1902 Encyclopedia > Geneva

Geneva




GENEVA (in French Geneve, in German Genf, in classi-cal Latin Geneva, and in Low Latin, by metathesis, Gehenna or Gevenna), a city and canton of Switzerland,-—the can-ton being, with one exception, the smallest, and the city, without exception, the largest within the limits of the confederation.

The canton of Geneva has an area of 279-4 square kilo- Cantom. metres, or 107-8 square miles, considerably less than that of Butland, the smallest of the English counties, and this includes 11J square miles of water-surface belonging to the lake. The greater part of its frontier is conterminous with France, the department of Haute-Savoie lying to the south, and that of Ain to the west and north; while it is con-nected with the Swiss canton of Vaud (Waadt) along a line of not more than 3|- miles. The area belongs to the basin of the Bhone, which flows for about 4 miles through the canton, and then for nearly 2 miles forms the boundary towards France. With the exception of the Arve, the Rhone tributaries are mere mountain streams, of which the largest is the London in the extreme west. Market gardens, orchards, and vineyards occupy a large pro-portion of the soil, whose apparent fertility, however, is due not so much to its natural qualities as to the noble industry of the cultivators. Besides building materials such as sandstone, slate, &c, the only mineral to be found within the canton is bituminous shale, the products of which can be used for petroleum and asphalte (see Les Gisements bitumineux du canton de Geneve, Paris, 1877). While Geneva is, as has been stated, almost the smallest of the Swiss cantons, the size of the city makes the density of its population far greater than that of any other. In 1870 it had, inclusive of strangers, 93,239 inhabitants, or 871 to the square mile; and this had increased by 1876 to 99,352 inhabitants, or 921 to the square mile. At the earlier date,. 43,639 were Protestants and 47,868 Roman Catholics,—the remaining fraction comprising 961 Jews, and 771 of various Christian sects. The prevailing language is French; but the German element, represented in 1870 by 978 households, is on the increase.

The city of Geneva is situated at the south-western extremity of the beautiful lake of the same name, whence the noble current of the Rhone flows westward under the five bridges by which the two halves of the town communicate with each other. To the south lies the valley of the Arve, which unites with that of the Rhone a little distance further down; and behind the Arve the grey and barren rocks of the Leaser Saleve rise like a wall, which in turn is overtopped by the distant and ethereal snows of Mont Blanc. To the north-west the eye takes in the long line of the Jura, with a pleasant stretch of country between it and the lake. The actual site of the town, apart from the river and the lake, is not so picturesque as that of many other places in Switzerland. Though the central plateau, crowned as it is by the cathedral, gives a certain relief to the general view from the water, a large proportion of the town is built on the alluvial flats along the river. But what Geneva lacks in picturesqueness it now makes up in an appearance of prosperity and comfort,—presenting fine quays, well-ordered pleasure grounds, good streets, and substantial houses, and, in the number and extent of its modern suburbs, giving evidence that its prosperity is not a thing of the past. Since the demolition of the fortifications in 1848, it has pushed eastward to Eaux Vives, and westward into Plain-palais, and an almost continuous succession of houses links it on the south with the village of Carouge beyond the Arve.

