As at the beginning of the first chapter (I:1:1), the democratic institutions of Switzerland
serve Mary Shelley as a foil to those of her own country. Especially at this time,
under the reactionary rule of its Tory government, "republican" was a pejorative term.
Mary Shelley shrewdly mitigates her affront to the current critical climate at home
by tying the term to the respectable context of Switzerland. Still, in its quiet way,
the word is an affront.