there must be some sort of cause for so universal a tone, and we believe we have indicated what it is. If so, the plain man in the ugly black coat who can govern England and is invested with authority to do it, will be as much respected by the crowd as any dignitary whose footmen outshine the lilies of the field.

From The Saturday Review. THE OPENING OF THE SWISS FEDERAL ASSEMBLY.

popular reverence when the Radical jour- we, as a nation, express at all times such a nals announced that he had put his coach- theoretic admiration of simplicity? There man and grooms into a handsome livery. is no social coercion upon us in that reAn English crowd distinctly dislikes the spect, as there is upon several other appearance of well-to-doishness, and if in points. No journal will lose a subscriber a good-tempered mood enjoys tearing a because it preaches up magnificence even broad-cloth coat off a decent man's back as a duty, and no orator would lose a vote nearly as much as thrashing a policeman if he expressed about simplicity the opininto hospital. It is all envy? Never mind ion which Mr. Bass expressed about teewhat it is, though we doubt that, the totalism. It cannot be all hypocrisy ; point not being the explanation of the feeling, but the existence or non-existence of the feeling itself. The difficulty in a country like this, where the necessity of splendour has been preached so long, and has been so acceptable a doctrine to the middle-class, is to test the question by illustrations, but there are a few. We should say, as a matter of fact, that a County-Court Judge often succeeds in maintaing better discipline in his rough Court than a Red Judge does in his higher tribunal, and that in London a stipendiary magistrate with £1,200 a year is distinctly more feared in his Court than the Lord Mayor, who has just as much power and IN speaking of Swiss matters, whether ten times as much magnificence. We political or antiquarian, we have always to should say, also, that no official under the renew our old complaint that Englishmen Crown is so abjectly reverenced within as a rule wilfully shut their eyes to them. the sphere of his authority as the Post No country is more visited by Englishmen Captain in command of a big ship, though than Switzerland; no country is richer in he is the worst paid of all men in the political phenomena than that where the Queen's service, is usually very poor, and oldest and the newest forms of political maintains no splendour, except such as is life may be seen working side by side. implied in the traditional severity and mi- Yet most Englishmen seem to be rather nuteness of naval etiquette. Foremen in proud of knowing every peak and pass in a yard are very strictly obeyed, though the country, while they think it below they stand so close to the men; and so them to ask a single question about what when on duty are all classes of American is going on among the men of the country. officials, the testimony of all travellers be- We found a curious proof of this the ing that the Americans bear too much from other day. We stumbled on a number or people who are exactly like themselves. two of a paper called the Swiss Times, That there would be dangers and disad- published at Geneva, seemingly for the vantages of another kind in any attempt benefit of English visitors. The Swiss at Republican simplicity we do not deny, Federal Assembly had just met for what fearing always that power unless paid cannot fail to prove its most important will transmute itself into money; but that Session since the establishment of the simplicity would diminish the public rev- present Federal Constitution in 1818. But erence is a very important proposition, to such a matter as this the Swiss Times, a which we cannot consider yet proved. It paper published in the country, did not might diminish it, but there is wonder-devote a single line. Now we can hardly fully little evidence beyond a vague im- fancy that a French or German paper pubpression that it would.

lished in England would take no notice We said just now that we doubted if whatever of the beginning of a new Sesenvy was the first cause of the dislike to sion of Parliament, especially if the Sessplendour sometimes manifested among sion were likely to be occupied by a Reform English-speaking men, and we do doubt, Bill. In no part of Europe is there busier for we believe it to proceed much more political life than in Switzerland, in no from a rough and oppressive kind of real-part is there more diligent historical reism, a desire to get at the man himself, search. But the mass of Englishmen agree and impatience of so many surroundings. to pass by both, as if the land contained If there is no feeling of this kind, why do 'only mountains and were barren of men.

