dau and Bingen free from all political ties with the Emperor and Empire of Germany and from allegiance to their respective petty rulers, and proclaiming it to be an independent state, indivisible and founded on the principles of liberty and equality.1 The convention having determined that it would come to no decision on any important measure without having first examined it in three successive sessions, the decree of union with France was postponed to the 21st, when it was voted on the motion of Forster.

On March 30, Commissioner Haussmann reported to the Convention of France on the work of himself and his colleagues.2 He incorporated an account of the deportations of the bailiffs, priests and nobles who were attempting to frustrate them. In the debate Cambon spoke of rumors of misconduct by the commissioners, which were rife in the Republic, and said that their report refuted these, but that it would be well that a more detailed report should be submitted in order that Europe might see for itself. On the assertion of Haussmann that he had not the necessary material at hand this suggestion was dropped and after the deputies of the National Rheno-Germanic Convention had delivered their address, the French Convention at once, without debate, adopted a decree to the effect that, in view of the decrees of the National Rheno-Germanic Convention for union with France, the communes enumerated were made an integral part of the Republic.

THE REPUBLICS OF MULHAUSEN AND GENEVA, 1798

Mulhausen and the adjacent territory had for many years formed a selfgoverning state, at times in close alliance with or incorporated in the Swiss Confederation. The government of this community of 6,000 inhabitants, which included the communes of Ylzach and Modenheim, was composed of a General Council and a Committee of Forty. Its commercial relations with France had been small but constant and its hatred of the Germanic Empire intensified its French sympathies. To protect itself from the Empire, it had, in 1777, concluded a defensive military alliance with both France and Switzerland.

In September 1797 the French Republic declared Mulhausen to be foreign territory. This resulted in an appalling situation for the little state. All imports of food from France must pay heavy export duties and there was already great scarcity through failure of the crops. All exports to France must pay a heavy import duty and France was their best customer. The situation was intolerable. The state officials decided that the only solution was union with France.

1 Chuquet gives this decree in full, Mayence, p. 120.

2 Documents, post, p. 343.

When the news of this desire reached Paris, the Directory, on January 1, delegated Citizen Jean-Ulric Metzger, a member of the central administration of the department of the Upper Rhine, as commissioner to the Republic of Mulhausen, to confer with the magistrates and citizens as to conditions and stipulations of union, to receive their vote, and to draw up a treaty of union. On January 3, however, before the arrival of Metzger, the Burgomasters and Council had voted for union by a vote of 97 to 3, on condition of exemption from conscription, then newly established, from requisitions, and from the general obligation of billeting troops until after the next general peace. On the next day, this vote was confirmed by the general assembly of burgesses meeting in the Church of Saint-Étienne. At this meeting 591 voted for union and 15 against it. This vote was communicated to Metzger and a new assembly of citizens named deputies to treat with him regarding the details of the union.

The treaty of union of the Republic of Mulhausen with the French Republic was signed on January 28.1 By it the vote of the citizens of Mulhausen and the other communes was accepted, with the conditions stipulated, and contains a clause of option providing the period of a year, during which time the citizens of the territory were declared to be "French-born." Article 3 those wishing to quit the territory might remove their possessions, and a further period of three years in which to sell their property and liquidate their debts.

On March 10 the formal ceremony of annexation took place in Mulhausen, solemnized by the declaration that henceforth " the Republic of Mulhausen reposes on the bosom of the French Republic." There it remained until the passing of Alsace to Germany in 1871.

By the union of Savoy with France in 1792, the Republic of Geneva became an enclave, surrounded by French departments which at once eagerly desired its incorporation in the republic. There was also a group in Paris working for this union, in whose cause Desportes, the French minister resident at Geneva, was an active agent.

In 1797 the economic measures which had brought such distress to Mulhausen produced a corresponding result in Geneva, and other efforts were exerted by the French to bring home to the Genevois the desirability of union. There was trouble over contraband and a newspaper, l'Echo des Alpes was instituted at Carouge to further the cause of union. During the winter of black misery the propaganda resounded, the governing officers of the republic remaining unsuspicious of the plans of the French Directory. When, in March, Mulhausen ratified the treaty of union, word came from Paris to Desportes that the annexation which he was so diligently preparing would 1 Documents, post, p. 363.

be approved on condition that he should succeed in causing a request for it to come from the people of Geneva themselves.1

Hazarding an audacious bluff, Desportes called in the officials of the government and announced to them that the union of their country with that of the French Republic had been decided on at Paris, and that all resistance would be useless and dangerous, as the French troops which were quartered in Switzerland had orders not to leave without completing this matter. This was communicated to the Administrative and Legislative Council, with the further proposal of Desportes that they appoint a special commission to which the sovereign powers of the General Council of Citizens should be delegated. This commission was appointed accordingly on March 19. Desportes then announced to Talleyrand that the commission would ask of the Directory the union of Geneva and its territory to the French Republic, with the stipulation that its religious and commercial institutions should be conserved, and in return Desportes was provided with full powers to consult with the people and officials of the Genevese Republic regarding all those matters concerning the union and to receive their votes.2

The powers of the special commission on which Desportes was relying had expired before the treaty could be negotiated. On April 15, the General Council was convoked to renew them. The meeting took place in the Church of Saint-Pierre which was surrounded with a French guard of 1,600 foot and horse, with artillery, which had been requisitioned by Desportes. Under the menace of their bayonets, so the Genevois say, the citizens renewed the powers of the special commission and the commission voted most unwillingly for the treaty which terminated the existence of the Republic of Geneva.

