Political Science Of The State

208 POLITICAL SCIENCE.

controlling force within. If one of the United States were
larger than ten others in its neighborhood, and was repre-
sented according to the same ratio in the senate, it would
form a dangerous element in our constitution, although our
state officers change continually, and the states have no
armies, and have, to a great extent, one common character
and common interests.

§ 2IO.
Swiss Confederations.
Switzerland offers another example of an experiment In
Rise and growth ^Q wav °f confederation, beginning with a loose
of Swiss league. league or union, and ending- in a well-compacted
republic. The league first arose in the wood cantons, Uri,
Schwytz, and Unterwalden, which acquired, after the battle
of Morgarten (1315), in a peace or truce several times renewed
with the duke of Austria, a condition of qualified indepen-
dence. The semperor Louis of Bavaria (1324), confirmed
their liberties as against the house of Hapsburg ; and in
the course of a few years several other places came into the
confederacy, Luzerne in 1332, the town of Zurich in 1351,
Glarus and Zug soon afterwards, and the imperial city of Bern
in 1353. Some of these territories, however, held an equivo-
cal position towards their former sovereign, which gave
occasion to violent contests. In 1370 the " pfaffenbrief,"
or decree relating to the priests, provided that all persons
living within the bounds of the confederation, even those who
were bound by oath to the duke of Austria, should take an
oath to the confederacy also; and that no one should be
brought before a sovereign's court, except in matters belong-
ing to a bishop's jurisdiction, but only before the tribunal
in the district where he resided (1370). A few years later
(1386) occurred the glorious battle of Sempach, which the
league of the Suabian towns left the confederates to fight
alone, and in which these peasants slew the duke of Austria,