In the strict sense of the words, Geneva is not a city of great buildings. It possesses, indeed, a great many edifices, both public and private, which may fittingly be described as handsome, elegant, or even beautiful, but it has almost Bnildings. nothing to which the memory reverts as to a masterpiece of architectural art. Being a favourite resort for wealthy foreigners from many lands, it has been enriched with a countless variety of hotels and villas, many of which are palatial in their dimensions, their construction, and their environment, and its principal institutions have been in-stalled in buildings not unworthy of a modern capital; but none of these things compensate for the absence of the grander and more characteristic legacies of the Middle Ages and the Benaissance. The artistic blight of that Calvinism which was too sternly enamoured with the beauty of holiness to be mindful of any other beauty has left indelible effects on the central city of the creed; though it is pro-bable that all the blame does not lie at the door of Calvinism, which certainly did not find in the Genevese a people whose aesthetic faculties had been too strongly developed in the previous periods of their history. The cathedral itself is a second-rate building; and though, as Mr Freeman remarks, "it is an excellent specimen of a small cathedral whose style and plan are peculiarly its own, and which has undergone only very few alterations," its main interest is moral and historical. According to a tradition, at least as likely to be true as false, it occupies the site of a temple of Apollo; and the present building is the third church of St Peter which has been erected on the spot. As a foundation the cathedral is said to date from the middle of the 10th century ; but (even apart from documents still extant which relate to the works) the transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic style is sufficient evidence that it belongs architecturally to the 12th and the 13th. The most glaring alteration to which it has been subjected is the substitution for the original façade (1749-1756) of a portico with Corinthian pillars, copied after the Pantheon at Rome, which, while effective and simple enough in itself, is alto-gether out of keeping with the rest of the design. In its general plan the church is a Latin cross, having a width of about 65 feet and a length of 187. It is lighted by 86 windows,—those of the choir still preserving painted glass of the 15 th century, and some of the others being filled with modern work in commemoration of the jubilee of 1835. Of the internal decorations, the little that has been left comprises portions of the carved stalls, and a few sepulchral monuments—most of them removed from their original sites—Agrippa d'Aubigné's, Michel Roeet's, Theodore de Beza's, the duke and duchess of Rohan's, &c. Among the older secular buildings in Geneva are the Hôtel de Ville, the court-house, and the arsenal. The first, which is popu-larly called the Maison de Ville, or Town House, is situated to the west of St Peter's. It is first mentioned in 1448, but most of the structure dates from the 16th and 17th centuries. There is nothing remarkable, except their plainness, about the several halls or chambers—the hall of the lost footsteps, the chamber of the great council, &c. The Salle des Festins is now known as the Alabama Chamber, in memory of the arbitration decided within its walls in 1872. To the historian the building is interesting, not only for its associations, but for the magnificent series of archives which it contains. It was in front of the house that the works of Rousseau were publicly burned in 1762. (See Nouv. Bescr. du Hôtel de Ville, 1877.) The court-house was formerly a hospital, and has been appro-priated to its present purpose only since 1858. As a building it dates from 1709, and is a good specimen of the Mansard style in vogue at the time. Among the structures of modern date the most noteworthy are the academic or university buildings, the Athénée, the Rath museum, the conservatorium, the electoral palace, the new theatre, the hall of the reformation, and the Russian church. The first stone of the academic buildings was laid in 1868. They consist of three blocks forming three sides of a square, and occupy an excellent position near the botanic gardens in the Promenade of the Bastions. The Athénée, a highly orna, mental building, was founded for the accommodation of the old society of the arts by the wealthy Genevese, J. G. Eynard (1775-1863), well known for his generous devotion to the cause of Greek independence. It was in 1824 and 1826 that, in accordance with his wishes, the sisters of the deceased Simon Rath (1766-1819), a general in the Bussian service, devoted a large part of their fortune to the erection of the museum which preserves the name of the family. The building is in the Greek style, with a Corinthian portico and a flight of steps, and it contains a collection of copies of the cardinal masterpieces of ancient art and valuable works of the modern Swiss school. The conservatorium, whose foundation was due to Bartholony, a Genevese financier, owes its reputation as a musical school to Bovy Lysberg (1821-1873). The Fol museum, famous for its Greek and Etruscan vases, occupies the old Academy buildings in the Grand' Bue.

