boilers, stoves and ranges, optical supplies, wall-paper, cereals, canned goods, cutlery, tin cans and wagons are manufactured, and there are also extensive nurseries. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $4,951,964, an increase of 82.3% since 1900. Geneva has a public library, a city hospital and hygienic institute. It is the seat of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station and of Hobart College (non-sectarian), which was first planned in 1812, was founded in 1822 (the majority of its incorporators being members of the Protestant Episcopal church) as successor to Geneva Academy, received a full charter as Geneva College in 1825, and was renamed Hobart Free College in 1852 and Hobart College in 1860, in honour of Bishop John Henry Hobart. The college had in 1908–1909 107 students, 21 instructors, and a library of 50,000 volumes and 15,000 pamphlets. A co-ordinate woman’s college, the William Smith school for women, opened in 1908, was endowed in 1906 by William Smith of Geneva, who at the same time provided for a Hall of Science and for further instruction in science, especially in biology and psychology. In 1888 the Smith Observatory was built at Geneva, being maintained by William Smith, and placed in charge of Dr William Robert Brooks, professor of astronomy in Hobart College. The municipality owns its water-supply system. Geneva was first settled about 1787 almost on the site of the Indian village of Kanadasega, which was destroyed in 1779 during Gen. John Sullivan’s expedition against the Indians in western New York. It was chartered as a city in 1898.
GENEVA (Fr. Genève, Ger. Genf, Ital. Ginevra, Late Lat.
Gebenna, though Genava in good Latin), a city and canton of
Switzerland, situated at the extreme south-west corner both of
the country and of the Lake of Geneva or Lake Leman. The
canton is, save Zug, the smallest in the Swiss Confederation,
while the city, long the most populous in the land, is now surpassed
by Zürich and by Basel.
The canton has an area of 108.9 sq. m., of which 88.5 sq. m. are classed as “productive” (forests covering 9.9 sq. m. and vineyards 6.8 sq. m., the rest being cultivated land). Of the “unproductive” 20.3 sq. m., 1112 are accounted for by that portion of the Lake of Geneva which belongs to The canton. the canton. It is entirely surrounded by French territory (the department of Haute Savoie lying to the south, and that of the Ain to the west and the north), save for about 312 m. on the extreme north, where it borders on the Swiss canton of Vaud. The Rhone flows through it from east to west, and then along its south-west edge, the total length of the river in or within the canton being about 13 m., as it is very sinuous. The turbid Arve is by far its largest tributary (left), and flows from the snows of the chain of Mont Blanc, the only other affluent of any size being the London (right). Market gardens, orchards, and vineyards occupy a large proportion of the soil (outside the city), the apparent fertility of which is largely due to the unremitting industry of the inhabitants. In 1901 there were 6586 cows, 3881 horses, 2468 swine and 2048 bee-hives in the canton. Besides building materials, such as sandstone, slate, &c., the only mineral to be found within the canton is bituminous shale, the products of which can be used for petroleum and asphalt. The broad-gauge railways in the canton have a length of 1834 m., and include bits of the main lines towards Paris and Lausanne (for Bern or the Simplon), while there are also 7234 m. of electric tramways. The canton was admitted into the Swiss Confederation in 1815 only, and ranks as the junior of the 22 cantons. In 1815–1816 it was created by adding to the old territory belonging to the city (just around it, with the outlying districts of Jussy, Genthod, Satigny and Cartigny) 16 communes (to the south and east, including Carouge and Chêne) ceded by Savoy, and 6 communes (to the north, including Versoix), cut off from the French district of Gex.
In 1900 there were, not counting the city, 27,813 inhabitants
in the canton, or, including the city, 132,609, the city alone having
thus a population of 104,796. (In the following statistics those
for the city are enclosed within brackets.) In 1900 this population
was thus divided in point of religion: Romanists, 67,162
Statistics of
canton and city.
(49,965), Protestants, 62,400 (52,121), and Jews 1119 (1081).
