The age-herald., 1898-03-12

was the germ of the empire. Washing ton could yield to those above him in sta tion, though by the most liberal standards
 he well knew that he outranked them all
 He had the charity of q true republican,
 while Napoleon was consumed with the
 sehshness of g. despot This virtue in
 Washington and this vice in Napoleon were
 manifest in childhood, and through subse-
 quent conditions that revealed them in
 their fullness wrought out on the one hand
 republic and on the other empire.
 The history of Napoleon's boyhood is
 more interesting than that of Washing
 tons, because there has been little or no
 attempt to modify or exaggerate 1t. Wash
 ington as boy Is everywhere held up as
 a model, which unfortunately places him
 in the realm of the ideal Napoleon is not
 preached shining example for the
 young. Yet he was temperate and neat,
 and the number of his idle hours is possi-
 bly less than that of any other man. So
 was Washington temperate. If he had
 not been his campaigns, on which the re-
 public rests, would have been impossible Byrons assertion that genius is gin is hardly worthy of acceptation. Temper ance was one of the secrets of both these remarkable men, whose governments, though unlike as night and day, are so related that consideration of one in all it's bearings involves the other Thus Wash fngton and Napoleon are inevitably brought together in representative capacity The American republic was the precursor of the
 French empire, and through the ambition
 of Napoleon to be absolute the republic
 was enlarged and may be preserved. He
 was then preparing for Austerlitz and Ulm
 the result of which made him supreme
 But they were steps in the order of ad-
 vancement. The base of the empire. from
 a material point of view, was Marengo That was the elimination of the first pa Tt of Napoleons career and made the rest of 1t possible. Everything seemed depend- ent on this battle, yet never was Napoleon so apparently careless of results. One fight had been lost, but on the advice of DesaiX the enemy was re-engaged and routed by charge from Kellerman
 Marmont says that if Melas, the Austrian
 general. had given battle again he would easily have beaten the French The opin- ion that Desaix and Kellerman won Mar engo Is partial. The whole movement of troops was under the eye of Napoleon, who struck, as he always did, in the right place at the right time
 In the careers of Washintgon and Napo- leon there Is this important point of sim ilarity-when all was lost to the casual eye the future in reality was just dawn ing With Napoleon it was at Marengo; with Washington it was at Trenton. The American army had been reduced from 15.000 it's strength when Washington took command at Cambridge, to 5000, and was fleeing for its life from Cornwalis The Austrians had debouched on the plains at
 Marengo before Napoleon reached the scene
 and the French were put to flight In
 either case it looked as if the object in
 view had vanished. And so it had to one
 of blunt perception Dessaix suggested
 another battle. but Dessaix had no idea
 of the full meaning of victory That was known only to Napoleon Yet he ap-
 peared, as at Waterloo, indifferent A lesson of Napoleon's life is that he was never appalled, by consequences. The mo- mpDt the fbnO aH hocf disturbed as to the outcome. There was