Star.
London, England, 1827-07-06 00:00:00

• A kind of silk cloth.
t Commonly pronounced kincob, silk worked with gold of fiver
(towers. = tiack•eyed oymphr of PAiddhi.

The conduct of Napoleon among his companions, was that of a
studious andreeerved youth, addicting himself deeply to the means
of improvesumt. and rather avoiding than seeking the usual temp.
taboos to dhelpatiets of time. He had few friends, and no inn.
maim; yet at diliweet times, when be chose to exert it, he ex.
baked coadderable ledoence over his fellow students, and when
there was .may joint plan to be carried into effect, he was ire.
windy ebsom dictator of the little Republic. In the time of
velomt, ifinmparte upon one occasion engaged his companions in
ocestrucdog a fortress out of the snow, regularly defended by
ditehee and bastions, according to the rules of fortificatien.—.
It was considered as displaying the great power of the juvanneen.
glow in the way of his profession, and was attacked, sad defended
by the students. who divided into parties foe the purpose. until tie
battle became as lam that their superiors thoeght It propeve pro.
dens a trues The young Bonaparte gave another instance of ad.
dress and enterprise upon the following occasion. There was a fee
held annually in the neighbourhood of Brienne, where the pupils of
the military school used to find a day's amusement ; but on ac.
count of a quarrel betwixt them and the country people upon a for-
mer occasiob. or for some such cause, the masters of the institution
had directed that the students should not on the fair day be pier-
oskted to go beyond their own precincts, which were surrounded
with a wall. Under the direction of the young Corsican, however,
the scholars had already laid a plot for securing their usual day's di-
version. They bad undermined the wall which encompassed their
exercising ground. with so much skill and secrecy, that their opera.
dons remained entirely unknown till the morning of the fair, when
a part of the boundary unexpectedly fell, and gave a free pas-
sage to the imprisoned students, of which they Immediately took
the advantage, by hurrying to the prohibited scene of amusement.
But although on these, and perhaps other occasions, Bonaparte sib.
played some of the frolic temper of youth, mixed with the inventive
genial and the talent for commanding ethers by which he was dis-
tinguished in after-time, his life at school was in general that of a
redoes and severe student, acquiring by his judgment, and treasuring
in his memory, that wonderful process of a/most unlimited combi-
nation, by means of which be was afterwards able to Amplify
the meet diacuk had complicated undertakings. His mathe-
matical teacher was proud of the young islander. as
.the bout
of his school, and his other scientific instructors had the same
reason to be satisfied. Is language Bonaparte was less a
proficient, and never acquired the art of writing or spelling
French, far less foreign languages, with accuracy or correctness.
Though of Italian origin, Bonaparte had not a decided taste for
the fine arts, and his taste in composition seems to have leaned to-
wards the grotesque and the bombastic. At the age of seventeen
he became (when a Lkutenant of artillery) an adventurer for the
lemurs of literature also,' and was anonymoudy a competitor for
the prise offered by the Academy of Lyons on Raynal's question,
What are the principles and institutions, by application of which,
mankind can be raised to the highest pitch of happiteis I" The
prize was adjudged to tie young soldier. It is °sable to avoid
feeling curiosity to know the character of the juvenile theories re-
specting government, advocated by one who at length attained the
power of practically making what experiments he pleased. Probably
his early ideas did not exactly coincide with his more ma ure prac-
tice ; for when Talkyrand, many 'teen afterwards, got the Essay
out of the records of the Academy, and returned it to the author,
Bonaparte destroyed it after he bad read a few pages. He also
laboured ander the temptation of wtiting a journey to Mount Cenis,
after the meaner of Sterne, which he was fortunate enough finally
to resist. The affectation which pervades Sterne's peculiar style of
composition, was not likely to be simplified under the peso!' Bona-
parte. Sterner' dines were fast approaching, and, the nation was
now fully divided by the* factions which produced the Revolution.