Agriculture is the main occupation of the people; the land is much subdivided and very highly cultivated. The vineyards employ 20,000 persons. About one-third of the wine produced is exported, the best-known varieties being Yvorne (white) and Cortaillod (red). There is not much industry, except that of the watchmakers in the Jura; and the commerce is comparatively unimportant. Many foreigners reside in the canton, particularly on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, from Lausanne to Villeneuve (as formerly Gibbon, Voltaire, and Rousseau). Montreux is a favourite winter residence, and its growth may be judged of from the fact that its inhabitants increased from 3211 in 1849 to 4379 in 1860, 6659 in 1870, and 8017 in 1880, the increase being specially marked since the opening of the railway in 1861. The railways are 168 miles in length, besides a “ligne régionale” on the high road from Lausanne to Échallens, and the cable railways from Lausanne to Ouchy and from Territet to Glion. In educational matters the canton holds a high place. The academy of Lausanne dates from 1537; and there are a very large number of schools and educational establishments at Morges, Lausanne, Vevay, and elsewhere. Pestalozzi’s celebrated institution flourished at Yverdon from 1805 to 1825. Among the remarkable historical spots in the canton are Avenches (the chief Roman settlement in Helvetia), Granson (scene of the famous battle in 1476 against Charles the Bold), and the castle of Chillon (where Bonnivard, the prior of St Victor at Geneva, was imprisoned from 1531 to 1536 for defending the freedom of Geneva against the duke of Savoy).

History.— The early history of the main part of the territories comprised in the present canton is identical with that of south-west Switzerland generally. The Romans conquered (58 b.c.) the Celtic Helvetii, and so thoroughly colonized the land that it has remained a Romance-speaking district, despite conquests by the Burgundians (5th century) and Franks (532) and the incursions of the Saracens (10th century). It formed part of the empire of Charlemagne, and of the kingdom of Transjurane Burgundy (888-1032), the memory of “good queen Bertha,” wife of King Rudolph II., being still held in high honour. On the extinction of the house of Zäringen (1218) the counts of Savoy gradually won the larger part of it, especially in the days of Peter II., “le petit Charlemagne” (died 1268). The bishop of Lausanne (to which place the see had been transferred from Aventicum by Marius the Chronicler at the end of the 6th century), however, still maintained the temporal power given to him in 1011 by the king of Burgundy, and in 1270 became a prince of the empire. (We must be careful to distinguish between the present canton of Vaud and the old mediaeval Pays de Vaud: the districts forming the present canton very nearly correspond to the Pays Romand. ) In the 15th century Bern began to acquire lands to the south from the dukes of Savoy, and it was out of those conquests that the canton was formed in 1798. In 1475 she seized Aigle, in 1475- 76 (in concert with Freiburg) Echallens and Granson as well as Orbe (the latter held of the duchy of Burgundy). Vaud had been occupied by Bern for a time (1475-76), but the final conquest did not take place till 1536, when both Savoyard Vaud and the bishopric of Lausanne were overrun and annexed by Bern (formally ceded in 1564), who added to them (1555) Chateau d’Oex, as her share of the domains of the debt-laden count of Gruyères in the division of the spoil she made with Freiburg. In 1565 the liberties of Vaud were, by a special treaty, placed under the guarantee of France. Bern in 1526 sent Farel, a preacher from Dauphiné, to carry out the Reformation at Aigle, and after 1536 the new religion was imposed by force of arms and the bishop’s residence moved to Freiburg (permanently from 1663). Thus the whole land became Protestant, save the district of Echallens. Vaud was ruled very harshly by bailiffs from Bern. In 1588 a plot of some nobles to hand it over to Savoy was crushed, and in 1723 the enthusiastic idealist Davel lost his life in an attempt to raise it to the rank of a canton. Political feeling was therefore much excited by the outbreak of the French Revolution, and a Vaudois, F. C. de la Harpe, an exile and a patriot, persuaded the Directory in Paris to march on Vaud in virtue of the rights conferred by the treaty of 1565. The French troops were received enthusiastically, and the “Le-manic republic” was proclaimed (January 1798), succeeded by the short-lived Rhodanic republic, till in March 1798 the canton of Leman was formed as a district of the Helvetic republic. This corresponded precisely with the present canton minus Avenches and Payerne, which were restored to it in 1803. The new canton was thus made up of the Bernese conquests of 1475, 1475-76, 1536, and 1555. The constitutions of 1803 and 1815 favoured the towns and wealthy men, so that an agitation went on for a radical change, which was effected in the constitution of 1831. Originally acting as a mediator, Vaud finally joined the anti-Jesuit movement (especially after the Radicals came into power in 1845), opposed the Sonderbund, and accepted the new federal constitution of 1848, of which Druey of Vaud was one of the two drafters. From 1839 to 1846 the canton was distracted by religious struggles, owing to the attempt of the Radicals to turn the church into a simple department of state, a struggle which ended in the splitting off of the “free church.” The cantonal feeling in Vaud is very strong, and was the main cause of the failure of the project of revising the federal constitution in 1872, though that of 1874 was accepted. In 1879 Vaud was one of the three cantons which voted (though in vain) against a grant in aid of the St Gotthard Railway. In 1882 the Radicals obtained a great majority, and in 1885 the constitution of 1861 was revised. The Government consists of a great council (one member to every 300 electors) for legislative and a council of state of 7 members (chosen by the great council) for executive purposes. 6000 citizens can compel consideration of any project by the legislature (“initiative,” first in 1845), and the referendum exists in its “facultative” form, if demanded by 6000 citizens, and also in case of expenditure of over a million francs. Capital punishment was abolished in 1874. The canton has lately been passing through serious financial difficulties. In 1862 the south-west frontier was slightly altered in consequence of a dispute with France as to the valley of Dappes.

See A. Verdeil, Histoire du Canton de Vaud (2d ed., 4 vols.), and L. Vulliemin, Le Canton du Vaud (3d ed., 1885).