“ For good or for evil, the defeat of the abolitionists is so complete, that the question of separation of Church and State is not likely to be raised in Geneva for many years to come, nor, probably, in any other Swiss canton. ”

“ In order to reconcile the primitive cantons to the loss of some of their local privileges which the measure involved, the popular vote was introduced into the constitution of 1874. But as all the adult males of the confederation could not conveniently meet in a market-place or on a mountain-side, the Referendum was substituted for the meeting and the ballot-box for the show of hands. Whether the framers of the constitution foresaw the steadying influence which the Referendum was destined to exercise, there is nothing to show ”

“ The national Protestant Church is national only in name, and is divided into two sections, as hostile to each other as Evangelicals and Ritualists, and the suppression of the budget des cultes would effect an important saving in the cantonal expenditure. ”

“ The confederation has no standing army, no navy, and no foreign policy. The people have been trained in habits of self-government by centuries of well-ordered freedom, and by their communal and cantonal organization. They have neither privileged classes nor great cities ”

“ These arguments commended themselves to the popular understanding, and although the granting of the subsidy put a strain on the national resources, for the benefit of an enterprise which many of the cantons regarded as adverse to their local interest, half a million voters went to the poll on a wretched day in mid-winter, and two-thirds of them voted "Yes." ”