Benevolent Among the larger benevolent institutions are the civic hospital,
institu- with an endowment of 3J million francs, a lunatic asylum, a deaf
tions. and dumb institute, and an orphanage ; and upwards of 200 dis-
tinct societies for philanthropic purposes are at work in the state. Education. From a comparatively early date the Genevese have given consi-derable attention to education. In 1429 François Versonnex endowed and restored the " great school," which continued to flourish till the Reformation, and was attended by numerous foreign pupils. An
academy and college were established by Calvin and Beza in 1558, and soon became famous. Since 1875 the academy has ranked as a university, having five faculties,—a scientific, a literary, a legal, a theological, and a medical. Though medical teaching was long practised in Geneva by its more eminent physicians, according as circumstances suggested, there was no regular provision for this department till 1874, when a staff of 13 professors and 10 privat-docents was instituted. An anatomical theatre has been erected by the cantonal hospital, and a maternity hospital and a policlinique or dispensary are supported by the property of the suppressed religious corporations. In the winter session of 1876-7 the university had 142 Tegularly enrolled students and 182 unattached auditors ; and in the summer session the students numbered 155 and the auditors 147. Of the 297 regular students, no fewer than 126 were foreigners, and only 106 were Genevese proper, while among the auditors the proportion of foreigners was still greater, or 187 as compared with 95. The canton of Geneva has no normal school, but there are two colleges (one in the town and one at Carouge), a gymnasium, and a high school for girls, and in those institutions the training of teachers is an object of attention. The Genevese college had 1134 pupils in 1876-7,-309 being foreigners, and of these 139 French. In all the primary schools, with the exception of those of Carouge, Plainpalais, and Eaux Vives, the mixed system is in vogue. Nearly all the communes, from Lancy in 1848 to Plainpalais in 1877, have been provided with educational libraries, the total number of the books in 1867 being upwards of 20,000. The "public library," formerly located in the Rue Ardaine and now in the university buildings, is an admirable institution, thoroughly deserving the title of public, as its books, without any needless formality, are at the service of even the casual reader. The first nucleus of the collection, which now numbers about 75,000 volumes, was Bonivard's bequest in 1568.

As early as the 14th century, Geneva was the seat of a flourishing Industrie* silk trade, and its woollen fabrics were largely exported. Four times a year the streets of the town were filled with the traffic of its fairs, which were visited by the merchants of Venice, Florence, and Genoa, of France and German Switzerland. In the 16th century hats, ribbons, velvets, woollens, and gold and silver plate, were among the principal products of Genevese industry; the guild of armourers or heaumiers was a powerful corporation; and watchmaking was already carried to a high degree of perfection, under the influence of Charles Cusin, who had settled in the town in 1587. By 1685 there were 100 master watchmakers with 300 workmen, and 80 master jewellers with 200 workmen. In the 17th century the silk trade made great pro-gress, and towards its close calico-printing was introduced by the Fazy family. During the 18th century the number of wealthy im-migrants from Italy gave an impetus to the various architectural industries, but at the same time the political troubles tended to scatter the industrial population. Voltaire introduced a number of Gene-vese watchmakers to Ferney ; the French sought to make Versoix a manufacturing centre ; and the Government of Savoy established a royal watch factory at Carouge. Since the restoration of Genevese independence in 1813 the principal industries of the city and canton have steadily developed. According to the census of 1860, there were 515 master watchmakers and jewellers in the can-ton, and the number of workers in the trade was 4876, of whom 4004 were men and 872 women. As early as 1827, about 240 per-sons were employed in the manufacture of musical boxes, and this number had by 1873 increased to at least 1080 of both sexes, cap-able of turning out 13,000 boxes in a year. Among the minor in-dustries are wood and ivory carving, the making of tools and scientific instruments, iron-smelting and engineering, and the manufacture of tobacco, soda water, and various chemical stuffs. Banking operations are conducted on a large scale, and printing and publishing have long been of prime importance to the city. Print-ing was introduced in 1478 by Steinschaben of Schweinfurth ; and by 1563 there were 20 printing establishments in the city. Robert Stephen, having fled from Paris, was received a citizen of Geneva in 1556 ; but his son Henry found that the attentions of the consis-tory could be nearly as offensive and dangerous as those of the Sorbonne, and the great printing establishment over which he pre-sided came to an untimely end. For details on the contributions made by Genevese inventors to the progress of the various arts, the reader may refer to Elie-Francois "Wartmann's interesting brochure, Notice Mstorique sur les inventions fails à Genève, Geneva, 1873.

