The constitu tion of 1848. The 15th popular demand was now that Naples should assist the Lombards | ditions of the prisons in which the best men of the kingdom were in their revolt against Austria, for a feeling of Italian solidarity immured, linked to the vilest common criminals, was made was growing up. The ministry of Carlo Troya suc- known to the world by the famous letters of W. E. Gladstone, ceeded to that of Serracapriola, and after the parlia- which branded the Bourbon régime as "the negation of God mentary elections, in which many extreme Radicals erected into a system of government." The merest suspicion of were elected, Ferdinand declared war against Austria unorthodox opinions, the possession of foreign newspapers, the (April 7th, 1848). After considerable delay a Neapolitan army wearing of a beard or an anonymous denunciation, sufficed for under General Pepe marched towards Lombardy in May, while the arrest and condemnation of a man to years of imprisonment the fleet sailed for Venice. But a dispute between the king and while the attendibili, or persons under police surveillance liable the parliament concerning the form of the royal oath having to imprisonment without trial at any moment, numbered 50,000. arisen, a group of demagogues with criminal folly provoked The remonstrances of Great Britain and France met with no disturbances and erected barricades (May 14th). The king success. Ferdinand strongly resented foreign interference, and refused to open parliament unless the barricades were removed, even rejected the Austrian proposal for a league of the Italian and while the moderate elements attempted to bring about despots for mutual defence against external attacks and internal conciliation, the ministry acted with great weakness. A few disorder. In 1856 his life was unsuccessfully attempted by a shots were fired-it is not known who fired first-on soldier, and the same year Baron Bentivegna organized a revolt of May. the 15th, the Swiss regiments stormed the barricades near Palermo, which was quickly suppressed. In 1857 Carlo and street fighting lasted all day. By the evening the Pisacane, an ex-Neapolitan officer who had taken part Pisacane's Swiss and the royalists were masters of the situation. A new in the defence of Rome, fitted out an expedition, with attempt. ministry under Prince Cariati was appointed. Parliament was Mazzini's approval, from Genoa, and landed at Sapri dissolved, the National Guard disbanded and the army recalled in Calabria, where he hoped to raise the flag of revolution; but from the Po. Fresh elections were held and the new parliament the local police assisted by the peasantry attacked the band, met on the 15th of July, but it had the king, the army and the killing many, including Pisacane himself, and capturing mest of mob against it, and anti-constitutionalist demonstrations became the rest. The following year, at the instance of Great Britain frequent. After a brief session it was prorogued to the 1st of and France, Ferdinand commuted the sentences of some of the February 1849, and when it met on that date a deadlock between political prisoners to exile. (See FERDINAND II., king of the Two king and parliament occurred. The Austrian victories in Lom- Sicilies). bardy had strengthened the court party, or Camarilla as it was called, and on the 13th of March the assembly was again dissolved, and never summoned again. The king was at Gaeta, whither the grand-duke of Tuscany and Pius IX. had also repaired to escape from their rebellious subjects, and the city became the headquarters of Italian reaction. In Sicily the revolutionists were purely insular in their aspirations and bitterly hostile to the Neapolitans, and the attempts at conciliation, although favoured by Lord Minto, Sicily. failed, for Naples wanted one constitution and one parliament, whereas Sicily wanted two, with only the king in common. The Sicilian assembly met in March 1848, and Settimo in his inaugural speech declared that the Bourbon dynasty had ceased to reign, that the throne was vacant and that Sicily united her destinies to those of Italy. Settimo was elected president of the government, but the administration was lacking in statesmanship, the treasury was empty, and nothing was done to raise an army. After the Austrian victories King Ferdinand sent a Neapolitan army of 20,000 men under Filangieri to subjugate the island. The troops landed at Messina, of which the citadel had been held by the royalists throughout, and after three days' desperate fighting the city itself was captured and sacked. The British and French admirals imposed a truce with a view to conciliation, and the king offered the Sicilians the Neapolitan constitution and a separate parliament, which they refused. Sicilian troops were now levied throughout the island and the chief command given to the Pole Mieroslawski, but it was too late. Filangieri marched forward taking town after town, and committing many atrocities. In April he reached Palermo while the fleet appeared in the bay; tumults having broken out within the city, the government surrendered on terms which granted amnesty for all except Settimo and forty-two others. Neapolitan prisons. For a few months after the dissolution of the Neapolitan parliament the government