349] THE PLEBISCITE IX ANCIENT AND FEUDAL TIMES 5 1 



Verdun, Bishop Robert de Lenoncourt said to the inhabi- 

 tants of Verdun 'that the King of France had come as 

 liberator, that he wished to treat the bourgeois as good 

 Frenchmen, and that, far from using rigorous measures, 

 he appealed to the free vote of the people.' "*^ Soliere con- 

 cludes with the assertion that " it was by universal suffrage 

 that the new French citizens were untied from the old 

 yoke."®® Assuming Soliere's statement to be correct, we 

 find that the solicitation of the free expression of consent 

 by the inhabitants of Verdun took place after the king had 

 come to Verdun to stay. The reference to rigorous meas- 

 ures, even if it is a negative one, sounds more like an ex- 

 pression of warning than of sympathy. 



Ollivier calls this case of popular expression of consent 

 in Verdun absolutely exceptional. ^° He discountenances 

 the theory of intervention practiced in the past by all nations 

 and justified by Languet in his Vindiciae contra tyrannos'^ 

 if it is disinterested and free from all thought of aggran- 

 dizement, but he holds that the right of the people to pro- 

 nounce itself concerning its own destinies in case of con- 

 quest was not conceded.''^ In connection with the annexa- 

 tion of the three bishoprics, Ollivier quotes Sully, who, 

 " a little later, in the way of advice to the conqueror laid 

 down the norm 'not to undertake lightly to join in one 

 body of state those whom an aversion of mind or contrariety 

 of language, laws and customs might render incompatible, 

 in view of the fact that the most happy and secure domina- 

 tions were those whose subjects obeyed voluntarily, freely 

 and joyfully.'"'^ The position taken by Ollivier and the 



•" Soliere, p. 26. Soliere's phraseology is found in E. Ollivier, 

 L'Empire liberal, 2nd ed., Paris, 1895-191^, vol. i, p. 165, with the 

 one difference that Soliere's "Henry III" appears correctly as 

 "Henry H." Ollivier K'ves as his source, Janssen, Frankreich's 

 Rheingeliistc, p. 28, which could not be secured for the present study. 



"" Soliere, p. 26. The identical statfmcnt Is fmuui in Ollivier, vol. 

 i, p. 165. 



'" Ollivier, vol. i, pp. 164-165 



^* Cited by Ollivier, vol. i, p. 165. 



" Ibid. 



" Ibid. 