To the ordinary English tourist we pre-ters are likely to be settled, to go a little sume that it never occurs that there are more fully into some of the points in desuch beings as Swiss statesmen and schol- bate. At present we purpose only to ars. But Swiss statesmen and scholars point out in a very general way the nature there are in abundance, and it certainly of some of the questions which are now ocdoes not raise Englishmen in their eyes to cupying the public mind of the Confederafind a land which is truly the schoolroom tion, and to put on record the impressions of Europe looked upon only as its play-of an English political student on the apground. pearance and ways of going on of the AsThe two Councils which form the Swiss sembly itself. Federal Assembly, the Ständerath or Coun- It is to be supposed that the most ordicil of the States (answering to the Ameri-nary visitor to Bern has seen the outside can Senate) and the Nationalrath (answer- of the Bundespallast, the seat of the Federing to the American House of Representa- al Government and of the Federal Assemtives) are now assembled to discuss the bly. It is of course quite possible that he great question of a reform in the Federal may not have asked its object; or perhaps Constitution. Such a reform has to be the use of the word Pallast or Palais may made by a vote of the two Councils, have misled him. Chief Justice Whiteside further confirmed by a twofold vote of the who believed Switzerland to be "a conpeople a real plebiscitum as distinguished federation of small kingdoms," no doubt from the Bonapartist sham-voting both set the building down as the dwelling-place as a nation and in their Cantons. Schemes of the King of Bern. Still, as its immedifor a reform in the Constitution have been ate neighbourhood commands one of the afloat for several years, and in 1866 several finest views of the Bernese mountains, amendments actually passed the Councils; every one must have seen the building but all were rejected by the popular vote, itself. Some though we believe that it except one which extended political rights is contrary to rule to think of such matto the Jews. The Assembly has at this ters in Switzerland - may even have givmoment before it three sets of proposals, en a thought to its peculiar architecture, from Committees of the two branches of neither Gothic nor Palladian, but Italian the Assembly itself and also from the Ex- in the better sense, Pisan Lucchese, whatecutive Government, at the Bundesrath or ever we choose to call it. Of that buildFederal Council. Besides these, there are ing the middle portion is occupied by the the various proposals of individual mem- various offices of the Federal Government, bers, and the demands or petitions made where the President and other members at various public meetings in different of the Federal Council discharge the funcparts of the country. The newspapers of tions of the Executive Government with which every part of Switzerland is so full the smallest possible amount of external naturally have their say also, and pam- parade. The traveller who has an ordinphlets have appeared, some of them from ary introduction may go and knock at the writers whose names command attention, official door of a Swiss Minister of State at all events within the bounds of the Con- with as little ceremony as if he were federation. There is one from the pen of knocking at the door of a friend in college the famous James Fazy of Geneva, who rooms. The two wings are set apart for the has lately been returned to the Ständerath meeting of the two Chambers of the Federal as a representative of his own Canton, Assembly, the Nationalrath on the right, and while another, though anonymous, is uni- the Ständerath on the left. The important versally ascribed to the veteran Federal Session which is now going on was opened Councillor, Dubs. Altogether there is no by both Chambers on Monday, November lack of political stir in the land just at this 6, and the proceedings in both branches of time when tourists most likely think that the Legislature were of a kind to be deepSwitzerland, like some of her own animals, ly interesting to any observant Englishgoes altogether into a state of winter men, if only on account of their utter consleep. The traveller on the other hand trast to the manners and customs of both who has had the good luck to be present Houses of his own Parliament. We were at the opening of the Federal Assembly, a little amused on making this remark to and to have the privilege of conversing a passing traveller, who made the ready with men of political experience in the answer, "I suppose the republicans are country, will look at things in another much more free and easy than we are." light. On the other hand, what most strikes an English spectator is the extreme and almost prudish decorum with which the

