THE YOUTH OF NAPOLEON

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16907, 5 December 1922, Page 3

THE YOUTH OF NAPOLEON

LIFE’S LITTLE ACCIDENTS. It. is only natural and fitting that luture generations should feel an interest in the early days of great men. (writes W. Watkin Davies in “John o’ London's Weekly Of course, one knows that it is easy to carry such interest to excess, and to find some particular significance in acts and words which "would pass w ithout notice in the lives of ordinary men aud women. At the iamo time, it is well to remember two things. First, that, to a great extent, the famous man becomes w lust lie is iu virtue of his environment. Secondly, that success does not in the majority of cases come by accident, hue as the reward of years of sedulous application .and deliberate preparation. AC Cl DENT A L GREATNESS. The boyhood and youth of the great Napoleon illustrate in a striking manner the tTilth, of these two propositions. That ho was endowed by Nature with powers equal to. if not surpassing, those possessed by any man that lias over lived is quite true ; but it is equally true that, but for the- seemingly accidental circumstances of tho times in wbioli he lived, and but for his own unceasing endeavours to prepare himself for some high -calling, Napoleon’s history, and that of the world, would have teen far different. Jt was only by accident that Napoleon. was born a French subject at all. The Bonn partes belonged originally to a noble Florentine family which, in tho Tear 1529 had migrated from Florence to Corsica. Those were the days of small Anri independent Italian republics and Florence w as finding it difficult to accustom herself to the despotic ways of tho Medici. The Bonapartes and many other freedom-loving families sought a. life of greater liberty in the beautiful island which, after being fought for and held during centuries, first by tho Cartliageniaiis, then by the Romans, then by the Vandals, then by the .Pisans, had finally become the posscissioui ox the great commercial republic of Genoa. The island remained subject to Genoa until the year 1768, when it. was sold to France. fit the following year, on August 15, Napoleon was: born at Ajaccio. LAWYERS. The Bonapartes, in the eighteenth century, were mostly lawyers, all intensely patriotic and highly respected throughout their island home Napoleon’s father, Charles Marie, also a lawyer and a good Corsican, liad married at the age of eighteen Letigio. Raanolino, aged fifteen. Like her husband, she also was descended from a noble Florentine family. Charles died during his famous son’s infancy; but Letigia lived to the age of eighty-six, surviving the final catastrophe of Waterloo by twenty-one years. She was a remarkable woman, of striking beauty, majest i<• bearing, and a character which her strange vicissitudes of fortune never iu tilt.- least impaired. To the young

5 rn;i.rriod couple thirteen p!iildver> wore 1 born, of whom Napoleon was the fourth, i it was the custom of the- eighteenth : century to transfer lauds awl who!*; ! populations from one Government to I another, just as one would convey an | estate or -el! a. herd of rattle. The pubi lie conscience was therefore in no way i offended hv tie' transference of Corsica to France without the consent of the island itself. But- the act was greatly resented by the Corsicans, and by none more so than by Pauli, the sturdy old patriot and life-long .defender of republican institutions, who is known so j we 1.1 to all readers of Boswell's Life of i Or- Johnson. So disgusted was he t-ha l i he preferred to- leave his home and g< ! into exile in 15n gland. Charles Bonai parte had been a friend and supoorter i of Paoli, and the. latter wished him to 1 accompany him to Kngland. How rli! ! ferent the history of Kurope fiigln ; have been if Charles had consented to i do so! ORDINARY BOY. The young Napoleon, from his earliest years, showed limself to lx? the possessor of unusual abilities, and always displayed a- marked preference for a, military career. And so, «t the ago of nine, we find him leaving his home and going to a military school at Brionne, in Champagne. He was never made to bo an ordinary schoolboy, and the reports we have of his school life sue far from satisfactory. "With l.is fellow-scholars- he got on badly ; and be ifiade only one friend, the faithful Bourrienne, afterwards his p viva to secretary. The reports of his masters tell us that, although an exemplary scholar, he was silent, obstinate, and imperious. Ho was then, as always, an omnivorous reader. His special delight was in works of history and travel. His earliest favourite was Plutarch. After that he gave months of study to Caesar’s Gallic Wars. Then followed, a minute study of the long wars of Louis Xl\ the culminating point of the French monarchy. Finally ho read every available book dealing with the marvellous rise of British power in India, with the n niantic exploits of Robert Clive. AT BRIKNNE. .From Brier.no he went in 1781 to Pains, there to continue his military studies. So hard did lie work, and so frugally did Jio live, that he was known among his associates as the Spartan. He himself has told us that for months he rose every day at- four and worked without a break until ten at night. .Having acquitted himself with distinction at school, Napoleon was appointed lieutenant of artillery in .178/5, and stationed at \ alence. Here occurred the single real and pure romance of his life —-liis love for the simple girl Caroline d© Colombier. Upon this quiet and happy existence the revolution broke with startling ■ suddenness.