND THE STATES (p. 411)

*453. Dominance of the Federal Principle.*--In its preamble the Swiss
constitution proclaims its object to be "to confirm the alliance of
the Confederation and to maintain and to promote the unity, strength,
and honor of the Swiss nation;" and in its second article it affirms
that it is the purpose of the Confederation "to secure the
independence of the country against foreign nations, to maintain peace
and order within, to protect the liberty and the rights of the
confederates, and to foster their common welfare."[593] The use of the
term "nation" (which, curiously, nowhere occurs in the constitution of
the United States) might seem to imply a considerably larger measure
of centralization than in fact exists. For although the effect of the
constitution of 1848 was to convert a loosely organized league into a
firmly constructed state--to transform, as the Germans would say, a
_Staatenbund_ into a _Bundesstaat_--the measure of consolidation
attained fell, and still falls, somewhat short of that which has been
realized in the United States, and even in Germany. There are in the
Confederation twenty-two cantons, of which three (Unterwalden, Basel,
and Appenzell) have split into half-cantons; so that there are really
twenty-five political units, each with its own government, its own
laws, and its own political conditions. In territorial extent these
cantons vary all the way from 2,773 to 14 square miles, and in
population, from 642,74