36 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



climbers first visited the Caucasus no Russian official could believe 

 that we climbed Kasbek and Elbruz without a commercial or a 

 political purpose, and twenty years later the Prince of Suanetia 

 invited me to develop gold mines under the shadow of Ushba. 



The prosperity of Geneva was not confined to any single class, 

 or even to the townspeople. The condition of the peasants in the 

 rural districts of the Republic was a strong testimony to the 

 efficiency of its government. The contrast between the Genevese 

 territory and the neighbouring portions of Savoy is insisted on by 

 every passing traveller by no one more forcibly than the poet 

 Gray. 1 I quote from one of his letters written the year before 

 de Saussure's birth. 



' To one that has passed through Savoy, as we did, nothing can be 

 more striking than the contrast as soon as he approaches the town. 

 Near the gates of Geneva runs the torrent Arve, which separates it 

 from the King of Sardinia's dominions ; on the other side of it lies a 

 country naturally, indeed, fine and fertile ; but you meet with nothing 

 in it but meagre, ragged, barefooted peasants with their children in 

 extreme misery and nastiness ; and even of these no great numbers. 

 You no sooner have crossed the stream I have mentioned than poverty 

 is no more ; not a beggar, hardly a discontented face to be seen ; 

 numerous and well-dressed people swarming on the ramparts, drums 

 beating, soldiers, well clothed and armed, exercising, and folk with 

 business in their looks hurrying to and fro, all contribute to make 

 any person who is not blind sensible what a difference there is between 

 the two governments that are the causes of one view and the other.' 



With wealth came the call for luxury, and the natural result 

 was frequent friction between the inhabitants and their paternal 

 administration. From Calvin's day the government had taken 

 on itself with an alacrity, if not an audacity, hardly equalled else- 

 where, to decide what should be considered articles of luxury. In 

 Geneva, however, the motive was not taxation, but prohibition. 

 In 1646 the Senate, finding itself unequal to the task, deter- 

 mined to appoint a special tribunal, known thenceforth as the 

 Chambre de la Reformation, competent to enact and enforce a code 

 of sumptuary laws. Liberty in thinking was won at Geneva before 

 liberty in dress . This egregious board survived, though with gradu- 

 ally diminishing powers, till 1770. No sentiment was too sacred, no 

 1 Gray to his father, October 25, 1739. 