abstained from persecution, but with the crushing of the Sicilian revolution its hands The were free; and when the commission on the affair of the 15th of May had completed its labours the state trials and arrests began. The arrest of S. Faucitano for a demonstration at Gaeta led to the discovery of the Unità Italiana society, whose object was to free Italy from domestic tyranny and foreign domination. Thousands of respectable citizens were thrown into prison, such as L. Settembrini, Carlo Poerio and Silvio Spaventa. The trials were conducted with the most scandalous contempt of justice, and moral and physical torture, was applied to extort confessions. The abominable con In May 1859 Ferdinand died, and was succeeded by his son, Francis II., who came to the throne just as the Franco-Sardinian victories in Lombardy were sounding the death-knell Francis II. of Austrian predominance and domestic despotism in Italy (see ITALY: History). But although there was much activity and plotting among the Liberals, there was as yet no revolution. Victor Emmanuel, king of Sardinia, wrote to the new king proposing an alliance for the division of Italy, but Francis refused. In June part of the Swiss Guard mutinied because the Bernese government not having renewed the convention with Naples the troops were deprived of their cantonal flag. The mutinous regiments, however, were surrounded by loyal troops and shot down; and this affair resulted in the disbanding of the whole force-the last support of the autocracy. Political amnesties were now decreed, and in September 1859 Filangieri was made prime minister. The latter favoured the Sardinian alliance and the granting of the constitution, and so did the king's uncle, Leopold, count of Syracuse. But Francis rejected both proposals and Filangieri resigned and was succeeded by A. Statella. In April 1860 Victor Emmanuel again proposed an alliance whereby Naples, in return for help in expelling the Austrians from Venetia, was to receive the Marche, while Sardinia would annex all the rest of Italy except Rome. But Francis again refused, and in fact was negotiating with Austria and the pope for a simultaneous invasion of Modena, Lombardy and Romagna. Garibaldi and the In the meantime, however, events in Sicily were reaching a crisis destined to subvert the Bourbon dynasty. The Sicilians. unlike the Neapolitans, were thoroughly alienated from the Bourbons, whom they detested, and after the peace of Villafranca (July 1859) Mazzini's emissaries, Thousand. F. Crispi and R. Pilo, had been trying to organize a rising in favour of Italian unity; and although they merely succeeded in raising a few squadre, or armed bands, in the mountainous districts, they persuaded Garibaldi (q.v.), without the magic of whose personal prestige they knew nothing important could be achieved, that the revolution which he knew to be imminent had broken out. The authorities at Palermo, learning of a projected rising, attacked the convent of La Gangia, the headquarters of the rebels, and killed most of the inmates; but in the meanwhile Garibaldi, whose hesitation had been overcome, embarked on the 5th of May 1860, at Quarto, near Genoa, with 1000 picked followers on board two steamers, and sailed for Sicily. On the 11th the expedition reached Marsala and landed without opposition. Garibaldi was somewhat coldly received by the astonished population; but he set forth at once for Palermo. Garibaldi panic-stricken, and on the 7th Garibaldi entered Naples alone, Salemi, whence he issued a proclamation assuming the dictator- | 40,000 Bourbon troops between Salerno and Avellino fell back ship of Sicily in the name of Victor Emmanuel, with Crispi as secretary of state. He continued his march towards Palermo, where the bulk of the 30,000 Bourbon troops were concentrated, gathering numerous followers on the way. On the 15th he attacked and defeated 3000 of the enemy under General Landi❘ at Calatafimi; the news of this brilliant victory revived the revolutionary agitation throughout the island, and Garibaldi was joined by Pilo and his bands. By a cleverly devised ruse he avoided General Colonna's force, which expected him on the Monreale road, and entering Palermo from Misilmeri received an enthusiastic welcome. The Bourbonists, although they bombarded the city from the citadel and the warships in the harbour, gradually lost ground, and after three days' street fighting their commander, General Lanza, not knowing that the Garibaldians had scarcely a cartridge left, asked for and obtained a twenty-four hours' armistice (May 30th). Garibaldi went on board the British flagship to confer with the Neapolitan generals Letizia and Chrétien; Letizia's proposal that the municipality should make a humble petition to the king was indignantly rejected by Garibaldi, who merely agreed to the extension of the armistice until next day. Then he informed the citizens by means of a prociamation of what he had done, and declared that, knowing them to be ready to die in the ruins of their city, he would renew hostilities on the expiration of the armistice. Although unarmed, the people rallied to him as one man, and Lanza became so alarmed that he asked for an unconditional extension of the armistice, which Garibaldi granted. The dictator now