The Smallest Republic.
A German traveller has discovered the very smallest repunlio in Europe. It is the hamlet of Goust, in the Lower Pyrenees, It belongs neither to France nor to Spain. It has somewhat over one hundred citizens, Homan Catholic in religion, who live by silk weaving, and constitute a brave and self, dependent Commonwealth. They have no taxes nor any other public charges. They have no Mayor or other civil officials. They have not even an established church or prießt of their own, as they have incorporated themselves ecclesiastically with the neighboring village of Laruns, where their children are baptized, their betrothed couples married, and their dead buried. The ciiizens of this republic live to a very great age. There are said to be both male and female centenarians among them. They always marry ‘ foreigners’ —that is to say, inhabitants of the neighboring States of France and Spain. Nobody is either rich or poor, noble or churl, master or servant.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZMAIL18890906.2.7.9
Bibliographic details
New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 4
Word Count
162The Smallest Republic. New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 4
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