and ordered to give the victim as many strokes with “_ochsenziemer_” on the bare body, as the judges might think necessary, to loosen his tongue or purge him of his offence. Another so-called truth-finder (_wahrheitserforschungsmittel_) was a cage, in which one could neither stand upright nor stretch his legs, but only cower on the floor in a constrained position. At Freiburg the punishment for stealing five sous was death by decapitation; and a stranger striking a burgher was fastened to a post and scalped, while a burgher striking a stranger paid three sous. Capital punishment was inflicted by cutting off the head, which was done in this manner: the culprit was made fast in an arm-chair, and a cap placed on his head with a hole in the top, by which an assistant took hold of his hair, while the executioner, placed behind, struck off his head with a broadsword. There is little or nothing in the Swiss cantonal institutions to tempt unworthy men into official life. The salaries are nominal, with very remote chances for any personal aggrandizement. In the local and municipal administrations, it is difficult, if not impossible, for any one class to employ the powers of government for purely selfish ends. Many of the officials serve the Canton, municipality, and community with motives as honorable as their services are intelligent and efficient. The Cantons and communities are comparatively free from debt, and not burdened by excessive taxes. There is a general aversion to incurring public debts, common to the Swiss, from the federal head down through the cantonal, municipal, and community administrations. The revenues of these little states are small, and require strict economy in every branch of expenditure. Nothing is wasted on useless consumers and their retainers; an exact account must be rendered of the employment of the public funds; and precision and publicity in the keeping of public accounts. The people yields its servants, indeed, some compensation, but it does not reward them with pensions or with superabundant influence. It builds up no official class who forget their citizenship and separate themselves from the mass of the people, squeezing as many advantages as possible out of their offices, even to the prejudice of efficient service. The Cantons, upon enumeration, number not twenty-two but twenty-five, because three of them have been divided into half-Cantons, making nineteen whole and six half Cantons. Basel is divided into Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft (urban and rural); Appenzell, into Ausser-Rhoden and Inner-Rhoden; and Unterwalden, into Obwald and Nidwald (above and below the forests which formed the boundary between them). The rending of these Cantons into half-Cantons was the work of party feuds; in one place springing from political causes, in a second from religious strife, and in the third from wrangles about wood and grass. Unterwalden was divided as early as 1366. The division of Appenzell occurred in 1597; the