150 years "Liberi e Svizzeri" or how the canton Ticino achieved its independence Autor(en): [s.n.] Objekttyp: Article Zeitschrift: The Swiss observer : the journal of the Federation of Swiss Societies in the UK Band (Jahr): - (1948) Heft 1089 PDF erstellt am: 02.10.2021 Persistenter Link: http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-690728 Nutzungsbedingungen Die ETH-Bibliothek ist Anbieterin der digitalisierten Zeitschriften. Sie besitzt keine Urheberrechte an den Inhalten der Zeitschriften. Die Rechte liegen in der Regel bei den Herausgebern. Die auf der Plattform e-periodica veröffentlichten Dokumente stehen für nicht-kommerzielle Zwecke in Lehre und Forschung sowie für die private Nutzung frei zur Verfügung. Einzelne Dateien oder Ausdrucke aus diesem Angebot können zusammen mit diesen Nutzungsbedingungen und den korrekten Herkunftsbezeichnungen weitergegeben werden. Das Veröffentlichen von Bildern in Print- und Online-Publikationen ist nur mit vorheriger Genehmigung der Rechteinhaber erlaubt. Die systematische Speicherung von Teilen des elektronischen Angebots auf anderen Servern bedarf ebenfalls des schriftlichen Einverständnisses der Rechteinhaber. Haftungsausschluss Alle Angaben erfolgen ohne Gewähr für Vollständigkeit oder Richtigkeit. Es wird keine Haftung übernommen für Schäden durch die Verwendung von Informationen aus diesem Online-Angebot oder durch das Fehlen von Informationen. Dies gilt auch für Inhalte Dritter, die über dieses Angebot zugänglich sind. Ein Dienst der ETH-Bibliothek ETH Zürich, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich, Schweiz, www.library.ethz.ch http://www.e-periodica.ch May 14th, 1948. THE SWISS OBSERVER 4633 Pestalozzi, the great man who more than a hundred 150 YEARS "LIBERI E SVIZZERI " years ago had shown us the right way in Child Care. or How the Canton Ticino Achieved its Independence. A small Pestalozzi Village now stands in Trogen with nine houses built in the Appenzell Style (/infracts /rom an address griren by 4/r. J. Easebio pretty C/wiowe grouped round an old farmhouse. French, Polish, to toe members o/ toe Jhctoese.) German, Austrian and Italian War-Orphans have already started their Way to life there. It was built The Feudal System. by volontary workers of Switzerland and other conn- To-day we are here to celebrate freedom. It is not tries who spent their holidays up there, perhaps the many days since it was said in the House of Commons most satisfactory holiday they have ever spent. The that " the flame of freedom had once again been snuffed Village is under the patronage of the Swiss Youth who out in Europe." lias taken this responsibility with great enthusiasm We generally say we are free when we mean that we and has already helped in the most various and effi- can do just what we like, that we have no duties, to cient ways. From the smallest to the biggest, from a perform. Political freedom is much the same thing. It Swiss school making furniture, for a house to Ciba is taken to mean that a country or a community is free in. Bale giving a whole house to the Village, a great to do what it likes, to rule itself as and how it likes, majority of the Swiss are doing something for it and that it owes no allegiance to any despotic ruler or to consider it as partly their own. any other nation. The budget of the Organisation lies in the hands The young ones amongst you may feel inclined to of Pro Juventute, The Don Suisse has participated as ask : " But is not Switzerland a free country?" — well as the Red Cross. " Why has our home Canton enjoyed only 150 years of self I shall make task this after- Educators and doctors from many countries have rule?" — Well, it my to these as spent some time up there, taking up the challenge and noon give answers to two questions, briefly started similar Villages in their own countries. as possible and I hope you will bear with me for a short while. want a good tonic against depression and If you During the Middle Ages the common man was tied desillusionment, go to Trogen and have a dose of that to the land, under the feudal system ; he was the ser- hopeful world. We are going to start a happy, little vant of the glebe, agriculture being at that time the British House soon. a cord has been struck in If your general occupation. The as he was called, hearts as feel like the villein, well, you might helping British tilled the land on which he had been born for his Committee to finance it. lord, to whom he had to give up a portion of the produce, generally a tenth, and who had the right of life or death over him. Besides this, the villein was called upon to do specific work for his overlord, either " week work," that is labour for certain days a week regularly