We hope, as the discussion goes on and shows some signs of the way in which mat

republicans carry on the work of legisla- | bers, occupied without any distinction of tion. As we heard an eminent Swiss Canton or party. A Conservative speech statesman remark "It is like being in may be answered by a Radical member church." To be sure the Presidental sitting close by; and, what strikes an Engoffice in either Council altogether lacks lishman still more, a German speech may those outward appurtenances of dignity be answered by a speech in French, or vice which surround an English Speaker or versa. Italian, as the tongue of the CanLord Chancellor with such a mysterious ton of Ticino, is equally recognized by the greatness. Switzerland stands in no fear laws of the Confederation; but it is naturof any Cromwell or Bonaparte rising ally in the two great tongues of the counwithin her own bosom; but at all events. try, the German speeeh of the old Confedif any usurper should ever arise to tell erates and the Romance of the newer Bureither House of the Federal Assembly that gundian Cantons, that the debates are althe Lord hath done with them, he could at most wholly carried on. The speeches are least not add the command to take away short, lively, and, as far as we could judge, any baubles. No mace lies either above commonly to the point, the French speakor below the table, indeed no table in the ers, as a rule, using, as might be looked English sense can be said to be there at all. for, more of animated gesture than the No flowing robes, no massive periwig, mark Germans. But what amazes an insular off the President of either Council from his visitor more than all is that the speeches brethren. Still less need we look for the are always received without any exprespresence of the elders of either of the two sions of feeling one way or another. No great religious communions which divide one cheers; still less does any one cry the Confederation, though the contrast of "Oh, oh." Either practice is, in Swiss Catholic and Protestant ecclesiastics in etiquette, looked on as unparliamentary. their several official costumes might be even We suspect indeed that in Switzerland, as more striking than our own spectacle of well as in England and America, members an array of rochets and chimeres among a do now and then speak to Buncombe, or, body of gentlemen in ordinary dre s. as we should perhaps rather say, to GerBut, on the other hand, there is something sau or Zollikoffen. Certainly some memto be said for the republican Assembly bers clearly commanded the ear of the even in point of outward dignity. Neither House far more fully than others. Still of the Swiss Councils presents the sight even those who were most likely speaking of a number of gentlemen with their hats to distant constituents met with no kind on, lolling easily on benches, and chatting of interruption. Instead of the buzz of familiarly with each other while the affairs talk which greets the oratory of such of the nation are debating. First of all, men among ourselves, the only sign of each House has ample room for the mem- inattention was that the other members bers of each, not only in the smaller As- betook themselves to their desks and read sembly of the Ständerath, but in the far or wrote like Cato the Younger. Only a larger body of the Nationalrath. Every few speeches were read, but among them member has his own place, his own arm- was the opening speech of the President chair and desk, the seats ranging like of the Ständerath. The Swiss Constituthose of a theatre round the places of the tion gives no opportunity for either a President and other official personages. King's Speech or a President's Message. In the Nationalrath the President is sup- The proceedings of each Council are ported on either hand by his Vice-Pres- therefore opened by an address from its ident and by the Chancellor of the Con- own chosen President, who sets before the federation, the veteran Herr Schiess. Be- House the circumstances under which the yond the Chancellor sits the official trans- Session begins, and the nature of the lator, whose business it is, in a trilingual measures which are likely to be brought Assembly, to render the official utterances forward. We may add that the public is made in one tongue into the tongues un- freely admitted to the galleries - the derstood of other members. In front of "tribunes" of both Houses. As far as these officers, and in face of the House in we have seen, the attendance was modergeneral, is the table occupied by the four ate, neither disappointingly thin or unofficial tellers, members of the House for- pleasantly crowded, and the behaviour of mally chosen for that purpose, who dis- those who looked on from above was as charge the functions which among our- orderly as that of the legislators themselves fall to the lot of personal zeal or of selves below. Where the members themunrecognized office. The rest of the selves do not venture to express their House is filled by the chairs of the mem-own likes and dislikes, it would need

uncommon hardihood in the general pnblic to do so.

some change which may get rid of the trammels by which, in several Cantons, a citizen of another Canton is dealt with in purely local matters as if he were a foreigner. And it may be hoped that some measures may be taken for extending the powers of the supreme Federal Court. Nothing in the Swiss system seems more strange to a spectator of any other nation than the custom by which appeals from the Cantonal authorities, appeals in many cases of a purely judicial kind, are carried not to the Federal Court, but to the Federal Council—that is, to the Executive Government and from thence, by a further appeal, to the Federal Assembly, that is, to the two Houses of Parliament.