had time to collect ammunition, and the Neapolitan government having given Lanza full powers to treat with him, 15,000 Bourbon troops embarked for Naples on the 7th of June, leaving the revolutionists masters of the situation. The Sardinian Admiral Persano's salute of nineteen guns on the occasion of Garibaldi's official call constituted a practical recognition of his dictatorship by the Sardinian (Piedmontese) government. In July further reinforcements of volunteers under Cosenz❘ and Medici, assisted by Cavour, arrived at Palermo with a good supply of arms furnished by subscription in northern Italy. Garibaldi's forces were now raised to 12,000 men, besides the Sicilian squadre. Cavour's attempt to bring about the annexation of Sicily to Sardinia failed, for Garibaldi wished to use the island as a basis for an invasion of the mainland. Most of the island had now been evacuated by the Bourbonists, but Messina and a few other points still held out, and when the Garibaldians advanced eastward they encountered a force of 4000 of the enemy under Colonel Bosco at Milazzo; on the 20th of July a desperate battle took place resulting in a hard-won Garibaldian victory. The Neapolitan government then decided on the evacuation of the whole of Sicily except the citadel of Messina, which did not surrender until the following year. The news of Garibaldi's astonishing successes entirely changed the situation in the capital, and on the 25th of June 1860 the The king, after consulting the ministers and the royal Neapolitan family, granted a constitution, and appointed A. constitu Spinelli prime minister. Disorders having taken tion. place between Liberals and reactionaries, Liberio Romano was made minister of police in the place of Aiossa. Sicily being lost, the king directed all his efforts to save Naples; he appealed to Great Britain and France to prevent Garibaldi from crossing the Straits of Messina, and only just failed (for this episode see under LACAITA, G.). Victor Emmanuel himself wrote to Garibaldi urging him to abstain from an attack on Naples, but Garibaldi refused to obey, and on the 19th of August he crossed with 4500 men and took Reggio by storm. He was soon joined by the rest of his troops, 15,000 in all, and although the Neapolitan government had 30,000 men in Calabria alone, the army collapsed before Garibaldi's advance, and the Garibaldi people rose in his favour almost everywhere. Francis mainland. offered Garibaldi a large sum of money if he would abstain from advancing farther, and 50,000 men to fight the Austrians and the pope; but it was too late, and on the 6th of September the king and queen sailed for Gacta. The on the BIBLIOGRAPHY.-General works: F. Carta, Storia del regno delle Due Sicilie (Naples, 1848); F. Pagano, Istoria del regno di Napoli (Naples and Palermo, 1832, &c.); J. Albini, De gestis regum Neapolit. ab Aragonia (Naples, 1588); several chapters in the Storia politica d' Italia (Milan, 1875-1882); F. Lanzani, Storia dei comuni Italiani fino al 1313; C. Cipolla, Storia delle signorie Italiane dal 1313 al 1530; Cosci, L' Italia durante le preponderanze straniere, 15301789; A. Franchetti, Storia d'Italia dal 1789 al 1799; G. de Castro, Storia d' Italia dal 1799 al 1814; F. Bertolini, Storia d' Italia dal 1814 al 1878. For the more recent history P. Colletta's Storia del reame di Napoli (Florence, 1848) will be found very useful, though not without bias, and G. Pepe's Memorie (Paris, 1847) are also important, both authors having played an important part in the events of 1809-1815 and 1820-1821; N. Nisco, Gli ultimi 36 anni del reame di Napoli (Naples, 1889). On the subject of the revolution of 1799 and the Nelson episode there is quite a library. The documents are mostly to be found in Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins (Navy Records Society, London, 1903), edited by H. C. Gutteridge, with an introduction, where Nelson's action is defended, and a bibliography. A. T. Mahan in his Life of Nelson (2nd ed., London, 1899), and in the English Historical Review for July 1899 and October 1900, takes the same view; for the other side see C. Giglioli, Naples in 1799 (London, 1903), which is impartial and well written; F. P. Badham, Nelson at Naples (London, 1900); P. Villari, Caracciolo e la Repubblica Napolitana" (Nuova Antologia, February 16, 1899); A. Maresca, Gli avvenimenti di Napoli dal 13 giugno ol 12 luglio, 1799 (Naples, 1900); B. Croce, Studii storici sulla rivo luzione Napoletana del 1799 (Rome, 1897); Freiherr von Helfert has attempted the impossible task of whitewashing Queen Mary Caroline in his Königin Karolina von Neapel und Sicilien (Vienna, 1878) and Maria Karolina von Österreich (Vienna, 1884), while in his Fabrizio Ruffo (Italian edition, Florence, 1885) he gives a rose-coloured portrait of that prelate and his brigand bands; see also H. Hüffer's Die neapolitanische Republik des Jahres 1799 (Leipzig, 1884). For a 'Angleterre, et Naples (Paris, 1906), and R. M. Johnston. The Napole general account of the French period see C. Auriol, La France, onic Empire in South Italy (London, 1904), both based on documents. For the latest period see N. Nisco, Gli ultimi 36 anni del reame di Napoli (Naples, 1889); H. R. Whitehouse. The Collapse of the Kingdom of Naples (New York, 1899), and R. de Cesare, La Fine d' un regno (Città di Castello, 1900), which contains much information but is not always accurate. For the British occupation of Sicily see G. Bianco, La Sicilia durante l'occupazione Inglese (Palermo, 1902); and for Nelson, Sicily from 1830 to 1861, Francesco Guardione's Dominio dei | The pupils at Brienne, far from receiving a military education, Borboni in Sicilia (Turin, 1908) will be found useful. The best were grounded in ordinary subjects, and in no very efficient account of Garibaldi's expedition is G. Trevelyan's Garibaldi and the Thousand (London, 1909). (L. V.