The control of the Canton over the Communes in early times was only nominal; it consisted in finding fault and proposing amendments that were not adopted; any semblance of cantonal interference, in the way of inspection and suggestions, being resented by the Communes. Of later years there has been a gradual and systematic improvement in the relation of the Canton and the Commune; and increased activity of cantonal superintendence has effected a better management of the Commune. The common funds as well as the common obligations have been subjected to more efficient rules, without at all extinguishing the principle of distinct communal management. Communal accounts are referable to the Canton for investigation and correction. Where great irregularities are discovered (which occurred once), the Canton has the right to put a Commune under guardianship; a Commune might, indeed, under certain circumstances be forced into bankruptcy. The Constitution of 1874 largely extended this cantonal supervision over the Commune, and modified many extraordinary powers hitherto exercised by it. Some writers look upon the Commune as representing an “antiquated form of corporation,” to which the modern era is opposed; a sort of mediæval fraternity for the existence of which no plausible ground can be found. Others still contend that the Communes form the true unities, through which, by equilibration of the interests of each, the wants of the whole are more wisely and effectively served. The republic of Switzerland can largely trace its foundation, historically, to a free communal constitution. It forms the solid foundation of the whole organization. In the Commune, the citizen himself feels that he is connected with his fellow-members by the bonds of a common ownership; and with his fellow-citizens, by the common exercise of the same right. With him the fair motto of the French, “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” is no empty formula inscribed on the tablets of public documents. His liberty is complete, and has been handed down from remote antiquity; equality is a fact sanctioned by all his laws; fraternity is not mere sentiment, it is embodied in institutions which make the members of the same Commune members of one family, partaking, by equal right, in the hereditary patrimony. It would be unnatural if he was not deeply attached to an administration in which he takes so constant and essential a part. It is to him, also, the nursery of independence, and the training-school for higher politics; not controversial, office-seeking, electioneering politics, but politics as including in one and the same comprehensive signification, as in the vocabulary of a free country it should be, all the relations and obligations of the citizen to the state. The rights and duties of a citizen are themes of daily interest and discussion in the Commune, and are taught in all its secondary and superior schools; every one is