The country labourers had a majority, and rejected the measure, objecting, it is said, to the additional expenditure. It is to be hoped, however, that this measure will be carried eventually. On the whole, perhaps, the "facultative" Referendum is to be preferred to the obligatory. We may mention, in conclusion, that out of 107 Bills passed by the Federal Council, between 1874 and 1886, nineteen were submitted to the Referendum, and of these nineteen, but six were ultimately adopted by the whole body of voters thus appealed to.[107] [Illustration: LAW COURTS AT LAUSANNE.] FOOTNOTES: [103] There is, in fact, no office in Switzerland similar to that of the United States President, though foreigners nearly always speak of the _President of the Swiss Republic_, when they mean simply the _Chairman of the Cabinet_. [104] The reader is referred for fuller information to the most interesting account by Sir F. O. Adams and Mr. Cunningham in "The Swiss Confederation" (Longmans). [105] Kern, "Souvenirs Suisses," pp. 124-129, where other instances of Napoleon's goodwill in 1848-9 are mentioned. [106] Legislative Acts are, in fact, referred _to the whole people_ for approval or disapproval, as in limited monarchies they are referred to the _sovereign_. But in Switzerland the veto possessed by the people is a _real_ thing, and not a virtual impossibility, as in England for instance. [107] For further notes on the Referendum, see Adams and Cunningham's "Swiss Confederation," alluded to above. The Referendum seems likely to attract increasing attention, in England and America especially. XXXIV. INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, RAILWAYS, EDUCATION THE "RIGHT OF ASYLUM."