THE MODEL REPUBLIC.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 241, 13 October 1886, Page 3

THE MODEL REPUBLIC.

Where Elections arc Honest and Officials aro not Snobs.

The Swiss Confederation is, next to San Marino, which is a mere toy ropublic, tho oldest representative government of the modern world1. It is a model of Jeffersonian simplicity. The Congress meets twice a year, and rarely extends its sessions over three weeks. Its members rccoive 16s a day durings its sittings. There is a Federal Council of seven, one of whom is chosen as President for one ye_r. This Council is elected by the Congress. There is cc cumbrous Electoral College, as with v?, and no longer, or second, or third terms. The popular elections are held in the churches, and the corruption of voters, or or the stuffing of the ballot-box, or rioting about the polls, is unknown. A civil sorvico of 'aw, unwritten, but real, prevails, and good men grow old and die in the public service. Nowhere except in tho array is ago a disqualifier. The Swiss statesmen aro all grey-hairod, and a cursory glance at a sitting of tho Swiss Congress gives tho impression of a small human enow-storm. Ostentatious displays, either of oratory or of living, are as unheard of as official mannerism, inaccessibility and bombast. The beggar on horseback has nover penetrated these fastnesses. The corner-stone of the circumlocution office has not been laid. There aro no public debt, and no surplus. My friend, tho Hon. A. Dudley Mann, who negotiated tbe first treaty between the United States aud Switzerland, told mo a characteristic and amusing story of' a dinner given him by the Federal Council just before his departure from Berne, which nearly bankrupted the national treasury. I think ho said that, out of a surplus on hand of £55, this banquet left less than £40 subject to tho President's draft. Time has in no wise lessened theirugality of the Swiss authoiitiet. They receive the most meagre salaries, and make no pretence at ceremony. Ia transacting business with tho Swiss Government, one doe. not have to cool his heels in an ante-room or pass tho gauntlet of a line of insolent underlings to reach tho head of a departirtent. The Swiss Senator is not a mendicant at home, bowing and cringing to the dear people, and a pompous lordlet at Berne, too busy to do anything, and too great to be ueeful. He is the eamo among hia constituents and at tho Federal capital. The country is too small for little thunderbclts to put on airs, and the peoplo are too straightforward and intelligent to tolerate the ebams and frauds which pass current in larger and moro complicated systems. Yet this simple, free and happy, this upright and economic system has flourished for 500 years, and is at this moment aB stable and unshaken as it ever was, a pure democracy and a perfect republicanism.