air of the mountains that we should attribute that fondness for raillery and sarcasm which characterize them,-especially those dwelling in the Alps or in the Italian part of the country. Less lively and frivolously gay, less fond of innocent mirth than the Frenchman, he is more derisive and satirical, and his witticisms however original are always cutting and sometimes cruelly severe. The national character of the Swiss is no where better displayed than at their patriotic fêtes and réunions, which are not ordered by the laws or by official authority, but spring out of the breasts of the people and are conducted by the national enthusiasm. These celebrations are made either in commemoration of some great event, for the purpose of performing gymnastic exercises or with the view of strengthening the ties of brotherhood. Whatever part the authorities may take in these fêtes, they act only as private individuals and impose no restraint on the freedom of enjoyment. The people of Lucerne celebrate the anniversary of the battle of Sempach (July 9, 1386) by a public sermon preached before the magistrates and the people, outside a chapel built on the spot, where the bravery of Arnold of Winkelried and his stout comrades saved Switzerland from the chains of Austria:-a service is afterwards performed within the chapel. The Catholics and Protestants of Glarus similarly and with common consent celebrate the signal victory gained by their forefathers (April 1388) over the Austrians at Naefels. The inhabitants of Appenzell assemble on the Stoss to revive and foster the sentiments, which won for their ancestors at the commencement of the fifteenth century a decisive advantage over the Duke of Austria and the abbot of St. Gall. From the year 1804 till the repeal of the Act of Mediation, the Vaudois were accustomed to commemorate on each fourteenth of April, the anniversary of the first meeting of the great cantonnal council; and the whole people celebrated the occasion with an enthusiasm that liberty alone can inspire. The mountaineers of the Bernese Oberland, of Entlibuch, and the people in the canton of Lucerne, Unterwalden, and Appenzell, have every year different meetings for gymnastic contests. These assemblies are held in great respect by these athletic people, and frequently take place between the inhabitants of neighbouring districts. These pastoral contests, necessarily exclusive owing to the nature of the country and their own primitive character, attract a crowd of interested spectators, and cannot be otherwise than highly pleasing even to foreigners, who are often witnesses of these rural sports. Every thing contributes to inspire youthful combatants with enthusiasm :-strangers are present, who will carry the report of their prowess to other lands, the umpires are men whose former atchievements exhibit a bright example to the youthful candidate, and foremost among the spectators are mothers, wives, and beloved maidens, whose eager eyes and hardly suppressed emotions betray a sentiment far more interesting and absorbing than simple curiosity. Rifle-shooting is well known to be a favourite exercise of the Swiss :-matches for proving skill in the use of this weapon bring together very large assemblies, and great encouragement in the way of prizes is given to the exercise both by the cantonnal authorities and by the more wealthy individuals. Local societies are formed also for the cultivation of national singing; and nothing certainly can be more impressive than the patriotic choruses sung by two or three hundred natives of Zurich and Appenzell (by far the best vocal cantons), when led by that clever and scientific composer Naegueli, or by the reverend pastor Weishaupt. It is not, however, in the separate cantons merely that these shooting and singing meetings take place; for there are occasional assemblies of riflemen and vocalists from all parts of Switzerland. Every two years a federal rifle meeting takes place in one or other of the principal towns. In 1832 and 1834 the meetings at Lucerne and Zurich were remarkable for the excellence of their arrangements and for the energy with which the federal spirit was maintained by all the members of the association. Last year's meeting took place at Lausanne. Those who would form any adequate notion of the splendour of these meetings must have seen spectators; for there is an originality of beauty about it that quite baffles all powers of description below those of a Froissart, a Walter Scott, or a Victor Hugo. Thousands of rifle shooters, together with their friends and others who come from far and near to be present at this modern Olympia, assemble in a spot, which (generally speaking) nature without the aid of art has formed into a theatre of magnificent dimensions and consummate beauty and sublimity. The deputations from the different cantons arrive successively with their respective banners, which are grouped on the ground in a semi-circle with the great federal banner in the centre; the numerous prizes are exposed to the inspection and meet the admiration of all beholders; thousands of reports from the fire-arms are heard during each of the eight days of the fête; crowds of spectators move about in every direction, habited in various costume and speaking different dialects, but all animated with one prevailing sentiment-the love of their common country. Public banquets are given in the open air, and addresses are made to the people full of talent and enthusiasm :-in fact, every thing wears the appearance of a great national jubilee, where mirth and cordiality hold undivided sovereignty,-and the prevailing sentiment is that both hand and heart are united for the defence of Switzerland and its liberties :-the tout ensemble has a wonderful effect on the imagination and affections. Passing over the great Helvetic music meetings, we proceed to mention those which have a patriotic, but at the same time a special and definite object. The Société d'utilité publique, which discusses educational questions and all such as have reference to the employment and amelioration of the poor, and the Société des Sciences Naturelles are the most numerously attended the rest are less extensive. The Society of Zoffingen* is formed of students belonging to the various Swiss universities and academies, and in their assemblies these future citizens prepare themselves for benefitting society by reviving each year with studious but friendly emulation those great and animating ideas which elevate and regenerate humanity. This spirit