*) manner, by brethren of the order, or society, of Minims. The moral tone of the school was low; and Napoleon afterwards spoke with contempt of the training of the "monks" and the manner of life of the scholars. Perhaps his impressions were too gloomy; his whole enthusiasm had been for the Corsicans, who still maintained an unequal struggle against the French; he deeply resented his father's espousal of the French cause; and dislike of the conquerors of his native island made him morose and solitary. Apart from decided signs of proficiency in mathematics, he showed no special ability. Languages he disliked, but he spent much of his spare time in reading history, especially Plutarch. The firmness of character which he displayed caused him to be recommended in 1782 for the navy by one of the inspectors of the school; but a new inspector, who was appointed in 1783, frustrated this plan. In October 1784 Bonaparte and three other Briennois were authorized, by a letter signed by Louis XVI., to proceed as gentlemen cadets to the military school at Paris. There the education was more thorough, and the discipline stricter, than at Brienne. Napoleon applied himself with more zest to his studies, in the hope of speedily qualifying himself for the artillery. In this he succeeded. As the result of an examination conducted in September 1785 by Laplace, Bonaparte was included among those who entered the army without going through an intermediate stage. NAPOLEON I. (1769-1821), Emperor of the French. Napoleon Bonaparte (or Buonaparte, as he almost always spelt the name down the year 1796) was born at Ajaccio in Corsica on the 15th of August 1769. The date of his birth has been disputed, and certain curious facts have been cited in proof of the assertion that he was born on the 7th of January 1768, and that his brother Joseph, who passed as the eldest surviving son, was in reality his junior. Recent research has, however, explained how it came about that a son born on the earlier date received the name Nabulione (Napoleon). The father, Carlo Maria da Buonaparte (Charles Marie de Bonaparte), had resolved to call his three first sons by the names given by his great-grandfather to his sons, namely Joseph, Napoleon and Lucien. This was done; but on the death of the eldest (Joseph) the child first baptized Nabulion received the name Joseph; while the third son (the second surviving son) was called Napoleon. The baptismal register of Ajaccio leaves no doubt as to the date of his birth as given above. For his parents and family see BONAPARTE. The father's literary tastes, general inquisitiveness, and powers of intrigue reappeared in Napoleon, who, however, derived from his mother Letizia (a descendant of the Ramolino and Pietra Santa families) the force of will, the power of forming a quick decision and of maintaining it against all odds, which made him so terrible an opponent both in war and in diplomacy. The sterner strain in the mother's nature may be traced to intermarriage with the families of the wild interior of Corsica, where the vendetta was the unwritten but omnipotent law of the land. The Bonapartes, on the other hand, had long concerned themselves with legal affairs at Ajaccio or in the coast towns of the island. They traced their descent to ancestors who had achieved distinction in the political life of medieval Florence and Sarzana; Francesco Buonaparte of Sarzana migrated to Corsica early in the 16th century. What is equally noteworthy, as explaining the characteristics of Napoleon, is that his descent was on both sides distinctly patrician. He once remarked that the house of Bonaparte dated from the coup d'étal of Brumaire (November 1799); but it is certain the de Buonapartes had received the title of nobility from the senate of the republic of Genoa which, during the 18th century, claimed to exercise sovereignty over Corsica. It was in the midst of the strifes resulting from those claims that Napoleon Bonaparte saw the light in 1769. His compatriots had already freed themselves from the yoke of Genoa, thanks to Pasquale Paoli; but in 1764 that republic appealed to Louis XV. of France for aid, and in 1768 a bargain was struck by which the French government succeeded to the nearly bankrupt sovereignty of Genoa. In the campaigns of 1768-69 the French gradually overcame the fierce resistance of the islanders; and Paoli, after sustaining a defeat at Ponte-Novo (9th of May 1769), fled to the mainland, and ultimately to England. Napoleon's father at first sided with Paoli, but after the disaster of Ponte-Novo he went over to the conquerors, and thereafter solicited places for himself and for his sons with a skill