To the confusion and dismay of the strongest advocates of the Referendum, the measures which they most prized, when so put, have been negatived. Contrary to all expectations, laws of the highest importance, some of them openly framed for popularity, have been vetoed by the people after they have been adopted by the federal and cantonal legislatures. This result is sufficiently intelligible. It is possible, by agitation and exhortation, to produce in the mind of the average citizen a vague impression that he desires a particular change, but when the agitation has settled down, when the subject has been threshed out, when the law is before him with all its detail, he is sure to find in it something that is likely to disturb his habits, his ideas, his prejudice, or his interest, and so he votes, “No.” Thus it serves as a guarantee against precipitate legislation in matters of vital concern to the community; and is considered thoroughly successful by those who wish that there should be as little legislation as possible. In short, the Swiss experience with this popular veto on legislation is evidence that, under certain circumstances, it produces good effects. It does not hurry on a law, nor facilitate any legislation; it merely forms an additional safeguard against the hastiness or violence of party; it is a check on popular impatience. It secures the laws against any change which the sovereign people do not deliberately approve. The object of such safeguard is not to thwart the wishes of the democracy, but to insure that a temporary or factitious majority shall not override the will of the people. It tends to produce permanence in the tenure of office; it is a distinct recognition of the elementary but important principle, that in matters of legislation patriotic citizens ought to distinguish between measures and men; and this distinction Swiss voters have shown themselves fully capable of drawing. It is an institution which admirably fits a system of popular government. It is the only check on the predominance of party which is at the same time democratic and conservative, as it has demonstrated. It is democratic, for it appeals to and protects the sovereignty of the people; it is conservative, for it balances the weight of the nation’s common sense against the violence of partisanship and the fanaticism of over-zealous reformers.