conceded by our Department of State in 1876, and left the remedy to be sought by an international treaty. The Swiss government has indicated its willingness to enter upon the negotiation of such a conventional agreement to effect the relief of United States citizens from this tax, after the manner prescribed by the law of 1878, and which was promptly acted upon by all the European powers. The government of the United States has not found it expedient to do this. Many difficulties are suggested. In parts of Switzerland there has appeared some dissatisfaction with the military service and tax. It is alleged to be an unnecessary waste of money expended on the country’s armed forces, draining its limited resources to no practical purpose, and that an unprofitable and irksome task is imposed upon them by this assessment. The statesmen of Switzerland stand united in the expression that it is the only way to be sure of their neutrality being respected; as was abundantly proven by the prompt presence of the federal troops compelling Bourbaki’s corps of 80,000 men, when in 1871 they were driven into the Swiss territory, the moment they crossed the line, to lay down their arms; and thereby saved the German army from crossing the frontier of the Confederation and engaging the French on Swiss soil. The President of the Confederation, in his address to the _Tir fédéral_ of 1887, voiced the prevailing sentiment when he said: “The government of Switzerland would remain foremost in maintaining peace and pride in its arts as the supreme glory of the republic; and would constantly endeavor to preserve her neutrality, but to do this she must not rely altogether on treaties, but also look to her own strength and energy; to keep her soldiery in condition to show that the adequacy of the Confederation to all the needs of national life is, in no single department, taken on trust. He therefore would urge them to be assiduous in improving military training, to add such training to the education of the youth, to hold rifle contests and to perfect drills, all of which should be animated by a free fraternal spirit.” Notwithstanding the constitution forbids the Confederation to keep a standing army, or any Canton to have more than three hundred men as a permanent military body, every able-bodied Swiss is a soldier of the republic; not on paper merely or by legal and constitutional fiction, but _actually_. The necessity of self-defence forced Switzerland to be the very first power in which universal liability to military service was introduced in Europe, many years and even centuries before other countries had recognized the principle, which is now almost universal. The Swiss army is based upon a “voluntary-compulsory” system. It is essentially a force of militia intended for defensive purposes only. Admirable as it is in a military and economic sense, it is scarcely more than a summer holiday, compared with the rigid and grinding martial duties under the