POLITICS AT GENEVA 307 



sacrifice of our hates, our animosities, and our passions.' It was 

 a good resolve, and one they often repeated in the following thirty 

 years, but, unhappily, never proved capable of carrying into effect. 



But for the survival of Haller's correspondence we should 

 know nothing of de Saussure's attitude in the struggle here 

 indicated. For local politics he had at this time obviously little 

 bent ; all his interests lay in a different direction, and his leisure 

 was fully occupied. Born a patrician, his sympathy was naturally 

 on the side of the established order, and, with his uncle Bonnet, 

 he looked on Rousseau's influence in politics as that of a dangerous 

 agitator. But he shows a more or less open mind and a good deal 

 of sympathy with some of the ideas of the author of Emile, on 

 whose famous letter resigning his citizenship after the condem- 

 nation of that work he writes (18th May 1763) : ' You will find 

 in it all his sentiments, good and bad, and, above all, his self- 

 conceit, developed with much skill, force, and clearness.' 



If in the protracted controversy and disorders of 1766-68, de 

 Saussure, happy in his home circle and full of his own affairs, had 

 no inch' nation to take any prominent part, he could not refuse 

 to act as Haller's correspondent in supplying him with information 

 as to the progress of events in Geneva. Haller was in a position 

 to exercise at this period considerable influence on the Bernese 

 Government, which, of the three Mediating Powers whose inter- 

 vention had been called for to settle the domestic troubles of 

 Geneva, was the most sympathetic and disinterested. Of the 

 others, Zurich was distant and indifferent, while France under the 

 ' ancien regime ' had small sympathy with a republic, and was 

 entirely opposed to any measures likely to extend its franchise 

 and render it more democratic. Berne, itself a paternal oligarchy, 

 was anxious that Geneva should retain the same form of govern- 

 ment, even at the cost of moderate concessions. At this moment 

 Albrecht von Haller held a very high position in his own canton, 

 and though not a member of the Great Council (or inner cabinet) 

 had the ear of its leading politicians . l He was recognised through- 

 out Switzerland as the acknowledged champion of religion and 

 order against the subversive doctrines of Voltaire and Rousseau. 

 He had formed a strong affection for the young botanist who was 

 so eager in the pursuit of science, the nephew of his great friend 



1 See chap. xvi. 



