384 



GENEVA. 



70,000 watches (of which half are of gold), valued 

 at 2,150,000 Swiss francs. The rest of the workmen, 

 employed in the working of metals, are engaged in 

 the manufacture of watchmaker's tools, and of mathe- 

 matical and surgical instruments. The manufactures 

 of gold and silver jewelry are important. Besides 

 these are factories for chintz, woollens, muslins, gold 

 lace, silks, and porcelain. The advantageous situa- 

 tion of the lake of Geneva is favourable to commerce, 

 but the vicinity of France encourages smuggling. 

 Geneva acquired, by these means, so much wealth, 

 that she had 120,000,000 livres invested mostly in 

 French funds, part of which was lost in the French 

 revolution. 



In the middle ages, Geneva was subject to a 

 bishop and a count, who disputed with eacli other for 

 their respective privileges. The count's right came, 

 at last, into the hands of the dukes of Savoy, who 

 soon brought the bishop over to their side. The 

 citizens had also many privileges from the emperors. 

 Hence arose disputes; and, as the dukes were pressed 

 by the French on the one side, and the Genevese 

 supported by the Swiss on the other, the former could 

 not easily make good their claims. In 1524, the 

 city released herself from the ducal government, and, 

 in nine years after, from the bishop's also, by openly 

 adopting Protestant doctrines. Several families, 

 adherents to the duke, were banished. The claims of 

 the dukes, for a long time, gave rise to contentions ; 

 and, in 1602, the reigning duke made a last 

 attempt to get the city into his power by surprise. 

 The attempt failed, and an annual festival was insti- 

 tuted on the 12th of December, to commemorate 

 the escalade. In 1603, by the mediation of Berne, 

 Zurich, and Henry IV. of France, a permanent ac- 

 commodation was effected with Savoy, by which that 

 power renounced all her claims, and the three media- 

 tors guaranteed to Geneva a free government. This 

 constitution was a mixture of democracy and aristo- 

 cracy. The citizens formed the general or sovereign 

 council, which had power to make laws, and to 

 decide in matters of most importance to tlie public 

 weal. A great council, consisting of 200, and sub- 

 sequently of 250 members, was elected from among 

 the citizens ; and from these a small council of 

 twenty-five members was chosen, under the presi- 

 dency of the syndic. These had the executive power, 

 the care of public treasure, and the management of 

 ordinary daily business. As early as 1536, it was 

 determined that nothing should come before the great 

 council till the smaller had signified their approba- 

 tion, and that the great council must first approve 

 whatever was presented to the burgesses. This form 

 the government retained for a long time, to the 

 entire satisfaction of the people, until it degenerated 

 into an oligarchy ; particular families monopolizing 

 the most important offices, and treating the citi- 

 zens as their dependants. Signs of the disaffection 

 thus produced discovered themselves, in the course 

 of the eighteenth century, very frequently, in violent 

 eruptions, and in the demand for an amendment of 

 the constitution. The complainants were denomin- 

 ated representatives, and the adherents of the council 

 families, negatives. The evil was increased by the 

 old constitution of Geneva, according to which the 

 inhabitants were divided into three classes, viz., the 

 citizens, or such burgesses as were, by birth, entitled 

 to citizenship, and were eligible to all offices ; the 

 bourgeois, or such commoners as sprang from families 

 recently introduced from abroad, who might attend 

 the general council, but could not be members of the 

 smaller council, nor be invested with public office ; 

 and, lastly, the householders, or commoners at large 

 -such as liad no right of citizenship whatever, and 

 whose descendants were styled natives, simply. ' All 



these classes had cause for discontent; and, on this 

 very account, the small council was able to sustain 

 itself longer in its usurped privileges. In 1781, they 

 broke out into a violent rupture. The strife was 

 terminated by the mediating powers, especially the 

 French minister, Vergennes, with arms in their hands, 

 in favour of the oligarchy ; but the consequence was, 

 that many families emigrated to Constance, to Neuf- 

 ciiatel, England, and America, carrying much of the 

 skill and industry of the country with them. A later 

 revolution, in 1789, placed the rights of the citizens 

 on a better footing, and many of the emigrants and 

 exiles returned; but the French revolution now broke 

 out, and, during the reign of terror, in 1792, Soula- 

 vie was appointed by his government resident at 

 Geneva, and acted over there the horrible scenes 

 then taking place in France. Many citizens, with- 

 out form of law, lost home, property, and life. After 

 this storm succeeded a few years of tranquillity. In 

 1798, French troops were quartered in the city, 

 which was now incorporated with the republic of 

 France. Geneva was the capital of the department 

 ofLeman. December 30, 1813, Geneva capitulated 

 to the allies. Since then, it has formed the 22d 

 canton of the Helvetic confederation. 



The constitution of Geneva is aristocratico-demo- 

 cratical. A council of state, composed of four syndics 

 of the present, and four of the past year, with twenty- 

 one counsellors of noble rank, possess the executive 

 power. The legislative authority is vested in a re- 

 presentative assembly of 276 members. The Gene- 

 vese are as much distinguished by their interest in 

 science as by their public spirit ; and it excites 

 admiration to see how much they have done, and are 

 still doing, with their limited means, for the interests 

 of learning and the advancement of society. This 

 patriotic spirit extends even to the labouring classes, 

 who, to give an instance, in 1815, when Decandolle 

 wished for a botanic garden, offered voluntarily to 

 build, without remuneration, a hot- house, &c., and 

 to furnish the necessary glass at their own expense. 

 The university, founded in 1368, was revived in 1538 

 by the influence of Calvin and Beza. It has a public 

 library, an observatory, built in 1770, an academic 

 museum of natural science, founded in 1818, and 

 comprising Saussure's mineral collection, Haller's 

 herbarium, Pictet's philosophical apparatus. The 

 society of arts have appropriated 80,000 francs to the 

 erection of a splendid edifice, where the cabinets of 

 natural science and of the arts might be deposited. 

 In 1825, also, a new penitentiary was built, after the 

 model of that in New York. In 1820, an agricul- 

 tural school for poor children, like that at Hofwyl, 

 was established at Carra, in the canton of Geneva. 

 Among the objects worthy of notice, in and around 

 Geneva, are, the house in which Rousseau was born; 

 Calvin's tomb, without inscription or monument ; 

 Eynard's palace ; the iron wire bridge ; Ferney, 

 which remains in possession of France, about four 

 miles from Geneva; it is gradually decaying, but 

 the lower apartments are as Voltaire left them ; the 

 glaciers of Chamouny, a day's journey from Geneva. 

 The lake, with its picturesque scenery, has been 

 celebrated by several poets, such as Matthisson, and 

 lord Byron (in Childe Harold, I.) Sir Egerton 

 Brydges has even devoted a long poem of two 

 volumes to the subject, (printed but not published in 

 1831.) It is above forty-one miles long, and its 

 greatest width is about 85 miles. It is deep, and well 

 supplied with fish, and does not freeze entirely over, 

 although it lies 1126 feet above the level of the sea. 

 The situation of Geneva is beautiful beyond descrip- 

 tion. For a more particular account of it, see the 

 Topographical and Statistical Account of the City 

 and Canton of Geneva, by Manget, Geneva, 1823. 