And now for a very slight account of some of the questions which are brought, or are likely to be brought, before what can hardly fail to prove this memorable Assembly. The tendencies of Swiss politics just now look towards the more direct exercise of political power by the people at large, and towards the further transfer of power from the Cantons to the Confederation at large. The first tendency, it will be seen, has no connection with the Federal nature of the Swiss Constitution; it might arise under any Government of a popular kind. The other class of questions could of course arise only in a Federal State. The strong Conservative feel- Both on these subjects, and also on the ing of several of the Cantons among great constitutional change by which it is them, be it observed, some of those whose proposed to give to the people the same Constitution is most purely democratic — voice in ordinary Federal legislation which their tenacious clinging to old, possibly an- they now possess only in the case of a tiquated, institutions and usages, seems to constitutional amendment, we hope to have driven the advanced Liberal party in speak more at large when the time is Switzerland into a position distinctly hos- come to say something as to the results of tile to the principle of State sovereignty. the Session. As far as we can see, the Veto One is almost appalled when one reads of and the Referendum, the proposed refera large meeting, in which several members ence, either as a matter of course or in of the Cantonal Government of Zürich certain specified cases, of all Federal legistook a part, in which resolutions were lation, including even treaties with foreign passed in favour of the abolition of the countries, to a popular vote of Yea or Nay, Ständerath and of the popular vote of is not greatly dreaded by men who have the Cantons in constitutional amend- experience in Swiss politics. It may dements. This really comes very near generate into a burdensome or empty forto a change of the Confederation into a mality, it may now and then hinder the consolidated State. It would take away passing of a good measure, but it cannot from Cantons as Cantons any voice in Fed- do any active mischief. On the other eral legislation, and would make every- hand, the Volksinitiative by which the Legthing depend on a numerical majority in islature may be constrained by pressure the Nationalrath and in the nation. Such from without to action on a particular an extreme measure as this is hardly likely point, seems to be looked on as really to be adopted, but there are points in dangerous. For our own part we shrink which a strengthening of a Federal power, from either proposal, as a distinct appeal or at all events a settling by Federal legis- from the better instructed to the less. lation of some points which are now within We can hardly bring ourselves to believe the competence of the Cantons, is earnest- that the mass of any nation can be fit to ly called for, and we may add is decidedly be trusted with such a direct exercise of needed. Some change must be made in power. But most certainly, if any nation the law of Niederlassung or Établissement, can be so trusted, it is the Swiss who can.

FERDINAND HILLER has recently published | under Hummel. Master and pupil started for some interesting sketches and reminiscences of Vienna. The keen frosty air, the excitement of Beethoven. They are the more welcome as coming from the hand of one of the very few who were permitted to see the great man on his death-bed and record his last words. In March, 1827, tidings of Beethoven's serious illness came to Weimar, where Hiller was studying music

sledging, and the genial companionship, seem
to have made the youth forget the troublesome
thoughts which probably crossed the mind of
the elder pilgrim. Hummel, on his arrival at
Beetho-
Vienna, found his worst fears realized
ven was suffering from the dropsy. The tray-

vergne, the French Ambassador, in January, 1860. The Prince had instructions to read to Cavour a despatch from Count Walewski, in which the Italian Government is plainly threatened with the displeasure of the Cabinet of the Tuileries in case it should continue to encourage the annexationist agitation in the Duchies and Central Italy. The despatch stated that any attempts to annex those territories would be regarded as a breach of treaties, and that if the King, disregarding the warnings of the Imperial Cabinet, should place his throne in danger by such an adventurous policy, he would be left to his fate. Cavour listened attentively to the reading of this despatch, leaning his head on his hand and saying not a word. When the Prince had finished, and added a few confirmatory remarks of his own, Cavour rejoined, “Yes, yes, mon cher Prince, you are right; what M. de Walewski writes is not calculated to encourage us; this is, indeed, a sharp reprimand. But," he proceeded, a gleam of satirical glee playing across his face, "what will you say when I read you a letter which has come to me direct from the Tuileries from a personage whom you also know?" Upon this he took out of his pocket a letter of the same date as Walewski's despatch, in which M. Mocquard confidentially informed him, by order of the Emperor, that the projects of annexation were by no means unfavourably regarded in Paris, and that he (Cavour) need not trouble himself about any complications resulting from them. Prince Latour was of course dumbfounded; he could only bow, and folding up Count Walewski's despatch, he hurried back to the embassy.