and persistence which led to a close union between the Bonapartes and France. From the French governor of Corsica, the comte de Marbeuf, he procured many favours, among them being the nomination of the young Napoleon to the military school at Brienne in the east of France. Already the boy had avowed his resolve to be a soldier. In the large playroom of the house at Ajaccio, while the others amused themselves with ordinary games, Napoleon delighted most in beating a drum and wielding a sword. His elder brother, Joseph, a mild and dreamy boy, had to give way before him; and it was a perception of this difference of temperament which decided the father to send Joseph into the church and Napoleon into the army. Seeing that the younger boy was almost entirely ignorant of French, he .ook him with Joseph to the college at Autun at the close of the year 1778. After spending four months at Autun, Napoleon entered the school at Brienne in May 1779. At the end of October 1785 he closed a scholastic career which had been creditable but not brilliant. He now entered the artillery regiment, La Fère, quartered at Valence, and went through all the duties imposed on privates, and thereafter those of a corporal and a sergeant. Not until January 1786 did he actually serve as junior lieutenant. A time of furlough in Corsica from September 1786 to September 1787 served to strengthen his affection for his mother, and for the island which he still hoped to free from the French yoke. The father having died of cancer at Montpellier in 1785, Napoleon felt added responsibilites, which he zealously discharged. In order to push forward a claim which Letizia urged on the French government, he proceeded to Paris in September 1787, and toyed for a time with the pleasures of the Palais Royal, but failed to make good the family claim. After gaining a further extension of leave of absence from his regiment he returned to Ajaccio and spent six months more in the midst of family and political affairs. Rejoining his regiment, then in the garrison at Auxonne, after a furlough of twenty-one months the young officer went through a time of much privation, brightened only by the study of history and cognate subjects. Many of the notes and essays written by him at Auxonne bear witness to his indomitable resolve to master all the details of his profession and the chief facts relating to peoples who had struggled successfully to achieve their liberation. Enthusiasm for Corsica was a leading motive prompting him to this prolonged exertion. His notes on English history (down to the time of the revolution of 1688) were especially detailed. Of Cromwell he wrote: "Courageous, clever, deceitful, dissimulating, his early principles of lofty republicanism yielded to the devouring flames of his ambition; and, having tasted the sweets of power, he aspired to the pleasure of reigning alone." At Auxonne, as previously at Valence, Napoleon commanded a small detachment of troops sent to put down disturbances in neighbouring towns, and carried out his orders unflinchingly. To this period belongs his first crude literary effort, a polemic against a Genevese pastor who had criticized Rousseau. In the latter part of his stay at Auxonne (June 1788September 1789) occurred the first events of the Revolution which was destined to mould anew his ideas and his career. But his preoccupation about Corsica, the privations to which he and his family were then exposed, and his bad health, left him little energy to expend on purely French affairs. He read much of the pamphlet literature then flooding the country, but i.e still preferred the more general studies in history and literature, Plutarch, Caesar, Corneille, Voltaire and Rousseau being his favourite authors. The plea of the last named on behalf of Corsica served to enlist the sympathy of Napoleon in his wider speculations, and so helped to bring about that mental transformation which merged Buonaparte the Corsican in Bonaparte the Jacobin and Napoleon the First Consul and Emperor. Family influences also played their part in this transformation. On proceeding to Ajaccio in September 1789 for another furlough, he found his brother Joseph enthusiastic in the democratic cause and acting as secretary of the local political club. Napoleon seconded his efforts, and soon they had the help of the third brother, Lucien, who proved to be most eager and eloquent. Thanks to the exertions of Saliceti, one of the two deputies sent by the tiers état of Corsica to the National Assembly of France, that body, on the 30th of November 1789, declared the island to be an integral part of the kingdom with right to participate in all the reforms then being decreed. This event decided Napoleon to give his adhesion to the French or democratic party; and when, in July 1790, Paoli returned from exile in England (receiving on his way the honours of the sitting by the National Assembly) the claims of nationality and democracy seemed to be identical, though the future course of events disappointed these hopes. Shortly before returning to his regiment in the early weeks of 1791 he indited a letter inveighing in violent terms against Matteo Buttafuoco, deputy for the Corsican noblesse in the National Assembly of France, as having betrayed the cause of insular