Excerpt from SwitzerlandAll this illustrates the fundamental truth about Switzer land that it is not a homogeneous but a composite state. The country is so small - its total area is less than half that of Ireland - that everyone has more or less difficulty in grasping its essentially federal character. The federalism, however, is a reality - the root reality of Swiss history and modern Swiss government. The Republic is a congregation of small self governing communities that have been gradually drawn together by common interests and the need of defence against outside powers. Through centuries the union was a loose and variable one; to-day it is Closely knit and severely defined. But each community, howsoever it may have been brought into the union - by treaty, or by conquest, or as a suppliant for protection - jealously guards its individuality and its rights of self-rule. Certain of these rights have been handed over to the federal government; but the rest are the canton's own - ln regard to them it is sovereign, and the Parliament in Bern cannot abate a jot or tittle of them.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.