The daily sittings of the Assembly open at eight o’clock in the morning during the June session, and nine o’clock during the December session; the adjournments are usually from one to two o’clock P.M. The sessions never extend beyond three weeks. It requires from the federal treasury a small sum to defray the entire annual cost of the Assembly. In the legislative appropriation bill for 1889 the following sums were provided for the compensation of the two Houses of the Assembly: _Ständerath_, salaries and mileage of committees, 10,000 francs; salary and mileage of translator, 3000 francs; service, 2500 francs; total, 15,500 francs; _Nationalrath_, salaries and mileage of members and members of committees, 200,000 francs; translator, 3000 francs; service, 3000 francs; total, 206,000 francs. So the entire outlay of the country for its legislative department for the year was 221,500 francs, or about $44,000; one thousand dollars less than is annually paid to nine members of Congress. One in visiting the chambers of the Assembly is much impressed with the smooth and quiet despatch of business. The members are not seated with any reference to their political affiliations. There are no “filibustering,” no vexatious points of order, no drastic rules of “clôture,” to delay or ruffle the decorum of its proceedings. Interruptions are few, and angry personal bickerings never occur. There are no official stenographers, or _verbatim_ reports made of the proceedings; press reporters represent only the local papers and furnish a very meagre synopsis of the daily business. The small gallery set apart for the public is rarely occupied. “Leave to print” or a written speech memorized and passionately declaimed are unknown; there are none of these extraneous and soliciting conditions to invite “buncombe” speeches or flights of oratory for the press and the gallery. The debates are more in the nature of an informal consultation of business-men about common interests; they talk and vote, and there is an end of it. This easy colloquial disposition of affairs by no means implies any slipshod indifference, or superficial method of legislation. There is no legislative body where important questions are treated in a more fundamental and critical manner. The members of the National Council stand up to speak, while those of the Council of States speak from their seats. The tri-lingual characteristic of the country is carried into the Assembly; and within a brief visit to either House, different members may be heard to speak successively in German, French, and Italian. If the presiding officer of either House is a German and cannot speak French, his remarks are immediately repeated by a French official interpreter who stands at his side; and with a President who is French and cannot speak German the process is reversed. The members from the Italian Cantons, as a rule, understand French or German sufficiently not to require special translation into their tongue.