Life of Napoleon Bonaparte

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Table Of Contents

Volume I Inteoduction j.^g„

The Revolutionary Epoch in Europe — Corsica as a Center of Interest — Its Geography— The People and their Rulers — Sampiero-Paoli- His Success as a Liberator — His Plan for Alliance with France — The Policy of Choiseul

— Paoli's Reputation — Napoleon's Account of Corsica and of Paoli — Rousseau and Corsica 1

Chapter I. The Bonapaetes in Coesica

The French Occupy Corsica — PaoU Deceived — Conquest of Corsica by France — ^English Intervention Vain — Paoli in England — Introduction of the French Administrative System — Paoli's Policy — Origin of the Bonapartes — Carlo Maria di Buonaparte — Maria Letizia Ramolino — Their Marriage and Naturalization as French Subjects — Their Fortunes — Their Children 8

Chapter n. Napoleon's Birth and Inpanct

Birth of Nabulione or Joseph — Date of Napoleon's Birth — The Name Napoleon

— Corsican Conditions as Influencing Napoleon's Character — His Early Education — Influenced by Traditions Concerning Paoli — Charles de Buonaparte as a Suitor for Court Favor — Napoleon Appointed to Brienne — His Efforts to Learn French at Autun — Development of His Character — His Father Delegate of the Corsican Nobility at Versailles 17

Chaptee m. Napoleon's School-days

Military Schools in France — Napoleon's Initiation into the Life of Brienne — His Powerful Friends — His Reading and Other Avocations — His Studies — His Conduct and Scholarship — The Change in His Life Plan — His Influence in His Family — His Choice of the Artillery Service 25

Chaptee TV. In Paeis and Valence

Introduction to Paris — Death of Charles de Buonaparte — Napoleon's Poverty

— His Character at the Close of His School Years — Appointed Lieutenant in the Regiment of La F^re — Demoralization of the French Army — The Men in the Ranks — Napoleon as a Beau — Return to Study — His Profession and Vocation 31

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Chaptee v. Pbivate Study aot) Gtabeison Life page

Napoleon as a Student of Politics — Nature of Rousseau's Political Teachings — The Abb6 Raynal — Napoleon Aspires to be the Historian of Corsica — Napoleon's First Love — His Notions of Political Science — The Books he Read — Napoleon at Lyons — His Transfer to Douay^A Victim to Melancholy — Return to Corsica 37

Chapter YI. Fuetheb Attempts at Authoeship

Straits of the Bonaparte Family — Napoleon's Efforts to Relieve Them — His History and Short Stories — Visit to Paris — Secures Extension of His Leave — The Family Fortunes Desperate — The History of Corsica Completed — Its Style, Opinions, and Value — Failure to Find a Publisher — Sentiments Expressed in His Short Stories — Napoleon's Irregularities as a French Officer — His Vain Appeal to Paoli — The History Dedicated to Necker 43

Chapter VII. The Eevolution in Feance

The French Aristocracy — Priests, Lawyers, and Petty Nobles — Burghers, Artisans, and Laborers — The Great Nobles a Barrier to Reform — Mistakes of the King — The Estates Meet at Versailles — The Court Party Provokes Violence — Downfall of Feudal Privilege 52

Chapter VIII, Bonapaete and Revolution

Napoleon's Studies Continued at Auxonne — Another Illness and a Furlough — His Scheme of Corsican Liberation — His Appearance at Twenty — His Attainments and Character — His Shifty Conduct — The Homeward Journey — New Parties in Corsica — Salicetti and the Nationalists — Napoleon becomes a Political Agitator — And Leader of the Radicals — The National Assembly Incorporates Corsica with France and Grants Amnesty to Paoli — Momentary Joy of the Corsican Patriots — The French Assembly Ridicules Genoa's Protest — Napoleon's Plan for Corsican Administration 58

