CORSICA. 



249 



Corsica, greatly contributed to Its depopulation. In Pliny's 

 ^/•^Y^^ time, there were in it no less than thirty-three large 

 towns : their number is now reduced to nine. By an 

 enumeration which took place in 1740, Corsica was 

 found to contain 133 parishes, 427 villages, 26,8.54 

 hearths, and in all 120,380 inhabitants. Its popula- 

 tion in 1760 had risen to 130,000. According to the 

 state made out for the National Assembly of France, 

 the number of its inhabitants was taken at about 

 147,000. M. Necker, however, in 1787, estimated 

 them at no more than 124,000. By the last returns in 

 1802, they were found to amount to 166,813. Corsica 

 is the twenty-third military division of France. For 

 its civil administration, it is divided into two depart- 

 ments, the Golo, so called from the river of that name, 

 and of which the chief place is Bastia ; and the depart- 

 ment of Leamone, of which the principal town is 

 Ajaccio. The two departments are subdivided into 

 6 districts, 60 cantons, and 391 communes. 



The Corsicans are well made, but thin and swarthy. 

 They are the descendants of so many nations, and have 

 at different times been placed in such variety of circum- 

 stances, that it is difficult to determine their real cha- 

 racter. Strabo, who has described them as degraded 

 by a state of servitude, calls them brutal, ferocious, 

 and stupid. Diodorus Siculus, who gives an account 

 of them whilst in the same condition, speaks of them 

 as being naturally better adapted for bodily services 

 than the slaves of other nations; and adds, that in 

 their manner of living together, there was more of hu- 

 manity and justice than was to be found among any 

 other barbarous people ; while in all their civil transac- 

 tions they had a particular regard to equity. With 

 this account of them Pliny's statement corresponds, 

 ■who praises them as just, generous, valiant, and hu- 

 mane. This difference in the judgments formed re- 

 specting them, may have originated, in part, from 

 their having been observed, in one case, under tyrants 

 ■who maltreated them ; in the other, as in the service of 

 more equitable masters. For the rest, some of those 

 who have most recently paid attention to this subject, 

 have been disposed to give a preference to the autho- 

 rity of the historian over that of the geographer. In 

 modern times, the Corsicans have been painted in the 

 blackest colours by the Genoese, to whom they were 

 subject, and who exercised over them a system of the 

 most oppressive severity. They have received a more 

 favourable, as well as a more impartial judgment, from 

 Frederic the Great and Rousseau of Geneva. The 

 former sets them up as an example of the courage and 

 the truth with which the love of liberty can inspire 

 men ; and shews, by a reference to them, how danger- 

 ous and unjust it is to suppress so important a princi- 

 ple. The other, by his expression, " I love those cha- 

 racters in which there is stuff," seems to indicate his 

 conviction of their possessing at least some strength 

 and vigour of mind. By some late travellers, this peo- 

 ple have been described as turbulent and ferocious ; by 

 others, as compassionate and hospitable, and restless 

 only when oppressed. They have been accused of ig- 

 norance, indolence, want of probity and confidence, 

 superstition, and above all, an extreme spirit of revenue' 

 This last quality they are said to have been wont to clr- 

 ry to such an excess, that those who conceived their ho- 

 nour injured, would suffer their beards to grow rill 

 they had obtained satisfaction for the affront. These 

 beards were styled bmbe di vihdetta. And, from the 

 proverb, // Corso non nardona n;ai ne vivo ne morto, as 

 well as the sentence that passes current among them, 



-vol. VII. paht 1. 



una inimicizia di sang'ue, it seems as if enmities still Corsica. 

 continued here to be propagated from one generation to S "~"Y"* — 

 another. They have been described as having their ha- 

 bitations in the interior of the island, situated among 

 rocks, on the most inaccessible parts of the mountains, 

 and often removed at a great distance from any land 

 proper for cultivation. They have been represented 

 as at variance, and in a state of alienation even one 

 from another ; as careless of improvement, and indiffe- 

 rent as to the enjoyments, the refinements, and the 

 elegancies of life. These traits of character have been 

 traced in then supposed connection with one another, 

 or with various circumstances in their history and ac- 

 tual condition. The oppressive government of the 

 Genoese is said to have led to that vindictiveness of 

 character with which they have been commonly char- 

 ged. The state of seclusion which they have affected, 

 and their spirit of enmity towards one another, were 

 the consequence of the distribution of the country into 

 several petty principalities, which respectively claimed 

 and exercised for themselves the rights of war and 

 peace. The wars in which they have been so constant- 

 ly engaged, have had the effect of attaching them 

 strongly to the sports or labours of the chace, and, in 

 an equal degree, have formed them to a disinclination 

 towards the occupations of agriculture, of commerce, 

 and of the sedentary arts, and a mode of life in 

 which hunting, keeping of flocks, and fishing, form 

 the chief employment, has been generally found pro- 

 ductive of that character of indolence, which has been 

 stated to be found in an extreme degree among this 

 people. After all, however, there are not wanting 

 other authorities, which represent the Corsicans as so- 

 ber, brave, intrepid, active, sagacious, and hospitable. 

 Indeed, it will be understood, that, in respect to this 

 people as to others, there may be many traits of 

 their supposed character not universally descriptive, 

 but rather of a local or temporary nature.;, and, con- 

 sequently^ liable to various modifications. Corsica, 

 when subject to one undivided and regular govern- 

 ment, may have been very different from the same 

 Corsica when parcelled out among a multiplicity of in- 

 considerable chieftains. The thirst of vengeance, in- 

 spired probably, or fostered by the sense of a hopeless 

 subjection to injurious treatment, has been found not 

 incompatible with a kind and generous treatment of 

 those who claim the rights of hospitality, and may, in 

 various instances, have given way altogether, or, at 

 least, have been greatly mitigated and restrained un- 

 der the influence of well constituted tribunals, and of 

 a watchful police. And an indifference to improve- 

 ment, and listlessness of character, which may have 

 grown amidst circumstances of adversity, may, in bet- 

 ter times, have given place to a spirit more honourable 

 and more useful. 



The following is an outline view of the republican go- 

 vernment of Corsica. The whole island is divided into 

 nine provinces. Another division of it is into pieves, 

 each of which again is subdivided into a certain num- 

 ber of parishes.. This division is properly ecclesiasti- 

 cal ; it is, however, also used for civil purposes. The 

 Corsicans, even the peasantry, seldom live in detached 

 situations ; the manner is, to gather together in little 

 villages, which are called Paeses. Each paese elects 

 annually, by a majority of votes, a podesta, and two 

 other magistrates, who have the respectable name of 

 Padri del commune, Fathers of the community To 

 these officers, either alone or with certain assessors, 

 nominated also by the people, it belongs to superin- 

 2i 



Govern- 



man. 



