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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

"The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 04 (of 12)"

It is on the side of the
Ecclesiastical Electorates that the dikes raised to support the German
liberty first will give way.
[Sidenote: Geneva.]
[Sidenote: Savoy.]
The French have begun their general operations by seizing upon those
territories of the Pope the situation of which was the most inviting to
the enterprise. Their method of doing it was by exciting sedition and
spreading massacre and desolation through these unfortunate places, and
then, under an idea of kindness and protection, bringing forward an
antiquated title of the crown of France, and annexing Avignon and the
two cities of the Comtat, with their territory, to the French republic.
They have made an attempt on Geneva, in which they very narrowly failed
of success. It is known that they hold out from time to time the idea of
uniting all the other provinces of which Gaul was anciently composed,
including Savoy on the other side, and on this side bounding themselves
by the Rhine.
[Sidenote: Switzerland.]
[Sidenote: Old French maxims the security of its independence.


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