It would be hard to find a city of the same size as Geneva which Oistin-could claim the honour of being the birthplace of a greater number <uiahed of eminent men ; and still harder perhaps to find one that had ex- Genevese. tended its hospitality to so many foreigners of distinction. In the roll of its celebrities the first place is due to Jean Jacques Rousseau, who, in spite of its treatment of him, retained considerable affection for " ma république." The house in which he was born occupied the site of No. 69 of the present Rue Rousseau. Though M. Marc Monnier, himself a Genevese, has found materials for a volume on Les poetes de Genève, such names as Mulhauser (1806-71), authornf the dramatic poems Scmpaeh and Philibcrt Berthelier, or Petit Senn (1792-1870), whose Bluettes ct Boutades (1846) has gone through a number of editions, have hardly more than local reputation. Rodolphe Toepffer, the humoristic novelist, has attained a wider popularity, which may almost be called European. But the really famous Genevese are mostly men who have devoted themselves to the sciences, or to the more utilitarian forms of literature. Among the theologians are Mestrezat, the opponent of the Jesuits ; Diodati, the translator of the Bible ; the Tronchins, the Turrettines (Fr. and J. A.), Ed. Diodati, Felix Neff, Cœsar Malan, and Gaussen. Among the historical writers may be mentioned Baulacre, Mallet (of Scandinavian celebrity), De Lolme, Grenus, Sismondi, Picot, Cherbuliez, Sayous, Blavignac, and Galilfe ; and among the philo-logists, Cramer, Leelere, Casaubon, and Spanheim. To the medical sciences belong the names of Jean de Carro, Espine, and Charles de la Rive ; and to the physical sciences Bonnet, Huber, De Luc, De Saussure, De Candolle, and Pictet. Pradier, the sculptor of the statue of Rousseau on the island in the Rhone, Chapponnière, Hornung, and Caíame are the best known of the modern artists. Popula- As far back as 1356 the town of Geneva is said to have contained tion. 5800 inhabitants, and this by 1404 had increased to 6490, exclusive of the Bourg de Four and St Gervais outside of the fortifications. In 1545 the number is given as 12,500, but the plague and other causes had reduced it to 11,000 by 1572. After the revocation of the edict of Nantes it rose to 16,934 in 1698, no fewer than 3000 refugees having sought shelter within its walls. The 18th century was marked by a steady increase: 18,500 in 1711, 24.712 in 1782, and 26,140 in 1789. In 1850 the total was 31,238, of whom 5717 were from other parts of Switzerland, and 6513 from other parts of the world. The census of 1870 gave. 46,783, or including the suburbs of Eaux Vives and Plainpalais, 61,486. The noteworthy fact about this increase is that it is due solely to immigration, for the Genevese families are far from prolific, and indeed have an in-dubitable tendency to die out (Galiffe, Geneve historique, 1869). History. According to a well-known passage in Caesar's Commentaries, he found Geneva the frontier town of the Allobroges, and wdien he crossed the bridge which even then spanned the river, he was no longer in the territory of the Allobroges but in that of the Helve-tians. How long the little oppidum had been in existence before that time it is impossible even to conjecture : that the spot had in far earlier days been occupied by a cluster of crannogs may be ac-cepted as rather more than a conjecture, though the extensive formation of new land within the historic period has completely buried whatever archaeological evidence might otherwise have been available. There was a time clearly when the site of the present lower town was entirely submerged, and the waters of the lake and river found their shores along the edge of the rocky plateau of the upper town. The Allobroges were, it would appear, a Celtic people, and the name Geneva, according to the favourite etymology of modern investigators, has its explanation in the words gen and ev, the "issue" of the "waters." For several centuries of the Christian era the history of Geneva remains a blank, but remains of substructions, aqueducts, canals, inscriptions, statues, pottery, bronzes, arms, coins, &c., show that during the Roman period the town must have been a large and flourishing place, extending, if M. Galiffe is right, over the plateau of the Tranchées. Christianity must have been early introduced, the traditional apostles being Dionysius and Paracodus. In 456 the Celtic town passed under the dominion of the German Burgundians, and in 534 it was incorporated with the kingdom of the Franks. To Charles the Fat it was indebted for the right, sanctioned by Pope John VIII., of electing its bishops from among its own clergy. Optandus, the bishop whose election led to the decision of this point, was a supporter of Bodolph I., founder of Transjurau Burgundy; and it was at Geneva that Conrad the Salic caused himself to be crowned king of Burgundy in 1033. This accession of Conrad proved in several ways of moment to the town ; for to him was due the first aggrandizement of the house of Savoy, and from him was derived the temporal sovereignty of its bishops. The counts of Genevois—a district to the south of the Genevan territory, now included in the French department of Haute Savoie— were partly reconciled to the loss of the authority they had previ-ously had over the city when in 1070 they saw Guy of Faucigny Genevois, a member of their own family, elected to the episcopal see. The next bishop, however, Hubert or Humbert of Grammont, laid claim to all the rights and possessions alienated by Guy ; and at length, in 1124, by the "Accord of Seyssel," the count of Genevois recognized the bishop as his superior under the emperor. Bishop Ardutius (1135-1185) had again to oppose the encroachments of the counts ; but the emperor Barbarossa, to whom he appealed at the diet of Spires (1153), not only upheld his claims, but made him prince of the empire. As the bishops could not always attend in person to the civil concerns of his jurisdiction, a vidom or vidonme (vice dominus) was appointed, who had to judge according to the customs and usages of the city, and in difficult matters was assisted by the advice of three or four citizens, two canons of Geneva, and two nobles of the church. During the bishopric of Robert of Genevois (1277-1288), the Genevese sought protection from the encroachments of his family at the hands of the count of Savoy, Amadeus V. ; and on Robert's death a contest for possession of the city took place between the count and the new bishop, "William of Conflans (1288-1294). In the resulting anarchy the citizens learned to act for themselves, and in 1289 and 1291 we find the bishop com-plaining of certain procurators, syndics, or agents of the city who had acted as chief magistrates in peace and war. In 1293, however, the syndicate was (for the time) abolished. Between the count of Genevois, who held the castle at Bourg de Four, at the corner of the city, and the count of Savoy, who by the peace of Asti in 1290 had secured the office of vidonme, and now held the castle of the Island, both citizens and bishop were hard bestead. In 1320 the castle of Bourg de Four was demolished by Edward and Aymon, sons of the count of Savoy. When the emperor Charles IV. visited Geneva on his way to Avignon (1365), Amadeus V., the "Green Count," obtained the rank of imperial vicar over the old kingdom of Burgundy and over the city of Geneva; but William of Mar-cossay, who was bishop from 1366 to 1377, persuaded the emperor to abolish the vicariate by a bull at Frankfort (1366), and by a second bull at Prague (1367) to cancel all rights granted to the counts of Savoy over Geneva and its territory; and in 1371 Pope Gregory XI. caused the count to withdraw from the city his castellan and judges. The year 1387 is a memorable one in Genevese history, as the date of the publication by Bishop Adhémar Fabri (1385-1388) of the franchises which served for centuries as the Magna Charta of the city. By the purchase of the countship of Genevois, Amadeus VIII. became possessor of all the country round the city; and although he accepted investiture from the bishop and took the oath of fealty, his ambition was simply biding its time. On the visit of Sigismund in 1455, he was raised to be duke of Savoy; and when Pope Martin V. shortly afterwards passed through the district, he sought to obtain complete jurisdiction over the city. Jean de Pierresciso, however, appointed bishop at the suggestion of the duke, who hoped to find in him an easy tool, was no sooner occupant of the see than he appealed to the people, obtained their vote against the alienation of the temporal rights of his predecessors, and swore in return for their support to maintain their liberties. In 1420 a bull of the emperor Sigismund formally declared that the city held directly of the empire. But by a strange turn of events, the indefatigable Amadeus did ultimately become master of Geneva,—not, indeed, by way of conquest or through the degradation of its bishopric, but by himself succeeding to the bishop's see. During the greater part of his pontificate as Felix V. he resided in Geneva; and on his resignation the council allowed him the administration of the bishoprics of Geneva and Lausanne. In the latter part of the 15th century, amid the dis-sensions of the house of Savoy, two facts deserve special notice for their effect on Geneva. The duke Louis, irritated against the Gene-vese because they had admitted his rebellious sou Philip of Bresse within their walls, caused the king of France, his son-in-law, to es-tablish a fair at Lyons, which withdrew the greater part of its traffic from the city of Lake Leman; and Bishop John Louis forming an alliance with Charles the Bold, the Swiss (for Geneva was still the last town of the Allobroges) inflicted a ransom of 20,000 crowns.

