from the date of the publication of the law. The demand for a popular vote must be made by written petition, addressed to the Federal Council, all signatures must be autographic, and the chief officer of the Commune must attest the right of each signer to vote. If, at the expiration of the ninety days, the demand is found to have been made by 30,000 voters, the Federal Council fixes a date for taking the popular vote; this date must be at least four weeks from the date of the notice given by the Federal Council. The vote is “Yes” or “No,” and a simple majority of those voting is decisive. Unless, however, the demand for such a reference is made within the ninety days, the people are presumed to have given a tacit assent, and the bill becomes a law, and its execution ordered by the Federal Council. Under this peculiar institution, a condition exists, in which the sovereignty of the people is no longer a speculative doctrine, but a living reality; it makes a very direct and thorough democracy, and its application has proven neither ineffective nor unduly obstructive. Since the adoption of the Referendum, in 1874, there have been vetoed, among other laws passed by the Assembly, the following: “Modification of the right of voting,” “Bank-notes law,” “Indemnities payable to the Confederation by citizens dispensed from military service,” “Political rights,” “A law respecting certain epidemics,” “Appointment of a federal secretary of education,” “Creation of a special secretary in the federal department of justice and police,” “Granting an annual salary of 10,000 francs for a secretary to the Swiss legation at Washington,” “Exempting native commercial travellers from taxation which those of other countries had not to pay,” “Power to Federal Council to remove criminal cases from a cantonal to the Federal Tribunal, when there is reason to suspect the fairness of the former.” The only important laws sanctioned under the Referendum, during the same period, are the “Marriage law,” “Factories law,” “Subsidies to Alpine Railways,” and a general “Banking law.” Also three modifications of the federal constitution respecting “Patent law,” “Capital punishment,” and “Spirituous liquor monopoly.”