The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-10-21

us throw him into contrast, not with the ideal
man, but with other rulers of his own time"
Judged by such standards, it is asserted, he will
be seen to be not better nor worse than other
great conquerors. He was ga colossal mixture of
the good and the bad, just as Cromwell was, just
as Richelieu, Frederick and Bismarck we're.
\ \ = England's empire is built on force and
fraud; Prussia's greatness rests on Frederick's
crime against Silesia. France under Napoleon
merely conformed to the well-known precedents."
Cruelty and kindness, selfshness and generos-
ity, loyalty and treachery, honesty and perfdy,"
says Mr.. Watson, care almost unmeaning terms if
applied without qualification to Napoleon. Where
his plans were not involved, he frequently mani
tested the human virtues in their highest form;
where these plans were involved, he p~racticed all
the vices without scruple or pity" This is doubt
less a correct estimate of Napoleon's character,
and a good illustration of it is found in the famil-
lar story of the battle of Austerlitz. As the battle
was drawing to a close thousands of Russian sol
diers were retreating hastily across the frozen
lakes. Napoleon himself ordered the cannoneers
to cease shooting at the ~fugitives, and to elevate
their pieces so that the balls would fall on the
ice. The balls fell, the ice cracked, and some
two thousand Russians sank to watery graves"
The next day, being near the spot, Napoleon saw
OhC - IAC cIA4NAC NV y N~"A9 1890
self on an ice foe and calling feebly for help.
The conqueror's sympathies were aroused; by his
orders, desperate and finally successful efforts
were made to rescue the unfortunate man, and
he was then carefully cared for. Sternly and
pitilessly had Napoleon sent the two thousand to
wretched deaths; there "his plans were involved"
But to the solitary survivor, now that his plans
were not involved, all of a friends kindness was
shown.
Our authors observations on NapOleon's rela-
ton to the democratic spirit are also very inter
esting. CAS- long as time shall last" says Mr..
Watson. "his name will inspire not only the indi-
vidual but the masses also. Despot though he
became, in his innermost fibre he was a man of
the people. crushing to atoms feudalism, caste, di-
vine right, and hereditary imposture. X x :
Distinctions of character, merit, conduct, talent,
he could understand; distinctions of mere birth
he abhorred. For the first time in the political
life of the modern French, men became prouder
of the fact that they were workers, doors of nota-
bic deeds, than that they were the fifteenth cousin
of some spindle-shanked duke whose great-great-
grandfather had held the stirrup when Louis
XIII. had straddled his horse. \ \ \ Napo-
leon knew that posterity would see at work, within
the body of his despotism, the spirit of democ-
racy. He knew that with his system of civil and
social equality, and the absolute privilege of every
citizen, however humbly born, to rise to the loft
lest positions, no real despotism could be posi-
ble."
But the book must be read to be, appreciated.
1t will convince anyone of Mr.. Watson's ability
to breathe the breath of life into the dry bones
of history and biography.