The _Bundespräsident_, or President of the Confederation, is merely the chairman for a year of the Federal Council. He is only the chief of the executive; he is not himself the whole of it, and therefore can hardly be called the executive chief of the nation. His commission as President simply enhances his dignity, and does not confer upon him any additional power or responsibility. The other members are his colleagues, not his mere agents or advisers; he is only _primus inter pares_. He has no appointive power or patronage, no veto, no right of even nomination to any position. Not a single Swiss official at home or abroad is disturbed by the annual change in the executive head. Few republics have invested a single magistrate with such large powers as the President of the United States; few commonwealths have given a nominal chief magistrate so small a degree of power as belongs to the Swiss President. He is not a chief magistrate. He is chief of a board, which board, in its collective capacity, acts as chief magistrate. The central authority in Switzerland, since the birth of the republic, has always been vested in a committee; and a committee it is to-day. The small addition to the salary, giving audience for letters of credence and recall from diplomatic representatives, precedence on state and ceremonial occasions, and the right to be addressed as “_Son Excellence_,” about exhaust the special privileges, power, and dignity of the President of the Confederation. He is just as accessible to the public as any of his colleagues. He has no guards, no lords in waiting, no liveried ushers, no gewgaws and trappings. You may go to his official quarters with as little ceremony as you may call on a private citizen. The stranger may knock at the door and the chief magistrate of the Confederation bids him to come in. The new President enters upon the discharge of his duties on the 1st of January, following his election.[37] There is no formal or public installation, no demonstration, civic or military. The newly-elected President repairs to his modest chambers in the federal palace at noon, where alone he receives all who desire to call and pay their respects. This opportunity is availed of very little beyond the members of the diplomatic corps, who are expected to tender their congratulations personally and on behalf of the governments they represent. The writer was told by a colleague, who had been recently transferred to Bern from a post with an elaborate court, that on the announcement of the death of the Swiss President he donned his full diplomatic uniform to go and tender his official and personal condolence to the bereaved family. With considerable difficulty he found the executive mansion in apartments on the third floor of a building of a modest street. There being no _portier_, he rang the bell at the street entrance and ascended the stairs. Reaching the floor of the apartments he was