On the early history of the democratic Cantons, a subject than which none has been more thoroughly misunderstood, I am not able to point to any one trustworthy work in English. Among the writings of Swiss scholars—shut up for the most part from readers of other nations in the inaccessible Transactions of local Societies—there is a vast literature on the subject, of the whole of which I am far from pretending to be master. But I may refer to the _Essai sur l’Etat des Personnes et la Condition des Terres dans le Pays d’Ury au XIIIe Siècle_, by the Baron Frederick de Gingins-la-Sarraz, in the _Archiv für schweizerische Geschichte_, i. 17; to Dr. J. R. Burckhardt’s _Untersuchungen über die erste Bevölkerung des Alpengebirgs_ in the same collection, iv. 3; to the early chapters of the great work of Bluntschli, _Geschichte des schweizerischen Bundesrechtes_ (Zürich, 1849), and of Blumer’s _Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte der schweizerischen Demokratien_ (St. Gallen, 1850); to Dr. Alfons Huber, _Die Waldstaette_ (Innsbruck, 1861), and Dr. Wilhelm Vischer, _Die Sage von der Befreiung der Waldstädte_ (Leipzig, 1867). Dr. H. von Liebenau, in _Die Tell-Sage zu dem Jahre_ 1230, takes a line of his own. The results of the whole inquiry will be found in the most accessible form in M. Albert Rilliet’s _Les Origines de la Confédération Suisse_ (Genève et Bâle, 1868). (2) Individual Swiss mercenaries may doubtless still be found in foreign armies, as Italy some years back knew to her cost. But the Federal Constitution of 1848 altogether swept away the system of military capitulations which used to be publicly entered into by the Cantons. (3) See Johannes von Müller, _Geschichte der schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft_, Book v., c. 1 (vol. xvi. p. 25, of his _sämmtliche Werke_, Stuttgart und Tübingen, 1832, and the note in vol. xxii. p. 14; or the French translation, vol. viii. p. 35: Paris and Geneva, 1840). The description in Peterman Etterlin’s Chronicle, p. 204 (Basel, 1752), is worth quoting in the original. “Dann do der Hertzog von Burgunn gesach den züg den berg ab züchen, schein die sunn gerad in sy, und glitzet als wie ein spiegel, des gelichen lüyet das horn von Ury, auch die harschorne von Lutzern, und was ein sölich toffen, das des Hertzogen von Burgunn lüt ein grusen darab entpfiengent, und trattent hinder sich.” (4) The magistrates rode when I was present at the Landesgemeinden of 1863 and 1864. I trust that so good a custom has not passed away. (5) On the character and position of Phôkiôn, see Grote, xi. 382, xii. 481; and on the general question of the alleged fickleness of the Athenian people, see iv. 496.