361^ THE PLEBISCITE IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 63 



the fact that the new free republic had requested the French 

 military command to support the new state of affairs in 

 accordance with the decree of Nov. 19, 1792. In conse- 

 quence of these considerations it ordered the French troops, 

 stationed near the Rauracian frontier, to hold themselves in 

 readiness to " assure to the Republic of Rauracie the effica- 

 cious and fraternal protection of the French Republic." At 

 the same time it advised its Minister of Foreign Affairs to 

 give to the commissary, previously appointed by the Execu- 

 tive Council, and stationed near the frontier, all instruction 

 necessary to guard over the execution of the decree. . . .'* 

 By vote of the Assembly of March 8, 1793, the Republic of 

 Rauracie decided in favor of union with France. By decree 

 of March 23 of the same year, the French Republic an- 

 nexed the Republic of Rauracie under the name of Depart- 

 ment du Mont-Terrible.^* 



The presence of French troops in the new republic may 

 of course be explained by the desire of republican France 

 to render, and of the revolting faction in Basel to obtain, 

 assistance against an expected military suppression of the 

 separatist movement by the Germanic Empire, from whose 

 suzerainty the bishopric was seceding. An additional 

 reason, and perhaps the more convincing one, is found in 

 the fact that the government of the new Republic of Raur- 

 acie found it necessary to seek the aid of the French mili- 

 tary in the enforcement of the new constitution. It is this 

 latter reason, pointing to the internal dissension and disaf- 

 fection, which finds its substantiation in a letter from the 

 French commissaries to Basel reporting, under date of 

 March i, 1793, to the French Convention on the conditions 

 in the bishopric. Among other things they wrote : 



On our arrival here, we have found the country divided into two 

 parties, very much incensed against each other. VVe render justice 

 to whom it belongs; we continue to gather information, hut wc 

 cannot yet announce anything lest we risk to detach from us the 

 party which we would declare culpable. That is why we shall defer 

 until after the casting of tlie vule by the inhabitants of tlie country 

 . . . what we have discovered up to the present concerning the facts 



" Ibid., pp. 430-431. 