Chaptee IX. First Lessons in Revolution

French Soldier and Corsican Patriot — Paoli's Hesitancy — His Return to Corsica — Cross Purposes in France — A New Furlough — Money Transactions of Napoleon and Joseph — Open Hostilities against France — Thwarted a Second Time — Reorganization of Corsican Administration — Meeting of Bonaparte and Paoli — Corsican Politics — Studies in Society 67

Chaptee X. Teaits op Chaeacter

Literary Work — Essay on Happiness — Thwarted Ambition — The Corsican Patriots — The Brothers Napoleon and Louis — Studies in Politics — Reorganization of the Army — The Change in Public Opinion — Napoleon again at Auxonne — Napoleon as a Teacher — Further Literary Efforts — The Sentimental Journey — His Attitude toward Religion 75

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Chapter XI. The Revolution in the Rhone Valley paob

A Dark Period — Bonaparte, First Lieutenant — Second Sojourn in Valence — Books and Beading — The National Assembly of France — The King Returns from Versailles — Administrative Reforms in France — Passing of the Old Order — Flight of the King — Bonaparte's Oath to Sustain the Constitution — His View of the Situation — His Revolutionary Zeal — A Serious Blunder Avoided

— Return to Corsica 84

Chapter XII. Bonaparte the Corsican Jacobin

Bonaparte's Corsican Patriotism — His Position in His Family — Corsican Politics — His Position in the Jacobin Club of Ajaccio — His Failure as a Contestant for Literary Honors — Appointed Adjutant-General — His Attitude toward France — His New Ambitions — Use of Violence — Lieutenant-Colonel of Volunteers — Politics in Ajaccio — Bonaparte's First Experience of Street Warfare — His Manifesto — Dismissed to Paris — His Plans — The Position of Louis XVI. — Bonaparte's Delinquencies — Disorganization in the Army — Petition for Reinstatement — The MarseiUais — Bonaparte a Spectator — BUs Estimate of France

— His Presence at the Scenes of August Tenth — State of Paris 93

Chapter XTTT . Bonaparte the French Jacobin

Reinstatement and Promotion — Further Solicitation — Napoleon and Elisa — Occupations in Paris — Return to Ajaccio — Disorders in Corsica — Bonaparte a French Jacobin — Expedition against Sardinia — Course of French Affairs — Paoli's Changed Attitude — Estrangement of Bonaparte and Paoli — Mischances in the Preparations against Sardinia — Failure of the French Detachment — Bonaparte and the Fiasco of the Corsican Detachment — Further Developments in France — England's Policy — Paoli in Danger — Denounced and Summoned to Paris 106

Chapter XTV. A Jacobin Hejira

The Waning of Bonaparte's Patriotism — Alliance with Salicetti — Another Scheme for Leadership — Failure to Seize the Citadel of Ajaccio — Second Plan

— Paoli's Attitude toward the Convention — Bonaparte Finally Discredited in Corsica — Paoli Turns to England — Plans of the Bonaparte Family — Their Arrival in Toulon — Napoleon's Character — His Corsican Career — Lessons of his Failures — His Ability, Situation, and Experience 118

Chapter XV. "The Supper of Beauoaire"

Revolutionary Madness — Uprising of the Girondists — Convention Forces Before Avignon — Bonaparte's First Success in Arms — Its Effect Upon his Career

— His Political Pamphlet — The Genius it Displays — Accepted and Published

by Authority — Seizure of Toulon by the Allies 127

Chapter XVI. Toulon

The Jacobin Power Threatened — Bonaparte's Fate — His Appointment at Toulon—His Ability as an Artillerist — His Name Mentioned with Distinction — His Plan of Operations — The Fall of Toulon — Bonaparte a General of Brigade — Behavior of the Jacobin Victors — A Corsican Plot — Horrors of the French Revolution 133 xii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter XVII. A Jacobin Gteneeal page

Transformation in Bonaparte's Character — Confirmed as a French General

— Conduct of his Brothers — Napoleon's Caution — His Report on Marseilles — The New French Army — Bonaparte the Jacobin Leader — Hostilities with Austria and Sardinia— Enthusiasm of the French Troops— Bonaparte in Society — His Plan for an Italian Campaign 139

