Switzerland of the Swiss. By Frank Webb. (Sir I. Pitman
and Sons. 6.3. net.)—We may describe this volume as the "Swiss 'Statesman's Year-Book.'" It gives details of matters political, commercial, and social, illustrating them by figures, ko., supplying a very complete and detailed picture of the country. Mr. Webb is not an enthusiastic partisan of the Swiss. So much may be seen from his second chapter, " Types of Life." His picture of the "Mountain Swiss" is far from attractive. It will be prudent to limit our extracts to some of our author's statistics. The return on the capital invested in hotels is given at £2,300,000 on .Z31,000,000 (about). This is not by any means extravagant. Nearly one-third of the tourists are Germans, not quite an eighth British, while the Americans are not quite half as many. Railways have been nationalised in Switzerland, but the results have not been wholly satisfactory. Too many officials and employees make one drawback. The gross receipts for 1905 were about .Z6,500,000, and the employees numbered 36,307. Taking an average wage of 30s. per week, these would account for not far short of a half of the gross income.
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