In the old days of the Swiss Confederation, the days of the _Staatenbund_, when no part of the internal sovereignty had been given over to any central power, the citizen of any Canton was regarded and treated as a foreigner in any other Canton; he was as strictly a _metoikos_ as a Corinthian who had settled at Athens, having no voice in the government either of the Canton or Commune into which he removed. All Swiss citizens who settled in _Gemeinden_, or Communes, of which they had not the hereditary burghership, answered exactly to the Greek _metoikos_; being in every important respect strangers in the places where they themselves dwelt, and where, perhaps, their forefathers had dwelt for generations. Down to 1815, it was left to each Canton to determine for itself the conditions under which persons from without could settle and gain citizenship; and for the first time, under the Constitution of 1848, a general law governing this matter was adopted; and it was still further extended and elaborated by that of 1874.[57] The good example of the United States, where it had already been constitutionally provided that “the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States,” was followed in the present Swiss constitution; giving every Swiss citizen equal federal and cantonal rights, in whatever part of the Confederation he may settle. The two higher franchises, those of the Confederation and the Canton, are assured to him at his place of domicile as fully as to a native thereof; but to the lower franchise of the Commune he can be admitted only by a special grant, or by the effect of some special cantonal enactment. Communal questions, even including citizenship, are left to the legislation of the Canton and of the Commune itself, the federal constitution only providing that one domiciled in the Commune shall not be discriminated against as to taxation. The mere fact of indefinite residence and contribution to the local taxes no more gives one a right to communal than it would to American citizenship. Membership in the Commune is the determining factor of Swiss citizenship. Modern states generally recognize nationality as a personal relation not mainly dependent on place of birth or domicile, but on descent from members of the nation and personal reception into its membership, place of birth and domicile coming in to complete the notion. Midway between these comes the Swiss principle of membership in the Communes, which forms the basis of membership of the Canton (_Cantonsbürgerrecht_), and that, in turn, of the Swiss Confederation (_Schweizerbürgerrecht_). Citizenship in Switzerland is primarily an affair of the Commune, from which the broader conception of citizenship in the Canton and the Confederation must be reached. The “right of origin” is the great imprescriptible right and muniment of Swiss citizenship, and the production of a