Chapter XVIII. Vicissitudes in War and Diplomact

Signs of Maturity — The Mission to Genoa — Course of the French Republic — The "Terror" — Thermidor — Bonaparte a Scapegoat — His Prescience — Adventures of his Brothers — Napoleon's Defense of his French Patriotism — Bloodshedding for Amusement — New Expedition against Corsica — Bonaparte's Advice for its Conduct 146

Chapter XIX. The End of Apprenticeship

The English Conquest of Corsica — Effects in Italy — The Buonapartes at Toulon — Napoleon Thwarted Again — Departure for Paris — His Character Determined — His Capacities — Reaction from the "Terror" — Resolutions of the Convention — Parties in France — Their Lack of Experience — A New Constitution — Different Views of its Value 154

Chapter XX. The Antechamber to Success

Punishment of the Terrorists — Dangers of the Thermidorians — Successes of Republican Arms — The Treaty of Basel — Vendean Disorders Repressed — The "White Terror" — Royalist Activity — Friction under the New Constitution — Arrival of Bonaparte in Paris — Paris Society — Its Power — The People Angry

— Resurgence of Jacobinism — Bonaparte's Dejection — His Relations with Mme. Permon — His Magnanimity 162

Chapter XXI. Bonaparte the G-eneral of the Convention

Disappointments — Another Furlough — Connection with Barras — Official Society in Paris — Bonaparte as a Beau — Condition of His Family — A Political General — An Opening in Turkey — Opportunities in Europe — Social Advancement — Official Degradation — Schemes for Restoration — Plans of the Royalists

— The Hostility of Paris to the Convention — Bonaparte, General of the Convention Troops — His Strategy 171

Chapter XXII. The Day of the Paris Sections

The Warfare at St. Roch and the Pont Royal — Order Restored — Meaning of the Conflict — Political Dangers — Bonaparte's Dilemma — His True Attitude — Sudden Wealth — The Directory and Their General — Bonaparte in Love — His Corsican Temperament — His Matrimonial Adventures 181

Chapter XXIII. A Marriage of Inclination and Interest

The Taschers and Beauhamais — Execution of Alexandre Beauharnais — Adventures of His Widow — Meeting of Napoleon and Josephine — The Latter's Uncertainties — Her Character and Station — Passion and Convenience — The Bride's Dowry — Bonaparte's Philosophy of Life — The Ladder to Glory. . . 189

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Chapter XXIV. Europe and the Directort p^oa

The First Coalition — England and Austria — The Armies of the Republic — The Treasury of the Republic — The Directory — The Abb6 Siey^s — Camot as a Kodel Citizen — His Capacity as a Military Organizer — His Personal Character — His Policy — France at the Opening of 1796 197

Chapter XXV. Bonaparte on a Great Stage

Bonaparte and the Army of Italy — The System of Pillage — The General as a Despot — The Republican Armies and French Politics — Italy as the Focal Point — Condition of Italy — Bonaparte's Sagacity — His Plan of Action — His Army and Generals — Strength of the Army of Italy — The Napoleonic Maxims of Warfare — Advance of Military Science — Bonaparte's Achievements — His Financial Policy — Effects of his Success 204

Chapter XXVT. The Conquest of Piedmont and the Milanese The Armies of Austria and Sardinia — Montenotte and MiUesimo — Mondovi and Cherasco — Consequences of the Campaign — The Plains of Lombardy — The Crossing of the Po — Advance toward Milan — Lodi — Retreat of the Austrians — Moral Effects of Lodi 213

Chapter XXV 11. An Insubordinate Conqueror and Diplomatist

Bonaparte's Assertion of Independence — Helplessness of the Directory — Threats and Proclamations — The General and His Of&cers — Bonaparte's Comprehensive Genius — The Devotion of Prance — The Position of the Austrians — Bonaparte's Strategy — His Conception of the Problem in Italy — Justification of His Foresight — Modena, Parma, and the Papacy — The French Radicals and the Pope — Bonaparte's Policy — His Ambition . 221

