CHAPTER XIV 

 POLITICS AND HOME LIFE (1781-92) 



THE famous Act of Mediation of 1768 gave a respite to the 

 patrician Government that, wisely taken advantage of, might have 

 saved the constitution. But the Councils were blind to the signs 

 of the times. They had before them a double task, to meet the 

 growth of the city by setting up a system of gradual enfranchise- 

 ment for the class without civic rights, and to satisfy the General 

 Assembly by keeping their promise to codify the laws of the State. 

 They did nothing to extend the franchise on the one hand ; on the 

 other they put off the publication of a code by a series of equivoca- 

 tions. Recognising that there was no hope of forcing the Councils 

 to act, the General Assembly in 1777 proposed that a joint Commis- 

 sion should be appointed and charged to report within two years. 

 This limit was taken advantage of by the Negatives, or Con- 

 stitutionals, as they called themselves, and the Councils on its 

 expiration refused to extend the time, although the Commission 

 had not been able to conclude its task. The two parties were 

 now actively opposed, and during 1779 and 1780 the situation 

 grew from month to month more embittered. 



In the following year (1781) the political storm which had been 

 slowly gathering broke out. The situation was complicated by 

 the triangular nature of the contest. It was no longer a duel. On 

 one side were the Negatives, a patrician oligarchy striving to 

 maintain itself by an alliance with the populace, and relying in the 

 last resort on foreign support ; on the other the Representants, 

 citizens torn between their anxiety to preserve the powers of a 

 popular assembly and jealousy of their still unenfranchised fellow- 

 townsmen. But distinct from the two chief combatants were 

 the so-called Natifs, composed of a large proportion of the 

 growing middle class and the artisans, who were ready to join 

 whichever side held out the best offer. After a time their leaders, 

 finding the Representants but a broken reed, turned for aid to the 



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