Maurer and Roscher, generally so exhaustive of all that concerns ancient agrarian customs, say hardly anything of the Swiss Allmenden . Professor Nasse, who has much information on this subject, thinks German economists have paid no specialattention to it. The chief sources used in the chapter are :--1. A collection of regulations for the Allmenden of the Schwytzcanton. 2. A complete study on communal property in Unterwald, Die Rechtsverhältnisse am Gemeinland in Unterwalden ,by Andreas Heusler, professor of law at Basle. 3. A pamphlet full of original and sound views, by Doctor B. Becker, pastorat Linthal, in the canton of Glans, Die Allmeinde, das Grundstück zur Losung der socialen Knage . 4. A study of Professorde Wyss, Die Schweizerische Landsgemeinden, in the Zeitschrift für Schweiz. Recht , 1 Bd. 5. Snells book, Handbuch denSchweiz , Zurich 1844. 6. Das Landbuch von Schwyz, herausgegeben von Kothing, Zurich 1850. 7. Das Landbuch od erSammlung den Gesetze des Cantons Uri, Flüelen 1823. 8. Private information, due to Professor König of Berne, and M.
Schenk, chief of the federal department of the interior.
2. The canton of Appenzell is divided into two halves, the Inner and Outer Rhodes. The word Rhoden denotes a veryancient and curious institution. Each Rhode is made up of a group of a certain number of inhabitants more or less scatteredthroughout the villages, who assemble to choose deputies for the two councils and to administer certain collective property.
The Rhode therefore corresponds to the clan, except that this kind of political corporation is not attached to a fixed portionof territory. The institution, which has certain analogies with the Roman gens, dates from the highest antiquity. For the Landesgemeinde , see an excellent article by M. Rambert in the Revue Suisse (1873), and the Studies of Mr Freeman on theprimitive forms of political orgamzation.
3. The organization of society in Barbary, as described in the works of MM. Hanoteau and Letourneux, of which there is anadmirable résumé by M. Ernest Benan in the Revue des Deux Mondes , Sept. 1,1873, is identical with that of the Germanicmark and the Swiss democracies. The government is direct: the. people sell-administering. The supreme authority is thegeneral assembly of citizens or djemaa , which exercises alike legislative, executive and judicial power. It nominates a mayor( Amin ), who is nothing but the Swiss amman . Landed property is no longer common, as in the primitive mark; but thecommunity still binds private property in very close fetters. The latter owes to the poor the thimeckeret , or distribution ofmeat. Hospitality is a common charge of the djemaa , as it was of the mark. A Kabyle has a right to demand the assistance ofthe whole village for the construction of his house. Agricultural works are also carried on by the aid of mutual assistance.
Every one in need claims help of the village and is in turn liable to a similar claim. The result of this organization, based onsuch strict principles of joint responsibility, is, as M. Renan remarks, to hinder the development of wealth, but at the sametime to throw an obstacle in the way of the formation of a social residuum, destined to misery by a fatal decree. Thesimilarity between the djemaa of Barbary and the Swiss landesgemeinde is an additional evidence that everywhere humansocieties were originally constituted in the same way. We may therefore assert that the democratic and autonomic communeis the natural form of society. The superiority of the Swiss communes is due to their having, under the influence of thesentiment of Christian brotherhood, arrived at federation, whereas the djemaas have remained in a state of war with oneanother.
4. This principle is laid down by Blackstone and all English jurists. Williams, in his treatise On Real Property , says: "Thefirst thing the student has to do is to get rid of the idea of an absolute ownership. Such an idea is quite unknown to theEnglish law. No man is in law the absolute owner of lands. He can only hold an estate in them."5. A project was recently submitted to the Grand Council of Berne to facilitate the dissolution of communities and to allowof the realization of their property by the communes. One sees with regret this hostility to a system which should be fosteredand cleared of abuses. For the study of this question, constantly under discussion in Switzerland, the following works maybe consulted:
Rüttimann, Geschichte des Schweiz-Gemeindebürgerrechts , Zurich, 1862; Leuenberger, Studien zur bernischenRechtsgesehichte , ?28; Stettler, Versuch einer urkundlich geschichtl . Entwicklung der Gemeinde undBürgerrechisverhältnisse im Kt. Bern, in der Zeitschrift für vat erländisches Recht , Vol. 111; Wirth, Beschreibung undStatistik der Schweiz , Vol. II.; Quiquerez, Observations sur l'origine et la destination des biens appelés de bourgeoisiedans le Jura bernois; Blosch, Betrachtungen über das Gemeindewesen im Kt. Bern tend dessen Reform . Bern 1848; Gutatacten über die Reorganisation des Gemeindewesens im Kt. Bern vom 9 Juni 1851. See also Vorträge der Direktiondes Gemeinde- und Armenwesens über den Rekurs Lammlingen ( vom 11. November 1872), and the Report of the ninthCongress of the Swiss Juristic Association on the question. Ist die Anshebung der Bürger- oder Genossengemeinden unddie Verwendung des Vermögens derselben zu allgemeinen Geineinderwecken staatsrechtlich zulässig tendnationalökonomisch zu empfehlen ? ( Verf. Obergerichtspräsident Dr Bühler sel. in Luzern .)6. The Kuhessen is the quantity of keep necessary for a milking cow during the summer months. There is the same measurein Frisia and all Germanic countries.
7. See Dr B. Becker, Die Allmeinde , p. 37.