liberty in 1768 and as plotting against it again. The experiences of Bonaparte at Auxonne during his second stay in garrison were again depressing. With him in his poorly furnished lodgings was Louis Bonaparte, the fourth surviving son, whom he carefully educated and for whom he predicted a brilliant future. For the present their means were very scanty, and, as the ardent royalism of his brother officers limited his social circle, he plunged into work with the same ardour as before, frequently studying fourteen or fifteen hours a day. Then it was, or perhaps at a slightly later date, that he became interested in the relations subsisting between political science and war. From L'Esprit des lois of Montesquieu he learnt suggestive thoughts like the following: "L'objet de la guerre, c'est la victoire; celui de la victoire, la conquête; celui de la conquête, l'occupation." Machiavelli taught him the need of speed, decision and unity of command, in war. From the Traité de tactique (1772) of Guibert he caught a glimpse of the power which a patriotic and fully armed nation might gain amidst the feeble and ill-organized governments of that age. External events served to unite him more closely to France. The reorganization of the artillery, which took place in the spring of 1791, brought Bonaparte to the rank of lieutenant in the regiment of Grenoble, then stationed at Valence. He left the regiment La Fère with regret on the 14th of June 1791; but at Valence he renewed former friendships and plunged into politics with greater ardour. Most of his colleagues refused to take the oath of obedience to the Constituent Assembly, after the attempted escape of Louis XVI. to the eastern frontier at midsummer. Bonaparte took the oath on the 4th of July, but said later that the Assembly ought to have banished the king and proclaimed a regency for Louis XVII. In general, however, his views at that time were republican; he belonged to the club of Friends of the Constitution at Valence, spoke there with much acceptance, and was appointed librarian to the club. At Valence also he wrote an essay for a prize instituted by his friend and literary adviser, Raynal, at the academy of Lyons. The subject was "What truths and sentiments is it most important to inculcate to men for their happiness?" Bonaparte's essay bore signs of study of Rousseau and of the cult of Lycurgus which was coming into vogue. The Spartans were happy, said the writer, because they had plenty of good, suitable clothing and lodging, robust women, and were able to meet their requirements both physical and mental. Men should live according to the laws and dictates of nature, not forgetting the claims of reason and sentiment. The latter part of the essay is remarkable for its fervid presentment of the charms of scenery and for vigorous declamation against the follies and crimes of ambitious men. The judges at Lyons placed it fifteenth in order of merit among the sixteen essays sent in. Thanks to the friendly intervention of the maréchal du camp, baron Duteil, Bonaparte once more gained leave of absence for three months and reached Corsica in September 1791. Opinion there was in an excited state, the priests and the populace being inflamed against the anti-clerical decrees of the National Assembly of France. Paoli did little to help on the Bonapartes; and the advancement of Joseph Bonaparte was slow. Napoleon's admiration for the dictator also began to cool, and events began to point to a rupture. The death of Archdeacon Lucien Bonaparte, the recognized head of the family, having placed property at the disposal of the sons, they bought a house, which became the rendezvous of the democrats and of a band of volunteers whom they raised. In the intrigues for the command of this body Napoleon had his rival, Morati, carried off by forcehis first coup d'état. The incident led to a feud with the supporters of Morati, among whom was Pozzo di Borgo (destined to be his life-long enemy), and opened a breach between the Bonapartes and Paoli. Bonaparte's imperious nature also showed itself in family matters, which he ruled with a high hand. No one, said his younger brother Lucien, liked to thwart him. Further discords naturally arose between so masterful a lieutenant as Bonaparte and so autocratic a chief as Paoli. The beginnings of this rupture, as well as a sharp affray between his volunteers and the townsfolk of Ajaccio, may have quickened Bonaparte's resolve to return to France in May 1792, but there were also personal and family reasons for this step. Having again exceeded his time of furlough, he was liable to the severe penalties attaching to a deserter and an émigré; but he saw that the circumstances of the time would help to enforce the appeal for reinstatement which he resolved to make at Paris. His surmise was correct. The Girondin ministry then in power had brought Louis XVI. to declare war against Austria (20th of April 1792) and against Sardinia (15th of May 1792). The lack of trained officers was such as to render the employment and advancement of Bonaparte probable in the near future, and on the 30th of August, Servan, the minister for war, issued an order appointing him to be captain in his regiment and to receive arrears of pay. During this stay at Paris he witnessed