ABSTRACT
The Swiss delegation to the Congress of Vienna was, unfortunately, composed of members both of the old and the new Switzerland who stood in each others’ way and thus prevented any united action or forcible argument. Multifarious as the points on the Swiss programme were, they were almost exclusively concerned with the rectification of the frontiers and the establishment of the cantonal constitutions. At one point, however, all dissention, all intercantonal disputes were silenced—namely, the question of neutrality. In the instructions issued to the Swiss delegation, stringent orders were given respecting the neutrality of the Confederation, and here all were united in a common cause. The instructions enlarged with unwonted emphasis on the question of neutrality. It is called “from of old the mainstay of Swiss policy.” The whole of Europe, the instructions state, sees in the neutrality and peace of Switzerland a pledge of its own security and one of the cardinal conditions of the political balance which had now to be restored.