In point of language 109,741 (84,259) were French-speaking,
13,343 (12,004) German-speaking, and 7345 (6574) Italian-speaking,
while there were also 89 (76) Romonsch-speaking
persons. More remarkable are the results as
to nationality: 43,550 (31,607) were Genevese citizens,
and 36,415 (30,582) Swiss citizens of other cantons.
Of the 52,644 (42,607) foreigners, there were 34,277 (26,018)
French, 10,211 (9126) Italians, 4653 (4283) subjects of the German
empire, 583 (468) British subjects, 832 (777) Russians, and 285
(251) citizens of the United States of America. In the canton
there were 10,821 (5683) inhabited houses, while the number
of separate households was 35,450 (28,621). Two points as to
these statistics deserve to be noted. The number of foreign
residents is steadily rising, for in 1900 there were only 79,965
(62,189) Swiss in all as against 52,644 (42,607) foreigners. One
result of this foreign immigration, particularly from France and
Italy, has been the rapid increase of Romanists, who now form
the majority in the canton, while in the city they were still
slightly less numerous than the Protestants in 1900; later
(local) statistics give in the Canton 75,400 Romanists to 64,200
Protestants, and in the city 52,638 Romanists to 51,221 Protestants.
Geneva has always been a favourite residence of
foreigners, though few can ever have expected to hear that the
“protestant Rome” has now a Romanist majority as regards
its inhabitants. Galiffe (Genève hist. et archéolog.) estimates
the population in 1356 at 5800, and in 1404 at 6490, in both
cases within the fortifications. In 1536 the old city acquired the
outlying districts mentioned above, as well as the suburb of
St Gervais on the right bank of the Rhone, so that in 1545 the
number is given as 12,500, reduced by 1572 to 11,000. After
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) it rose, by 1698,
to 16,934. Thenceforward the progress was fairly steady:
18,500 (1711); 24,712 (1782); 26,140 (1789). After the creation
of the canton (1815) the numbers were (those for the city are
enclosed within brackets) 48,489 (25,289), the city rising in 1837
to 33,714, and in 1843 to 36,452. The result of the Federal
censuses (begun in 1850) are as follows: in 1850, 64,146 (42,127);
in 1860, 82,876 (59,826); in 1870, 88,791 (65,606); in 1880,
99,712 (76,197), and in 1888, 105,509 (81,407).
The canton comprises 3 administrative districts: the 13 communes on the right bank and the 34 on the left bank each form one, while the city proper, on both sides of the river, forms one district and one commune. From 1815 to 1842 the city and the cantonal government Government. was the same. But at that date the city obtained its independence, and is now ruled by a town council of 41 members, and an executive of 5 members, the election in each case being made direct by the citizens, and the term of office being 4 years. The existing cantonal constitution dates, in most of its main features, from 1847. The legislature or Grand Conseil (now composed of 100 members) is elected (in the proportion of 1 member for every 1000 inhabitants or fraction over 500) for 3 years by a direct popular vote, subject (since 1892) to the principles of proportional representation, while the executive or conseil d’état (7 members) is elected (no proportional representation) by a popular vote for 3 years. By the latest enactments (one dating from 1905) 2500 citizens can claim a vote (“facultative referendum”) as to any legislative project, or can exercise the “right of initiative” as to any such project or as to the revision of the cantonal constitution. The canton sends 2 members (elected by a popular vote) to the Federal Ständerath, and 7 to the Federal Nationalrath.
The Consistory rules the Established Protestant Church, and is now composed of 31 members, 25 being laymen and 6 (formerly 15) clerics, while the “venerable company of pastors” (pastors actually holding cures) has greatly lost its former importance and can now only submit proposals to the Religion. Consistory. The Christian Catholic Church is also “established” at Geneva (since 1873) and is governed by the conseil supérieur, composed of 25 lay members and 5 clerics. No other religious denominations are “established” at Geneva. But the Romanists (who form 13% of the electors) are steadily growing in numbers
