 Jean-François Samazeuilh (1858) attributes the claims of Goust's independence to an 1827 description by the former French Minister of the Interior Joseph Lainé.Samazeuilh says that Lainé was speaking metaphorically when he labeled Goust a "republic," and that other writers took this literally ("on a pris au sérieux cette fantaisie du spirituel écrivain").He then provides a long quotation from the "Album Pyrénéen" which demonstrates the fallacy of this interpretation—for example, the residents of Goust pay taxes to the government in Laruns.