The true northerner., 1896-01-24

There came want into the household.
Lieutenant Bonaparte, making the condi-
tion Of his family plausible excuse,
sought, and In February Of 1888, obtained,
leave of absence to visit Corsica. Thithcr
he went, In poor health and general NOR
bldity of mind. BY this time his arbitrary
character had begun to show itself In full
force Once at home, he played the despot.
He hectored all his kinsfolk, with the ex-
ception Of the mother, and she could hard
ly withstand his impetuosity, willfulness
and gloom, His old and gouty great uncle
Lucien, from being the main stay of the
family was now about to die. Napoleon
sought to alleviate the distresses Of the
household; but his resources were limited,
and his ambitions were constantly con-
tending with the purposes born Of natural
affection.
Home again after an absence of nearly
nine years, the young officer busted him
self more with things great than things
little. He was moro concerned with the
political condition of the world than with
the daily needs of his mothers house. He
dwelt more on the state of Corsica than
on the emptiness of Madame Bonaparte's
cuisine--Inore on the woes of Ajaccio
than on those of his brothers and sisters
stomachs. He conceived himself to be the
patriot par excellence of his age, and spent
more time in delivering socialistic mono
logues than In contriving the means to
rescue the family from impending ruin.
1t was at this juncture that Napoleon
began TO concern himself especially about
the institutions and history of England
Along with his Necker he studied Smiths
wealth of Nations" then only twelve
years from the press. The Elizabethan age
mot indeed for the intellectual glory that
was In it, but for its political intrigues-
impressed him greatly; and he undertook
TO do into fiction the features of that era
in a novel entitled the Count of Essex"
Then he flew back TO his History of Cor
sica, revised the parts which he had sent
to the Abbe Raynal, and pressed on with
the rest. Alongside of Voltaire, he would
set up rival production of his own, called
the Masked Prophet"-a marvellous and
impossible invention out of Persia! Litera-
ture was thus mixed with affairs; fiction
fiourished at the meager meals which Ma
dame Bonaparte was able to set for her
family; anathemas of Josephs unprofita
BILE wine-shop were Illuminated with para
graphs about the glories of rebellion; and
the mulberry orchard back of Ajaccio was
cursed in the middle of an apostrophic per-
Grafton about the regeneration of man.
kind
Bonaparte' S leave of absence-so eagerly
sought-soon became as intolerable to him
as to the rest. His paper gave him privilege
to be away from his command for six
months; but before the end of the fourth
mountaineering casuistical reasons
he impatiently left Corsica to rejoin his
company. During his stay in the island,
ha al icba
thing that would have been much in any
other He had induced the French intend
ant to agree to allow his mothers claim.
He had pushed forward the inert Joseph
to try the law as profession, and had
seen him installed at Bastia. He had
urged upon his gouty uncle the necessity
of patriotism He had drawn up and sub
mitted a system of coast defenses for the
principal ports of the island. He had pre-
pared scheme for the creation of an in
sular army. He had studied and written
incessantly at furious speed completing
his Oriental novel and his History of Cor
sica. " The latter was cast in the epistolary
form, and was dedicated to Monseigneur
Marbpuf, now promoted to the see of Sens.
Meanwhile the Regiment La Fere had
been ordered from Douai to Auxonne, in
Cote dor 1S2 miles from Paris. Thither
Napoleon repaired To rejoin his command,
in the last week of May, 1888. He took
with him tho manuscript of his History OF
Corsica, seeking publisher but finding
none either at Valence or Lyons or Aux
onne or Paris or anywhere else in this
mundane sphere forever. In that same
week, Alexander Hamilton wrote his last
paper for The Federalist. One month pre-
viously, from the presses of Strahan and
Cadell, in the Strand, was issued, by the
author, on his fifty first birthday, the
greatest history ever composed by man.
IL would be impossible to define the
mental condition of Napoleon at this stage
of his Development Politically = for
though soldier he was always politician
he went halting between two forces.
The one tendency drew him powerfully to-
wards the local independence of his native
island. This involved hatred of the con-
quest and annexation of Corsica to France.
1t also involved hatred of France itself;
of the French race; aud of the French
monarchy in particular. But the other
tendency drew Franceward with equal
stress. 1t was from the powerful fact of
France that all benefits had thus far
flowed to the family of Bonaparte. BY
France he had himself been educated Be
state, was a limited field of action. France
Is great France offers world wide dis
tinction Our commission as Lieutenant
of artillery is French commission, and
our very sword is a French blade
But our History of Corsica" is patri-
otto and insurrectionary document. 1t is
inconsistent with our allegiance, and hurt
ful to what France may promise hereafter.
Therefore we would better shuttle, and re-
write our book. We will put IL into the
mouth of n Corsican patriot of the old
Genoese faction, to which the family of
our mother Ramolino once belonged. In
its present form we make a copy of it, and
send it to the great Paol in London; but
he returns 1t to us, putting us off with
the counsel that we are as yet immature,
"too young for writing history, and add
ing words to the effect that our book is
not sufficiently original. In truth, our
mind is vortex, maelstrom of conflict
ing tides. Here at Auxonne during our
stay of eighteen months, we will sit down
again, Unsuitable, In solitary gloom, and
devour the greatest things thought and
written by men whom we shall one day
surpass and eclipsel
JOHN CLARK RIDPATH