Chapter XXV ILL. Mantua and Arcole

The Austrian System — The Austrian Strategy — Castiglione — French Gains — Bassano — The French in the Tyrol — The French Defeated in Germany — Bonaparte and Alvinczy — Austrian Successes — Caldiero — First Battle of Areole — Second Battle of Arcole 231

Chapter XXIX. Bonaparte's Imperious Spirit

Bonaparte's Transformation — Military Genius — Powers and Principles — Theory and Conduct — Political Activity — Purposes for Italy — Private Correspondence — Treatment of the Italian Powers — Antagonism to the Directory — The Task before Him 241

Chapter XXX. Eivoli and the Capitulation op Mantua

Austria's Strategic Plan — Renewal of Hostilities — The Austrians at Rivoli and Nogara — Bonaparte's Night March to Rivoli — Monte Baldo and the Bemer Klause — The Battle of Rivoli — The Battle of La Favorita — Feats of the French Army — Bonaparte's Achievement — The Fall of Mantua 250

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Chapter XXXI. Humiliation of the Papacy and op Venice pagb

Rome Threatened — Pius VI. Surrenders — The Peace of Tolentino — Bonaparte and the Papacy — Designs for the Orient — The Policy of Austria — The Archduke Charles — Bonaparte Hampered by the Directory — His Treatment of Venice — Condition of Venetia — The Commonwealth Warned 259

Chaptee XXXII. The Pbeltmtnabies of Leobbn

Austrian Plans for the Last Italian Campaign — The Battle on the Tagliamento

— Retreat of the Archduke Charles — Bonaparte's Proclamation to the Carinthians — Joubert Withdraws from the Tyrol — Bonaparte's "Philosophical" Letter — His Situation at Leoben — The Negotiations for Peace — Character of the Treaty — Bonaparte's Rude Diplomacy — French Successes on the Rhine — Plots of the Directory — The Uprising of Venetia — War with Venice .... 266

Chapteb XXXIII. The Fall of Venice

Feebleness of the Venetian Oligarchy — Its Overthrow — Bonaparte's Duplicity

— Letters of Opposite Purport — MontebeUo — The Republican Court — England's Proposition for Peace — Plans of the Directory — General Clarke's Diplomatic Career — Conduct of Mme. Bonaparte — Bonaparte's Jealous Tenderness

