POLITICS AND HOME LIFE (1781-92) 357 



even if the King begs him, but if the Etats G4neraux win, as they 

 certainly will, they are sure to prevent a financial disaster, and force 

 the minister, whoever he may be, to pay the creditors of the State.' 



Necker had just retired to Basle on his dismissal from office, and 

 was, it seems, expected at Geneva, and de Saussure, after sending 

 messages to him, goes on : 



' You are very kind to assure me you would not complain of being 

 reduced to eat the Conches potatoes, if we shared them. For my part, 

 I protest I should mind reduced circumstances much more for you than 

 myself ; but then I should make no more long journeys, we should 

 cultivate our cabbages together, and our affection would supply the 

 dressing. But once more, I am really not at all anxious about our 

 fortunes.' 



Towards the end of the year domestic trouble was added to de 

 Saussure 's political embarrassments. His wife suffered from a 

 serious attack of fever, and recovered only after a long convales- 

 cence, during which he is reported to have watched over her with 

 ceaseless anxiety. 



The political situation in Geneva in the winter 1789-90 was 

 still anxious but hopeful. The Powers had more or less reluct- 

 antly given their sanction to the proposed reforms. There was 

 an opportunity for a wise and moderate statesman to bring in and 

 carry measures that might have made Geneva a democratic 

 Republic, and have united all the sound elements in the city in 

 resistance to the extreme demagogues, the so-called ' Egaliseurs,' 

 whose object was to make a clean sweep of the old institutions and 

 to start afresh from a dead level of perfect equality. If the little 

 State was to escape foundering in the stormy seas of the French 

 Revolution, strong statesmanship was essential. 



On the 1st February 1790, de Saussure brought forward in the 

 Great Council a motion to the following effect : 



' That a Committee be constituted of Members of the Senate and 

 Great Council which should carefully take into consideration the 

 changes called for in the Edict of 1789, with the help of the advice of 

 all citizens willing to offer it, so that the result may be brought before 

 the General Assembly on May 1st, since, in view of the new ideas set 

 afloat by the French Revolution, and the political ferment resulting 

 from them, it is impossible not to realise that we have need of a Con- 

 stitution carefully framed and acceptable to the commonalty.' 



