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whole of Switzerland, however, was not envisaged. By 1793, however, the inhabitants of the Toggenburg had not only seen a successful national revolution take place in France, but also radical revolutions nearer home, in other regions of Switzerland. The people of St. Gallen demanded a greater part in the government of their canton, in particular their own Landrat [cantonal council], which the Toggenburg already had.

Bräker does not appear to have tried to follow the revolutionary movement in a systematic way. He was not, and never claimed to be, an eye-witness of most of the events that he describes. He was an avid reader of newspapers, but often treats their reports with considerable scepticism. He did try to find trustworthy eyewitnesses whose stories might contribute to his records, but he was very much aware that all written and verbal accounts were biased one way or another by the party politics of the time. (Even today it is noticeable that historians have differing opinions regarding this conflict.) There are also some surprising gaps in his account, some of which can be explained by his being preoccupied with crises in his own life. Much of his interest was still taken up by international events such as the Coalition War, which had a direct effect on his business, and by the policies of the King of Prussia. The reader can also become rather confused by the fact that Bräker wrote accounts of events into his diary some time after they actually happened, the interval was sometimes as much as two years.

The following notes outline some of the events of the revolution in north-east Switzerland from 1793 to the death of the Prince-Abbot Beda Angehrn in May 1796. [See Chronik pp 419-420, 422.]

In 1793 the magistrates [Ammänner] of the five courts of Gossau (a commune to the southwest of St. Gallen) together with the Gemeindevogt [Prince-Abbot's agent in the commune] Johannes Künzle and others, prepared a list of grievances against the rule of the Prince-Abbot and submitted them to him. Most of these grievances concerned ancient feudal dues such as the payments exacted when a tenancy changed hands. The objection to these was not only their cost, but also that such customs were seen as the badge of serfdom, though for all practical purposes serfdom had been abolished long ago.

After a long interval, in December 1794, the Prince-Abbot rejected this appeal on the grounds that the procedure followed had been illegal. The five magistrates were replaced by a committee of 17 men, which stirred up discontent among the people. The Prince-Abbot then gave permission for assemblies to be held in the communes to collect further grievances. After another long interval, on 24th February 1795, Künzle took advantage of this to hold an assembly at Gossau, attended by several thousand people. He allowed himself to be elected as leader of the revolutionary movement and systematic attempts were made to gain the support of other communes.

Perhaps to counter this, the Prince-Abbot issued a proclamation on 19th March to reassert his authority. Müller-Friedberg, who spent a large part of his life doing his best to hold the Toggenburg together, but who none the less realised that some radical changes were necessary, protested against this and on 3rd June the Prince-Abbot accepted another list of grievances, 61 points in all, but nothing resulted except another proclamation in August. Finally, on 28th October, after direct negotiations between the Prince-Abbot and a delegation from Künzle's supporters, a "Gütliche Vertrag" [Amicable Agreement] was concluded and accepted by the commune of Gossau on 23rd November. This conceded many of the people's demands, but even in the last months of the Prince-Abbot's life there were misunderstandings and expressions of dissatisfaction.

Much more attention was attracted by the far from amicable treatment by the authorities of a similar submission of grievances by the people of Stäfa, a small town on the Lake of Zürich, in 1794. A "Memorial" was printed and widely circulated which demanded a reform of the constitution of the rural communes around Zürich, to give its people equal rights and privileges

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