e inhabitants of these countries are naturally of a heavy, legmatic temper, if any of their leading members have more -e and spirit than comes to their share, it is quickly tempered the coldness and moderation of the rest who sit at the elm with them. To this we may add, that the Alps is the orst spot of ground in the world to make conquests in, a eat part of its governments being so naturally intrenched nong woods and mountains. However it be, we find no ch disorders among them as one would expect in such a ultitude of states; for as soon as any public rupture hapens, it is immediately closed up by the moderation and good fices of the rest that interpose.

As all the considerable governments among the Alps are
mmonwealths, so, indeed, it is a constitution the most
apted of any other to the poverty and barrenness of these
untries. We may see only in a neighbouring government
e ill consequences of having a despotic prince, in a state
at is most of it composed of rocks and mountains; for,
twithstanding there is a vast extent of lands, and many
them better than those of the Swiss and Grisons, the
mmon people among the latter are much more at their
se, and in a greater affluence of all the conveniencies of life.
prince's court eats too much into the income of a poor
ate, and generally introduces a kind of luxury and magnifi-
nce, that sets every particular person upon making a higher
ure in his station than is consistent with his revenue.
It is the great endeavour of the several cantons of Switz
land, to banish from among them everything that looks
e pomp or superfluity. To this end the ministers are
ways preaching, and the governors putting out edicts,
ainst dancing, gaming, entertainments, and fine clothes.
is is become more necessary in some of the governments,
ace there are so many refugees settled among them; for,
ough the Protestants in France affect ordinarily a greater
inness and simplicity of manners than those of the same
ality who are of the Roman Catholic communion, they
ve, however, too much of their country-gallantry for the
nius and constitution of Switzerland. Should dressing,
sting, and balls, once get among the cantons, their mili-
y roughness would be quickly lost, their tempers would
ow too soft for their climate, and their expenses out-run
eir incomes; besides that the materials for their luxury

must be brought from other nations, which would immediately ruin a country that has few commodities of its own to export, and is not over-stocked with money. Luxury indeed wounds a republic in its very vitals, as its natural consequences are rapine, avarice, and injustice; for the more money a man spends, the more must he endeavour to augment his stock; which at last sets the liberty and votes of a commonwealth to sale, if they find any foreign power that is able to pay the price of them. We see nowhere the pernicious effects of luxury on a republic more than in that of the ancient Romans, who1 immediately found itself poor as soon as this vice got footing among them, though they were possessed of all the riches in the world. We find in the beginnings and increases of their commonwealth strange instances of the contempt of money, because indeed they were utter strangers to the pleasures that might be procured by it; or in other words, because they were wholly ignorant of the arts of luxury. But as soon as they once entered into a taste of pleasure, politeness, and magnificence, they fell into a thousand violences, conspiracies, and divisions, that threw them into all the disorders imaginable, and terminated in the utter subversion of the commonwealth. It is no wonder, therefore, the poor commonwealths of Switzerland are ever Labouring at the suppressing and prohibition of everything that may introduce vanity and luxury. Besides the several fines that are set upon plays, games, balls, and feastings, they have many customs among them which very much contribute to the keeping up of their ancient simplicity. The bourgeois, who are at the head of the governments, are obliged to appear at all their public assemblies in a black cloak and a band. The women's dress is very plain, those of the best quality wearing nothing on their heads generally but furs, which are to be met with in their own country. The persons of different qualities in both sexes are indeed allowed their different ornaments, but these are generally such as are by no means costly, being rather designed as marks of distinction than to make a figure. The chief officers of Berne, for example, are known by the crowns of their hats, which are much deeper than those of an inferior character. The

Who.] The relative “Who" has a person for its antecedent-it should therefore have been, "Who found herself poor," or, "which found itself

poor."

asants are generally clothed in a coarse kind of canvass, that
the manufacture of the country. Their holiday clothes go
om father to son, and are seldom worn out till the second or
Erd generation; so that it is common enough to see a country-
an in the doublet and breeches of his great-grandfather.
Geneva is much politer than Switzerland, or any of its
ies, and is therefore looked upon as the court of the Alps,
ither the Protestant cantons often send their children to im-
ove themselves in language and education. The Genevois
ve been very much refined, or, as others will have it, corrupt-
by the conversation of the French Protestants, who make
almost a third of their people. It is certain they have very
ch forgotten the advice that Calvin gave them in a great
uncil a little before his death, when he recommended to
em, above all things, an exemplary modesty and humility,
das great a simplicity in their manners as in their religion.
hether or no they have done well, to set up for making
other kind of figure, time will witness. There are several
at fancy the great sums they have remitted into Italy,
ough by this means they make their court to the king
France at present, may some time or other give him in-
nation to become the master of so wealthy a city.
As this collection of little states abounds more in pastur-

