POLITICS AND HOME LIFE (1781-92) 353 



as it has since become. This feat, however, was not mentioned 

 in his diploma, which somewhat quaintly specified the grounds 

 of election as ' his services to literature and solid philosophy.' 

 One would like to think that Sir Joseph Banks, while signing it, 

 was led to remember not without remorse his last supper 

 with de Saussure and Miss Harriet Blosset before sailing for 

 Otahiti, twenty years earlier ! 



At the end of June de Saussure started with his son for the 

 Col du Geant. They arrived at Chamonix on the same day as the 

 Duke of Kent, the future father of Queen Victoria, who had been 

 staying in Geneva since the previous year, and remained till 

 January 1790, when, says the official register, he left ' sans avoir 

 pris cong6 de personne.' The Duke had some excuse. He was 

 a youth at the time, and fled home without leave in order to escape 

 from the control of a severe tutor. 



The winter of 1788 was marked by the renewal, after seven 

 years of commercial prosperity but political discontent, of the 

 constitutional struggle within the walls of Geneva. There were 

 adequate causes for an outbreak in the continued reluctance of 

 the Negatives to make any concessions to their opponents by 

 widening the franchise or removing the disabilities that still 

 pressed on the bulk of the growing industrial population. To these 

 specific grievances must be added the unrest that prevailed across 

 the French border and the influence of Rousseau on the Genevese 

 populace. A frivolous dispute about the expulsion of an actress 

 caused the first commotion. But the immediate spark that set 

 light to the highly combustible material ready at hand was an 

 injudicious act on the part of the Government. Owing to a 

 severe frost, ice interfered with the action of the watermills on the 

 Rhone, and the authorities raised the price of bread. Their 

 action produced street rioting ; barricades were erected ; there 

 was some loss of life. The Government was not in a position to 

 take prompt and vigorous action. Conscious of its weakness and 

 unpopularity, it was reluctant to use against its own citizens 

 the small mercenary force at its disposal. In January 1789 the 

 Councils capitulated without a struggle ; they yielded to the 

 demand for a general revision of the constitution and a reversal 

 of the reactionary settlement of 1782. The mercenaries were 

 dismissed, the Clubs re-established, the exiles recalled. Amongst 



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