The result is that modern Switzerland is made up of
what might seem to be most discordant and unmanageable elements. Four
languages--German, French, Italian, and Rhaetian--are spoken within the
limits of the confederacy; and in point of religion the cantons are
sharply divided as Catholic and Protestant. Yet in spite of all this,
Switzerland is as thoroughly united in feeling as any nation in Europe.
To the German-speaking Catholic of Altdorf the German Catholics of
Bavaria are foreigners, while the French-speaking Protestants of Geneva
are fellow-countrymen. Deeper down even than these deep-seated
differences of speech and creed lies the feeling that comes from the
common possession of a political freedom that is greater than that
possessed by surrounding peoples. Such has been the happy outcome of the
first attempt at federal union made by men of Teutonic descent. Complete
independence in local affairs, when combined with adequate
representation in the federal council, has effected such an intense
cohesion of interests throughout the nation as no centralized
government, however cunningly devised, could ever have secured.
Until the nineteenth century, however, the federal form of government
had given no clear indication of its capacity for holding together great
bodies of men, spread over vast territorial areas, in orderly and
peaceful relations with one another.
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