of syndics hostile or suspected. We engage all sincere friends of France to keep a sharp look-out upon all their communal administrations.

"We do not doubt that the governor of the province of Anncey will be ready, if such is the case, to make use of the full powers with which he is clothed, to replace in each commune all the syndics who will not loyally co-operate in the great cause of our national regeneration."

Having thus dealt with every communal authority supposed to be tinged with loyalty or patriotism, the Intendant of Faucigny issues a circular addressed to MM. the syndics, communal administrators of the congregations of charity, and public functionaries of Faucigny, in which he says, that "In order for the votation to have a happy result, it is necessary to enlighten the voters. Have the goodness to explain to these gentlemen, that it is no longer a question of pronouncing upon a preference between France and Piedmont, between France and Switzerland, that Piedmont has ceded us to France by the treaty of 24th of March, and that we can no longer belong to it, and that Switzerland is foreign to the treaty submitted to their adhesion. There remains only the affirmative or negative vote upon their reunion to France any other vote will be considered null. In voting affirmatively, we confirm the vote of our fathers in 1792. We re-enter into the great family, after a long absence, to enjoy there the rights and advantages attached to the name of a Frenchman, and to the inappreciable privilege of a customs zone, which you have so long desired, and which is now officially guaranteed.

"The Emperor, who is the personification of great and generous ideas, will not remain insensible to this manifestation of the sympathies of a people: he will restore to that people, in kindnesses a hundredfold, the satisfaction which they will have caused him.

"In voting negatively, Savoy will be reduced to impotence and anarchy. It has been my duty to make you understand the situation, in order to avoid surprises.

(Signed) "T. GUY, Intendant."

But lest this should not produce the desired effect, it was followed by another to the same authorities, which ran thus:

"SIR,-Upon the 22d instant all the Savoyards are convoked to determine their destinies. I consider it useless to insist upon the importance of the solemn act in which your countrymen shall take part. Your mission, sir, imposes upon you new duties, new obligations, greater even than those which your devotion to the common cause has doubtless dictated. Profit by the influence which your past services have given you over the country people, in order to make them understand the greater interest which attaches to their vote of the 22d and 23d April 1860. Let them be put upon their guard against the influence of those men who, unable to carry out their criminal attempts, would wish to involve them in their fall. Let them understand that those counsels are perfidious, those patriots false, who say, 'It is all over, and it is useless to vote.' Absention is always the act of a bad citizen. To-day it will be still worse; it will be an irreparable fault. There must be an immense majority. The unanimity of the bulletins must show Europe that Savoy is altogether French at heart, and that the exigences of politics are perfectly reconciled with national aspirations.

"You will give a striking proof of your devotion to Savoy by conforming to these instructions.

"In addressing myself to you with full confidence, I trust that you will afford me an active co-operation.

(Signed) "T. GUY, Intendant."

I could multiply proclamations of this description, but if I have already run the risk of wearying the reader, I must plead the necessity which exists of bringing actual proofs of the pressure exercised upon the Savoyard population, as any mere statement to that effect would simply be denied by the French papers. During my first visit to Savoy, I did not gain the impression that the antiFrench feeling was so strong as was evidently the case from the extreme measures taken to counteract it. Not only were the communal committees

generally composed of the authorities themselves-not only were other committees not allowed to be formed, but the printing establishments were under surveillance, and letters opened and stopped at the post-office. As the registration of the voters was in the hands of the authorities, many of those suspected of opposition views were not included in the lists of voters at all; while, as the lists of "suspects" were popularly supposed to have been actually made out, the omission implied that their names were to be found in that less agreeable category.

