64 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [362 



imputed to Rengguer, Demars and Gobel. We can tell j'ou . . . 

 that it is not patriotism which has guided the leaders of each of 

 these parties in anything that has been done here. Rengguer and 

 iiis adherents wanted a republic for themselves and have employed 

 the most vexatious measures to succeed ; the other party makes use 

 of the faults of the pretended revolutionists in order to denounce 

 and to render odious a revolution which it attempts to identify with 

 its originators. Today these two parties, on account of their mu- 

 tual hatred, throw themselves into our arms in order to desttoy 

 each other ; they are right, for union with France will cause the 

 disappearance of the hopes of the aristocracy ... as well as the 

 attempts to form a patriciate by a family coalition. It will be true 

 to say that the party chiefs will have given themselves to the French, 

 not because they loved us, but because they detest us less than their 

 own adversaries. It is a case of the application of the proverb: 

 Inter duos litigautes, etc. This little notice must convince you that 

 we cannot make public our information about Rengguer, Demars, 

 and Gobel until the strife of the two parties shall have ceased by 

 reunion. . . ." 



We may accept SoHere's statement that the desire of the 

 people of Savoy for union with France was based on the 

 identity of language, customs, and ideas, and that their 

 antipathy was not to the King of Piedmont personally but 

 rather to the absolutism of the Sardinian governors and mili- 

 tary commandants.^^ 



While the French Revolution found its echo in the dis- 

 contented minds of the Savoyans, friction developed be- 

 tween the French Republic and the Court of Turin on ac- 

 count of the latter's favorable attitude to the French princes 

 and emigres.-" In a letter to the Convention nationale, the 

 French Minister of War, on September 24, 1792, announced 

 the invasion of Savoy in accordance with his orders. The 

 invasion was carried out, so he stated, by General Montes- 

 quieu, " un homme qui avait prof ondement medite pendant 

 trois mois tous les moyens d'entrer utilement en Savoie."'" 

 On September 28 Montesquieu's own report was read 

 under repeated applause and ordered printed. ^^ In this re- 

 port he advised the Convention, that " today the tree of 

 liberty shall be planted with great ceremony in the principal 

 place of the city." And he added, " it seems to me that the 



2- Arch, pari., ser. I, vol. Ix, pp. 235-236. 

 -^ Solierc, p. 44. 

 29 Ibid. 



80 Arch, pari., ser. I, vol. Hi, p. 116. 



81 Sept. 29, 1792 (Arch, pari., ser. I, vol. lii, pp. 188-189). 



