Less satisfactory was the course of events in Schwyz, Basel, and
Neuchâtel. In Schwyz a temporary separation into the two semi-cantons of
Inner and Outer Schwyz was caused by the refusal of the former to grant
equal rights to the latter, which had been formerly subject or purchased
land mainly. Basel, the city of millionaires and manufactures, was able
by her overwhelming importance to hold her supremacy over the rural
districts, and thus arose the division into Baselstadt, and Baselland,
which latter had Liestal as its _chef lieu_. But all this after a civil
strife of three years. Basel city joined the Catholic League formed at
Sarnen, in November, 1832, as a counterblast to the _Siebner-Concordat_.
Uri, Inner-Schwyz, Unterwalden, Valais, and Freiburg also joined this
league. The inhabitants of Neuchâtel had a double object, the
reformation of their constitution, and their separation, if possible,
from Prussia, the double _régime_ being greatly disliked. An attempt was
made on the castle, but it failed, and the Federation re-established
order, and the old _status quo_. The royalist party in Neuchâtel now
aimed at a severance from Switzerland.
But the natural consequence of constitutional revision in the separate
cantons was the revision of the federal pact, with the view of
strengthening the bonds which joined the states. The draft of a new
constitution for Switzerland was presented at Lucerne in July, 1832, by
the moderate party, but it failed, as so many other attempts have done
which clashed with the selfishness of those cantons, that thought more
of the question of cantonal home-rule than of the weal of the country as
a whole. A far-seeing policy required that the central government should
be strengthened, that the Diet should be made thoroughly capable of
protecting Swiss interests, both in the country itself and abroad. That
the Diet was quite incapable of enforcing its decrees for the general
good was plainly shown by the condition of things in Basel, alluded to
above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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