Individual Cantons have a national character, either because all their inhabitants belong to one people, as in the German Cantons of northern and eastern Switzerland, or in the French Cantons of western Switzerland, or in Italian Ticino; or because one nationality decidedly prevails, as the Germans in Bern and Graubünden, and the French in Freiburg and Valais. The result of holding different peoples together without transforming them into one nationality has been attained only by allowing each people free course in its local and inner life. The drift of Switzerland’s history and its political trend are unquestionably towards a more compact nationality. The constitution was a compromise between the advocates and opponents of nationalism. Every change from 1814 down to 1874 has taken something from the Canton and Commune and bestowed it on the Confederation. In every stage of its historical growth it has been a fight of the Confederation against the Canton, on behalf of general rights; those interests of the citizen which are claimed to lie beyond the proper sphere of local laws and customs. The national government has steadily extended its influence, every step increasing the authority of the nation at the expense of the cantonal independence; a steady growth in national feeling, a constant drift towards a stronger federal government. Many branches of legislation have been taken away from the Cantons, which under the constitution of the United States adhere to the States. The federal government has absorbed numerous matters of social and economic importance, such as those relating to railways, telegraph, factories, insurance, debts, marriage, the law of contract, and general measures of sanitary precaution. “Swiss democratic federalism tends towards unitarianism. This is no doubt in part due to the desire to strengthen the nation against foreign attack. It is also due, perhaps, to another circumstance. Federalism, as it defines and therefore limits the power of each department of the administration, is unfavorable for the interference or to the activity of government. Hence a federal government can hardly render service to the nation by undertaking for the national benefit functions which may be performed by individuals.”[49] Wherever in the history of the world we find a federation having an internal organization sufficiently strong to maintain its own existence, we observe an inevitable drift of power from the several states to the central government, striving to ascertain over how broad a field it is expedient and right to extend the activities of government. Yet it is impossible to study attentively the march of Swiss affairs without seeing that what really lie next to the hearts of the people are their cantonal and local institutions; and while a well-assured nationality is kept up, in event of foreign danger or common peril, nevertheless, the citizens look for protection as well as for command to their own cantonal authority. A familiar