74 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [372 



legion. This legion ruled Brussels by terror. By means of 

 its support the Club resolved to intimidate those protesting 

 against the decree of December 15.**^ 



It was by such means and through these political clubs 

 and popular societies that the Belgian municipal votes for 

 annexation to France were secured.®* 



In the German territories situated to the left of the Rhine, 

 between Landau and Bingen, including Mainz, Worms, and 

 Speier. the spirit of the revolution, fostered by the propa- 

 ganda of revolutionary clubs like those at work in Belgium"' 

 and forcibly encouraged by French occupation, gained suffi- 

 cient impetus to bring about a separatist movement in favor 

 of annexation to France.^" A German imperial order of 

 December 19, 1792, "threatened with severe penalties all 

 those who would render the oath of equality and liberty, or 

 who would consent to further the republic. The French 

 countered with a declaration promising fearful reprisals. 

 The oath was to be the prerequisite to the elections and, in 

 order to escape it, the electors took refuge in the German 

 lines."®^ On January 31 the French Assembly decreed the 

 execution of the law of December 15, wherever French 

 troops entered foreign territory.^® The vote in Mayence 



83 Ibid., pp. 218-219. 



8* For details of the voting, ibid., pp. 221-223. Complete list in 

 Freudenthal, pp. 6-7; Soliere, pp. 66-67; for the text of the French 

 decrees of incorporation see Martens, vol. vi, pp. 432-442. For a 

 detailed account of the annexation of Belgium see also Borgnet. 



*" A. Chuquet, Mayence (Les guerres de la revolution, VII), Paris, 

 n. d., pp. 1-45, 108. " Le club des amis de la liberte et de I'egalite 

 etabli a Mayence m'a ecrif pour m'engagcr a vous demander si vous 

 voulez accorder votre protection aux Maycngais ou les abandonner 

 a la merci des deputes qui les menacent. On leur fait craindre (ce 

 sont les termes de la Icttre que j'ai rcQue) que les Frangais ne les 

 abandonnent " ; statement made by deputy Riihl to the Convention 

 nationale on Nov. 19, 1792 (Arch, pari., ser. I, vol. liii, p. 472). 

 Similar appeals had been made before, one through the good offices 

 of the Amis de la liberte et de I'egalite de Strasbourg, Oct. 29, 1792 

 (ibid., p. 127). This appeal speaks of the delivery of the Mayengais 

 from their tyrants by the citizen general Custine, and asks for the 

 necessary aid to ensure this delivery for the future. 



8" Chuquet, Mayence, p. i flf. 



*^ Soliere, p. 59. 



** Chuquet, Mayence, p. 83. See also p. T2, note 75. 



