There has been some movement to change the mode of appointment to the executive power of the Confederation. Like other human things, it is not absolutely ideal in its working. The relations between the executive and judicial departments are not what they should be, though much better than they were at the beginning of the constitution. Yet, on the whole, the working of the Swiss executive during the forty-two years of its trial has been such that it need not shrink from a comparison with the working of either of the two better known systems. The fact of the Council being not directly chosen by the people is claimed by some to be inconsistent with the “democratic theory.” Surely it is not wise to exchange at the bidding of a certain abstract doctrine a system which has worked well for so long, for one which is not certain to work better, and which might work a great deal worse. By many constitutional students the actual form of the Swiss executive is looked on as the happiest of the political experiments of the present half century. It seems to have escaped both some of the evils which are incident to kings and some of the evils which are incident to presidents. It seems more wisely planned, in all events for the country in which it has arisen, than those forms to which we are better accustomed. CHAPTER V. THE FEDERAL TRIBUNAL. Bundesgericht; Tribunal fédéral. The Swiss Federal Tribunal, in its present form, dating from 1874, was originally set up in 1848. It is, however, the product of an historical development extending over nearly six hundred years, and the history of this period only will explain the exact meaning of the carefully-balanced and guarded phrases which describe its jurisdiction. Previous to 1848 there existed two methods for peaceably settling disputes among members of the Confederation,--_friendly remonstrance_ and _arbitration_. 1. _Friendly Remonstrance._--This was the plan adopted in the two earliest treaties of alliance, those of 1291 and 1315. In both cases there were only three parties to the treaty,--Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden,--and the object was to settle disputes between neighbors, and in a friendly and informal way. The “Witan,” or wise men, met together to heal the quarrel according to the rules of equity and right. If either party refused to accept their decision, the other confederates were to enforce obedience.