LETTER XVII.



              THE REPUBLIC OF ST. GALL.



My dear Sir,



THE republic of St. Gall is a league and a half in circumference, and 

contains nine thousand souls. The inhabitants are very industrious in 

manufactures of linen, muslin, and embroidery, have an extensive commerce, 

and arts, sciences, and literature, are esteemed and cultivated among them. 

They have a remarkable public library, in which are thirteen volumes of 

original manuscript letters of the first reformers. To see the different 

effects of different forms of government on the human character, and the 

happiness and prosperity of nations, it would be worth while to compare this 

city with Constance, in its neighbourhood.



This happy and prosperous, though diminutive republic, has its grand council 

of ninety persons, its little council of twenty-four, and three 

burgomasters. The little council consists of the three burgomasters, nine 

senators, and twelve tribunes. The grand council consists of all the little 

council, and eleven persons from each tribe; for the city is divided into 

the society of the nobles, and six tribes of the artisans, of whom the 

weavers are the principal. 



Besides these there are, the chamber of justice, the chamber of five, and 

some others.



                       GENEVA.



IN the republic of Geneva, the sovereignty resides in the general council, 

lawfully convened, which comprehends all the orders of the state, and is 

composed of four sindics, chiefs of the republic, presidents of all the 

councils; of the lesser council of twenty-five; of the grand council of two 

hundred, though it consists of two hundred and fifty when it is complete; 

and of all the citizens of twenty-five years of age. The rights and 

attributes of all these orders of the state are fixed by the laws. The 

history of this city deserves to be studied with anxious attention by every 

American citizen. The principles of government, the necessity of various 

orders, and the fatal effects of an imperfect balance, appear no where in a 

stronger light. The fatal slumbers of the people, their invincible 

attachment to a few families, and the cool deliberate rage of those 

families, if such an expression may be allowed, to grasp all authority into 

their own hands, when they are not controuled or over-awed by a power above 

them in a first magistrate, are written in every page. I need only refer you 

to Dr. d'Ivernois's Historical and Political View of the Constitution and 

Revolutions of Geneva in the Eighteenth Century, which you received from the 

author, to convince you of this.



Let me add here, that the facts relating to the Swiss cantons, and their 

environs, mentioned in these letters, are taken from the Quarante Tables 

Politiques de la Suisse, par C. E. Faber, Bernois, Pasteur, à Bishviller, in 

1746; with some additional observations from the beautiful Sketches of Mr. 

Coxe, which I send you with this letter; and which you will find as 

instructive as they are entertaining.



The petty council is indifferently called the council of twenty five, the 

petit council or the senate.



The council of sixty is a body elected by the senate, and meets only for the 

discussion of foreign affairs.



The grand council, and council of two hundred, are one and the same body; it 

is still called the council of two hundred, though it now consists of two 

hundred and fifty members.



The general council, called indiscriminately the sovereign council, the 

general assembly, the sovereign assembly, the assembly of the people, or the 

council general, is composed of all the citizens or freemen of twenty-five 

years of age.



At the time of the Reformation, every affair, important or trifling, was 

laid before the general assembly; it was both a deliberating and acting 

body, that always left the cognizance of details to four sindics: this was 

necessary, in that time of danger, to attach the affections of the citizens 

to the support of the commonwealth by every endearing tie. The city was 

governed by two sindics of its own annual election. The multiplicity of 

affairs had engaged each sindic to nominate some of the principal citizens 

to serve as assessors during his administration; these assessors, called 

counsellors, formed a council of twenty-five persons. In 1457 the general 

council decreed, that the council of twenty-five should be augmented to 

sixty. This body, in 1526, was augmented to two hundred.



Thus far the aristocratical gentlemen proceeded upon democratical 

principles, and all is done by the general assembly. At this instant 

commences the first overt act of aristocratical ambition. -- Warm in their 

seats, they were loth to leave them, or hold them any longer at the will of 

the people. With all the subtlety, and all the sagacity and address which is 

characteristic of this order of men in every age and nation, they prevailed 

on the people to relinquish for the future the right of electing counsellors 

in the general assembly, and the people, with their characteristic 

simplicity, and unbounded confidence in their rulers when they love them; 

became the dupes, and passed a law, that the two councils should for the 

future elect, or at least approve and affirm, each other. This is a natural 

and unavoidable effect of doing all things in one assembly, or collecting 

all authority into one center. When magistrates and people meet in one 

assembly, the former will for ever do as they please, provided they proceed 

with any degree of prudence and caution.



The consequence was, that the annual reviews were a farce; only in a very 

few instances, for egregious faults, were any excluded: and the two councils 

became perpetual, and independent of the people entirely. The illusions of 

ambition are very subtle: if the motives of these magistrates, to extend the 

duration of their authority, were the public good, we must confess they were 

very ignorant. It is most likely they deceived themselves as well as their 

constituents, and mistook their own ambition for patriotism: but this is the 

progressive march of all assemblies; none can confine themselves within 

their limits, when they have an opportunity of transgressing them. These 

magistrates soon learned to consider their authority as a family property, 

as all others in general, in similar circumstances, ever did, and ever will.



They behaved like all others in another respect too: their authority being 

now permanent, they immediately attack the sindics, and transfer their power 

to themselves.



The whole history of Geneva, since that period, follows of course: the 

people, by their supineness, had given up all balances, and betrayed their 

own privileges, as well as the prerogatives of their first magistrates, into 

the hands of a few families.



The people of Geneva, as enlightened as any, have never considered the 

necessity of joining with the sindics, nor the sindics that of joining the 

people, but have constantly aimed at an impossibility, that of balancing an 

aristocratical by a democratical assembly, without the aid of a third power.