The valley of the River Rhone, from its source at the foot of the 
glacier du Rhone to the Lake Leman,’ is one of the finest countries 
in the world. On its sides are the highest mountains of Europe, 
two uninterrupted chains of a mean height of 12,000 feet, covered 
with eternal snow, from which spring the numberless rivulets 
which feed the Rhone and fertilise the meadows and fields of the 
valley. Here, within a few hours’ walk from eternal winter, the 
chestnut and the vine are found thriving under a sun as powerful 
almost in its warmth as that of the evergreen plains of Lombardy. 
This valley is called the Valais, and inhabited partly by Germans, 
partly by Frenchmen. The Germans, entering the country from 
the north-east, occupy the higher and more mountainous part of 
the valley, where the country is unfavourable to agriculture, but 
excellent for the breeding of cattle; consequently this part of the 
population remains up to this time in almost the same state of 
nature in which their forefathers occupied the Upper Valais. 
Political and religious education is left entirely in the hands of a 
few aristocratic families and of the priesthood, who, of course, 
keep the people as stupid and superstitious as possible. On the 
contrary, the French settled in the Lower Valais, where the 
widening of the valley admits of introducing agriculture and other 
pursuits of industry. The French have founded the more consider- 
able towns of the Valais, are educated and civilised, and by their 
bordering on the lake and the Radical canton of Vaud,” are 
brought into connection with the outer world, and enabled to keep 

up with the progress of their neighbour’s ideas. Nevertheless, the 
rough mountaineers of the Upper Valais had, I know not how, 
many hundred years ago, subdued the French Lower Valais, and 
continued to consider this part of the country as a conquered 
province, and to exclude its inhabitants from any participation in 
government. In 1798, when the French overthrew the old aristo- 
cratic system of Swiss patrician despotism,’ the Lower Valais got 
its share of government, but not to the full extent it was entitled 
to. In 1830, when the democratic party in all Switzerland was in 
the ascendant, the constitution was re-modelled upon fair and 
democratic principles **?; but the priest-ridden cow-herds of Upper 
Valais, and the sovereign rulers of their minds, the parsons, have 
ever since tried to bring about a change in favour of the old 
system of injustice. The Radical party, in order to guard against 
this, formed an association called Young Switzerland—la jeune 
Suisse— among themselves and the Radicals of Vaud. They were 
most violently assailed and calumniated by the priesthood, and 
usually attacked upon the ground of being infidels, which, 
however, on the continent is a charge more laughed at than 
shuddered at. In 1840 the first outbreak against Young Switzerland 
took place, but, finding the democrats well prepared, the dupes of 
superstition and ignorance retreated to their unassailable moun- 
tain passes, in order to break forth again in March, 1844. They 
have now succeeded in taking the Radicals by surprise, in profiting 
by the general reaction in favour of Conservative principles; and 
of the leading canton (the seat of the federal Government for the 
time being) Luzern, being a Conservative Canton. The democratic 
party in Valais is for the moment overwhelmed. The interference 
of the federal Government will be required; it remains to be seen 
what profit the priests, who accompanied the Conservative army 
and headed it, will make of their victory; but at any rate there is 
no chance, even now, to re-establish anything like the old system, 
or to keep the Lower Valais and its spirited inhabitants in a state 
of subjection. A few years, nay, months, may bring back the 
ascendancy of the democratic party.?** 

No. 344, June 15, 1844, with an editorial