24 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [322 



Gex,"** a missive addressed to Louis XIV in 1776, signed 

 by " all the citizens of the province of Gex, without excep- 

 tion," in appreciation of the granting of a franchise in 

 amelioration of the conditions complained of, Voltaire says: 



I do not believe that the remonstrances of a province " aussi 

 chevite que celle de Gex " could create a great sensation in Paris. 

 I presume that they will worr>- mighty little about delivering us 

 from leases, servitudes and privileges. But I admit that I would be 

 greatly pleased if the plain and blunt gratitude of a little and almost 

 barbarian country could reach the ear of Sesostris and Sesostra. 

 . . . Perhaps some of the adherents of the old feudal government 

 will find our remonstrances too popular. We can answer them that 

 in ancient Rome and even now at Geneva and Basel''^ and in the 

 cantons of Switzerland " ce sont les citoyens qui font les plebiscites, 

 c'cst a dire les lois."*^ 



The French Revolution proclaimed as the fundamental 

 basis of all government the principle of popular sover- 

 eignty.*^ It gave the French people representative govern- 

 ment through its own elected deputies, but the voting system 

 providing for the election of national representatives, de- 



** An agrarian province in the extreme south of France, which in 

 the past had suffered from the oppression and extortion of govern- 

 ment officials. 



•*^ No record of the use of the plebiscite in Basel has been found 

 in the course of this investigation. 



4« Voltaire, Oeuvres completes, Paris, 1877-1885, vol. xxx, pp. 

 341-344; vol. xlix, pp. 570-571. Remonstrances to the king by the 

 Parlement de Bretagne, i.e., by the royal court of Brittany, are on 

 record for a considerably earlier time. The text of seventeen has 

 been collected and discussed by A. Le Moy; the first, of January 

 10, 1718, the last, of May 12, 1789. Le Moy estimates that more 

 than a hundred of such remonstrances, chiefly on the subject' of 

 court appeals, finances or economics, and religious matters, had 

 been sent to the court at Paris during the i8th century. While these 

 remonstrances were not popular in the sense that they were voted 

 on or signed by the people of Brittany, they are, according to one 

 of them (October 26, 1718), intended " to make the voice of the 

 people pass to the throne" (Remonstrances du Parlement de Bre- 

 tagne au XVIII* siccle. Textes inedits precedes d'une introduction 

 . . . par A. Le Moy, Angers, 1909). 



*'' Art. 3 of the Declaration of the rights of man and citizen of 

 1789 reads: " Le principe de toute souverainete reside cssentielle- 

 ment' dans la nation. Nul corps, nul individu nc pent exercer 

 d'autorite qui n'en emane expressivement " (Arch, pari., ser. I, vol. 

 ix, p. 236). Art. 25 of the revised version of 1793 states: "La 

 souverainete reside dans le peuple. Elle est une et indivisible, im- 

 prescriptible et inalienable" (Arch, pari., ser. I, vol. Ixvii, p. 107). 



