222 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



remained. Under the hammer of his energy the old Elba had been 

 shattered. After his fall the island was annexed to Tuscany, a natural 

 political tie, and was ruled by the brother of Marie Antoinette. No 

 longer was it divided among three or four Italian states. For the 

 hundred years that have followed, Elba has been happy in having 

 few annals. When the movement for Italian unity developed, Elba 

 shared the enthusiasm for the leadership of Victor Emmanuel and, as 

 a part of Tuscany, accepted him as sovereign in 1860. Ten years 

 later the Elbans saw a chance to revive a tie with the house of Bona- 

 parte. After Sedan they offered the fallen Emperor Napoleon III 

 as asylum in the island. He replied courteously to the official letter 

 sent to him from Porto Ferraio, but the Elbans had overrated the 

 attractions of their island, and he preferred England. The island has 

 now about 30,000 inhabitants, nearly three times as many as it had in 

 the days of its imperial ruler. They have keen strife ; there are cleri- 

 cals and anti-clericals, monarchists and republicans, conservatives 

 and socialists; but this is only to say that Elba is a microcosm of 

 Italy. It has never had any great landed proprietor; the holdings 

 are small and the people are, in a rustic way, extremely well to do. 

 Elba is, indeed, a good example of the proud independence which the 

 ownership of land brings to a peasantry. Some of Napoleon's hopes 

 have not been realized. The olive and the mulberry do not flourish 

 in Elba as he hoped they would ; Marciana and Rio still lack the har- 

 bours which he planned ; and Elba is not yet the home for sculpture 

 which he thought its excellent marble might help to make it. But, 

 even if Napoleon is only a vague saint in the Elban calendar, his 

 achievements are real enough. 