— His Wife's Social Conquests 275

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume I

FAOIKQ P^GE

House in the Place Letizia, Ajaccio, Corsica, in which Napoleon Bonaparte

WAS born 1

The Infant Napoleon in the Room of his Birth 12

Bonaparte Attacking Snow Forts at the School of Brienne 33

Bonaparte at the Military School, Paris, 1784 36

Napoleon on his Way to Corsica with his Sister Elisa 56

The Entrance to the Grotto on the Estate of Milleli 72

Bonaparte Pawning his Watch 88

The Battle of Jemmapes, near Mons, Belgium, November 6, 1792 114

The Conquest of Holland 128

The Battle of Quiberon 140

Bonaparte, Turreau, and Volney at Nice in 1793 144

Bonaparte under Arrest, August, 1794 151

Bonaparte Closing the Pantheon Club 184

The Civil Marriage of Napoleon and Josephine 193

Bonaparte on the Road from Paris to Nice 196

Capture of a Dutch Fleet by Hussars of the French Republic, January, 1795 . 200

Rampon's Soldiers taking the Oath never to Surrender 209

Bonaparte, surprised at Lonato with his staff and 1200 men, compels 4000

austrians to surrender 219

Bonaparte in Italy, 1796 229

Bonaparte at Arcole 236

Capture of the Pass of Tarvis 272

XV

INTEODUCTION

The Reyolutionaet Epoch in Eubopb — Coksica as a Center of Intebest — Its G-eogeapht — The People and theer Ruleks — SampiEEo — Paou — His Success as a Libebatoe — His Plan foe Alliance WITH Feance — The Policy of Choiseul — Paoli's Reputation — Napoleon's Account of Coesioa and of Paoli — Rousseau and coesica.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE was the representative man of the epoch which ushered in the nineteenth century. That period was the most tumultuous and yet the most fruitful in the world's history. But the progress made ia it was not altogether direct ; rather was it hke the advance of a traveler whirled through the spiral tunnels of the St. Gotthard Flying from the inclemency of the north, he is carried by the ponderous train due southward into the opening. After a time of darkness he emerges into the open air. But at first sight the goal is no nearer; the direction is perhaps reversed, the skies are more forbidding, the chill is more intense. Only after successive ventures of the same kind is the climax reached, the summit passed, and the vision of simny plains opened to view. Such experiences are more common to the race than to the individual ; the muse of history must note and record them with equanimity, with a buoyancy and hopefulness bom of large knowledge. The movement of civilization in Europe during the latter portion of the eighteenth century was onward and upward, but it was at times not only laborious and devious, but fruitless in immediate results. We must study the age and the people of any great man if we sincerely desire the truth regarding his strength and weakness, his purposes and inborn tendencies, his failures and successes, the temporary incidents and the lasting, constructive, meritorious achievements of his career; and this is certainly far more true of Napoleon than of any other heroic personage. An affectionate awe has sometimes lifted him to heaven; a spiteful hate has often hurled him down to hell. Every nation, every party, faction, and cabal among his own and other peoples, has judged bim from its own standpoint of self-interest and self-justification. Whatever chance there may be of reading the secrets of his life lies rather in a just consideration of the man in relation to his times, about which much is known, than in an attempt at the psychological- dissection of an enigmatical nature, about which Httle is known, in spite of the fullness of our information. The abundant facts of his career are not facts at aU unless considered in the light not only of a great national life, but of a continental movement which was inclusive of all civilization in its day.

There had been in Corsica since the beginning of the sixteenth century an obscure family by the name of Buonaparte. No land and no family coidd to aU outward appearance be further aside from the maia channel of European history in the eighteenth century. Yet that isolated land and that unknown family were not merely to be drawn into the movement : they were to illustrate its most characteristic phases. Rousseau endeavored, though unsuccessfully, to forecast a great destiny for Corsica, declaring that it was the only European land capable of movement, of law-making, of peaceful renovation. It was smaU and remote, but it came near to beiag an actual exemphfication of his favorite and fundamental dogma concerning man in a state of nature, of order as arising from conflict, of government as resting on general consent and mutual agreement among the governed. Toward Corsica, therefore, the eyes of aU Europe had long been directed. There, more than elsewhere, the setting of the world-drama seemed complete in miniature, and, in the closing quarter of the eighteenth centiiry, the action was rapidly unfolding a plot of tmiversal interest.

A lofty mountain-ridge divides the island into eastern and western districts. The former is gentler in its slopes, and more fertile. Looking, as it does, toward Italy, it was during the middle ages closely bound in intercourse with that peninsula ; richer in its resources than

INTRODUCTION 3

the other part, it was more open to outside influences, and for this reason freer in its institutions. The rugged western division had come more completely under the yoke of feudalism, having close affinity in sympathy, and some relation ia blood, with the Greek, Roman, Saracenic, and Teutonic race-elements ia France and Spain. The communal administration of the eastern slope, however, prevailed eventually in the western as well, and the differences of origin, wealth, and occupation, though at times the occasion of intestine discord, were as nothing compared with the common characteristics which knit the population of the entire island into one national organization, as much a unit as their insular territory.

