GLARUS, or Glaris, a canton of Switzerland, is bounded on the N. and N.E. by St Gall, on the E. and S. by the Grisons, and on the W. by Uri and Schwyz. Its area is 266 or 267 square miles, its greatest length about 33 miles, and its greatest breadth about 16. A thoroughly Alpine district, sloping northwards from the lofty range which comprises the Tödi (11,887 feet), the Biferten Stock (11,237), and the Scheibe (9587), and including within its limits the Glärnisch (9584) and the Mürtschen Stock(8012), Glarus is almost completely cut off from the neighbouring cantous, except towards the south. Of the three passes, the Segnes, the Kisten, and the Panix, which communicate with the Grisons, the first and second are over the snow, and the third has only a bridle path; and the Klausen pass and the Pragel pass, which conduct respectively to Schwyz and Uri, have also mere bridle paths. As far as it is a habitable country it may be said to consist of the valley of the Linth, which extends from the Tödi southward to the Wallenstadt Lake along with the lesser valleys of the Sernf (or Sernft) and the Klön, which branch off to the east and the west. The climate, it need hardly be said, is a severe one, the snow generally remaining, even in the lowlands, till near the beginning of May. The föhn at times blows with terrific violence; and, by a law enforced in the town of Glarus, every fire in the place must be extinguished as soon as it sets in. The chief sources of wealth in the canton are the pastures and the manufacturing industries. Though copper, silver, and iron mines were formerly wrought, the only mineral production now of commercial importance is slate, which is extensively quarried in the Plattenberg. Not more than a fifth of the soil is capable of cultivation by the ...plough, and the agricultural produce has consequently to be supplemented by foreign supplies. About 9000 or 10,000 head of cattle are pastured in the canton, and according to the census of 1876 there are 2000 sheep, 6900 goats, and 3000 swine. Neither butter nor ordinary cheese is made in sufficient quantities for the local consumption, but the Schabzeiger, Schotter Kase, Kräuterkäse, Qτ “green cheese,” made of skim milk, whether of goats or cows, mixed with butter-milk and coloured with powdered Steinklee (flelilotus coerulea), is still largely manufactured. The curd is brought down from the mountain chalet3 in sacks, which contain about 200 ft> each. After being ground for about 2 j hours in a mill along with the klee powder, which is added in the proportion of 3 ft> to the 100, the curd is put into shapes, and pressed in the usual way. It grows ripe in about a year and keeps a long time. Large quantities are exported to America. The cotton manufacture is the staple of the canton, and gives support to about a fourth of the population. Formerly distributed through the country as a domestic industry, it is now concentrated in a few factory towns and villages, which in the aggregate keep about 250,000 spindles going. The cotton goods are sent to the East, America, and Africa. It is not only in their own little country that the people of Glarus find a field for their energies; they have contributed to the industries of many parts of Europe, and their poorer emigrants have founded three flourishing settlements in Wisconsin—New Glarus, Vilten, and New Elm. The population, which in 1851 was 30,213, had increased by 1870 to 35,150, and was estimated in 1876 at 36,179. The vast majority are Protestarts, only 6,888 being Catholics according to the census of 1870. The constitution of Glarus is of the simplest kind, and extremely democratic. According to the law of 1842, revised and sanctioned by the federal council in 1851, the government rests in the hands of a Landesgemeinde or assembly of the whole male population above the age of eighteen, which usually meets on the first Sunday in May, and elects the cantonal officials, votes the income and poll-taxes, and passes or rejects any laws that may be presented by the cantonal council or Landesrath. The cantonal council consists of 117 members. A council of 45 members, and a committee of 9 members have control of the executive. The landamman is president of the committee, the executive council, the cantonal council, and the assembly. Justice is administered by five courts completely independent of the Government. Freedom of the press, freedom of religious worship, and freedom of trade and industry are all guaranteed. Aliens are readily naturalized and admitted to the rights of citizens. The canton is divided into 25 communes, only one of which, that of Glarus, has more than 5000 inhabitants, while 16 have less than 1000, and the smallest has only 231.
