302 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



unison as mediators. Delegates were duly appointed by the 

 Powers. After much delay and some bickering between them- 

 selves, they drew up a solemn document known as the ' Reglement 

 de I'Ulustre Mediation,' designed to put an end to the civic troubles. 

 The Councils were pronounced to be bound to govern according 

 to the established laws of the city, as set out in the Code of 1387, 

 which they were instructed to revise and reissue ; on the other hand, 

 they were recognised to possess full executive and judicial powers 

 and the sole right of initiative that is, of proposing new laws. 

 They were confirmed in the right of nominating the four Syndics 

 and other town officers in the General Assembly, which could, how- 

 ever, reject their nominees. To that body was reserved the power 

 of declaring peace and war, of imposing any fresh taxation, and 

 of enacting such new laws as might be proposed by the Councils, 

 while any of its members that is, any burgher was authorised to 

 make from time to time representations to the Councils on matters 

 relating to the interests of the State. It was on the revision and 

 reissue of the laws of the Republic that future trouble was mainly 

 to centre. The burghers continued to 'represent,' but the Councils 

 could not be compelled to act or even to consider. Hence the one 

 party got the name of ' Repr6sentants ' Reformers would in 

 English nearly express their position the other that of ' Nega- 

 tifs * or ' Constitutionalists.' 



Thus two years before the birth of de Saussure ended the 

 second important act in the long struggle between the patriciate 

 and the democracy. The middle of the eighteenth century was for 

 Geneva a time of material prosperity. Its Academy attracted 

 students from all parts of Europe, its bankers and merchants 

 grew wealthy, its watch-trade flourished. The Senate, it is true, 

 closely allied to the Church by tradition and family ties, continued, 

 though with diminishing zeal and energy, to support the Venerable 

 Company in enforcing sumptuary laws and restrictions on private 

 life, dress, and amusements of a character generally meticulous 

 and often vexatious. On the other hand, it was evasive and 

 dilatory in carrying out one of the most important articles of the 

 Act of Mediation that which enjoined the publication of a correct 

 text of the ancient laws of the Republic. It preferred to keep 

 their interpretation in its own hands, and this neglect on its part 

 left a legitimate and fruitful ground for future dissensions. Mean- 



