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BONAPARTE. 



riod til' Ills life, have been shown to l>c unf4)iiiiilril. 

 Tin- character of the Bonaparte family was juitriofic-, 

 aikl they were intimate with tin- family of the crlc- 

 bratetl 1'aoli (q. v .) until the death of' Louis \\ I., 

 when 1'uoli declared himself warmly against the con- 

 vention. Thus the early imprc-Moiis of Napoleon 

 were favourahle to liberal anil patriotic feeling. 

 Through the influence of Leo]iohl, grand-duke of 

 Tii-cuny, who recommended Charles Honnparte to 

 r, the (|iieen of France, and by the support of 

 the count ile Marlxvuf, governor of the island of Cor- 

 sica, Napoleon received a place in the royal nuliUiry 

 .school at lirieiine. in 177'.', where he remained until 

 ITS I. l)urinn; his stay there, his conduct is repre- 

 sented as ha\ing heen nnexceptionahle. Ile seems 

 to have cultivated inathejiialics more than any other 

 liranch of study. He was fond of the history of great 

 men. and Plutarch seems to have been his favourite 

 author, as he is with most young persons of an ani- 

 mated character. For languages he manifested little 

 taste. He made himself well acquainted with the 

 French classics. From the military school at Brienne, 

 he went with high recommendations to that of Paris. 

 In 1786, he commenced his military career, being 

 appointed in that year lieutenant en second in the 

 regiment of artillery La Fere, after a successful exa- 

 mination, one year after the death of Charles Bona- 

 parte, his father. While at the school in Paris, young 

 Honaparte expressed a decided dislike of the discip- 

 line and mode of living there, which he thought by 

 no means fitted to prepare the pupils for the priva- 

 tions of a military life. Not long after, he attended 

 affectionately to the education of his brother Louis, 

 as the latter tells us in his Rcponse a Sir ffalter Scott. 

 When he was twenty years old, the French revolution 

 removed the barriers to his great career. Belonging 

 to a patriotic family, he was naturally excited by the 

 struggle for liberty in France. He corresponded with 

 Paoli, then in England. In 1790, Paoli went to 

 Paris, was presented to the constituent assembly by 

 Lafayette, and received in the capital all the honours 

 which the lovers of liberty could bestow or, its defen- 

 der. Napoleon, being, at this time, in Corsica, on a 

 furlough, showed himself a zealous partisan of this 

 friend of his deceased father. In 1792, Paoli, having 

 returned to Corsica, was made lieutenant-general in 

 the service of France, and commander of the twenty- 

 third division. Napoleon was at Paris at the epoch 

 of the 10th of August. In September, he returned 

 to Corsica. Vice-admiral Truguet, charged with the 

 conduct of an expedition against Sardinia, arrived at 

 Ajaccio, and Bonaparte was ordered to join the ex- 

 pedition, which proved unsuccessful, and he returned 

 to Ajaccio. Paoli had, meanwhile, been proscribed, 

 with twenty other generals, as a traitor, and a price 

 was set on his head. In May, 1793, Paoli raised the 

 standard of revolt to secure his own safety, and throw 

 off the yoke of the convention. He assembled a 

 consulta of the Corsican malcontents, the secretary of 

 which assembly was Pozzo di Borgo (at present, Rus- 

 sian ambassador in Paris). Bonaparte openly opposed 

 the views of Paoli, and a war broke out between the 

 adherents of that leader and those of France. Many 

 excesses were committed, and Paoli went so far as to 

 make attempts upon the persons of young Bonaparte 

 and his family. He succeeded, however, in conduct- 

 ing them safely to France, where they retired to La 

 Valette, near Toulon, and, at a later period, to Mar- 

 seilles. In the same vessels with the Bonapartes 

 were the commissioners of the convention and the 

 French troops. It was the persuasion of Joseph Bo- 

 naparte, one of the members of the departmental 

 administration at the time of Paoli's revolution, that 

 engaged his family in the French cause, and thus had 

 an important influence on the future career of his 



brother. Bonaparte proceeded I o Nice, (u join the 

 fourth regiment of artillery, in which lie liad been 

 i>tain. 



We are now arrived at the period of l?!>3 and 17SM, 

 when the Mountain party developed ils i in r-jies with 

 an unexampled rapidity, by an equally unexampled 

 system, and, finding no foundation for a rational li- 

 berty on the first emersion of the country from the 

 corruption and tyranny of centuries, strove to save it 

 by terrorism. Terror was to silence its adversaries, 

 glory to win it friends. Foreign enemies also con- 

 tributed to develope the power of France. Fourteen 

 armies, were raised, and the victorious legions of 

 Rome became the exemplars of the republican war- 

 riors, who thirsted for glory and vengeance. Such ;i 

 state, of thing's would naturally awaken a strong ex- 

 citement in young Bonaparte, a soldier wlmsi 

 and profession would alone make him ager for dis- 

 tinction. His subsequent proclamations show that 

 he viewed the French armies in the light of trium- 

 phant Roman legions. Lyons was destroyed, after 

 4000 of the inhabitants had been shot by order of 

 Collot-d'Herbois and Fouche, as a testimony of the 

 vengeance of the convention " coming like the thun- 

 ders of heaven ;" Toulon was doomed to suffer a si- 

 milar fate. The commissioners in the south were 

 Salicetti, Albitti, Freron, Ricord,the younger Robes- 

 pierre, and Barras. Treachery had opened the gates 

 of Toulon to the British, Spanish, and Neapolitans, 

 August 27, 1793. Louis XVII. had been proclaimed 

 king, and the French ships delivered to the enemy. 

 Bonaparte received the command of the artillery, at 

 the siege of Toulon, in the place of general Dutheil, 

 who was taken sick. In a council ot war, he showed 

 the necessity of occupying the fort L'Eguillote, called 

 Little Gibraltar, on account of its favourable situation. 

 His advice was followed, and Toulon was taken. 

 The British, before evacuating the place, set fire tc 

 the town as well as to the French ships ; but the 

 galley slaves, who had been released, extinguished 

 the flames, and saved some of the vessels. It is pro- 

 bable that the enmity, which Bonaparte manifested 

 against the British during all the period of his power, 

 was in some measure owing to the impression made 

 upon him by their conduct at Toulon. 



December 19, the day of the taking of Toulon, the 

 commissioners appointed him general of brigade and 

 commander of the artillery of the army of Italy ; he 

 having been previously made major, when he received 

 the command of the artillery employed in the siege. 

 The 9th Thermidor (27th July) overthrew the reign 

 of the terrorists, and general Bonaparte was arrested 

 by order of Salicetti and Albitti, because the younger 

 Robespierre and Ricord, who were proscribed on the 

 occasion of this revolution, had placed the greatest 

 confidence in the young officer. A guard was sta- 

 tioned at his door, and his papers were seized ; but 

 in a fortnight he was set at liberty and restored to his 

 command, either because his innocence was manifest, 

 as he had acted only in the quality of a soldier, or 

 because his military talents had already rendered him 

 indispensable. 



General Bonaparte next served under general Du- 

 merbion in Piedmont, who, after the battle of Cairo 

 (in Piedmont), acknowledged, in a letter to the com- 

 missioners, that he owed to the young officer the 

 skilful combinations which had secured the victory. 

 Bonaparte urged the necessity of advancing into 

 Piedmont and conquering Italy, according to the 

 plan which he executed at a later period ; but the 

 commissioners would not listen to his proposition. 

 Aubry, who was then president of the military 

 committee, recalled him from the army of the south, 

 and offered him a place in the line, taking him from 

 the artillery. General Bonaparte went to Paris to 