of association, of which a few examples have thus been cited, is making continual progress, and societies are in daily formation whose object is to produce a constant action and co-operation on the part of the citizens for the general interests of Switzerland. The languages of the Helvetic people are as diversified as their customs; for they speak four totally distinct languages,-German, French, Italian, and Romaic, and from these spring out a multitude of dialects of all degrees of admixture. The German language is that chiefly spoken and is in general use in eastern, northern and central Switzerland. If, after deducting the canton of Ticino the southern part of the Grisons and Engaddin, the reader will draw a line of division from north to south, passing between the lakes of Neuchâtel and Brienne, thence over the towns of Morat and Friburg,-between Gruyère and Gessenay, and thence turning eastward so as to divide the Vallais into two parts at Siders, about half-way between Ston and Brig, he will then have traced the bounding line between the Burgundian and Germanic races-between those who use the French and those who use the German language. In some places on the frontier the two languages are spoken and even mixed together, as well as with an indigenous pâtois,-as for instance the dialect spoken in the vicinity of Morat. At Friburg, on the contrary, although only ten English miles to the south of the former place, the languages are kept distinct, the lower town being all German, the upper being all French; and the traveller, who speaks French in the former or German in the latter, runs great risk of his wants not being properly understood. At Bern, where fashion renders a French education indispensable for the higher classes, the ne plus ultra of perfection is to converse in a medley of French and German or in a mode This society is so called from the town of Zoffingen in the canton of Argau, where these young friends of literary study receive every year the most hospitable and cordial entertainment. rately good French accompanied by a kind of running paraphrase in harshlyspoken German. With respect to the German as spoken in Switzerland, it cannot be denied that its scholars have enriched the literature of Germany, and that its educated men generally write the language very well :-still it is not spoken with purity in any canton throughout the confederacy, and national prejudice throws ridicule even on those who aim at speaking pure German, unless they converse with those who are really Germans. The Swiss German, which is a pâtois having a close relation to that spoken in the south of Alsace, in the Duchy of Baden and in the Tyrol, seems to be very similar to the German of the middle ages, and the song of the Niebelungen frequently has the appearance of being written in the dialect of Bern. It is most probably on account of the relations of dialect, that the lyric poems of Minnesänger were collected for the first time in the fourteenth century by Rüdiger a native of Zurich, and first printed at Zurich in 1758 under the direction of the poet Bodmer. The Swiss dialects, however, vary extremely, and to a remarkable degree even in a single canton; -for instance, the language spoken in the interior Rhodes of Appenzell is scarcely understood out of that confined district. The Swiss speak the German with a strong guttural accent not very agreeable to the ear; and although at Brienz it is more softly pronounced, it is not altogether graceful in the mouth of the beautiful boatwoman:-it is at Hasli, that, owing to the northern accentuation of the people, their language is most easily understood by those from the north of Germany. Whatever may have been said in disparagement of its purity and respecting its imperfections as a medium of literary and scientific cultivation, this language spoken by men whose hearts beat with the emotions of joy and sorrow is singularly well adapted to the uses of popular poetry. There is a certain bonhommie and naïveté, and certain national originality in the style of expression, and there are words possessing a singular charm, which cause the songs of the canon Haeffliger of Lucerne, the popular ballads of Kuhn and the little poems of Wyss in the Bernese dialect to be read with singular and absorbing interest. The Germanic poems by Hébel of Carlsruhe, although of the highest poetic character, do not belong to Switzerland, but to a kindred dialect. In French Switzerland the language is spoken with grammatical, if not enunciative, purity by the best educated classes in the cantons of Geneva, Vaud and Neuchâtel and in parts of Bâle, Friburg and the Vallais. Still most persons mingle more or less with the acknowledged French indigenous words and phrases, and have a provincial pronunciation sufficiently distinctive, but yet less strange and outre than that which prevails in many parts of France most distant from the capital. The French patois are very numerous, and they vary so in character, that,—to cite a fair example, the patois spoken in the little valley of Lavey at the extremity of the canton of Vaud on the side of the Vallais is not understood by the other inhabitants of the canton. In these patois dialects there are many simple, quaint and pleasant stories both in prose and verse; and we may mention a classical production-a translation of Virgil's Bucolics in the Friburg dialect. In general the French patois of Switzerland retains many remnants of the medi-æval Romaic language, and several words of Latin origin that have not obtained currency in France. The pronunciation has some similarity to the Italian patois :-those who speak the French patois and go into Italy learn the Italian language with the greatest facility. Those countries of Switzerland, where the patois alone is used, and where pure French is not understood, become every day less extensive; and the cause of such decrease is sufficiently evident,—for the increased means of communication, the full developement of the primary instruction system, and a generally diffused interest in the national politics are hints sufficient to show that the French language must gain ground in spite of the hindrances which Swiss prejudices may set up against its general adoption. But stubborn facts will prove more :-for there is no canton and scarcely any village or inn on the main-roads of the country, where the French is not understood. If the Swiss consider their true interests, they will religiously maintain their individuality, but at the same time will do all in their