PATER'S CHATS WITH IHE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2623, 22 June 1904, Page 76

PATER'S CHATS WITH IHE BOYS.

A WORD OR TWO OX XAPOLEON.

L?st Saturday was Waterloo Day. and last wc-ek'ri Witness contained some very iui-eresting historical pictures illustrating that ever-to-be-remembered battle. At their foot, too, were interesting details not generally found in histories. These pictirres, cut out, ond put into large scrapbooks, voiad make a good commencement to a series of Witness picttues valuable for school u«e.

But it is about Napoleon I am to write c> word or two ; to be followed, perhaps, by a few lines on the battle which, none too soon, ended his ambitious career. He wns bom about 1768. nine years after the battle of Quebec decided that the English, not the French, language was to be the langupge of the new world. The Treaty of Paris had wiped out the- Coloniail Empire of Fi-pnce. Was this man, born so shortly nfler, to x-estcre France's former greatness, and- to bring to her knees her hereditary and triumphant enemy. England? Before he wa.s 30 he had, in two years, defeated the Austrian? in 18 pitched battles, had baffled his enemies, and had returned to Paris with the first military reputation in Europe. Shortly after he invaded Egypt, fought the battle of the Pji-amids, marched into Syria, stormed Jaffa, massacx-ed by cannonshot, 4000 prisoners he couldn't otherwise conveniently dispose of, and laid siege to Acx-e. But here he met a check. Sir Sydney Smith anticipated his coming, gave him a warm reception, and baffled his every stratagem. Napoleon retired discomfited, and took ship for Fiance. He afterwards said that Sir Philip Sydney hsd made him miss his destiny. His fleet had already been destroyed in the historic battle of the Nile by the sleepless,, terrible, and relentless Nelson : and his deserted army at Alexandra, cut off by the British conimaud of the sea, was rolled up by Abercrombie. But these two x-everses, serious thoxtgh they were, had apparently little effect upon Napoleon's career. By 1807 he was pi'actically the Dictator of the Continent. "His sister's husband, Murat, the son of an innkeeper, became King of Naples. His brother, the gentle Louis, was placed upon the Ihx'one of Holland. Joseph reluctantly accepted the thi'one of Spain, his occupation of which brought only disaster to himself and Napoleon. Jerome was made King of Westphalia. Lucien would have had a crotui also, but Ins pi'onouneed republicanism offended his imperial brothei-. The principality of Lucca was bestowed upon his eldest sister, Eliza. Pauline received the principality of GuastaPa. His adopted f-on, Eugene, married the daughter of the King of Bavaria. Josephine's niece becamePrincess of Baden. Bernadotte, one of hii marshals and the sorx of a lawyer, accepted the crown of Sweden."

But the battle of Ti-afalgar and his invasion of Russia marked the commencement of his downward career. In 1807 the two Emperors, Napoleon and Alexander. " met on a great raft moored for theii* reception in the river Niemen, and there the imperial robbers laid the foundations of the most gigantic scheme of plunder known to history. In 1812 the robbers fell out. and Napoleon resolved upon the invasion and conquest of Russia. He had at command about a million and a-quarter of men, and about six hundred thousand of these wers available for the march to Moscow. He got thex-e, but half of his men wasted away in the march. And then, came the ietreat, which '"was attended by horrors unsui passed in human history." Of the six Irandred thousand which crossed the Niemen Mokcowwovds, but eighty thousand recrossed on the return.

During this time the command of the sea enabled Great Britain to pour troops into Spain., where Wellington harassed Napoleon's lieutenants, and finaKy hurled them and their men over the Pyrenees, to be fina'ly overwhelmed at Toulouse. "The Spanish uleor,"' as Napoleon called our Peninsula war, locked up some 300,000 French troops in Spain, and so weakened Napoleon's armies in Germany that he was overthrown in the "Battle of the Nations,'' as Leipz-'g is called on account of tlu nunv rous nationalities that took part in it. With Wellington in the South of France commanding 100.000 seasoned veterans, and an allied army of about a million on the northeast frontier, Napoleon saw no hope, whatever of emerging victorious, so, making a vktue of necessity, he abdicated, and was deported to the Island of Elba. Then came the Congress of Vienna, when repre&cntativts of the principal Powers tried to bring order out of chaos, to restore boundaries which had been obliterated, and as far as possible to do justice to a tiowd of dethroned princes. But while the ' avaricious monarchs were wrangling over the distribution of their vast spoils, the startling announcemnt was> made that Napoleon was again in France, and was marching upon Paris. The wrangling Was changed to a unanimous decision to regard Mm as an outlaw, and to furnish unitedly ..■bout a milion ol men to him out ot existence ; and so comm-enced the "War of j, Hundred Days." B'ifc the only tioops immediately available were those ccmra Mided \,v Wellington, who had about SO. GOO. exIt'iidin^ from Charleioi to the se;>, and by Bhiuhcr. who had about. 114.000 bstwein. Charleroi and the German front Lex 1 . To oppose to thete, Napoleon had in a few d^ys together about 124.CC0. But noue of the commanders had his full number in action. Then came the four engagements — Ligny, where Napoleon defeated Biucher ; and Quatre Bras, wheie Ney held the British troops engaged to prevent their assisting the Prussians : these two engagements took place on June 16. Biucher, however, did not fall back uiion ibis base,

tbo river Rhine, a p Xapoleon had expected, bal upon AYavre, ■nbere lie could get into touch with Wellington's left. In the meantime, the British comma >id fell bock upon the field known as Waterloo. Grouchy had been told off -with 35.0C0 men to pm Biucher to the rout ; but Biucher, while fighting, gradiiAiy closed up to Wellington's left, v, hile Wellington pla3^d the waiting game. Waterloo itself is full of stirring incident and magnificent deeds of valoui. The attack pnd defence of Hougomont on the right : the terrific tiriilleiy fire on the left; the fighting around La, Haye Samte ; the closing in of Wellington's men both from right and left to withstand the charge of the French Guard, hurled upon the British squares time after time, but without the hoped-for re&ult ; the appearance of the Prussians on the FrencS left, and their seizure of Planchenoit and the Charleioi road ; tin* meeting of Wellington and Biucher in the farm house of La Belle .Alliance — these, and other incidents of the great battle are so graphically described in "Deeds that Won the Empire,"' which can be got for sixpence, that I need not describe them here. We are concerned only with the result. Napoleon, who, between 1804 and 1815 had Jed no less than 1.700,000 Frenchmen to slaughter, and had slaughtered 2.000,000 of his enemies, surrendered to a captain of a British man-of-war, and wa« isolated on St. Helena. The effort to free Great Britain cost her raiy sum from six hundred to a thousand millions ; while France, in her efforts to crush the Continental nations and Great Biitain, spent something liko twelve hundred millions. Id will probably be well within the mark to say that this Titanic struggle cost fully four millions of lives and thirty thousand tons of gold.

'We emerged triumphant, with colonies established, and a maritime commerce "which was for over half a century to b& absolutely upic-hailcngeable. The cost "was terrific, but the results justified it.

Just look at last week's pictures again, and ponder over what I have -written.