bers of the Tribunal and to the representatives of the two Governments access to numerous official exhibi tions and entertainments; and, at a suitable time, it made for us a special festival at Geneva, as the Fed eral Government did at Interlaken and at Berne.

Switzerland, and Geneva especially, looking at the several acts of arbitration provided by tho Treaty of Washington as constituting grert steps in the prog ress of public peace, welcomed us the more heartily because of the recent organization there of a society, whose objects are defined by its title of "Comité Iu ternational de Secours aux Militaires Blessés." This society had acquired universal respect by its acts of disinterested philanthropy in the late war between Germany and France. Its symbol of the red cross had been the harbinger of relief to many a suffering victim of battle. It was organized under the Presidency of that General Dufour who, in 1847, had led to victory the forces of Switzerland against the Secession [Sonderbund] Cantons. And men could not fail to note the coincidence, when they saw this great Tribunal of Arbitration organized under the auspices of the victorious commander of our own Union forces [General Grant], as the International Commission for the Succor of the Wounded had been under the auspices of the veteran General Dufour. It was im pressive to see the greatest Generals of the two coun tries laboring to diminish the chances and lighten the evils of war.

The Tribunal of Arbitration occupied the same hall in the Hôtel de Ville which had just before been oc

cupied by the Society for the Succor of the Wounded : a room of moderate dimensions, but adequate to the purpose, fitted up with elegance and good taste, not, however, specially for the Commission or Tribunal, but for ordinary uses of the City or Canton, indicated by its title "Salle des Conférences."

The Hôtel de Ville is a structure in the Florentine style of architecture, situated on the summit of the old Geneva, and which is occupied both by munic ipal officers of the City and by the executive and leg. islative authorities of the Canton.

COUNT FREDERIC SCLOPIS.

IIere, then, in the "Salle des Conférences" of the IIôtel de Ville, at Geneva, the Tribunal assembled to listen to the opening discourse of the President, Count Sclopis, and to take up the business remaining for the consideration of the Arbitrators.

Count Sclopis, in this discourse, expressed belief that the meeting of the Tribunal indicated of itself the impression of new direction on the public policy of nations the most advanced in civilization, and the commencement of an epoch in which the spirit of moderation and the sentiment of equity were begin ning to prevail over the tendency of the old routines of arbitrary violence or culpable indifference. Ile signified regret that the pacific views of the Congress of Paris had not been seconded by events in Europe. IIe congratulated the world that the statesmen who directed the destinies of Great Britain and the United States, with rare firmness of conviction and devotion

to the interests of humanity, resisting all temptations of vulgar ambition, had magnanimously and courageously traversed in peace the difficulties which had divided them both before and since the conclusion of the Treaty. He quoted approvingly the opinion ex. pressed by Mr. Gladstone, on the one hand, and by President Washington, on the other, in commendation of the policy of peace, of justice, and of honor in the conduct of nations. And he proclaimed in behalf of his colleagues, as well as of himself, the purpose of the Tribunal, acting sometimes with the large percep tion of statesmen, sometimes with the scrutinizing eye of judges, and always with a profound sentiment of equity and with absolute impartiality, thus to dis charge its high duty of pacification as well as of justice to the two Governments.

The discourse was worthy of the occasion and of the man.

Count Frederic Sclopis of Salerano, Minister of State and Senator of the new Kingdom of Italy, has attained the ripe age of seventy-four years in the as siduous cultivation of letters, and in the discharge of the highest political and judicial functions. The countryman and the friend of Count Cavour, it was his fortune to co-operate in the task of the unification of Italy under the leadership of the House of Savoy.

This great military IIouse, with its enterprising, ambitious, and politic instincts, second in fortune only to the Habsburgs and the Zollerns, rose in the elev enth century, on the ruins of the Burgundians, to the possession of the passes of the Valaisian, Cottian, and

Graian Alps, and of the Gallic territory on both shores of Lake Leman, and at length to the possession of extensive Italian territories, denominated Piedmont by relation to the Alps and the Apennines, the nucleus of the present Kingdom of Italy.

It needs to conceive and picture to the mind's eye the Alpine cradle of this adventurous and martial, but cultivated race of Italianized Savoisian princes, nobles, and people, the fertile, but ravaged valleys of the Rhone, the Arve, the Albarine, the Arc, and the two Doras; the castellated heights of L'Ecluse, Mont; mélian, and La Brunnetta; the vine-clad hill-sides and the lofty cols dominated by the giant peaks of Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa; the sepulchral monuments of Haute-Combe and of Brou, and the rich plains along the Italian foot of the Alps,-in order to comprehend the growth to greatness of sovereigns such as Vittorio Emanuele, supported by such generals as Menabrea and Cialdini, and statesmen and magistrates such as Azeglio, Balbo, Sclopis, and especially Cavour.

Like his compatriot, the Marquis d'Azeglio, Count Sclopis is eminent as an author. Of his published writings, some are in French, such as "Marie Louise Gabrielle de Savoie" and "Cardinal Morone." But his most important works are in Italian; and above all, the learned "Storia della Legislazione Italiana," the last edition of which, in five volumes, is a most interesting and instructive exhibition of the successive stages of the medieval and modern legislation of all the different States of Italy.

Such was the eminent personage who presided over

and conducted the deliberations of the Tribunal, and who represented and spoke for it on ceremonial occa sions: a man of large stature and dignified presence; of the high breeding of rank, but without pretensiveness; cordial and kindly in social intercourse; the impersonation, as it were, of the intellect and the culture of Continental Europe.

MR. STEMPFLI.

Sitting by the right hand of Count Sclopis, as next to him in precedence, not by reason of age,-for he was the youngest member of the Tribunal,-but as representing the local Government, Switzerland, was Mr. James [or, in German, Jacob] Stampfli: a genu ine representative of democratic institutions,-sprung from the people, the son of his own works,-clearheaded, strong-minded, firm-hearted,—somewhat posi tive,-not prone to talk except when talk was of the essence of things, and then briefly and to the point,in a word, a man of the very stuff out of which to make Presidents of Federal Republics.

Mr. Stampfli is a German Swiss of the Canton of Berne, who has risen from the humblest to the highest condition in his country by mere force of intellect and indomitable will. Born in 1820, admitted to the Bar in 1843, he came forward at once as an advocate, and as a journalist of radical opinions, and speedily at tained distinction. In 1846 we find him a conspicu ous member of the Council of State, directing the finances, and laboring to organize a central military force. In 1847 he represented the Canton of Berne