THE DOWNFALL OF NAPOLEON.

Bush Advocate, Volume XX, Issue 1002, 14 April 1908, Page 7

THE DOWNFALL OF NAPOLEON.

What was the cause of Napoleon's downfall ? Jn the latest volume of a sorics on "The History of War," Colonel Dodge attempts to answer this question. He finds the :sv.swor to bo Napoleon's intense selfishness and a distinct decline in evM-gy and character after the first fow years of Empire. On his trip to Elba., Napoleon is said to have remarked to WaldburgTruchess: "I have never respected men, and I have always used them as they deserved." The destruction of almost the entire arms-bearing population of France never seemed to weigh in the balance with him against the accomplishment of his purpose. Very different, Colonel Dodge reminds us, was the cave Frederick the Great took of liis men ; very different Frederick's unceasing work for his fatherland. "To be sure, he felt that he owned Prussia ; and so, after 1805, might Napoleon have owned France. But Napoleon worked for his personal ends. Saturated with selfishness, Napoleon's every act was devoted to his own advancement. "France, which I loved so much," stares at us almost mockingly from the sarcophagus in the Invalides. "The whole monument as distinctly characterises the Emperor of a decade as does the single tomb in the old garrison church at Potsdam tbo King for all time. Ignoring or despising the national sentiment of the European peoples, Napoleon strove to create an Empire which should control all Central Europe. Seeking to -keep too much, he ended .by losing all. Ambition and arrogance were inflated by his early successes. . "For me, "lie told Bourienne, "personal immortality is the impression one leaves on the memory of man. This thought leads to great things. It were better. not to hav-G. lived than' to leave behind; no traces of one's existence." In this thought lay the spur id his ambition. Satisfied, ambition unfortunately led to arrogance. When, one night, his uncle, Cardinal Fesch, attacked his policy and his opinions, Napoleon led him out to the balcony and said: — "Look upward! Do you see anything there?" Fesch bewildered, replied in the negative. "Well, then,*' resumed Napoleon, "you should hold your peace. I see my star. It leads me. Cease to compare your weak ami imperfect qualities with my superior organisation." And De Pradt quotes his as saying, "It is truly a proof of the weakness of the human mind that people think they can cope with me." To another form of criticism lie responded with the same bombastic self-assurance. When Josephine complained of his ceaseless amours, Napoleon angrily replied : — "You are to subject yourself to all my wishes, and find it quite natural that I allow myself such a dissipation. I have the right to reply to all your complaints with a, constant 'I.' lam different from anyone else, and accept no one's conditions." Determined to have his own way in the smallest things when face to face with a great contingency, he was unwilling to yield in non-essentials even to secure the. essential. In the camp lie became intolerant of all that interfered with his ideas or projects. He would neither listen to nor consult with his marshals. Near the throne he could bear no rival. Greedy of power, he became restless of anything more than mediocrity about him, provided this mediocrity were brilliant enough to reflect lustre on what he did. "This desire to see and do everything himself was in early j-ears one of his greatest powers; but it became the source of much evil when later his enterprises grew and his strength declined. If those who served him were not really able, he strove to give them the appearance of greatness so as to impose on mankind. After his return from Austerlitz he began to create vassal princes, and to reward his marshals with riches and titles ; for he always used the weaknesses of people to bind them to his service. If one of his subordinates possessed high qualities, he sought to discover in him corresponding frailties on which he could build. He preferred ordinary people rather than those of strong character, because these might be hard to control. He began to make his. Imperial dignity more marked and bis Court ceremonials more rigid. Soon nobody might address him without invitation, not even*Murat. In all these things lay the beginnings of that self-deception, that unreality, which finally wrecked his structure. The desire to be great. He constantly strove to make others SCO facts as ho wished them to do. Tliis method succeeded, and, indeed, Remained one of the chief sources of his power until the habit of misrepresentation deluded himself as well as others. "Juggling with facts increases in geometrical ratio, and finally Napoleon acquired the habit of himself believing things to be not what the facts showed, but what he would fain have them show. He who began by

founding all liis act Kills on steril facts, and won, grew gradflally to assume his own desire to Ijo- thpr saiw as fact, and lost." Ho misled others so long- that lie ended by misleading himself. This weakness has been recognised by his critics and subordinates. Says Segur, "It was believed that the power of deceiving others, of which he understood how to make so powerful a use, he now turned against himself." And Marmont, after Tilsit, said of him that "he no longer believed in truth when it conflicted with his past sions, his interests, or his moods." Failing health, undoubtedly, had something to do with his mental deterioration. Caesar's activity continued until his death at fifty-five. Frederick's ill-health never drew from him a particle of his staunch will or positive method. But Napoleon's \ lapse from vigorous health seems to have had an immediate and marked effect on his mental and oral decisiveness. On the retreat from Moscow the Emperor appeared to be dazed, abstracted, even nonchalant. Except in situations of grave- danger, he was much of the time indifferent to liis surroundings, little moved, apparently) by the sight of thousands daily falling by the roadside to perish by freezing or starvation. When anything could bo accomplished by vigor he rose to the occasion. When his case was hopeless he needed nothing. | At Leipsic it was the same. Dur- j ing the battle he fell asleep — possibly however, from fatigue. For a quarter of an hour his marshals stood round him in amazement. Such a thing had never happened before. While the French troops, were retiring through the streets of the town and over the bridge and causeway at Lindenau, Napoleon was seen wandering to and fro in an absent-minded , mood. On the west side of Elster, says , Jomini, General Chateau met a man in a peculiar dress and with few com- r panions. "He was whistling a lively air, though he was deep sunk in . thought. Chateau thought he was a citizen, and was about to approach , him. It was the Emperor, who, with . his usual phlegm, . seemed to be un- . conscious of the approach of destruction that threatened from all sides." Yet the beginning; at least of his last campaign was full of all the old fire- and energy and genius. He had , escaped from Elba with only a thou- , sand men. Paris had received him ; with open arms'; He had approached . the Allies with overtures of peace. They had mistrusted him, voted him an outcast, mobilised their armies, most of which had gone back to home , stations, and started them for the French frontiers. Napoleon raised troops to meet them. Yet wlioii the. crisis was oyev the. old weakness returned. At St. Helena he acknowledged -that he saw less clearly and was less active of mmd — "It is certain that I fel conscious of something that had gone from me." It is bad enough to have fallen ; it is , worse to know that one has fallen, and become weaker in consequence.