The contracting parties in the treaty of Luneville had _guaranteed_ the independence of the Helvetic Republic, and the unquestionable right of the Swiss to settle their government in what form they pleased.

There were two parties there as elsewhere--one who desired the full re-establishment of the old federative constitution--another who preferred the model of the French Republic "one and indivisible." To the former party the small mountain cantons adhered--the wealthier and aristocratic cantons to the latter.

Their disputes at last swelled into civil war--and the party who preferred the old constitution, being headed by the gallant Aloys Reding, were generally successful.

Napoleon, who had fomented their quarrel, now, unasked and unexpected, assumed to himself the character of arbiter between the contending parties.

He addressed a letter to the eighteen cantons, in which these words occur:--"Your history shows that your intestine wars cannot be terminated, except through the intervention of France.