all the year round, or " boon work," extra labour when there was special need for it such as during harvest time. The land then was owned by large pro- prietors with wide farms (latifundia) tilled by this slave labour. There were, it is true, so called " free- men," but these were few, having acquired their tenure through performing military or other special service for their lord. There was also another way of escaping the land, through the priesthood, as the Church itself was one of the largest landowners. The Swiss Become Free. As a system feudalism, which obtained over Western Europe in mediaeval times — in Great Britain no less than on the Italian Peninsula — was better suited to fertile, flat-lying country. In mountainous regions, such as Switzerland, where Nature is at once majestic and niggardly, and the life for human existence correspondingly hard, it could work but im- perfectly. The hardy Swiss, on either side of the Alps resented it. It was not long before on the North side, the Swiss broke free from the rule of the Emperor, Albert I, of Austria, the cruel Habsburg who had feudal rights over most of the territory of the three original Cantons, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwaiden, and banished his oppressive agents. Thus it has been said, that the Swiss by their emancipation gained the first triumph for the democratic principles in Europe over an area larger than the city state. Few historical events have been more beneficial than the establishment of Swiss freedom by the valour and energy of a subject race, they helped to restore to the Continent of Europe the ideal of political liberty. 4634 THE SWISS OBSERVER May 14tli, 1948. The Eight Southern Bailiwicks of the Twelve Cantons. over two and-a-half centuries. There is no doubt that About the same time, the end of the thirteenth our people at first welcomed the protection of their Century, similar events on the South side of the Alpine powerful Swiss neighbours and the confederate Cantons range, our own side, occurred, but these were less sue- in their turn did not at the time intend their rule to cessful. The Valle Leventina had just been ceded by their be more than a benign protectorate to keep clear so to overlord, the Chapter of the Cathedral at Milan to speak their lines of communication with the trading Duke Ottone Visconti, when the "leventinesi" revolted centres of Northern Italy. in the year 1290 under Alberto Cerro of Airolo. They The " Balivi " (Bailiffs). the were subdued, however, by soldiery despatched from In my school days we were taught that the Milan the Duke. Two the "balivi" by years later, township of had been cruel and corrupt. Well a Northerner is Biasca revolts and obtains from their " podestà " a always cruel in the eyes of a Southerner. As for cor- Charter of Liberty. But then we must not forget the ruption the charge has its in the fact the of origin that glorious episode 1182, over a century before the office of bailiff was bought, but such was the custom at the Grfftli plot, destruction by the united efforts of the this time. It is beyond question, however, that the men of Leventina and Blenio of the bailiff's residence majority of these men, sent to govern the Ticino were at Curterio in and the solemn oath subse- Blenio, they honest and as fair in the administration of as took at themselves justice quently Torre, pledging mutual aid one can be in a Country speaking a and to other language, with prevent any bailiff or despot from setting him- customs, different from their own. Yet we have the self over them. But fate had dark days in store up for severe judgment of Dr. Otto Weiss in his book : these entitled intrepid mountaineers. The young and ambitious " The Ticinese Bailiwicks of the Cantons in the Swiss Confederation discovered XII soon that their prowess 18th Century " published in 1914 (Die tessinischen at arms could gain them further advantages than just Landvogteien der Orte im 18. The St. and XII Jahrhundert). war. Gotthard the Lucomagno Passes were " The Law was flouted, it being applied with extreme South routes important North through the Alps, much harshness towards the poor, and with lenience to the used by the traders of the thriving commercial centres rich." The popular notion had that the of the it justice was Italian Republics and the Hansa towns in only prosperous trade in the Ticino at that time. And To these Germany. control Passes, therefore, meant no wonder, when one considers that the bailiff for economic and, in case of war, strategic advantage. Lugano had a stipend of 847 Milan that and lire, for Lucerne, also Schwyz made several abortive Locarno 230, and the unfortunate gentlemen appointed at these routes themselves.