CHAPTER10 / The Age of Emigrations: French Emigres and Global Entanglements of Political Friedemann Pestel In the year 1800, Charles Saladin-Egerton, a patnc1an from Geneva, whom the revolution of 1794 had driven out of his native city, reflected in London on the large-scale consequences of the revolutions in Europe and the Atlantic world from the perspective of migration: That a Polish refugee in Paris, an American loyalist in London or a French royalist emigre in St Petersburg cannot consent to consider as legal the gov ernments that, by only the force of arms, by the progressive rise of a small faction, or by the wish of the majority of their compatriots, succeeded to those under which they had lived, this is conceivable; it is the effect of a more or less blind, but often honourable sentiment.1 What makes Saladin's statement interesting is that he reflected on exile as a result of a 'participatory observation' in the very centre of a connected history of political migration. Living in the 'capital of the emigration' ,2 he All translations are my own. Albert-Ludwigs-U niversitat Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany e-mail:
[email protected] ©The Author(s) 2019 205 L. Philip, J. Reboul (eds.), French Emigrants in Revolutionised Europe, War, Culture and Society, 1750-1850, https://doi.org/10.1007 /978-3-030-27435-1_10 206 F. PESTEL 10 THE AGE OF EMIGRATIONS' FRENCH EMIGRf:S AND GLOBAL. 207 was part of a large transnational community of migrants of different out how the renewed experience of exile raised questions of national gins, social profiles, and political orientations, who had left behind belonging, and it addresses the issue of solidarity and material support.