NAPOLEON'S PARENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1474, 14 February 1880, Page 23

NAPOLEON'S PARENTS.

The family of Bonapartes were of pure Italian race ; there was not a drop of French blood in any of them. Their ' ancestors' had come from mainland in the early history of Corsica, and their names are found in the re> mote annals of Ajaccio. Carlo Bonaparte was a poor gentleman of excellent breeding and character, who married in his youth a young and romantic girl named Letizla Eamolino, who followed him in his campaigns up to the moment of the birth of Napoleon. It is impossible to say how much the history of Europe owes to the high heart and indomitable spirit of the soldierly woman. She never relinquished her authority in her family. When all her children were princes and potentates, she was still tho severe, stern Madame Mtke. The beauty and grace of Josephine Beauharnais never conquered hei ; the sweet Tyrolese prettiness of Maria Louisa won from her only a sort of contemptuous- indulgence. When her mighty son ruled' the continent, Bhe was the only human being whose ohidings he regarded or endured. She ' was faithful in -her rebukes while the sun shone; and when oalamity came, her undaunted spirit was etill true and devoted to .the'fallen. Her provincial habit of economy stood her in good stead in her vigorous old age/; she was rioh when the empire passed away, and her grandchildren needed her aid. It must have been from her that Napoleon tookhiß extraordinary character, for Carlo Bonaparte, though a brave soldier and an ardent patriot in his youth, was of an easy and genial temper, inclined to take the world aB he found it, and not to insist too much on having it go in his especial way. After the cause of Coraic&n liberty was lost by the success, of the French arras, he accepted the situation without regret, and becoming intimate with the conquerors, he placed as many of his family as possible on the pension list. His sons, Napoleon and (Louis, were given scholarships at Brienne and at A'utuh^ ~an*d hTs" eldest daughter, ■Elsie, entered the , roya.l institution at St. CJyr. While yet-in the prime of life, he died of the same 'deadly disease which was to finish tNapoleon's • days at St. -Helena y and the heroic mother, her responsibilities being still heavier by .this blow*— lived' for eight years longer amid the confusion and- civil tumult jwhich had become chronic, in Corsica ; aad then, after the capture of the island by the .English in 1793, she made her escape with her children to Marseilles, where she lived several years in great penury. — Harper's Magazine for December. * '