Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/162

Rh 150 GEN of Libertins or Liberty men, they contended earnestly against the establishment of the new rt’-wiiiie. In 1538 they were so powerful that the four syiidics were elfoscn from their ranks ; and they had the satisfaction of seeing Calvin and l"arel, on 23d April, expelled from the city by order of the little council, confirmed by the council of the two lniiidred and the council-general. hit the Libertins did not know how to rule; anareliy and licence got possession of the city; the Catholic party recovered ground. Calvin was recalled, and, re- turning oii 3d Septeinber 1541, at once re—establishcd his system in all its virrour. The Libertin party arrain revolted - sixty of their num- ber werezondcmncd to _death, mid foiir who failed to make their escape were beheaded. In 1.»-17 Jacques Gruet was executed as an utterer of threats against the dictator and a possessor of iinpious hooks; and in 1553 Michel Servetus was burned alive. To the Iiistorian of Geneva it is of comparatively little importance whether or not the main guilt of this too famous crime fell directly and solely on Calvin himself; it is condemnation enough that such a deed was rossible within the walls of a cit where his ﬁat and his veto were 1 Y. equally supreme. And on the other hand, it must never be forgotten that the very reason why the faggot fire in which Servetus perished has} becomedsucgi iltbDaC01‘lrt0_a.ftQl‘ timles, while ltltile smpiildcirting em )€1‘S roun a o e or a aniiii are on y now am ien s lI‘I‘C( oa fitful glare, is that Calvin had made Geneva a city set upon_ a hill, and that the liu'id smoke and flaine showed doiibl ' dark against the . . . . 3. 0 clear light of his wonderful intellect and his noble life. In some rc- spects Geneva was never greater than under his dictatorship. It was at once the moral capital of the half of Cliristendom and the great ' frontier fortress against the invasions of Rome. Like every fortress city, it had to pay the penalty of its position, and the penalty was none the less because its garrison fought with spiritual weapons, and its martial law interfered with the liberties of the mind. after twenty-three years of such labours as few men could rival, Calvin died, and his body was laid in the cemetery of Plaiiipalais; but his spirit continued to live in the constitution he had founded. The milder character of his successor, Theodore Beza, allowed free scope to the other members of the Government, and the democratic element obtained greater prominence. About 1564 Geneva appeared for a time in danger from its Catholic neighbours, and especially from the duke of Savoy; but though this prince recovered possession of the Chablais, the Genevois, and the country of Gex, and appointed Francis of Sales titular bishop of Geneva, no direct attempt was made against the independence of the city. The year 1568 is of note for a revision of the constitution, drawn up by Germain Colladon, which, while retaining in the main the Calviiiistic framework, practi- cally placed political power in the hands of a few principal families. The administration nominally consisted of the syndicate and four councils—the council of the twenty-five, the council of the sixty, the council of the two hundred, and the council general; but the council of the twenty-ﬁve, usually called the “little ” or “ narrow council,” managed in the long run to arrogate the direction of all public affairs. During the 16th century, both before and after the Colladon revision, the variety of affairs which were considered under its jurisdiction is sufficiently amusing. It was at once the foreign office of the republic and the high court and the police court combined; and it accordingly passed, as matter of course, from the consideration of matters of state, in which the potentates of Europe were parties, to the squabbles of market women, the use of bad egos in cakes, or the length of a niinister’s sermon.‘ Its private deliberations were kept strictly secret : in 1491 the betrayer of any of its transactions was judged “infamous,” and in 1530 it was added that his tongue should be pierced. Torture was still retained as a legal instrument of investigation, and the penal enactments against heresy and witchcraft remained unre- poaled. In 1579 the city was taken under the protection of Bern and Soleure, and in 1584 it formed an alliance with Zurich ; but these agreements proved of little advantage, and in the conflicts whichwere always being renewed with the duke of Savoy, Geneva was left to her own resources, and the accidental assistance of Elizabeth of England or Henry IV. of France. At length, in 1602, Charles Emmanuel of Savoy determined to seize the cit y a coup de main, and on the night of the 11th and 12th Deeem er (O.S.) an army of 8000 men were despatchcd against it. As no_ declaration of war had been made, the citizens were taken by surprise; and the enemy had ﬁxed their scaling ladders and were already mounting the walls before the alarm was given. But once aroused, the Gcncvese were not long in turning this success into discoinﬁture and rout, and when morning broke the city was once more safe, and a joyous crowd heard the voice of the aged Ba-za in the cathedral read out the grand old Psalm, “ Now may Israel say, If the Lord had not been with us.” Such is the famous “Escalade,” the Bannockhiii'n of the Gencvese, which has since been celebrated with all possible forms of celebration.’ By the treaty of St Julian in the following year the duke of Savoy granted the Gcncvese freedom of See H. Hamman, Les Représentations grapliiques de l‘L‘scalade, Geneva, 1869; and the drama of .Iulhauscr, the national poet, 1865. In 1564, ' EVA ' trade, restored the lands of St Victor and St Peter, and promised to luiild no fortress and :issen:ble no troops within four leagues of the city ; but the ambitious prince made one more attack before his death in 1620. l)uring the rest of the 17th century the history of Geneva consists mainly of disseiisioiis between ditl'erciit councils, and between the governing bodies and the people ; but amid them all the city advanced in prosperity, especially after the accession to its popu- lation occasioned by the revocation of tlic edict of Nantes. The 18th century brought the political contest to a head. In 1707 F atio, advocate and member of the two hundred, was appointed president of a commission charged to formulate the grievances of the people. In the document which he drew up he maintained the sovereignty of the people, the equality of all citizens, and the subordination of the iiiagist.racy as mere executivefunctionaries; and at the same time demanded that the council-gciicral should meet at least once a year, i and not only when the syiidics chose. The councils appeared to ' yield, but shortly afterwards, supported by coiifederates froin the oligarcliical cities of Bern and Zurich, they crushed the popular party, and caused Fatio to be shot. How sternly they were dis- posed to resent interference was shown in 1731 by their sentence of perpetual imprisonment passed on Michcli Du (‘rest for merely giving expression to the popular opposition to the new system of fortifications carried out by the councils. The party of which he was so far a spokesiiian-—-knowii as the rep7'asc7zta2Lts—at length, in 1734, gained a decided victory in the general council of 1734. ’;y the edict of 1738, though the whole initiative in matters of legisla- tion was lcft in the hands of the lesser councils, the actual passing of laws and fixing of taxes were entrusted to the general council, and thirty years later the people obtained the right of naming the half of the council of the two hundred. There was an important class of the inhabitants, however, who were still excluded from political riglits—the so-called “iiatives" or descendants of the aliens who had settled in the city; and this class continued to make known its discontent. At length, in 1782, Bern, Sardinia, and ' France interfered in favour of the aristocratic party, and by the Act of Paciﬁcation the most important reforms in a liberal sense were again abolished. A few years later, and F rancc was under a difl'erent regime. The Revolution at Paris was followed by a revolution at Geneva. A new constitution, accepted by the National Assembly in 1794, declared the political equality of all the I Gcncvese ; but, by a curious inconsistency, the national committee of finances divided them again into aristocrats, the cnglués, and the patriots, taxing the last class much less heavily than the others. In March 1798 it was agreed that Geneva should become a part of the F rcneh republic, and on 13th J unc the Freiicli authorities I entered the cit_v. By the treaty of Paris its independence was restored, and it became one of the cantons of the Swiss confedera- I tioii. A new constitution declared all the citizens equal, and placed . the legislative power in the hands of a representative council. As no one, however, could be an elector who paid less than 20 Swiss livrcs, or about 23 shillings, of direct taxes, the democratic character of the system was considerably modified. It was not till 1841 that any great change was effected. In the early part of that year the “ 'l‘liird of March Society" was formed to watch over the interests of the citizens, and in October the Government was forced by a popular demonstration to summon a constituent assembly. The legislative power for the canton was now placed in a grand, council, consisting of representatives elected in the ratio of 1 to every 333 inhabitants ; and the executive power in a council of state consisting of 13 members chosen by and from the grand council. At the same time the city received a communal council of 81 mem- hers, and an administrative council of at most 11 members. But i the new constitution was not allowed to work long. The radical party had been gathering strength, especially in St Gcrvais, and in i 1846 the Government, finding that the attempt to suppress its I I opponents by force of arms was of doubtful result, gave in its rc- sigiiation. A provisional Government, under the lcadersliip of the. dcinocrat James Fazy, drew up a constitution, which was acceptcd by the people on 24th May 1847. The franchis_e was bestowed even on the pauper class of prolétaires, and the election of the council of citizens. The old Protestant cluircli of Geneva was abolished, and a. new and almost creedlcss cluircli established, the government of which was vested in a consistory elected by the universal suffrage of Protestants in the canton. For nearly fifteen years the radical party continued in power ; and under its hands the physical condition of Geneva was rapidly transformed, and, for good or evil, the city was brought as much as possible into the general current of European progress. “On voudrait faire dc Gencvc,” sighed the conservative l)e le ltivc, “la plus petite dcs grandcs villcs, ct pour moi _]e prefere qu’ellc reste la plus grande dcs petites villes.” Unfortunately for its permanence the radical Government was layish in its expenditure, and the ﬁnances of the canton and city got into a dangerous condi- tion. In N ovember 1861 Fazy was not returned to the council of state ; in 1862 the conservative party obt:iiiicd a majority in the great council; and in 1863, though all the other radical candidates for the council of state were carried, Fazy himself was rc_]eetcd. The attempt I state was entrusted to the council general or collective assembly of_ l I
 * See “ Le Pctit Conscil " in L7‘trc-nnex generoises. Geneva, 1977.