BITTSCHRIFT AN DIE GESETZGEBUNG

8vo, pp. 8; with woodcut vignette on title and woodcut headpiece; clean and fresh throughout; unbound as issued. A good copy of this rare petition to the legislators of the recently established Helvetic Republic, from the Canton of Thurgau, in the aftermath of the 1799 Battles of Zürich in the French Revolutionary Wars. Bemoaning the poverty suffered by the inhabitants of Thurgau, the authors address the Citizen Legislators: 'Should we come with bitter but well-founded complaints to you? Should we tell you how our canton ... suffers the cost of the military? Should we describe to you the misery and distress that comes from a shortage of earnings and the high prices of everyday goods? Shall we set before you the poverty, the exhaustion, the ruin, and all the nameless woes that lie before us, and seems to remain in front of our eyes far into the future?' Setting out these various miseries, the pamphlet is signed in print by the District Judge and the Municipal President of the Thurgäu canton, with 'Republikanischer Gruß und Hochachtung'. OCLC records just one copy outside Switzerland, at the University of Munich.