By the strategy of Desportes, the condition of a request from Geneva had been fulfilled. It was an easy matter to make France and Europe believe that the Genevois had voted for the union voluntarily, eagerly, and by a unanimous plebiscite. This was in fact the story as published in the Echo des Alpes.3

The treaty of union is similar to that of Mulhausen. By it France accepts the vote of the people of Geneva, giving the privilege of option to those desiring to leave the country. The clauses which differ are those permanently excluding by name three citizens of Geneva who had opposed the French efforts, and those protecting the precious metals used in the Geneva crafts and giving exceptional favor to the manufacture of chintz. The principal advantage offered to Geneva, as to Mulhausen, was the free disposal of the communal property.

1 Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Genève, Mémoires et documents publiés, series 4, vol. 4, p. 178.

2 Documents, post, p. 367.

3 "Le 26 germinal an VI de la République française, le peuple genevois réuni en Conseil général a vôté à l'unanimité, sa réunion à la République française," Mémoires et documents, p. 180, quoted from l'Echo des Alpes.

THE PERIOD OF 1848-1870

THE ITALIAN PLEBISCITES OF 1848

In 1848 the spontaneous wave of nationalism and democracy, which began with the February revolution in Paris and swept rapidly over Europe, gave to the subject peoples of Italy not only the inspiration for another trial for freedom but the method of securing it. The founding of the Kingdom of Italy on the voluntary wish of the people of each province, expressed by a popular vote by universal manhood suffrage, dates from this year. Once adopted, the method was followed undeviatingly. From the first uprising in 1848 in Lombardy until the unification of Italy, in its present form, was completed by the annexation of Rome in 1870, the statesmen working for united Italy never for a moment based the union on any other title than that of self-determination, nor did they at any time rest content with the mere assertion of the popular will for union, however obvious that will may have been, but in each case held the plebiscite to be an essential part of the title. Lombardy, Venetia, Modena, and Parma, in 1848; Tuscany, Emilia, Sicily, Naples, the Marches, and Umbria in 1860; Venetia, again, in 1866; Rome in 1870; each in turn was declared by Parliament, with a slightly different phraseology, to be an integral part of the Kingdom "in view of the result of the universal vote of the people of the province for union with the Constitutional Kingdom of Victor Emanuel II and his successors."

The revolt in 1848 of the northern provinces against Austria began with the "Five Days of Milan," on March 18. On March 20 the municipality of Milan assumed authority and instituted a provisional government, which, on April 8, was extended to the whole of Lombardy. On March 23 Carlo Alberto, King of Sardinia,1 assumed the leadership of the revolt and declared war on Austria. The municipalities of Parma, Modena, and Reggio at once assumed power, as had already those of Venice and the cities of Venetia, and, except for Venice itself, set up provisional governments similar to that of Milan.

The question of the political destiny of these provinces had already caused a sharp alignment of parties, especially in Lombardy and Venetia. There were two important parties and several minor ones. The radicals, the party of "Young Italy" under Mazzini, wanted a united Italy under a republican form of government and had made a beginning by declaring a Republic in

1 Throughout this study of the Italian plebiscites the terms Sardinia, Savoy and Piedmont will be used interchangeably to denote the Kingdom of Sardinia whose reigning family was that of Savoy and whose capital was at Turin in the province of Piedmont. The kingdom of Sardinia was erected in 1718 when the Dukes of Savoy were compelled to accept Sardinia in exchange for Sicily.

Venice. The conservatives were in two parties, one party wishing to form a part of a united kingdom of Northern Italy under the constitutional monarchy of the House of Savoy, the other, the clerical conservatives, advocating union in a federation of independent States, under the presidency of the Pope. In some of the provinces there was a certain desire for autonomy. For the most part, these parties found their support in the cities; the country people appear to have been comparatively indifferent both to the struggle against Austria and to the question of the political future.

All parties had united to free Lombardy and Venetia from foreign rule on the agreement that the question of the political status should be postponed until after the war. Immediately upon its institution the provisional government of Milan had promised that the question should be postponed until all Italian territory should be free and should then be settled by a free popular vote.1 This promise of a free vote was repeated by Carlo Alberto on March 31. On the same day, word was sent from the King to the Milan government that recognition had been accorded it purely on its de facto standing and that as the question of the future should be settled by the people themselves, the King was most desirous that a representative assembly for all the insurgent provinces should be elected at once and on a very broad electoral basis, "in order that the decision may be really regarded as a most sincere expression of the common will.” 2

cause.

The pledge of delay had been made to please the republicans who hoped by this means to secure a republic which should include all of upper Italy. The party for union with Sardinia was, however, gaining in strength through the prestige of Carlo Alberto who, of all the princes of Italy, had granted a liberal constitution, and who had made himself the champion of the Italian There was also the dire need for greater military effectiveness which could only be secured by combination. To end the uncertainty, the central provisional government of Lombardy, on April 8, appointed a commission to investigate the best method of convening the primary assemblies in order to obtain a representative assembly by popular vote and with the least possible delay. As it was hoped that the resulting electoral arrangements could be used as a formula by the other states as well, if not for a joint constituent assembly, delegates were invited from the cities of Venetia, Parma, Modena, Reggio, and Piacenza, to join in the deliberations. The sessions of the commission lasted from April 11-28. Its report was in favor of a constituent assembly of delegates elected by the communes by universal manhood suffrage of all over twenty-one who had not been under judicial sentence.3

1 See Documents, post, p. 371.

2 See Proclamation and Confidential Communication. Documents, post, pp. 371 and 373. 3 The deliberations of the commission and the electoral law proposed by it are given in Le assemblee del risorgimento, vol. 1, pp. 133–196.