A constitution is valuable in proportion as it is suited to the circumstances, desires, and aspirations of the people, and as it contains within itself the elements of stability and security against disorder and revolution. Measured by this standard, the Swiss Constitution is an excellent adaptation to the conditions of a most varied and composite nationality. With a strong paternal tendency, the Constitution takes cognizance of the citizen at his birth by registration, and guarding him through life with legislative scrutiny, vigilant and minute, it insures him a “decent burial.” Yet this searching, far-reaching, central authority is administered in a beneficent and patriotic spirit, with a jealous regard for all the highest natural rights of man. Federalism tends to conservatism; it is almost certain to impress on the minds of citizens the idea that any provision included in the organic law is immutable and, so to speak, sacred. History shows that those states have been most stable and prosperous which, in casting off an old allegiance or in ordering their political constitutions afresh, made no more changes than were absolutely needful, and did not violently snap the tie between the old and the new state of things; that the best form of government will commonly be that which the events of its history have given it,--a government which has arisen out of the events and necessities of the country. Switzerland and the United States are examples of commonwealths whose success has been largely owing to the comparatively small amount of change which accompanied their acquisition of independence. Each has that form of government which the events of its history have made natural for it. In each the existing political system is founded on the practical needs of the time and place. Referring to the preamble of the _Declaration of Rights_, wherein the prayer is made, “That it may be declared and enacted that all and singular the rights and liberties asserted and declared, are the true ancient and indubitable rights and liberties of the people of this kingdom,” Burke says, “By adhering in this manner to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but the spirit of philosophic analogy. In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of policy the image of a relation in blood, binding up the constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties, adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of our family affections; keeping inseparable, and cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars.” Switzerland and the United States in their organic law and its application, while presenting many and essential differences, constitute the only two genuine and thorough republics in existence; and each system better suits the position of the nation which has adopted it. Switzerland, though beyond all