ingly, on January 31 another decree was passed, supplementing that of December 15th and providing for its immediate execution, within fifteen days, under penalty of the Belgian people being considered enemies of the Republic. The limit appears to have been somewhat elastic for on February 19th the commissioners issued to the Belgian people a proclamation composed of a preposterous mixture of biblical citations and exhortations urging a vote for union with the French Republic at the approaching elections.2

That the commissioners were relying on force rather than on the desire of the inhabitants to win a vote for union is undeniable. The evidence is overwhelming. Borgnet quotes Chaussard to the effect that the National Commissioners had met at Brussels on February 3 to decide the question Shall Belgium be united to France?" The vote, with one abstention, was unanimously in favor of the union, and the discussion turned on the procedure to be employed. The ballot was rejected for the viva voce vote which "had the advantage of making known the individuals, of incalculable value under the circumstances.' "3

The commissioners were confirmed in their distrust of a free vote by the publication of the vote of the Pays de Liège on February 12. The country had, to be sure, given 19,401 votes for union out of 21,519 voting, but 14,103 of these votes were for a union with conditions as to the assignats. No pressure had been applied, and the vote was free,- the only free one in Belgium. But the conditions made it distasteful to the Convention, which delayed the final vote of annexation, hoping for another and unreserved vote from Liège. This was delayed too long and could not be managed before the French evacuation. Liège was annexed on May 4 on the basis of the first

vote.

The primary assemblies of Mons met on February 11, of Ghent on the 22d, and of Brussels the 25th. This system of voting in different places on different days enabled the sans-culottes to carry their methods of terror from one city to the next. Everywhere force was displayed "to prevent disorder." 5 The reinforcements requested by the commissioners did not arrive, so the troops as well as the sans-culottes were moved from one town to another. The electoral machinery appears to have been quite as crude as that of Avignon and Savoy, yet whereas some semblance of order was observed in the previous assemblies, in those of the Belgian communes no one asserts that there was the least suggestion of it.

1 Documents, post, p. 318.

2 Cf. Documents, post, p. 318.

3 Borgnet, vol. 2, p. 181, quotation from Chaussard, Mémoires historiques et politiques, p. 437.

* Borgnet, p. 200, says 80,000 citizens abstained.

Chuquet, p. 244.

The circumstances appear to have been the same throughout Belgium. Only a small number of citizens voted. The churches where the voting took place were surrounded or filled with soldiers. After an address by the French commissioners, often not understood, and a demonstration by the clubs, the vote was taken at once and by acclamation, or by passing to right or left, and a register opened for protests which no one dared to make. In the small towns where the commissioners lacked the support of the troops there appears to have been a lively resistance.1

Had the Convention desired to question the validity of the votes it had had ample warning and sufficient evidence in the formal minutes themselves to warrant it. But such was the eagerness to consummate the union, that the testimony of the French agents was eagerly credited, and no investigation was attempted. As fast as the formal minutes were laid before the Assembly, it proceeded to annexation, in most cases on the very day or the day after, at times dispensing even with any report of the Diplomatic Committee.

Owing to the military reverses of the French arms these unions were not carried out until 1795 when by a decree of October 1, the decrees of March 2nd and 4th, and of May 8, 1793, were put in execution and the votes cast in 1795 by the communes of Ypres, Grammont, and other parts of Flanders, of Brabant and of the former Austrian part of Gueldres, not included in the former decrees, were accepted.2

THE RHINE VALLEY, 1793

While the Belgian communes were being forced into a reluctant union, a similar activity was going on in the region to the south. On February 14 the Convention in one decree proclaimed the annexation, based on the popular vote, of Monaco and of numerous small communes along the edge of the departments of the Moselle and Bas-Rhin. These were chiefly in the Saar valley, in the duchy of Deux Ponts, in the bailiwick of Harschkischen, belonging to the Princes of Nassau, as well as other communes belonging to other petty princes.3 These votes had occurred after the region had been invaded and they were held under the conditions laid down by the decree of December 15. On March 14, Bergzabern and thirty-one neighboring communes were annexed. The most important annexation was, however, that of the "RhenoGermanic" people.

1 Chuquet, p. 249, et seq. See Formal Minutes of the Assemblies of Brussels and Ghent, Documents, post, pp. 322 et seq.

2 Martens, Recueil des traités (2d ed.), vol. 5, p. 186.

3 Documents, post, p. 316.

* Cf. Documents, post, p. 343, note. On March 20 the communes of Biding, Denting and the German part of Lelling-Empire were also annexed.

In

The courts of the petty princes of the region between Bingen and Landau were partisans of the old régime in France, but the revolutionary principles had been joyfully received by the bourgeoisie. The lodges of Freemasons. had long been working for the same ends and at once helped with the propaganda.1 Custine's advance was unopposed. By October 20, 1792, the gates of Worms, Speier and Mayence had been opened to him from within. Mayence and the regions near Alsace there was a particularly strong French movement composed of the intellectuals, the supporters of the Revolution, and the merchants tired of backward conditions and corrupt rule.2 So long as Custine refrained from autocratic measures the expedition met with no opposition. In the region occupied by the army, belonging to the Archbishop of Mayence, Custine at once assisted in the formation of clubs similar to those active in Belgium, and set up revolutionary governments without the formality of a vote. The club at Mayence played a great part in the later events.3 The general administration named by Custine numbered ten members, six for Mayence, three for Worms and one for Speier. The Mayençais, fearful of the Prussian advance, received the proposal for union with France with coolness. The general administration determined to push the vote and to create a department of Bouches-du-Main. It was feared that the cities would be unfavorable, but they counted on the peasants to control the towns. Commissions were sent to all the towns between Bingen and Landau to assemble all the inhabitants over twenty-one, except domestic servants, to read to them extracts from the constitution and to collect in a formal minute the names of all wishing the constitution. The minute stated that the electors desired to form one family with the French.*

Mayence voted on December 17 and 18, but few signatures were secured. The citizens had been summoned by corporations. The merchants asked for time, the tailors and cordonniers wished to be neutral. Although some outlying localities voted for France the vote came to nothing. Custine refused to give importance to the vote.