than in corn, they are all provided with their public graies, and have the humanity to furnish one another in public gencies, when the scarcity is not universal. As the adnistration of affairs relating to these public granaries is not y different in any of the particular governments, I shall tent myself to set down the rules observed in it by the le commonwealth of Geneva, in which I had more time inform myself of the particulars than in any other. ere are three of the little council deputed for this office. ey are obliged to keep together a provision sufficient to a the people at least two years, in case of war or famine. ey must take care to fill their magazines in times of the atest plenty, that so they may afford cheaper, and increase public revenue at a small expense of its members.

None

he three managers must, upon any pretence, furnish the naries from his own fields, that so they may have no ptation to pay too great a price, or put any bad corn n the public. They must buy up no corn growing withwelve miles of Geneva, that so the filling their magazines

may not prejudice their market, and raise the price of their provisions at home. That such a collection of corn may not spoil in keeping, all the inns and public-houses are obliged to furnish themselves out of it, by which means is raised the most considerable branch of the public-revenues; the corn being sold out at a much dearer rate than 'tis bought up. So that the greatest income of the commonwealth, which pays the pensions of most of its officers and ministers, is raised on strangers and travellers, or such of their own body as have money enough to spend at taverns and publichouses.

This

It is the custom in Geneva and Switzerland to divide their estates equally among all their children, by which means every one lives at his ease without growing dangerous to the republic, for, as soon as an overgrown estate falls into the hands of one that has many children, it is broken into so many portions as render the sharers of it rich enough, without raising them too much above the level of the rest. is absolutely necessary in these little republics, where the rich merchants live very much within their estates, and by heaping up vast sums from year to year, might become formidable to the rest of their fellow-citizens, and break the equality, which is so necessary in these kinds of governments, were there not means found out to distribute their wealth among several members of their republic. At Geneva, for instance, are merchants reckoned worth twenty hundred thousand crowns, though, perhaps, there is not one of them who spends to the value of five hundred pounds a year.

Though the Protestants and Papists know very well that it is their common interest to keep a steady neutrality in all the wars between the states of Europe, they cannot forbear siding with a party in their discourse. The Catholics are zealous for the French king, as the Protestants do not a little glory in the riches, power, and good success of the English and Dutch, whom they look upon as the bulwarks of the Reformation. The ministers, in particular, have often preached against such of their fellow-subjects as enter into the troops of the French king; but so long as the Swiss see their interest in it, their poverty will always hold them fast to his service. They have, indeed, the exercise of their religion, and their ministers with them, which is the more remarkable, because the very same prince refused even those

2 M

VOL. I.

easy

the Church of England, who followed their master to St. ermains, the public exercise of their religion. Before I leave Switzerland I cannot but observe, that the tion of witchcraft reigns very much in this country. I ve often been tired with accounts of this nature from very nsible men, who are most of them furnished with matters fact which have happened, as they pretend, within the mpass of their own knowledge. It is certain there have en many executions on this account, as in the canton of erne there were some put to death during my stay at Geva. The people are so universally infatuated with the tion, that if a cow falls sick, it is ten to one but an old woan is clapt up in prison for it, and if the poor creature ance to think herself a witch, the whole country is for nging her up without mercy. One finds, indeed, the same mour prevail in most of the rocky, barren parts of Europe. hether it be that poverty and ignorance, which are genery the products of these countries, may really engage a etch in such dark practices, or, whether or no the same prinles may not render the people too credulous, and, perhaps, to get rid of some of their unprofitable members. A great affair that employs the Swiss politics at present is e Prince of Conti's succession to the Duchess of Nemours the government of Neuf-Chatel. The inhabitants of euf-Chatel can by no means think of submitting themselves a prince who is a Roman Catholic, and a subject of France. ey were very attentive to his conduct in the principality Orange, which they did not question but he would rule th all the mildness and moderation imaginable, as it would the best means in the world to recommend him to Neufatel. But, notwithstanding1 it was so much his interest manage his Protestant subjects in the country, and the ong assurances he had given them in protecting them in their privileges, and particularly in the free exercise of eir religion, he made over his principality in a very little ne for a sum of money to the king of France. It is, ined, generally believed the Prince of Conti would rather Notwithstanding may be followed by a whole tence, or by a substantive; but it is not right to turn the several parts the same period so differently. It should be," Notwithstanding the erest he had, and the assurances he had given," or, "Notwithstanding at] it was so much his interest to manage, and that he had given the ongest assurances to protect.'

Notwithstanding.]