POLITICS AND HOME LIFE (1781-92) 363 



the Swiss troops were dismissed, an occupation of the city. The 

 Government yielded. Bereft of its only support and left face to 

 face with an angry populace, it hastily proposed to offer still 

 larger concessions. Before these could be discussed it was no 

 longer in power ; the time for reform had passed and revolution 

 was within the gates. The old constitution of Geneva, its Syndics 

 with their wigs and silk coats and staves of office, its ' Spectables ' 

 and ' Nobles ' and ' Venerable Compagnie,' had all passed away, 

 or were to linger only as ineffectual shades. The revolutionary 

 Clubs now became masters of the situation. 



In the last days of December 1792, a Committee of forty mem- 

 bers was charged to devise a new form of government. A month 

 later the task was transferred to a Constituent Assembly of 

 one hundred and twenty members. Meantime, two Provisional 

 Committees, one of Public Order, one of Administration, were 

 created to carry on affairs. At this crisis de Saussure acted with 

 noteworthy public spirit and courage. Many of the patrician 

 families had already left Geneva ; he remained in order to make 

 a gallant effort to act as a check upon the anarchist group who, 

 excited by the events in France, had lost whatever heads they once 

 possessed, and, aided by the French Resident, Soulavie, were now 

 threatening by their excesses to bring the ancient Republic to ruin. 



On the Civil Committee de Saussure and his fellow-professor, 

 Bertrand, were at once nominated, and ' through excess of 

 patriotism and at the request of the true friends of liberty,' 

 consented to act as members, while the Military Committee 

 begged the two professors to serve as captains of companies 

 of the Citizen Militia. Yet this patriotic effort did not escape 

 malicious criticism. De Saussure thought it right to bring 

 before the Civil Committee an anonymous letter in which he 

 was informed that his presence and that of other aristocrats 

 impeded the work of their colleagues, and that steps, possibly 

 involving bloodshed, might shortly be taken ' to sweep them 

 out of the Council Chamber.' He added that he was firm in 

 his wish to serve his country in any way practicable, but that 

 he thought it right to consult his colleagues as to what course it 

 seemed to them best for him to take in the public interest. The 

 Committee unanimously assured the members impugned of their 

 appreciation of ' the wisdom, moderation, and true patriotism ' 



