Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/205

Rh NAPOLEON 193 and leads to nothing. That astonishing career which has all the unity of a most thrilling drama does not begin till 1795. The six years which preceded it may be called his Corsican Corsican period, because for the greater part of it he may period. b e thought to have regarded Corsica as the destined scene of his future life. It must be very summarily treated here. In 1789 the Italian island of Corsica had been for twenty years a dependency of France. But France had acquired it in a most unscrupulous manner by purchasing the rights of the republic of Genoa over it. She did this in 1768, that is, when Corsica had contests 1 those rights in a war of nearly forty years, and had been practically independent and happy for about thirteen years under the dictatorship of Pasquale Paoli. It was an act similar to the partition of Poland, and seems to mark a design on the part of France which had just lost its American colonies to extend its power by way of the Mediterranean into the East. Paoli was compelled to take refuge in England, where he was still living when the French Revolu tion broke out. In the fall of Corsica a certain Matteo Buttafuoco played a disgraceful part. He had been sent by Paoli to treat as plenipotentiary with France, was won over by Choiseul, declared against the national cause, and appeared in the island as colonel of Louis XV. s Corsican regiment. He too was still living when the states-general met, and represented there the noblesse of Corsica, while Salicetti, a name of no little prominence in the Revolution, was one of the representatives of the Corsican tiers 6tat. The Revolution was as dangerous an event to the rela tion between France and Corsica as to that between France and St Domingo. Would the island assert its independence, and, if so, could the assembly deny its right to do so? The islanders and the exiled Paoli at their head took a moderate view. France must guarantee a good deal of local freedom ; on such conditions, they thought, the relation might continue, if only to prevent the republic of Genoa from reviving its pretensions. Accordingly, on November 30, 1789, Corsica was declared by the National Assembly to be a province of France on the motion of Salicetti himself, and the protest against this decree made by Genoa was treated with contempt. Paoli left London, was received in France with an ovation, appeared before the National Assembly on April 22, 1790, where he received the honours of the sitting, and landed in Corsica on July 14th, after an absence of twenty-one years. Thus was Corsica reconciled to France by the Revolution of 1789 ; but the good work was undone by the Second Revolution of 1792. Since 1769 the French power in the island had rested mainly on the noblesse and clergy. The Bonaparte family, as noble, had been on the unpatriotic side ; Napoleon s father appears always as a courtier of the French governor Marbceuf and as a mendicant at Versailles ; Madame Letitia in soliciting a place for her son Louis styles herself &quot; the widow of a man who always served the king in the administration of the affairs of the island of Corsica.&quot; It is therefore a remarkable fact that almost immediately after the taking of the Bastille Napoleon hurried to Ajaccio and placed himself at the head of the revolutionary party with all the decision characteristic of him. He devoted himself to the establishment of a National Guard, of which he might hope to be the La Fayette, and he published a letter to Buttafuoco which, properly understood, is a solemn desertion of the principles of his family, similar to that of Mirabeau. This letter has all the intensity of his other early writings, but far more effectiveness. It lashes Buttafuoco for his treason of 1768, describing him as a cynic, who had no belief in virtue, but supposed all men to be guided by selfish interest. The invective has lost its edge for us who know that Bonaparte soon after openly professed this very creed. In declaring for the Revolution he obeyed the real inclination of his feelings at the time, as we may see from his writings, which are in the revolu tionary tone of Raynal. But had he not really, we may ask, an ulterior object, viz., to make Corsica independent of France, and to restore the old rule of Paoli, aiming himself at Paoli s succession 1 Probably he wished to see such a result, but he had always two strings to his bow. In his letter to Buttafuoco he carefully avoids separating Corsican liberty from the liberty offered by the French Revolution. Had the opportunity offered, he might no doubt have stood forth at this time as the liberator of Corsica ; but circum stances did not prove favourable, and he drifted gradually in quite the opposite direction. In October 1790 he met Paoli at Orezza, where Corsica constituted itself as a French department, Paoli being president, Salicetti procureur-general syndic, Arena and Pozzo di Borgo (also from Ajaccio) members of the Directorium. Paoli is said to have hailed Napoleon as &quot;one of Plutarch s men.&quot; As the only Corsican officer trained at a royal military school, Napoleon might aspire to become commander of a paid native guard which it was proposed to create for the island. But France had mis givings about the use to which such a guard might be put, and the minister of war rejected the proposal. In the next year, however, he was successful in a second attempt to get the command of an armed force in Corsica, and betrayed in the course of this attempt how much more intent he was at this time upon Corsican than upon French affairs. It was decided to create four battalions of national volunteers for Corsica, and Napoleon became candidate for the post of lieutenant-colonel in the district of Ajaccio. The choice was in the hands of the volunteers themselves, and in pursuing his canvass Napoleon did not hesitate to outstay his furlough, and thus forfeit his French commission by wilful absence from a great review of the whole French army which was appointed for the opening day of 1792. He was, however, elected, having, it is said, executed the first of his many coups d etat by violently imprisoning a commissioner sent down to superintend the election. We can understand his eagerness when we remark that anarchy in Corsica was steadily increasing, so that he may have believed that the moment for some military stroke was at hand. He did not long delay. At the Easter festival of 1792 he tried to get possession of Ajaccio under cover of a tumult between the volunteers and the refractory clergy. The stroke failed, and he fled from the island. The European war was just breaking out, and at Paris everything was in confusion ; otherwise he would probably have been tried by court-martial and shot. A rebel in Corsica, a deserter in France, what was he to do 1 ? He went to Paris, where he arrived on May 21. The Second Revolution was at hand, and he could observe while no one had leisure to observe him. He witnessed the 10th of August and the downfall of the monarchy. To him this revolution was a fortunate event, for the new Government, attacked by all Europe, could not dispense with the few trained officers whom the emigration had left. On August 30th his name was restored to the army list with the rank of captain, a commission dated back to the 6th February, and arrears of pay. He was saved from the most desperate condition to which he was ever in his whole life reduced. On September 2d (terrible date !) he is engaged in withdrawing his sister Eliza from St Cyr (the House of St Louis having been suppressed). The next step he takes is remarkable. The great war which was to carry him to the pinnacle of fame was now in full progress. By undeserved good luck his military rank is XVIL - 25