at a minimum. Art. 42
prescribes that the expenditures of the
Confederation shall be met from the income from
federal property, the proceeds of the postal and
telegraph services, the proceeds of the powder
monopoly, half of the gross receipts from the tax
on military exemptions levied by the cantons, the
proceeds of the federal customs, and, finally, in
case of necessity, contributions levied upon the
cantons in proportion to their wealth and taxable
resources. Dodd, II., 269.]

Within the domain of administrative functions, the principle is (p. 416)
rather that of committing to the federal agencies a minimum of
authority. Beyond the management of foreign relations, the
administration of the customs, the postal, and the telegraph services,
and of the alcohol and powder monopolies, and the control of the
arsenals and of the army when in the field, the federal government
exercises directly but inconsiderable executive authority. It is only
in relation to the cantonal governments that its powers of an
administrative nature are large; and even there they are only
supervisory. In a number of highly important matters the constitution
leaves to the canton the right to make and enforce law, at the same
time committing to the Confederation the right to inspect, and even to
enforce, the execution of such measures. Thus it is stipulated that
the cantons shall provide for primary instruction which shall be
compulsory, non-sectarian, and free; and that "the Confederation shall
take the necessary measures against such cantons as do not fulfill
these duties."[604] Not only, therefore, does the federal government
enforce federal law, through its own officials or through those of the
canton; it supervises the enactment and enforcement of measures which
the constitution enjoins upon the cantons.[605]

[Footnote 604: Art. 27. Dodd, Modern Constitutions,
II., 263.]

[Footnote 605: A. Souriac, L'evolution de la
juridiction federale en Suisse (Paris, 1909).]

III. CANTONAL LEGISLATION: THE REFERENDUM AND THE INITIATIVE

*459. Variation of Cantonal Institutions.*--In its fundamental features
the federal government of Switzerland represents largely an adaptation
of the p