EULOGY ON ARTHUR AUGUSTS DE LA RIVE. 201 



cult matter when railroads tend to mingle all the world into one commu- 

 nity — impossible, unless from time to time some voice of authority brings 

 into harmony the discordant elements of society. 



In 1815, when Switzerland regained her ancient liberty, Geneva be- 

 came the temporary abode of many illustrious persons politically dis- 

 tinguished. Some came to enjoy the natural beauty of the shores of Lake 

 Leman, or to rest for a few days in this celebrated city, placed at the 

 confluence of the routes from the north of Europe, from France, and 

 from Italy; others, banished from their native land, sought an asylum 

 among its hospitable inhabitants. Never was there a more singular ming- 

 ling of the people of every nation, of the representatives of all the conti- 

 nental countries, many of whom had met before on the field of battle, 

 and of England, which had been separated from the rest of Europe for 

 more than thirty years, with the sons of the East, unmistakable in 

 their peculiar type of humanity. In the streets every kind of costume 

 appeared, every language was spoken; in the social assemblies every 

 nationality fraternized. 



Meanwhile the Genevese legislators, intrusted with the formation of 

 a constitution for the canton, and anxious to obliterate all traces of the 

 long alliance with the forms of the French administration, found, in the 

 Parliament of England and its controlling aristocracy, the beau-ideal of 

 government. Political jjarty-spirit soon attained as great a degree of 

 intensity in this as in countries of much larger extent. Everybody was 

 in favor of a constitutional government; but while with some, veritable 

 tories, the principle of authority was supreme, with others, true whigs, 

 the idea of liberty was uppermost, and, as usual in such cases, neither 

 side was willing to make concessions. Gaspard De La Rive, first syndic 

 of the republic, was at the head of the conservative division, while his 

 sou, in common with most of the young men, belonged to the liberal 

 party, prominent among whom was a former member of the French 

 Academy, Simond. de Sismondi. 



Auguste De La Eive was too ardent in temperament and too truly pa- 

 triotic in feeling to be indifferent to the political events which later 

 threatened the tranquillity of his country. Still professing liberal i)rin- 

 ciples, as in the days of his youth, he determined to resist the encroach- 

 ments of a turbulent and oppressive democracy, and became in his turn 

 the leader of a new conservative party. 



After the revolution in Geneva, and at the time of the Sondeibuud 

 war, he resigned his professorship and retired from public life. Still, 

 when, on the annexation of Savoy to France, some uneasiness was felt 

 by the Helvetic government, he was sent to London, as minister pleni- 

 potentiary and envoy extraordinary, to guard the interests of the Con- 

 federation. He was treated by the Queen with the highest distinction, 

 and on his return to his native laud received a new mark of confidence ; 

 he was made a member of the select assembly for the revision of the 