some of the great "days" of the Revolution; but the sad plight of his sister, Marianna Elisa, on the dissolution of the convent of St Cyr, where she was being educated, compelled him to escort her back to Corsica shortly after the September massacres. His last time of furlough in Corsica is remarkable for the failure of the expedition in which he and his volunteers took part, against la Maddalena, a small island off the coast of Sardinia. The breach between Paoli and the Bonapartes now rapidly widened, the latter having now definitely espoused the cause of the French republic, while Paoli, especially after the execution of Louis XVI., repudiated all thought of political connexion with the regicides. Ultimately the Bonapartes had to flee from Corsica (11th of June 1793), an event which clinched Napoleon's decision to identify his fortunes with those of the French republic. His ardent democratic opinions rendered the change natural when Paoli and his compatriots declared for an alliance with England. The arrival of the Bonapartes at Toulon coincided with a time of acute crisis in the fortunes of the republic. Having declared war on England and Holland (1st of February 1793), and against Spain (9th of March), France was soon girdled by foes; and the forces of the first coalition invaded her territory at several points. At first the utmost efforts of the republic failed to avert disaster; for the intensely royalist district of la Vendée, together with most of Brittany, burst into revolt, and several of the northern, central and southern departments rose against the Jacobin rule. The struggle which the constitutionalists and royalists of Marseilles made against the central government furnished Bonaparte with an occasion for writing his first important political pamphlet, entitled "Le Souper de Beaucaire." It purports to be a conversation at the little town of Beaucaire between a soldier (obviously the writer himself) and three men, citizens of Marseilles, Nimes and Montpellier, who oppose the Jacobinical government and hope for victory over its forces. The officer points out the folly of such a course, and the certainty that the republic, whose troops had triumphed over those of Prussia and Austria, will speedily disperse the untrained levies of Provence. The pamphlet closes with a passionate plea for national unity. He was now to further the cause of the republic one and indivisible in the sphere of action. The royalists of Toulon had admitted British and Spanish forces to share in the defence of that stronghold (29th of August 1793). The blow to the republican cause was most serious: for from Toulon as a centre the royalists threatened to raise a general revolt throughout the south of France, and Pitt cherished hopes of dealing a death-blow to the Jacobins in that quarter. But fortune now brought Bonaparte to blight those hopes. Told off to serve in the army of Nice, he was detained by a special order of the commissioners of the Convention, Saliceti and Gasparin, who, hearing of the severe wound sustained by Dommartin, the commander of the artillery of the republican forces before Toulon, ordered Bona. parte to take his place. He arrived at the republican headquarters, then at Ollioules on the north-west of Toulon, on the 16th of September; and it is noteworthy that as early as September 10th the commissioners had seen the need of attacking the allied fleet and had paid some attention to the headland behind l'Eguillette, which commanded both the outer and the inner harbour. But there is no doubt that Bonaparte brought to bear on the execution of this as yet vague and general proposal powers of concentration and organization which ensured its success. In particular he soon put the artillery of the besiegers in good order. Carteaux, an ex-artist, at first held the supreme command, but was superseded on the 23rd of October. Doppet, the next commander, was little better fitted for the task; but his successor, Dugommier, was a brave and experienced soldier who appreciated the merits of Bonaparte. Under their direction steady advance was made on the side which Bonaparte saw to be all important; a sortie of part of the British, Spanish and Neapolitan forces on the 30th of November was beaten back with loss, General O'Hara, their commander, being severely wounded and taken prisoner. On the night of the 16th-17th December, Dugommier, Bonaparte, Victor and Muiron headed the storming column which forced its way into the chief battery thrown up by the besieged on the height behind l'Eguillette; and on the next day Hood and Langara set sail, leaving the royalists to the vengeance of the Jacobins. General du Teil, the younger, who took part in the siege, thus commented on Bonaparte's services: "I have no words in which to describe the merit of Bonaparte: much science, as much intelligence and too much bravery. . . It is for you, Ministers, to consecrate him to the glory of the republic." At Toulon Bonaparte made the acquaintance of men who were to win renown under his leadership-Desaix, Junot, Marmont, Muiron, Suchet and Victor. enemy's line, which he had advocated at Toulon and which he everywhere put in force in his campaigns. On or about the 20th of March 1794 he arrived at the headquarters of the army of Italy. At