in the Diet, and was active in asserting the rights of the Federation against the seceding States of the Sonderbund. He served in that war as Treasurer and Paymaster Gei eral of the Army. Displaced for a while, he resumed the practice of his profession as advocate, but soon returned to power, in 1851, as President of the National Council, where he continued to be distinguished as a close reasoner and incisive speak er, full of intelligence and of resources, supported by great energy of character. In 1856, he was elected President of the Confederation, and again in 1859, and the third time in 1862: these repeated but interrupted re-elections illustrating the Swiss Constitu tion, according to which the President is elected for one year only, and can not be re-elected for the next succeeding year, but is otherwise re-eligible without limitation. Events of great importance to Switzer land occurred in the years of the administration of Mr. Stampfli; among others, the separation of Neuchâtel from Prussia, the war in Italy, and the annexion of Savoy to France. IIis theory of executive action was characteristic of the man, namely, " When peril is certain, it is better to advance to meet it, rather than timidly to await its approach." In fine, prepa ration and decision are the distinctive traits of all the official acts of Mr. Stampfli.

There is one peculiarity in the political character of Mr. Stumpfli, which belongs to him, indeed, as a Swiss, namely, definiteness and affirmativeness in the matter of international neutrality and morality. Switzerland no longer permits capitulations of for F

eign enlistment: they are expressly forbidden by the Federal Constitution. IIer laws punish as a crime all violation by individuals of the international rights of foreign Powers. Her neutrality is active, not pas sive, preventive, as well as punitive. She has no maritime relations, it is true; but, in dealing with unlawful equipments or expeditions by land, she ob serves rules of neutrality which are applicable, in the ory and practice, equally to equipments or expedi tions for naval warfare. Our own temporary act of 1838, which comprehends vehicles [on land] and vessels [on water] in the same clause of criminality, af fords complete answer to those Englishmen who have superficially assumed that because Switzerland is not a maritime Power, she [or a statesman of hers] could not competently judge the case of the Alabama or the Florida. Diligence to execute the law,-vigilance to prevent its violation,-is the same in Switzerland as in Italy or Brazil, in Great Britain or the United States. And the position of Switzerland, which requires of her the spontaneous execution of her neu trality laws, had evident effect on the mind of Mr. Stampfli to produce those conclusions of his against Great Britain, which, as we shall see in the sequel, were so grossly misapprehended and so angrily resented by Sir Alexander Cockburn.

At the time when the Swiss Government invited Mr. Stampfli to act as Arbitrator for Switzerland under the Treaty of Washington, he had full occupa tion in public or private affairs as a member of the National Council and as President of the Federal

On

(Eidgenossische) Bank established at Berne. receiving the respective "Counter-Cases" of the two Governments, which in effect closed the proofs on both sides, he took a characteristic step in order to be prepared for action in June.

As you sail up the Lake of Thun toward Unterseen or Interlaken, you note on the left the precipi tous wooded mountain-side of Beatenberg. IIere, high up in a rural hamlet, hidden among the trees, with the beautiful lakes of Thun and Brienz at his feet, and the magnificent spectacle of the Oberland, terminating at the remoter Berner Alps,-in those balmy Alpine days when spring is passing into sum mer, and all earth is a paradise of verdure and of ani mation,―here Mr. Stampfli secluded himself from the social distractions and cares of business at Berne, and dedicated himself to the mastery of the "Alabama Claims." In such a blessed retreat even law-books might lose their dullness, and diplomatic correspondence, depositions, and legal pleadings be invested with the charmed reflection of the matchless scenery of lakes, fields, hamlets, cities, mountains, and rivers, glittering in the sun, and resting in the horizon at the snow-crowned heights of the Jungfrau.

And so it seems to have been. For good St. Bea tus blessed the mountain labors of Mr. Stampfli, and he came to Geneva in due time with full abstracts of evidence and elaborately written opinions on the main questions at issue before the Tribunal, to the ap parent surprise of Sir Alexander Cockburn, who, con. fidently relying on the rupture of the Arbitration, as

he himself avowed, had not yet begun to examine the cause, and seemed to suppose that every body else ought to be as neglectfully ignorant of it as himself: which sentiment betrayed itself on various occasions in the sittings of the Tribunal.

VISCOUNT OF ITAJUBÁ.

On the left of Count Sclopis sat the Arbitrator named by the Emperor of Brazil, the Viscount of Itajubá.

The people of the United States do not seem to be generally aware how much of high cultivation, es pecially [but not exclusively] in the departments of diplomacy and jurisprudence, exists in those countries of America which were colonized by Spain and Por tugal. Nevertheless, on careful consideration of the sterling merits of such historical writers as the Mexi can Lucas Alaman,-such authors of international ju risprudence as the Chilean Bello, the Argentine Calvo, or the Peruvian Pando,-such writers of belles-lettres, of travels, or of statistics, as the Colombians Samper and Perez,-such pocts as the Brazilian Magalhaens, -such codes of municipal law as those of the States of Cundinamarca and of Mexico or of the Argentine Confederation, and of other Republics of Spanish America, we should be compelled to admit that lit erature and science are not confined to our part of the New World.

And, among all these new Powers of America, there is not one more deserving of respect,-Empire and not Republic though it be,-than Brazil, in view of

the magnitude of its territory, the greatness of its resources, its military strength and successes, its enlight ened and reforming chief ruler, the substantial liber. ality of its political institutions, and the unbroken domestic tranquillity of its independent life, so strikingly in contrast with the revolutionary agitations of most of the Spanish-American Republics.

Marcos Antonio d'Araujo belongs to that numer. ous body of jurists and statesmen, the natural growth of parliamentary institutions based on popular elec tion, who do honor at the present time to Brazil. Ile filled in early life the chair of Professor of Jurisprudence in the University of Pernambuco. IIis first diplomatic appointment was that of Consul-General of Brazil in the Hanse Towns, with residence at Hamburg. After that he held successively the oflices of Minister or Envoy at Hanover, at Copenhagen, at Berlin, and finally at Paris. At the time of his ap pointment as Arbitrator he was Envoy Extraordi nary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Brazil in France, by the title of Baron d'Itajubá, and he was made a Viscount during the progress of the Arbitration.

With exception, therefore, of the judicial studies and occupations of his youth, the Viscount of Itajubá is a diplomatist, having passed nearly forty years of his life in the discharge of diplomatic functions in different countries of Europe. He possesses all the qualities of his career and station, namely, courteous and attractive manners, intelligence disciplined by long experience of men and affairs, instinctive appreciation of principles and facts, and the ready expression of