359] "^^^ PLEBISCITE IX THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 6 1 



mination on the part of the annexed as the basis of incor- 

 poration in the French Republic.-^ 



After the case of Avignon and Venaissain had set the ex- 

 ample, the growing spirit of the Revolution, with its fasci- 

 nating theory of liberty and sovereignty of the people, in- 

 duced the discontented population of a number of neigh- 

 boring territories to assert their independence from former 

 claimants of their allegiance and to vote for incorporation 

 in the French Republic. This movement found special 

 impetus and support in a French decree of November 19, 

 1792, in which republican France promised aid and succor 

 to all the peoples who desired to regain their liberty.^^ 



Typical of the manner in which these secessionists pro- 

 ceeded is a declaration of deputies of the bishopric of Basel, 

 " united in the Constituent Assembly in the Chateau Poren- 

 truy, on November 27, 1792, the first year of the Republic 

 of Rauracie." 



21 See also note 85. In his justification of the French declaration 

 of war on the King of Bohemia and Hungary, read in the National 

 Legislative Assembly on the 20th of April, 1792, Condorcet declared 

 it to be the prmciple of the French revolution that " every nation 

 alone has the power to make its own laws, and the inalienable right 

 to change them, that the will to deprive any foreign people by force 

 of this right is equivalent to the admission that one does not respect 

 this right even in the country of which one is citizen or chief, that 

 it is equivalent to betraying one's fatherland, to becoming an enemy 

 of the human race" (Arch, pari., ser. I, vol. xlii, p. 211). Never- 

 theless, when the French Assembly, on Nov. 19, voted fraternal help 

 to all peoples desirous of regaining their liberty, the English Cabinet 

 saw in this decree a covert attempt at interference in the affairs 

 of the neighbors of France, especially as far as Belgium and Hol- 

 land were concerned; and shortly after the inauguration of the 

 French Republic (Aug. 10, 1792) England interrupted all diplomatic 

 relations with France and soon began to prepare for armed con- 

 flict. In his address of Dec. 10, 1792, delivered to the Assembly on 

 the subject of France's relations with Britain, Le Brun, the French 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs, gives as one of the reasons for the 

 British attitude the decree of Nov. 19, 1792 (Ibid., vol. Iv, pp. 

 164-165). 



'*" La Convention nationale declare, au nom de la nation fran<;aise, 

 qu'elle accordcra fratcrnite et secours a tons Ics peuplcs (|ui vou- 

 dront recouvrer Icur lil)ert6, et charge le pouvoir executif de donner 

 aux generaux Ics ordres necessaircs pour porter secours a ces peu- 

 ples, et defrndre les citoyens qui auraient ete vexes, ou qui pour- 

 raient I'l'-trc pour la cause dc la liberie " (Arch, pari., set. I, vol. liii, 

 P- 474)- 



