Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-04-06

SAtOLEON Al
lished as pensioners The solicitation
was that tho young fellows should be
educated at tho expense of the state.
MarbPuf invented n fiction, flecked with
fact, about the nobility of his wards;
and the petition was granted finally as
to Napoleon. But Joseph had now
passed the limit of his eleventh year,
and was no longer eligible-unless by
violation of law. He must therefore be
diverted to the priesthood, while the
younger brother was assigned, at the
public charge, to the military academy
at Brienne-la- Chapelle, ON the right
bank of the Aube, in the department of
the same name, a hundred and eighteen
miles from Paris. Thither he was trans.
ferred in the latter part of April, 1879,
and was admitted as cadet
At Autun, the chief business had been
to teach him French. He applied him
self closely to this task, but not very
successfully. He learned to speak
French. brokenly, with an Italian &C.
cent. To the end of his life he never &C.
quired nice knowledge of the adopted
tongue. His grammar was broken, his
composition thunderstruck, and his
spelling horetical. His practical knowl-
edge of the language which he was des-
tined to use for fortytwo years in his
intercourse with men was sufficient; but
his mind was never tolerent of techni-
calities.
This trait c. neglecting the exactitudes
was strongly manifested from Napo-
Icons childhood. He went as far as the
practical in whatever subject he touch
ed; but having seized thus much, he
cared for nothing else. He desired cor
rectness in others, for that was useful to
him; but as for himself, he wanted only
aggregate results and knowledge Of
their practical advantage. All authors
have commented on the inaccuracies and
lapses i'll the Napoleonic correspondence
and manuscripts. 1t became his habit to
slur over, in his rapid way, the errors
in his writing; and his arrogance SEEM
cd to convince him that, while correct
spelling was an accomplishment in ped.
agogues, it was rather q fault in great
men.
The young Bonaparte is described by
his master rs being of solemn demeanor;
rarely laughing; never happy or mirth-
full; no disposition for playing; proud
and solitary; easily wounded; always
resentful; learning with lightning like
rapidity, but stopping short of correct
ness; vain Of his faculties: patriotism
almost morbid; disliking the powerful
foreign race with which his lot had been
cast; looking back regretfully to Corsi-
ca, and (most unboylike) thinking more
Of his country than he did of his home
and mother.
Already, before leaving Autun, the
pale little Bonaparte fell into frequent
quarrels with his French schoolmates
about the Corsican revolution! They in
suited him with the charge that his
countrymen had been towards else
they would have won their independ-
ence. To this he answered angrily that
if the French had outnumbered his peo-
pie only four to one, the invaders would
have been defeated. Military calculation
already!
The military academy at Brienne was
one Of ten of like kind recently estab-
iisicu III thc AinSuuIi be>iutS tEe>e,
there were two higher schools, one at
Paris and the other ut La Fleche. This
system had superseded another which
had failed on account Of its unpopular
ity. The military education and the right
thereto was plum for the mobiles. Boys
Of the Third Estate had therein no part
or lot. In the schools were gathered the
weakened reproductions of a moribund
nobility. The governors of the schools
were even rs the cadets. The institu-
lions degnerated, until there was q pop
ular reaction against them. There was
n reform. headed by the Church. New
schools We're established, and monks
were put in charge of them!
At the time when the boy Napoleon
went to Brienne, the remarkable condi-
tion was presented Of n system of mill
tary schools in charge of the monastio