82 Chapter IV
the same time they palpably insisted on the maintenance or enlargement of their
own privileges. It was monarchy in these countries that pressed for modernization
and the general welfare.
At the same time, however, the constituted bodies in other countries saw hos-
tilities open on the other front. Persons who were neither members of an aristoc-
racy nor servants of a king began to move on their own initiative. This happened,
between 1763 and 1774, within the narrow but not insignificant limits of the city
of Geneva, and on the broader stage of the Anglo- American world, where it led to
the American Revolution.