The beginning of the 16th century brought the long contest be-tween Savoy and Geneva to a climax and a close. Into the struggle, interesting as it is, between the Mamelukes (Mamelus) or ducal party and the Eidgnots (Eidgenossen) or patriots, it is impossible to enter. The great heroes of the city are Philibert Berthelier, Pierre Lévrier, Francois of Bonivard, the prior of St Victor, and Besangon Hugues. To their patriotic devotion it owed its ultimate liberty, and the alliances with Freiburg and Bern, which, first formed in 1519 and 1526, were solemnly renewed in 1531. Meanwhile the Reformation was advancing in Switzerland. In 1532 Farel entered the city, and in 1535 the reformed doctrine was officially recognized as the religion of the state. In October 1536 a new actor appeared on the scene-John Calvin, then about 25 years of age. By force of intellect and strength of will he soon made himself the leader of the Protestant party, and proceeded to work out his ideal of government and society. While it rendered homage to many of the noblest elements of human nature, to purity, to honesty, to industry, to benevolence, this ideal had grievous defects ; it forgot especially that all healthy moral action must be spontaneous, and that in regard to deeds as well as men it is a dangerous thing to confound the innocent with the guilty. The moral dictates of the sternest conscience of the community were to be the binding laws of every citizen. Religious observances were no longer to be the outcome of individual piety, but part of the inevitable routine of daily life. The church became the state; breach of ecclesiastical discipline was crime; innovation in dogma was treason. The Genevese as a people appear to have been naturally religious: in the old pre-Reformation times they had been distinguished for their liberality and kindness to the clergy, their appreciation of a good preacher, the abundance of their contributions for masses and prayers. Under the guidance of Calvin, this religi-osity took a new and sterner cast. But a certain part of the citizens were not so willing to relinquish their liberty, and, under the name of Libertins or Liberty men, they contended earnestly against the establishment of the new regime. In 1538 they were so powerful that the four syndics were chosen from their ranks ; and they had the satisfaction of seeing Calvin and Farel, on 23d April, expelled from the city by order of the little council, confirmed by the council of the two hundred and the council-general. But the Libertins did not know how to rule; anarchy and licence got possession of the city; the Catholic party recovered ground. Calvin was recalled, and, re-turning on 3d September 1541, at once re-established his system in all its vigour. The Libertin party again revolted; sixty of their num-ber were condemned to death, and four who failed to make their escape were beheaded. In 1547 Jacques Gruet was executed as an utterer of threats against the dictator and a possessor of impious books; and in 1553 Michel Servetus was burned alive. To the historian of Geneva it is of comparatively little importance whether or not the main guilt of this too faihous crime fell directly and solely on Calvin himself; it is condemnation enough that such a deed was possible within the walls of a city where his fiat and his veto were equally supreme. And on the other hand, it must never be forgotten that the very reason why the faggot fire in which Servetus perished has become such a beacon to after times, while the smouldering embers round a Dolet or a Vanini are only now and then stirred to a fitful glare, is that Calvin had made Geneva a city set upon a hill, and that the lurid smoke and flame showed doubly dark against the clear light of his wonderful intellect and his noble life. In some re-spects Geneva was never greater than under his dictatorship. It was at once the moral capital of the half of Christendom and the great frontier fortress against the invasions of Borne. Like every fortress city, it had to pay the penalty of its position, and the penalty was none the less because its garrison fought with spiritual weapons, and its martial law interfered with the liberties of the mind. In 1564, after twenty-three years of such labours as few men could rival, Calvin died, and his body was laid in the cemetery of Plainpalais; but his spirit continued to live in the constitution he had founded. The milder character of his successor, Theodore Beza, allowed free scope to the other members of the Government, and the democratic element obtained greater prominence. About 1564 Geneva appeared for a time in danger from its Catholic neighbours, and especially from the duke of Savoy; but though this prince recovered possession of the Chablais, the Genevois, and the country of Gex, and appointed Francis of Sales titular bishop of Geneva, ho direct attempt was made against the independence of the city. The year 1568 is of note for a revision of the constitution, drawn up by Germain Colladon, which, while retaining in the main the Calvinistic framework, practi-cally placed political power in the hands of a few principal families. The administration nominally consisted of the syndicate and four councils—the council of the twenty-five, the council of the sixty, the council of the two hundred, and the council general; but the council of the twenty-five, usually called the "little" or "narrow council," managed in the long run to arrogate the direction of all public affairs. During the 16th century, both before and after the Colladon revision, the variety of affairs which were considered under its jurisdiction is sufficiently amusing. It was at once the foreign office of the republic and the high court and the police court combined; and it accordingly passed, as matter of course, from the consideration of matters of state, in which the potentates of Europe were parties, to the squabbles of market women, the use of bad eggs in cakes, or the length of a minister's sermon. Its private deliberations were kept strictly secret : in 1491 the betrayer of any of its transactions was judged "infamous," and in 1530 it was added that his tongue should be pierced. Torture was still retained as a legal instrument of investigation, and the penal enactments against heresy and witchcraft remained unre-pealed. In 1579 the city was taken under the protection of Bern and Soleure, and in 1584 it formed an alliance with Zurich ; but these agrejmeuts proved of little advantage, and in the conflicts which wore always being renewed with the duke of Savoy, Geneva was left to her own resources, and the accidental assistance of Elizabeth of England or Henry IV. of Franee.