Colmars, on the 21st of May 1794, he drew up the first draft of his Italian plan of campaign for severing the Piedmontese from their Austrian allies and for driving the latter out of their Italian provinces. A secret mission to Genoa enabled him to inspect the pass north of Savona, and the knowledge of the peculiarities of that district certainly helped him in maturing his plan for an invasion of Italy, which he put into execution in 1796. For the present he experienced a sharp rebuff of fortune, which he met with his usual fortitude. He was suddenly placed under arrest owing to intrigues or suspicions of the men raised to power by the coup d'état of Thermidor 9-10 (July 27-28) 1794. The commissioners sent by the Convention, Albitte, Laporte and Saliceti, suspected him of having divulged the plan of campaign, and on the 6th of August ordered his arrest as being the "maker of plans" for the younger Robespierre. On a slighter accusation than this many had perished; but an examination into the details of the mission of Bonaparte to Genoa and the new instructions which arrived from Carnot, availed to procure his release on the 20th of August. It came in time to enable him to share in the operations of the French army against the Austrians that led to the battle of Dego, north of Savona (21st of September), a success largely due to his skilful combinations. But the decline in the energies of the central government at Paris and the appointment of Schérer as commander-in-chief of the army of Italy frustrated the plans of a vigorous offensive which Bonaparte continued to develop and advocate. Meanwhile he took part in an expedition fitted out in the southern ports to drive the English from Corsica. It was a complete failure, and for a time his prospects were overclouded. In the spring of 1795 he received an order from Paris to proceed to la Vendée in command of an infantry brigade. He declined on the score of ill-health, but set out for Paris in May, along with Marmont, Junot and Louis Bonaparte. At the capital he found affairs quickly falling back into the old ways of pleasure and luxury. "People," he wrote, "remember the Terror only as a dream." That he still pursued his studies of military affairs is shown by the compilation of further plans for the Italian campaign. The news of the ratification of peace with Spain brought at once the thought that an offensive plan of campaign in Piedmont was thenceforth inevitable. Probably these plans gained for him an appointment (20th of August) in the topographical bureau of the committee of Public Safety. But, either from weariness of the life at Paris, or from disgust at clerical work, he sought permission to go to Turkey in order to reorganize the artillery of the Sultan. But an inspection of his antecedents showed the many irregularities of his conduct as officer and led to his name being erased from the list of general officers (September 15th). Again the difficulty of the republic was to be his opportunity. The action of the Convention in perpetuating its influence by It is often assumed that the fortunes of Bonaparte were made the imposition of two-thirds of its members on the next popularly at Toulon. This is an exaggeration. True, on the 22nd of elected councils, aroused a storm of indignation in Paris, where December 1793 he was made general of brigade for his services; the "moderate and royalist reaction was already making and in February 1794 he gained the command of the artillery headway. The result was the massing of some 30,000 National in the French army about to invade Italy; but during the Guards to coerce the Convention. Confronted by this serious preliminary work of fortification along the coast he was placed danger, the Convention entrusted its defence to Barras, who under arrest for a time owing to his reconstruction of an old fort appointed the young officer to be one of the generals assisting at Marseilles which had been destroyed during the Revolution. him. The vigour and tactical skill of Bonaparte contributed He was soon released owing to the interposition of the younger very largely to the success of the troops of the Convention over Robespierre and of Saliceti. Thereafter he resided successively the Parisian malcontents on the famous day of 13 Vendémiaire at Toulon, St Tropez and Antibes, doing useful work in fortifying (October 5th, 1795), when the defenders of the Convention, the coast and using his spare time in arduous study of the science sweeping the quays and streets near the Tuilleries by artillery of war. This he had already begun at Auxonne under the in- and musketry, soon paralysed the movement at its headquarters, spiring guidance of the baron du Teil. General du Teil, younger the church of St Roch. The results of this day were out of all brother of the baron, had recently published a work, L'Usage de proportion to the comparatively small number of casualties. l'artillerie nouvelle; and it is now known that Bonaparte derived With the cost of about 200 killed on either side, the Convention from this work and from those of Guibert and Bourcet that lead-crushed the royalist or malcontent reaction, and imposed on ing principle, concentration of effort against one point of the France a form of government which ensured the perpetuation of |
