Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/297

 Bonaparte was a man of genius, and whose daring was to that of the first Bonaparte as the murder of unarmed citizens, and of old men, women and children, was to the first Bonaparte's passage of the Bridge of Lodi, swept by the Austrian artillery, at the head of his grenadiers. "You were first," said someone afterwards at St. Helena. "No," was the reply, "Lannes was first—I was second." When great genius and daring and energy go together, no wonder if a nation bear with the dominion of such a man, and even submit for a time to the dominion of those who only inherit his name. But to inherit or assume a name is not to inherit the genius which made that name famous, is not to inherit the mind, which gave dominion over mankind. The term "inheritor of a great name" is an error; a great name is attached to him who earned it, and cannot descend to heirs like land or money.

After having escaped from the tyranny of the landlords, we must not allow ourselves to fall under the tyranny of the traders and manufacturers and railway projectors—a tyranny manifested in the form of laying the island of Great Britain open to invasion and rendering it subject to heavy taxes to support armaments and fortifications in