The people of this small commonwealth were in the main of Itahan blood. Some sUght connection with the motherland they still maintained in the relations of commerce, and by the education of their professional men at Itahan schools. While a small minority supported themselves as tradesmen or seafarers, the mass of the population was dependent for a hvehhood upon agriculture. As a nation they had long ceased to follow the course of general European development. They had been successively the subjects of G-reece, Rome, and the Califate, of the German-Roman emperors, and of the repubhc of Pisa. Their latest ruler was Genoa, which had now degenerated into an untrustworthy ohgarchy. United to that state originally by terms which gave the island a " speaker " or advocate in the Genoese senate, and recognized the most cherished habits of a hardy, natural-minded, and primitive people, they had httle by little been left a prey to their own faults in order that their unworthy mistress might plead their disorders as an excuse for her tyranny. Agriculture languished, and the minute subdivision of arable land finally rendered its tillage profitless. Among a people who are isolated not only as islanders, but also as mountaineers, old institutions are particularly tenacious of life : that of the vendetta, or blood revenge, with its accompanying clanship, never disappeared from Corsica. In the centuries of Genoese rule the carrying of arms was winked at, quarrels became rife, and often family confederations, embracing a considerable part of the country, were arrayed one against the other in lawless violence. The feudal nobiUty, few in number, were imrecognized, and failed to cultivate the industrial arts in the security of costly strongholds as their class did elsewhere, while the fairest portions of land not held by them were gradually absorbed by the monasteries, which Genoa favored as likely to render easier the government of a turbulent people. The human animal, however, throve. Of medium stature and powerful mold, with black hair and piercing eyes, with well-formed, agile, and sinewy limbs, endowed with courage and other primitive virtues, the Corsican was everywhere sought as a soldier, and could be foimd in all the armies of the southern Continental states.

In their periodic struggles against Genoese encroachments and tyranny, the Corsicans had produced a line of national heroes. Sampiero, one of these, had in the sixteenth century incorporated Corsic for a brief hour with the dominions of the French crown, and was regarded as the typical Corsican. Dark, warhke, and revengeful, he had displayed a keen intellect and fine judgment. Simple in his dress and habits, untainted by the luxury then prevalent in the courts of Florence and Paris, at both of which he resided for considerable periods, he could kill his wife without a shudder when she put herself and child into the hands of his enemies to betray him. Hospitable and generous, but untamed and terrible ; brusk, dictatorial, and without consideration or compassion ; the offspring of his times and his people, he stands the embodiment of primeval energy, physical and mental.

But the greatest of these heroes was also the last — Pascal Paoh. Fitted for his task by birth, by capacity, by superior training, this youth was in 1755 made captain-general of the island, a virtual dictator in his twenty-ninth year. His success was as remarkable as his measures were wise. Elections were regulated so that strong organization was introduced into the loose democratic institutions which had hitherto prevented sufficient unity of action in troubled times. An army was created from the stragghng bands of volunteers, and brigandage was suppressed. Wise laws were enacted and enforced — among them one which made the blood-avenger a murderer, instead of a hero as he had been. Moreover, the foundations of a university were laid in the town of Corte, which was the hearthstone of the liberals because it was the natural capital of the west slope, connected by difficult and defensible paths with every cape and bay and intervale of the rocky and broken coast. The Genoese were gradually driven from the interior, and finally they occupied but three harbor towns.

Through skilful diplomacy PaoU created a temporary breach be-

INTRODUCTION 5

tween his oppressors and the Vatican, which, though soon healed, nevertheless enabled him to recover important domains for the state, and prevented the Roman hierarchy from using its enormous influence over the superstitious peasantry utterly to crush the movement for their emancipation. His extreme and enhghtened hberahsm is admirably shown by his invitation to the Jews, with their industry and steady habits, to settle in Corsica, and to hve there in the fullest enjoyment of civil rights, according to the traditions of their faith and the precepts of their law. " Liberty," he said, " knows no creed. Let us leave such distinctions to the Liquisition." Commerce, Tinder these influences, began to thrive. New harbors were made and fortified, while the equipment of a few gunboats for their defense marked the small beginnings of a fleet. The haughty men of Corsica, changing their very nature for a season, began to labor with their hands by the side of their wives and hired assistants ; to agriculture, industry, and the arts was given an impulse which promised to be lasting.

