NAPLES 



Naples, BAY or. Semi-circular 



upciiinu' "f ili'- Mediterranean Sea, 

 on tin- S. \V. coast of Italy. Its 

 maximum width is 20 in. l"-t\vrcn 

 tin- . ,i|H38 of Mifieno on the N. and 

 C'ampanclla on the S. It is backed 

 tiy Mt. Vesuvius and Monte Sant* 

 An.'i -In, ami on its shores lie the 

 towns of Sonvnto, C'astellamare, 

 Pozzuoli, Torre del Greco, and 

 1'i.i-ti. !. lii-sidea the city of Naples. 

 Oil the N. extremity of the bay 

 are the islands of Ischia and Pro- 

 i i'l.i, and on the S. is Capri. 



Naples Yellow. Basic lead 

 ant inn mate used as a yellow colour 

 in nil painting. It is also known as 

 antimony yellow or Paris yellow. 

 The colour is completely stable 

 as regards weather conditions, 

 and it is also used for glass and 

 porcelain painting. 



Napo. Large river of S. America. 

 A tributary of the Amazon, it rises 

 N. of the volcano Cotopaxi in 

 Ecuador, and flows E.S.E., form- 

 ing part of the provisional bound- 



S633 



ary between Ecuador and Colom- 

 bia, and falling into the Amazon 

 some 60 m. below Iquitos. Its 

 course is about 750 m., nearly 400 

 m. of which are navigable. Its im- 

 portant affluents include the Coca, 

 Aguarico, and the Curaray. The 

 town of Napo stands on its banks. 

 Napoleon. French gold coin. 

 It was first issued by the great 

 emperor, hence its name. Its 



Napoleon. Obverse and reverie of 



gold coin of Napoleon III. i actual 



size 



value was 20 francs, nominally 

 15s. Kill., and its weight 6*45 

 grammes. It replaced the louis d'or 

 and is now obsolete. See Louis 



NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 



J. Holland Rose. Litt.D.. Author of Tbe Life of Napoleon 



This sketch of the great Corsican is followed by an article on the 



Napoleonic Campaigns. Further information will be found in the 



. articles Europe ; France ; French Revolution. See the article 



Bonaparte and those on Napoleon's marshals, e.g. Murat; Ney ; 



Soult ; also Josephine ; Nile ; Trafalgar, etc. 



Born at Ajacclo, Aug. 15, 1769, 

 the second surviving son of Charles 

 and Letizia Bonaparte (nee Ra- 

 molino), Napoleon came of an 

 Italian stock, long domiciled in 

 Corsica. Sent to school at Brienne, 

 in 1785 he became lieutenant in 

 the La Fere artillery regiment, and 

 in various garrison towns displayed 

 zeal for the service. He passed 

 much of his time on furlough in 

 Corsica during the early period of 

 the Revolution, and his studies of 

 Rousseau disposed him to accept 

 the new democratic doctrines. 

 Long and confused struggles with 

 the Paolist or monarchist faction 

 in that island ended in his dis- 

 comfiture, and, with his familv, 

 long fatherless, he fled to France 

 in June, 1793. 



Royalist Rising of 1795 



The new republic badly needed 

 able officers, and the ability with 

 which Napoleon organized and 

 directed its artillery during the 

 siege of royalist Toulon largely 

 contributed to the recapture of 

 that city. Though disgraced and 

 imprisoned for a short time, after 

 the fall of Robespierre, July, 1794, 

 the young Jacobin regained his 

 position in the army, and strength- 

 ened it during the campaign in the 

 Italian Riviera. Another sharp set- 

 back to his fortunes failed to daunt 

 him. His chance came in Sept., 

 1795, when the republic was con- 

 fronted by a serious royalist rising 



in Paris, which he helped to crush. 

 Soon after, he was captivated by a 

 fashionable young widow, Josephine 

 de Beauharnais, whom he married. 

 The Italian Campaign 



Napoleon then set out on his 

 Italian campaign, in which he 

 forced Sardinia to surrender, de- 

 feated a succession of Austrian 

 armies, overran Tuscany, com- 

 pelled the pope and the king of 

 Naples to sue for peace, and then 

 pushed back the Austrians and 

 made the emperor a suppliant for 

 terms. He crushed Venice and 

 divided its territories between 

 Austria and France. He began the 

 Italian campaign an almost un- 

 known general, received with mur- 

 murings by his subordinates. At 

 the end of 1797 be had generals and 

 troops absolutely at his disposal, 

 he had ransacked the museums 

 of Italy for their art treasures, 

 which he sent to the Louvre, he 

 had dictated terms to pope and 

 emperor, and France acknow- 

 ledged him as her greatest warrior. 



The Directory at Paris urged him 

 'either to invade England or conquer 

 the East. He chose the latter and 

 secretly prepared a great armada. 

 The military occupation of Rome 

 and of the central cantons of Switz- 

 erland having provided part of 

 the funds for the enterprise, he set 

 sail from Toulon in May, 1798, 

 with a large fleet Strengthened 

 by squadrons from Italy, the 



NAPOLEON 



armada seized Malta. Sailing 

 thence, and evading Nelson's pur- 

 suit, he landed near Alexandria, 

 took that city by storm, and over- 

 threw the Mamelukes at the battle 

 of the Pyramids. 



Battle of the Mile 



The occupation of Cairo without 

 resistance completed his triumph, 

 and he set to work, with Roman in- 

 genuity and thoroughness, to or- 

 ganize his conquest. In the Insti- 

 tute of Egypt, divided according 

 to subjects, he applied the energies 

 of the French savants, whom he 

 brought with him. to the task of 

 exploring Egypt, developing its re- 

 sources, and beginning a revival of 

 learning. The discovery of the 

 Rosetta Stone and many other 

 relics of the age of the Pharaohs 

 shed distinction on the whole en- 

 terprise and stamped it with the 

 originality of Napoleon's genius. 

 But Nelson shore asunder the 

 scheme of a French Oriental 

 empire. At the battle of the Nile, 

 Aug. 1, 1798, he annihilated the 

 French fleet and cut off Bonaparte 

 from communication with France, 

 but Napoleon succeeded in evading 

 the British cruisers and landed in 

 the south of France on Oct. 9, 1799, 

 when the failure of his enterprise 

 was still unknown, and the perils 

 of an Austrian invasion roused 

 discontent with the Directory. 



Napoleon accordingly found it 

 easy to concert with Talleyrand, 

 Murat, and Lucien Bonaparte in 

 the overthrow of the Directory. 

 On the ruins he and his friends 

 constructed a strongly personal 

 system in which he, as first consul, 

 held all the executive and much leg- 

 islative power. But the new personal 

 government ended the strife of 

 factions, and effected much-needed 

 changes by reconciling all but the 

 irreconcilable royalists, by under- 

 taking useful public works, by ini- 

 tiating the codification of French 

 law, and by healing the schism in 

 the Church by what was known as 

 the concordat of April 18, 1802. He 

 thus earned the title of the restorer 

 of the altars, while he restored the 

 prestige of French arms by his bril- 

 liant passage of the Alps, and the 

 victory of Marengo. Britain, also, 

 was fain to come to terms in the 

 treaty of Amiens, March 23, 1803. 



By instituting prefects in every 

 department Bonaparte curbed 

 democratic local government ; 

 while his foundation of the legion 

 of honour paved the way for the 

 subsequent restoration of an order 

 of nobility. Other institutions due 

 to his organizing genius were the 

 bank and university of France. 



The vain attempt of the royal- 

 ists to foment a plot against his 

 life, early in 1804, was cleverly 



B7 



