The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1917-09-06
NAPOLEON Died 90 Years Ago.

ed until his death, May 81, 1921. No.
where in the known world could the
Allies have found a more remote place
of Imprisonment The island, con-
tanning but forty-ive square miles,
is the summit of tremendous noun
tain that rises from the bottom of the
ocean, 1000 miles from London and
more than / 900 miles from the coasts
of Africa and South America, the
nearest continental land. The tiny
speck in the ocean where Napoleon
lived for nearly six years seems to
typify his closing years, for st. Hell
ena is an ancient volcano that has
ceased to belch forth smoke and fire.
The overthrow of Napoleon natur-
|. ally caused a reconstruction of the
map of Europe, and in many ways
this reconstruction prepared the way
for the present titanic conflict. France
was shorn of the territories that the
Corsican had added. Holland was
set up as an independent kingdom,
which included modern Belgium, for
merly a possession of Austria. Swift
zerland was declared independent, as
we're many of the small Italian States,
but Austria, in compensation for the
loss of Belgium, was given great dis
tricts in Northern Italy.
The Polish duchy of Warsaw was
given to Russia, and half of SaXony
was given over to Prussia. But there
were many more changes to be made
in the map of Europe before the stage
could be set for the present conflict
and these we must briefly glance at
to understand the present crisis.
Most important of these changes
have been the creation of the German
empire and the kingdom of Italy.
Coupled with the former has been the
growth of Prussia and the disappear
ance of many small and feeble Ger
man States, as we'll as the absorption
of Schleswig-Holstein, important to-
day because the kiel canal has been
constructed in that important neck of
land. Austria has lost the hold that
it possessed on Northern Italy;
France has had to relinquish Alsace
and Lorraine; Belgium has been Great
ed; Turkey has been forced to grant
independence to Greece and the other
Balkan States. All these changes
have had much to do with precipita-
ting the war of today, which may
cause the map of Europe to be made
over as radically as it was in 1919.
But the changes in boundaries were
not the only influence left behind
him by Napoleon. He had set up des-
potism upon the ruins of the ancient
order, but it was different despot-
ism than Europe had ever known be-
fore. Il am revolution Napoleon
once said in one of those brief SEN
tences that show he was much more
than a brilliant general. He hated
the abuses that had oppressed the
masses, and. he made it Impossible
for many of them to crop out again,
not only in France, but in many OF
the nations that had been hostile to
the French.
The old Bourbon line of kings was
restored in France, but the French
revolution and Napoleon had left the
nation a desire for democracy that
made it impossible to revive the
abuses fostered under Louis XIV. Ma
poleon's rise to power shattered the
medieval theory that man could not
rise above the class in which he had
been born. And the necessity for
struggling against his colossal ambl-
ton to dictate to Europe had aroused
a spirit of nationality in hostile coun-
tries, especially in Germany. Through
reforms he had introduced and his ex-
pressed belief that unity of Italy
was possible, Napoleon had also STIR
red many Italians into a belief that
an independent Italy, free from for
eign domination was more than
possibility. For a generation, how
ever, the conservatives were able to
keep stifled these sparks of democra-
cy that had been lighted by Napoleon.
But they could not eXtinguish them,
and the new and transformed Europe
Of today owes much of it's democratic
spirit to the influence of Napoleon,
the most dominating, if not the most
virtuous figure in modern history.
August Bunstang, said to be an un-
,.ol1a o1;o,, hoe hooo 1odoa in the