At length, in 1602, Charles Emmanuel of Savoy determined to seize the city by a coup de main, and on the night of the 11th and 12th December (O.S.) an army of 8000 men were despatched against it. As no declaration of war had been made, the citizens were taken by surprise ; and the enemy had fixed their scaling ladders and were already mounting the walls before the alarm was given. But once aroused, the Genevese were not long in turning this success into discomfiture and rout, and when morning broke the city was once more safe, and a joyous crowd heard the voice of the aged Beza in the cathedral read out the grand old Psalm, "Now may Israel say, If the Lord had not been with us." Such is the famous "Escalade," the Bannoekburn of the Genevese, which has since been celebrated with all possible forms of celebration. By the treaty of St J ulian in the following year the duke of Savoy granted the Genevese freedom of trade, restored the lands of St Victor and St Peter, and promised to build no fortress and assemble no troops within four leagues of the _ city ; but the ambitious prince made one more attack before his death in 1620. During the rest of the 17th century the history of Geneva consists mainly of dissensions between different councils, and between the governing bodies and the people ; but amid them all the city advanced in prosperity, especially after the accession to its population occasioned by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The 18th century brought the political contest to a head. In 1707 Fatio, advocate and member of the two hundred, was appointed president of a commission charged to formulate the grievances of the people. In the document which he drew up he maintained the sovereignty of the people, the equality of all eitizens, and the subordination of the magistracy as mere executive functionaries; and at the same time demanded that the council-general should meet at least once a year, and not only when the syndics chose. The councils appeared to yield, but shortly afterwards, supported by confederates from the oligarchical cities of Bern and Zurich, they crushed the popular party, and caused Fatio to be shot. How sternly they were dis-posed to resent interference was shown in 1731 by their sentence of perpetual imprisonment passed on Mieheli Du Crest for merely giving expression to the popular opposition to the new system of fortifications carried out by the councils. The party of which he was so far a spokesman—known as the représentants—at length, in i 1734, gained a decided victory in the general council of 1734. By I the edict of 1738, though the whole initiative in matters of legisla-tion was left in the hands of the lesser councils, the actual passing of laws and fixing of taxes were entrusted to the general council, and thirty years later the people obtained the right of naming the half of the council of the two hundred. There was an important class of the inhabitants, however, who were still excluded from political rights—the so-called "natives" or descendants of the aliens who had settled in the city ; and this class continued to make known its discontent. At length, in 1782, Bern, Sardinia, and France interfered in favour of the aristocratic party, and by the Act of Pacification the most important reforms in a liberal sense were again abolished. A few years later, and France was under a different régime. The Revolution at Paris was followed by a revolution at Geneva. A new constitution, accepted by the National Assembly in 1794, declared the political equality of all the Genevese ; but, by a curious inconsistency, the national committee of finances divided them again into aristocrats, the englués, and the patriots, taxing the last class much less heavily than the others. In March 1798 it was agreed that Geneva should become a part of the French republic, and on 13th June the French authorities entered the city. By the treaty of Paris its independence was restored, and it became one of the cantons of the Swiss confedera-tion. A new constitution declared all the citizens equal, and placed the legislative power in the hands of a representative council. As no one, however, could be an elector who paid less than 20 Swiss livres, or about 23 shillings, of direct taxes, the democratic character of the system was considerably modified. It was not till 1841 that any great change was effected. In the early part of that year the "Third of March Society" was formed to watch over the interests of the citizens, and in October the Government was forced by a popular demonstration to summon a constituent assembly.

