ich to base investigations
was a collection of commonplace or beclouded fact from the newspapers, a
few statistics and opinions from an English magazine or two, and some
excerpts from volumes by De Laveleye and Freeman which contained
chapters treating of Swiss institutions. Soon after, as a result of my
observations in the country, I contributed, under the caption
"Republican Switzerland," a series of articles to the New York "Times"
on the Swiss government of today, and, last April, an essay to the
"Chautauquan" magazine on "The Referendum in Switzerland." On the form
outlined in these articles I have constructed the first three chapters
of the present work. The data, however, excepting in a few cases, are
corrected to 1892, and in many respects besides I have profited by the
labors of other men in the same field.

The past two years and a half has seen much writing on Swiss
institutions. Political investigators are awakening to the fact that in
politics and economics the Swiss are doing what has never before been
done in the world. In neighborhood, region, and nation, the entire
citizenship in each case concerned is in details operating the
government. In certain cantons it is done in every detail. Doing this,
the Swiss are moving rapidly in practically grappling with social
problems that elsewhere are hardly more than speculative topics with
scholars and theorists. In other countries, consequently, interested
lookers-on, having from different points of view taken notes of
democratic Switzerland, are, through newspaper, magazine, and book,
describing its unprecedented progress and suggesting to their own
countrymen what in Swiss governmental experience may be found of value
at home. Of the more solid writing of this character, four books may
especially be recommended. I mention them in the order of their
publication.

"The Swiss Confederation." By Sir Francis Ottiwell Adams and C.D.
Cunningham. (London: Macmillan & Co.; 1889; 289 pages; $1.75.) Sir
Francis Ottiwell Adams was for some years British Minister at Berne.

"The Federal Government of Switzerland: An Essay on the Constitution."
By Bernard Moses, Ph.D., professor of history and political economy,
University of California. (Pacific Press Publishing Company: Oakland,
Cal.; 1889; 256 pages; $1.25.) This work is largely a comparative study
of constitutions. It is meant chiefly for the use of students of law and
of legal history. It abounds, however, in facts a