all authority into one aſſembly, they ſeem to have been forcibly agitated by a mutual power of repulſion, which has divided them into two commonwealths, each of which has it monarchical power in a chief magiſtrate; its ariſtocratical power in two councils, one for legiſlation, and the other for execution; beſides the two more popular aſſemblies. This is ſureJy no ſimple democracy.—Indeed a ſimple democracy by repreſentation is a contradiction in terms.
LETTER VI.
UNDERWALD.
My dear Sir,
THE canton of Underwald conſiſts only of villages and boroughs, although it is twenty-five miles in length, and ſeventeen in breadth. Theſe dimenſions, it ſeems, were too extenſive to be governed by a legiſlation ſo imperfectly combined, and nature has taught and compelled them to ſeparare into two diviſions, the one above, and the other below, a certain large foreſt of oaks, which runs nearly in the middle of the country, from north to ſouth. The inferior valley, below the foreſt, contains four communities; and the uperior, above it, ſix. The principal or capital is Sarnen. The ſovereign is the whole country, the ſovereignty reſiding in the general aſſembly, where all the males of fifteen have entry and ſuffrage; but each valley apart has, with reſpect to its interior concerns, its land amman, its officers of adminiſtration, and its public aſſembly, com-