The legislative power for the canton was now placed in a grand council, consisting of representatives elected in the ratio of 1 to every 333 inhabitants ; and the executive power in a council of state consisting of 13 members chosen by and from the grand council. At the same time the city received a communal council of 81 mem-bers, and an administrative council of at most 11 members. But the new constitution was not allowed to work long. The radical party had been gathering strength, especially in St Gervais, and in 1846 the Government, finding that the attempt to suppress its opponents by force of arms was of doubtful result, gave in its re-signation. A provisional Government, under the leadership of the democrat James Fazy, drew up a constitution, which was accepted by the people on 24th May 1847. The franchise was bestowed even on the pauper class of prolétaires, and the election of the council of state was entrusted to the council general or collective assembly of citizens. The old Protestant church of Geneva was abolished, and a new and almost creedless church established, the government of which was vested in a consistory elected by the universal suffrage of Protestants in the canton. For nearly fifteen years the radical party continued in power ; and under its hands the physical condition of Geneva was rapidly transformed, and, for good or evil, the city was brought as much as possible into the general current of European progress. ' ' On voudrait faire de Genève, " sighed the conservative De le Rive, "la plus petite des grandes villes, et pour moi je préfère qu'elle reste la plus grande des petites villes." Unfortunately for its permanence the radical Government was lavish in its expenditure, and the finances of the canton and city got into a dangerous condi-tion. In November 1861 Fazy was not returned to the council of state ; in 1862 the conservative party obtained a majority in the great council ; and in 1863, though all the other radical candidates for the council of state were carried, Fazy himself was rejected. The attempt to invalidate the election of his opponent Chenevière led to a conflict between the parties, in which some blood was shed ; and the city was consequently occupied by federal forces, and the matter sub-mitted to the federal council. As the decree was in favour of Chenevière, Fazy retired from public life. The " independents," as the opponents of the radicals are called, came into power in 1865, and for a number of years they fully maintained their position, in spite of the difficulties thrown in their way by the Ultramontane party. Their principal antagonist was Mermillod, the vicar of the bishop of Freiburg, who was declared bishop of Geneva by the pope, and insisted on exercising his episcopal functions without regard to the Government. In February 1873 Mermillod was banished by the federal council of Switzerland, and in the same year the grand coun-cil of Geneva deprived all Roman Catholic priests who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the state. Fazy's bill for the sepa-ration of church and state was rejected in June 1876 ; religious cor-porations were abolished on ¿3d August, and, on the 26th of the same month, all public ecclesiastical services outside of the churches were forbidden. The cathedral of Geneva was handed over to the Old Catholics. On the 6th of November 1878 Fazy died, and two days after the " conservative-democrat " party gained a victory in the elections for the great council. The expelled curés were now allowed to return, and in December the council accepted the prin-ciple of the separation of church and state.

