After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819Frye, William Edward
History
After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819
Frye, William Edward
Europe -- Description and travel
We started from Geneva at seven in the morning of the 4th October, and in
half an hour entered the Savoyard territory, of which _douaniers_ with blue
cockades (the cockade of the King of Sardinia) gave us intimation. The road
is on the South side of the lake Leman. In Evian and Thonon, the two first
villages we passed thro', we do not find that _aisance_, comfort and
cleanliness that is perceivable on the other side of the lake, in the
delightful Canton de Vaud. The double yoke of priestcraft and military
despotism presses hard upon the unhappy Savoyard and wrings from him his
hard-earned pittance, while no people are better off than the Vaudois; yet
the Savoyards are to the full as deserving of liberty as the Swiss. The
Savoyard possesses honesty, fidelity and industry in a superior degree, and
these qualities he seldom or ever loses, even when exposed to the
temptations of a great metropolis like Paris, to which they are compelled
to emigrate, as their own country is too poor to furnish the means of
subsistence to all its population. When in Paris and other large cities,
the Savoyards contrive, by the most indefatigable industry and incredible
frugality, to return to their native village after a certain lapse of time,
with a little fortune that is amply sufficient for their comfort. The
poorest Savoyard in Paris never fails to remit something for the support of
his parents. Both Voltaire and Rousseau have rendered justice to the good
qualities of this honest people. It is a thousand pities that this country
(Savoy) is not either incorporated with France, or made to form part of the
Helvetic confederacy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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