The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 1 (of 4)Sloane, William Milligan
Philosophy
The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 1 (of 4)
Sloane, William Milligan
France -- History -- Consulate and First Empire, 1799-1815; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
On his return to Ajaccio, the rising agitator continued as before to
frequent his club. The action of the convention at Orezza in
displacing Buttafuoco had inflamed the young politicians still more
against the renegade. This effect was further heightened when it was
known that, at the reception of their delegates by the National
Assembly, the greater council had, under Mirabeau's leadership,
virtually taken the same position regarding both him and his
colleague. Napoleon had written, probably in the previous year, a
notorious diatribe against Buttafuoco in the form of a letter to its
object and the very night on which the news from Paris was received,
he seized the opportunity to read it before the club at Ajaccio. The
paper, as now in existence, is pompously dated January twenty-third,
1791, from "my summer house of Milleli." This was the retreat on one
of the little family properties, to which reference has been made.
There in the rocks was a grotto known familiarly by that name;
Napoleon had improved and beautified the spot, using it, as he did his
garden at Brienne, for contemplation and quiet study. Although the
letter to Matteo Buttafuoco has been often printed, and was its
author's first successful effort in writing, much emphasis should not
be laid on it except in noting the better power to express tumultuous
feeling, and in marking the implications which show an expansion of
character. Insubordinate to France it certainly is, and intemperate;
turgid, too, as any youth of twenty could well make it. No doubt,
also, it was intended to secure notoriety for the writer. It makes
clear the thorough apprehension its author had as to the radical
character of the Revolution. It is his final and public renunciation
of the royalist principles of Charles de Buonaparte. It contains also
the last profession of morality which a youth is not ashamed to make
before the cynicism of his own life becomes too evident for the
castigation of selfishness and insincerity in others. Its substance is
a just reproach to a selfish trimmer; the froth and scum are
characteristic rather of the time and the circumstances than of the
personality behind them. There is no further mention of a difference
between the destinies of France and Corsica. To compare the pamphlet
with even the poorest work of Rousseau, as has often been done, is
absurd; to vilify it as ineffective trash is equally so.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account