To carry out the decree of December 15, which the Convention had just

1 H. M. Stephens, History of the French Revolution, vol. 2, p. 193, says, that it was on account of the repeated invitations to General Custine, himself a freemason, from the lodges of Western Germany, that he had made his bold advance.

2 Chuquet, Mayence, p. 40.

Ibid., p. 46. The club of Mayence had five hundred members. Besides Böhmer and Stamm, adherents of Custine, there were seven professors, the librarian of the University, Georges Forster, and his two assistants, two school teachers, eleven French teachers of languages, three French residents of Mayence, eleven lawyers, officials of all kinds, clergy who had taken the oath, young men, students, literary men, merchants, craftsmen, propagandists brought by Custine and others.

♦ Ibid., pp. 56 and 58. He gives the list as Kastel, Nackenheim, Wöllstein, Nieder-Olm and Klein Winternheim.

adopted, Haussmann, Reubell, Merlin, Simon and Grégoire were sent as commissioners. They arrived in Mayence on January 31, 1793, and at once acted as if in a conquered country, making requisitions without payment. It was determined to force the circulation of the assignats, and for this annexation was necessary. The decree of January 31 put the decree of December 15 into immediate execution.1

In Belgium fear of the strong national feeling had caused the French to oppose a national convention. No such feeling existed in the Rhenish provinces, however, and a convention was determined on. The popular elections were fixed for Sunday, February 24, and the convocation of the National Rhenish Convention for March 10. Each commune was to elect at least one deputy, those of Worms and Speier to elect two each, and Mayence to elect six by districts.2 Each deputy was to be uninstructed and left with full power to choose a government “suited to liberty and equality.”

3

The clubs instiThe commission

The commissioners were determined that the vote should be one for union. Not only did they openly urge it, but they drew up a list of names of proved patriots whose choice was to be imposed on the electors. tuted a reign of terror and many fled from their menace. ers and other agents of Custine, by their oppressive and annoying attitude completed the alienation of popular sympathy.*

On February 18, Custine issued a decree convoking the peoples of the countries between Landau, the Moselle, and the Rhine, in primary assemblies. The nobles, the ecclesiastics, and the former officials were to declare in writing that they solemnly renounced their princes and their privileges and that they would be forever faithful to the principles of liberty and equality. Whoever neglected or refused to make this declaration before the municipal body in his place of residence would be regarded as an enemy of the French Republic and at once expelled from the country.

The electoral provisions were drawn up by Forster who had replaced Grégoire on the commission. The assemblies were to meet on a Sunday, at 8 in the morning after mass. Each assembly was first to name a president, three tellers and a secretary. The bureau constituted, they should then elect the mayor, the communal attorney, the municipal officers and lastly the deputy to represent them at the national convention at Mayence. The electors were to write the names of their candidates on a ballot, or, if illiterate, could tell the name to the tellers in the presence of a friend who could read. Each elector must be twenty-one and domiciled for at least twelve months past in the region between Landau and the Moselle.

1 See supra, p. 46.

2 Chuquet, Mayence, p. 92.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid., p. 81.

ous.

Opposition to this dictation of new administrative forms was at once obviAttacks came from the clergy, the courts, and the corporations against thus forcing people to be free in forms prescribed.1 Fearful of German vengeance and the loss of trade the citizens objected to the oath of adherence to revolutionary principles. Simon and Grégoire weakened as to the oath, but were persuaded by the other commissioners, Haussmann, Merlin, and Reubell who arrived at the moment. The sans-culottes were now in the saddle. The commissioners openly threatened force against those protesting, imprisoned or expelled the old officeholders and ecclesiastics, and refused all appeal to the Convention at Paris. The leaders of the opposition were deported across the Rhine.2

The vote of Mayence was taken in six churches. It lasted from the morning of the 24th to the evening of the 26th. About 300 electors presented themselves, and even the threats of the commissioners were unable to increase the number to over 345. The occasion called forth no enthusiasm. The only sound in the streets was that of the cavalry patrols.

In only one commune, that of Nackenheim, was the vote spontaneous.3 In most of the communes the priests had forbidden the proclamation to be read and told the peasants that the Revolution was a menace to the Church and the sacraments. Fear of a return of their former rulers also inhibited any desire to identify themselves with the French. The commissioners made use of armed escorts avowedly to aid the vote for France. Many communes absolutely refused to take the oath. Mayence, Bingen, Worms and Speier protested against it. The leaders of the opposition were deported, however, and the assemblies held. At the first assembly held at Worms only 20 attended. A second assembly was held between March 7 and 11, when 250 electors were present. The vote of Speier was held on March 8, 9 and 10. In the two districts 342 electors presented themselves.

5

The deputies thus elected were of course all friends of union with France as the commissioners had taken care they should be. They did not represent the whole of the conquered country for the communes of the Palatinate had obstinately refused to vote.

The meeting of the convention was postponed for a week. It met on the 17th and formed the Convention nationale des Allemands libres. Half were peasants, half intellectuals. Having gone through the necessary formalities, on March 18 they opened the discussion regarding the destiny of the country. A decree was at once adopted, declaring the country between Lan

1 Chuquet, Mayence, p. 97.

2 See the Report of the Commissioners, Documents, post, p. 349.

3 Chuquet, pp. 98, 100 and 101.

4 Ibid., p. 104. Chuquet quotes Forster to this effect.

Ibid., p. 108.