ellers were surprised on the occasion of their first visit at finding him comfortably seated by the fireside in his study. After cordially greeting Hummel, and saying a few kind words to Hiller, Beethoven inquired eagerly for Goethe, but the conversation necessarily halted occasionally, for visitors had to write in pencil all their answers, and the process was tedious. "I have been in this state for four months," he exclaimed; "I shall lose all patience! Passing from the subject of his own health, he inveighed bitterly against the prevailing bad taste in art matters, and the "dilettantism which is the ruin of everything in Vienna." The Government and high authorities then had their turn. "Write a set of penitential psalms and dedicate it to the Empress," he said to Hummel, who wisely discarded the well-meant advice. He then talked familiarly about his nephew, remarking they hang the small thieves, but the big ones are allowed to go scot-free." The popularity of the Italian opera in Vienna annoyed him. 66 They say, Vox Populi, vox Dei.' I never did believe in that saying." The second was a sadder visit. Beethoven was in bed, groaning with pain. His lonely life and sense of desolation contrasted sadly with that of his friend Hummel, who had been recently married. "You are a happy man," he said; "you have a wife who loves you, who takes care of you, but I, poor wretch" and he sighed deeply. He then showed them a picture, lately presented to him, of the house in which Haydon was born. "It has made me as happy as a child to see the birthplace and cradle of so great a man!" He talked to Hummel about Schindler. "He is an excellent fellow, who took a great deal of trouble on my account. I have promised to help him in his concert, which will be given shortly. But nothing will come of that Now, I wish you would do me the favour to play in that con- NEA. - Dr. E. Klein gives, in the Quarterly cert." Hummel promised he would, and was Journal of Microscopical Science for October, faithful to his promise. On the occasion of the a description of an excellent method of preparthird visit little passed that was worth record-ing the cornea in various animals in such a ing. Beethoven's bodily powers were failing rapidly. He talked with gratitude of the kindness of our Philharmonic Society, which had forwarded him a present of a hundred pounds, but it was a great effort to talk at all. "I will write a grand overture, and a grand symphony for them," he said, acknowledging his obligation. Hiller saw the dying man for the last time on the 23rd of March, 1827; not a word escaped his lips, but he looked lovingly on those who soothed and sustained him in his last hours. He died two days afterwards.

SOME extracts from the diary of M. d'Ideville, who was the French chargé d'affaires at Turin when Cavour was Minister, have been published by the Journal de Paris. Among them is an amusing account of an interview which took place between Cavour and Prince Latour d'Au

TERMINATION OF THE NERVES IN THE COR

the nerves perceptible. It consists essentially manner as to render the very finest branches of in staining the fresh tissue with a very weak solution of chloride of gold, then immersing it in a concentrated solution of tartaric acid, and fi

nerves appear

nally carefully washing it. By this means the considerable illuminating power is required. dark upon a lighter ground; but He shows the mode of branching of the larger trunks, and how, when they reach the deep surface of the epithelium, extremely fine filaments enter the epithelial layer, the communications between which form in the first place a deep intra-epithelial plexus, whilst from this still finer branches ascend between the cells and form a superficial intra-epithelial network, which is separated from the surface at most by only one or two flattened cells. The terminal knobs or bulbs of Cohnheim he considers to be intercalated swelling in the course of the nerves, and by no means to represent their terminations.