Glarus, the capital of the canton, is a flourishing little town on the left bank of the Linth, about 1495 feet above the sea-level. Its environment is a remarkable one: to the S. the Glärnisch rises 6153 feet; to the N.W. the Wiggis, 6033; and to the E. the Schild, 6010. The fire of 1861 devastated the greater part of the town, destroying its Gothic church of the 10th century, the casino, the Government houses, and all its principal buildings; 2000 of the inhabitants were rendered houseless, and property to the value of 8,000,000 francs was destroyed. Contributions however were sent in from far and near to the amount of 2,754,606 francs, the federal authorities of Switzerland voted a loan of 1,000,000 at two per cent., and the canton furnished a subsidy at 3 per cent.; the town was rapidly rebuilt in a substantial and regular style, and the public edifices restored. The church is used in common by the Protestants and the Roman Catholics. The high school accommodates 700 pupils. Most of the population, which in 1870 numbered 5516, are supported by the cotton manufacture carried on in the town and the vicinity. A certain trace of rustic life is still maintained, as the operatives have each a bit of ground in the “almend.” On the opposite side of the river lies the industrial village of Enneda.
In the end of the 5th century an Irisn monk, Fridolin, the founder of the convent of Seckingen on the Rhine, built a church on the site of the present town, and the name of St Hilarius, which he gave it in honour of his patron the bishop of Poitiers, in course of time became corrupted to Glarus or Glaris. The whole valley was reckoned to the estates of the abbey of Seckingen, and it was governed by a mayor or bailiff whose nomination was vested ultimately in the Hapsburg family. The tyranny of these officers constrained the people of Glarus to join the Helvetic confederation in 1352, and in 1388 they secured their independence by a victory over the Austrians at Näfels, the anniversary of which is still celebrated on the second Thursday of April. Zwingli the Reformer was curate of Glarus from 1506 to 1516, and by 1530 the new doctrines had been accepted by five-sixths of the population of the canton. The two religious parties, though they were happily prevented from appealing to arms, continued long in a state of mutual alienation and suspicion; the Protestants, for example, would have nothing to do with the Gregorian calendar because it was introduced by the papal party. At length a settlement of a peculiar kind was effected in 1683. Each confession was allowed to have a cantonal assembly, a cantonal council, and officials of its own; while for all matters in which both parties were interested there was a cantonal assembly and a cantonal council for discussion and administration in common. It was in the beginning of the 18th century that the present prosperity of the canton received its original impulse. Cottonspinning was introduced in 1712 by Heidegger of Zurich, and weaving and calico-printing followed before 1750. The population of the canton increased from 15,000 to 20,000 during the century. The effects of the great Revolution were beneficially experienced,-and the early part of the 19th century was marked by numerous improvements, political and social. Till 1811 the lower course of the Linth was extremely irregular, and its inundations had gradually turned a large stretch of country into a swamp; but, under the patronage and direction mainly of Escher (von der Linth, as he came afterwards to be called), there was constructed a magnificent system of canals which completely remedied the evils, and the desolate region soon became one of the finest parts of the canton. The whole cost of the works up till 1823 was 974,553 francs. When the new constitution of 1836 was introduced, the Roman Catholic minority, whose influence it greatly diminished, were urged on by Bossi, the bishop of Chur (Coire), to break off from their Protestant countrymen; but the Government expelled the few priests who refused to take the oath, and separated the canton from its connexion with the diocese of Chur. After Bossi’s death the decree of separation λvas revoked. In the Sonderbund war of 1847 Glarus was true to the federation; and the same spirit was shown in the voting about the constitution in 1872-75.
See Valentin Tsclιudi, Kurze historische Beschreib-oder Erzellung,der in Kriegsund Fridenszeiten verloffenen Sachen und Händlen zu Glarus, a 16th-century chronicle, printed by J. J. Blumcr, in Archiv für Schweizerische Geschichte, Zurich, vol. ix., 1853 ,· Johann Heinrich Tschudi, Beschreibung des Lobt. Orths und Lands Glarus, Zurich, 1714; Christoph Triimpi, Neuere Glarner-Chronik, Wintherthur, 1774; J. Μ. Schuler, Die Linththäler, Zurich, 1814; Resultat moral du desséche des marais de la Linth, Geneva, 1825; Melchior Schüler, Geschichte des Landes Glarus, Zurich, 1834; J. J. Bäbler, Geschichte u. Inhalt der alten Verträge zwischen den Reformirten u Katholiken im Kanton Glarus, Glarus, 1836; J. J. Blümer, “Das Thal Glarus unter Seckingen und Oesterreich und seine Befreiung," in Archiv für Schweizerische Geschichte, Bd iii., Zurich, 1844; Dr Oswald Heer and J. J. Blumen-Heer, Der Kanton Glarus, historisch-geographisch-statistisch geschildert, St Gall, 1846, forming part of Gemälde der Schweiz; Oswald Heer, Escher von der Linth, Ein Lebensbild, Zurich, 1873; Egli, Taschenbuch Schweizer. Geographie, Zurich, 1875.
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