Had the vote been secret, it is very possible that, in spite of all the pressure used, a large number of nons might have been found in the urns. The fact that nons were not allowed to be printed, was only a partial guarantee. The oui ticket had so distinctive a character that it would have been difficult of imitation; while, to have written a ticket, would have been an evident no. Still, to guard against any such contingency, M. Guy (who seemed to be omnipotent, though, on constitutional grounds, his authority might very fairly have been disputed), ordered that, as each elector presented himself, "the President, after having constaté' the certificate of inscription, should receive the bulletin, one of the members of the office, or the secretary, will register the vote, by writing upon the list the name of the voter, and the President will place the voting-ticket in the I have already described the views which the President was expected to entertain. Anxious to see this original mode of ballot in operation, I repaired to the voting-room in the Hotel de Ville, but was, of course, not admitted. A very fussy official, whom I suspect to have been M. Guy himself, apparently boiling over with rage at the attempted intrusion, told us we had no business there, but that, if it was any satisfaction to us to know it, three-fourths of the voters had already voted, and all in favour of France. He probably obtained his information from the President. So indignant was he at the natural curiosity we manifested in our investigations, that we had no sooner repaired to the hotel to refresh our

urn."

selves, than we received a visit from three gendarmes, whose cocked hats and swords were perhaps hardly calculated to inspire us with so much terror as the population they were intended to overawe. These gentry demanded our passports, and were much disappointed at finding that we not only had them with us, but that they were strictly en règle. Until their unexpected appearance I had hoped that, while the Sardinian Government had permitted the authorities to retain their official character, they had at least withdrawn that material force which the presence of their carabineers enabled the local functionaries to rely upon for coercing the population. There was a strange anomaly in allowing a man who ended his proclamations with "Vive la France," "Vive l'Empereur," to employ Sardinian soldiers. Either he was a Sardinian and a traitor, or a Frenchman, and incompetent to use Sardinians for his police purposes. We gently hinted as much to the poor men whose unpleasant duty it was to do the bidding of the Intendant; and, to do them justice, they seemed to feel excessively embarrassed by the awkward task imposed upon them, and very much. relieved to find that we were not arrestable. Nevertheless, throughout the remainder of our visit, our steps were dogged by one or other of these myrmidons; and I consequently found considerable difficulty in obtaining some of the proclamations, as the printing-offices had received strict orders not to allow them to be copied, and to stand in the street and do it was out of the question. It seemed desolate not to find a single one of my old friends in the town. I got tired of hearing nothing but " Vive la France!" and succeeded at last in discovering the only solitary representative of the liberal party left in Bonneville, who confirmed all I had already heard of what he termed "la pression epouvantable" to which the voters had been subjected. Every one of his colleagues had left the place to remain would only have exposed them to persecution and insult; and as we left the town, we could sympathise with the motives which had induced them to desert it,

for a crowd of boys and "roughs" had been stationed in the street to hoot and hiss us as we passed, our friends the gendarmes not upon this occasion interfering.

The result of the vote, which was announced two days afterwards, was, as we expected, almost unanimous, although three weeks had not elapsed since nearly 13,000 persons had signed a memorial against French annexation, and a member had been returned from Faucigny to the Turin Chamber to protest against it. Altogether, M. Laity, who was a fellow prisoner with the Emperor at Ham, proved himself a worthy colleague of the Corsican Pietri; and in the event of its becoming shortly necessary to consult the populations of the Prussian provinces on the Rhine, we shall doubtless see these two indefatigable election-agents each with his corps of detectives again employed.

Admitting, for the sake of argument, that the bargain struck at Plombières was a political necessity, there surely was no occasion

to carry out the terms of it in the manner above described. Had the Sardinian Government boldly acknowledged the grounds upon which it had determined to make the sacrifice, and spared us the farce of the popular vote, it might have pained, but it would not have outraged, the liberal sentiment of Europe. But to make use of popular institutions as a mask behind which to hide a system of oppression and tyranny, is calculated to bring those institutions into contempt, and to discredit every government conducted upon free and enlightened principles throughout the world. If people are to be slaves, let them at least be spared the miserable mockery of sham liberty. If, on the other hand, there be a sacred cause of freedom," let it not be prostituted by being made subservient to the ends of despotism. The most absolute government in Europe is preferable to a cunningly-devised imposture, which, while it dupes those who love liberty, avails itself of the appliances of those who hate it.

I.