All Swiss citizens eligible to the National Council are declared to be eligible to the Federal Council. But practically the qualification of a federal Councillor is _prior_ membership of the National Council. Primarily the selection of federal Councillors is always made from among the members of the National Council; and by a strange custom invariably observed with only one exception since 1848, they are again triennially returned to the National Council from their respective districts while still serving as federal Councillors, and with the full knowledge that within a few days after the convening of the Federal Assembly they will be again chosen by that body for a new term in the Federal Council. This necessitates supplementary elections to fill the vacancies created in the Assembly. Again, at every recurring election of the National Council, one of the sitting members from each district wherein a federal Councillor resides, must make room for this temporary appearance of the federal Councillor in the National Council, as a condition precedent to his re-election. The sitting members cheerfully yield to this exigency, conscious that they are standing aside for a mere _locum tenens_, and in no wise imperilling the ultimate return to their seats, after a traditional custom has been accommodated. One district has of late years disregarded this custom, declining to go through the empty form of electing to the National Council the federal Councillor residing there, and whose re-election as federal Councillor is conceded. This one obdurate district may, by persisting in its course, be the means of the final overthrow of a practice, which at present involves a double election for six seats every three years at considerable expense and trouble: and apparently incapable of any intelligent explanation. Like many customs, it has simply taken root without any inquiry, and propagates itself without any opposition. A partial explanation may be discovered in the desire to preserve the identity of the federal Councillor with his Canton, and as a renewed declaration that he continues to enjoy the confidence of, and is in accord upon questions of public policy with, that local constituency which in all probability he served for many years in the National Council, before his promotion to the Federal Council. A federal officer holding his office directly from the Federal Assembly, and at the same time invested with the popular confidence of a local constituency equally with the other members of that assembly, presents a most remarkable assertion of local political autonomy in a purely national affair.