The rule of PaoH was not entirely without disturbance. From time to time there occurred rebellious outbreaks of petty factions hke that headed by Matra, a disappointed rival. But they were on the whole of Uttle importance. Down to 1765 the advances of the nationahsts were steady, their battles being won against enormous odds by the force of their warhke nature, which sought honor above all things, and could, in the words of a medieval chronicle, "endure without a mitrmur watchings and pains, htmger and cold, in its pursuit — which could even face death without a pang." Finally it became necessary, as the result of imparaUeled success in domestic affairs, that a foreign pohcy should be formidated. Paoli's idea was an offensive and defensive alhance with France on terms recognizing the independence of Corsica, securing an exclusive commercial reciprocity between them, and promising mihtary service with an annual tribute from the island. This idea of France as a protector without administrative power was held by the majority of patriots.

But Choiseul, the minister of foreign affairs under Louis XV., would entertain no such visionary plan. It was clear to every one that the island could no longer be held by its old masters. He had found a facile instrument for the measures necessary to his contemplated seizure of it in the son of a Corsican refugee, that later notorious Buttafuoco, who, carrying water on both shoulders, had ingratiated himself witli his father's old friends, while at the same time he had for years heen successful as a French of&ciaL Corsica was to he seized hy Trance as a sop to the national pride, a shght compensation for the loss of Canada, and he was willing to he the agent. On August sixth, 1764, was signed a provisional agreement hetween G-enoa and France hy which the former was to cede for four years all her rights of sovereignty, and the few places she still held in the island, in return for the latter's intervention.

By this time the renown of Paoh had filled all Europe. As a statesman he had skilfully used the European entanglements both of the Bourbon-Hapsburg aUianee made ia 1756, and of the aUiances consequent to the Seven Years' "War, for whatever possible advantage might be secured to his people and their cause. As a general he had found profit in defeat, and had organized his httle forces to the highest possible efficiency, displaying prudence, fortitude, and capacity. His personal character was blameless, and could be fearlessly set up as a model. He was a convinciag orator and a wise legislator. Full of sympathy for his backward compatriots, he knew their weaknesses, and could avoid the consequences, while he recognized at the same time their virtues, and made the fullest use of them. Above aU, he had the wide horizon of a philosopher, understanding fully the proportions and relations to each other of epochs and peoples, not striving to uplift Corsica merely in her own interest, but seeking to find in her regeneration a leverage to raise the world to higher things. So gracious, so influential, so far-seeing, so all-embracing was his nature, that Voltaire called him " the lawgiver and the glory of his people," while Frederick the Great dedicated to him a dagger with the inscription, "Libertas, Patria." The shadows in his character were that he was imperious and arbitrary; so overmastering that he trained the Corsicans to seek guidance and protection, thus preventing them from acquiring either personal independence or self-rehance. Awaiting at every step an impulse from their adored leader, growing timid in the moment when decision was imperative, they did not prove equal to their task. Without his people Paoh was still a philosopher; without him they became in succeeding years a byword, and fell supinely into the arms of a less noble subjection. In this regard the comparison between him and Washington, so often instituted, utterly breaks down.

" Corsica," wrote in 1790 a youth destined to lend even greater in-

INTRODUCTION 7

terest than Paoli to that name — " Corsica has been a prey to the ambition of her neighbors, the victim of their pohtics and of her own wilfuhiess. . . . We have seen her take up arms, shake the atrocious power of GTenoa, recover her independence, hve happily for an instant; but then, pursued by an irresistible fatahty, faU again into intolerable disgrace. For twenty-four centuries these are the scenes which recur again and again; the same changes, the same misfortune, but also the same courage, the same resolution, the same boldness. ... If she trembled for an instant before the feudal hydra, it was only long enough to recognize and destroy it. K, led by a natural feehng, she kissed, like a slave, the chains of Rome, she was not long in breaking them. If, finally, she bowed her head before the Ligurian aristocracy, if irresistible forces kept her twenty years in the despotic grasp of Versailles, forty years of mad warfare astonished Europe, and confounded her enemies."