power to maintain a friendly connexion with a country, from which they derive the greatest advantages. The Italian language is confined to the canton of Ticino, and the educated classes write it with great purity of style. In the principal valley of the canton of Uri (the valley of the Reuss) many people are at any rate acquainted with the language most in use among their neighbours,-a circumstance entirely owing to their relations and frequent communication with Ticino and Italy-the same is the case in the southern part of the Grisons, and on the south-eastern side of the Vallais. In the Grisons, however, besides Italian and German, which latter is the prevailing and best spoken language, two distinct dialects are in use, called by one common name, the Romance. The former of these dialects, the-Romaunsch,—is spoken in the high vallies at the sources of the Rhine, and in the adjacent plains, where two varieties may be recognised; the latter, the ladinum is used in the higher and lower Engaddin with a very distinct variety in each. Neither of these dialects can be said to belong to the old Provençal, although they present occasional analogies to it, as well as to the old Breton and the Iberian languages :-the most learned critics assign to it an Etruscan origin, and historic proofs are not wanting to confirm their views. This theory would account partly for the affinity of the particular Grison dialect to the language so generally spread over southern continental Europe during the middle ages. Many Etruscans took refuge in the high Rhætian Alps, and in those of the Tyrol, when the Gauls crossed the mountain barrier, and invaded their country six centuries before the Christian era; and it is in these districts, according to some, that the pure Etruscan language is to be sought. Be that as it may, it is indisputably true that the Grison language has remained without alteration from the earliest period of which we have any written documents. We cannot close an article, the object of which is to throw light upon the present state of Switzerland, without making some remarks on the travellers and tourists who exercise a most powerful influence on the moral and commercial interests of the country. Their numbers increase every year; they expend large sums of money in Switzerland, and provide a subsistence for several of the operative classes,—such as guides, innkeepers, wood-carvers, print-sellers, music-sellers, valets, couriers, and waiting-women; but still it is not gold alone, that these foreigners bring with them, for the most frequent roads give very clear and painful proofs of the moral pestilence that they diffuse in their passage through the land. It is true that scientific students, men of sense and talent, shrewd and well-trained observers of nature and of manners, philanthropists and eminent literary men visit the country, and enter into that reciprocal communion of ideas which enlarges the stores of the philosopher without impoverishing any :—but in comparison with their numbers, what a multitude of absurd tourists absolutely deluge Switzerland,— persons who gallop over it in obedience to mere fashion, and pay to its sublime scenery a tribute of admiration borrowed from a poem or a guide-book. Interlachen on the lake of Brienz is an English colony; and splendid edifices either have been built already or are in process of erection, sufficiently extensive to supply the demands of all the tenants from beyond the sea. The number of its loungers and the elegance of their dresses remind one rather of Regent Street, and the Italian Boulevard than of a secluded village in Switzerland. How many kid-gloved dandies and stiff upright ladies will one day congratulate themselves on having given a ball according to all the rules of fashion, or on having arranged a tea-party with perfect correctness in front of the Jungfrau. One English gentleman left England only with the view of angling in the Aar. Another traveller of the same nation was recommended to visit the magnificent scenery of the Oberland. "No," was his reply; "I only came to see Mont Blanc and M. Fellenberg, and now I am going back to London." But the folly of some of these worthy tourists occasionally reaches a most ridiculous and unaccountable height, as the following wellauthenticated anecdote will show. A grey-headed old gentleman procured a cow, and actually embarked with it on the lake of Brienz, in order to milk it within view of the Giesbach into a pail half full of champagne and cinnamon. The absurdities of travellers, however, are not always confined to the countries in which they take place; for many of them who hurry through the country with their eyes closed against every important fact-every really interesting phenomenon, return home and issue to the English public imaginary recollections and factitious impressions which raise a laugh at the expense of truth and to the disgrace of the author. Travellers of every nation have visited the Helvetic cantons during the last few years. Let all, who respect the truth say, whether, at the time when some persons represented the confederation to be in a state of disorder almost amounting to anarchy, they were not struck wtth the peaceable aspect of the country, the cheerfulness of its population, and the quietness with which each occupied himself with his private concerns, and whether they have not traversed Switzerland from north to south and from east to west in full security both by day and night. Even in 1833 at the time of the insurrection of Schwyz and the military occupation of that district by the federal troops, travellers were always allowed to go through the length and breadth of the land without hindrance or annoyance of any kind whatsoever. No:-Switzerland is a peaceful-an emphatically peaceful country, and in the words of one of her historians "her standard shows the trois couleurs of EDUCATION, ECONOMY, INDUSTRY; and of that empire there shall be no end." D. SONG. By the Author of the " Bridal of Naworth." How bright are the charms of the maid we admire, Her beauties inflame the fond heart with desire, No charms can compare With those of our fair; Her face is more bright Than the clear starry night When enraptured we sing," She is ours." But O, when fond Woman devotedly loves, She deems him a God and adores; Ev'ry pulse of her heart with warm sympathy moves, And her soul in full passion she pours. Her fancy discovers No form like her lover's; His eye is more bold Than the heroes' of old When she timidly murmurs, "I'm yours." |