1.1711, REFERENDUM.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The succinct account given by Sir Frederick St. John of the Referendum in Switzerland, quoted in your issue of the 10th inst., might be supplemented by the following additional facts. In addition to the Referendum known as the Optional Referendum, to which all measures passed by the two Chambers of the Legislature are liable to be subjected on the demand of thirty thousand voters, or eight cantons, before acquiring the force of law, there is another form of the institution known as the Compulsory Referendum, limited to one point,—viz., the revision of the Constitution. They both form part of the present Swiss Constitution, which dates from 1874, though the Compulsory Referendum was established by the Constitution of 1848. The " Initiative " is also a Swiss institution by which fifty thousand voters have the power of compelling the Federal Council to submit to a Referendum any measure even if it does not approve of it. An instance occurred recently (I speak from memory) when the abolition of the manufacture and use of absinthe throughout Switzer- land was carried against the wishes of the Federal Council, who had to consider the necessity of compensating the manu- facturers. I do not gather, however, that in England the question of Initiative has yet come within the scope of practical politics ; but if our present Constitution, the result of the growth of centuries, is to be cast into the melting-pot, it would certainly seem desirable that the new one should be approved by a majority of the population.—I am, Sir, &c.,
G. F. B.
Previous page