Besides the older works of Spon, BeYanger, Picot, &c, and the Mémoires et documents de la soc. genevoise d'hist. et d'archéol., see Senebior, Hist. litt. de Genève (1786) ; J. A. Galiffe, Matériaux pour Vhist. de Genève (1829-30), and Notices généalogiques (3 vols , 1819-36); lìigaud, Renseignements rei. à la culture des beaux-arts à Genève (1849, new ed. 1870) ; Archinard, Genève ecclés. ou Livre des speetables pasteurs (1861), and Les édifices religieux de Vancienne Genève (1869) ; J. B. G. Galiffe, Genève hist, et archèol. (1869) ; Bhivignac, Armoriai genevois (1819), and Études sur Genève (1872-71); Thonrel, Hist, de Genève (1838); Pictet de Sei gy, Genève, origine, &c. (1843-47), and Genève ressuscitée (1869) ; Cherbuliez, Genève, ses institutions, &c. (186S); Uoget, Hist, du peuple de Genève (1876); Thorens, Abrégé du Vhist. de Genève (187S); Albert de Montât, Diet, biogr. des Genevois et des l'audois.tlSIii). (H. A. W.)



Footnotes

This document, consisting of 79 paragraphs, was translated into French, and published by Montyon, 8vo, 1507.

Sec " Le Petit Conseil " in Êtrennes genevoises, Geneva, 1877.
y See II. Hamman, Les Représentations graphiques de l'Escalade, Geneva, 1869; and the drama of ilulhauser, the national poet, 1865.









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