Note 246 — 596.

At Geneva the Government was vested in the two hundred and fifty citizens who composed the Petit Conseil and the Conseil des Deux-Cents. Against this hereditary oligarchy Rousseau gave the signal of revolt by his Lettres de la Montagne (1764). Two parties were formed: one, the Représentants, demanding a revision of the constitution; the other, Négatifs, opposing it. In 1781 the popular party gained the upper hand. The aristocratic party, appealing to the treaty of 1738, which only allowed constitutional changes to be made with the sanction of France and Sardinia, demanded the help of those two powers. A combined Swiss, French, and Sardinian force was sent, and in July, 1782, the popular party, who had promised to emulate the citizens of Saguntum, surrendered the city without a struggle, and the aristocratic constitution was restored. Brissot de Warville, as le Philadelphien à Genève, and Mallet du Pan were both eye-witnesses of the events of the revolution.