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CHIEF CONSUL of FRANCE Engravd for Vint & Anderson's Hiftory of the War

The first action of the prefent campaign took place near Savona, on the shores of the Mediterranean, near which the French general occupied a poít named Voltri,

Paoli, in the ever memorable firuggle made by a handful of brave iflanders against the tyrannical efforts of Louis XV. and the Machiavelian fchemes of his prime minifter, Choifeul. I am affured by a near relation of the family, that he not only laid afide the gown upon this occafion, but actually carried a musket as a private centinel.

On the conqueft of the ifland, he wished to retire with the gallant chieftain, who had, with fo much magnanimity, struggled for its independence; but he was prevented by his uncle, a canon, who exercised parental authority over him

In 1773, a deputation from the three eftates was fent to wait on the King of France; and, on this occafion, Charles Buonaparte was felected to reprefent the nobles. He was foon after promoted to the office of procuratore reale of Ajaccio, where his ancestors, fuppofed to have been originally from Tufcany, had been fettled for

near 200 years.

"The family of the elder Buonaparte was numerous, for he had feven children, four fons and three daughters. It was his good for tune, however, to be cherished by the French; and both he and his family lived in the greatelt intimacy with the Count de Marbæuf, the governor, who received a revenue of 60,coo livres a year, on condition of faying nothing! An intendant was paid nearly as much; and a fwarm of hungry leeches, engendered in the corrupted court of Verfailles, at one and the fame time, fucked the blood of the oppreffed Corficans, and drained the treasure of the mother country; in fhort, like the conquefts of more recent times, the fubjugation of that island seems to have been achieved for no other purpose than to gratify avarice, and fatiate rapacity.

"On the death of his friend Charles Buonaparte, M. de Marbæuf continued to patronise the family, and placed his fecond son, the celebrated Napoleone, the fubject of lefe memoirs, at the Ecole Militaire, or Military Academy. The advantages refulting from this feminary, which has produced more great men than any other in Europe, were not loft on young Bonaparte; he there applied himself, with equal affiduity and addrefs, to mathematics, and ftudied the art of war as a regular science. Born in the midlt of a republican ftruggle in his native land, it was his good fortune to burst into manhood at the moment when the country of his choice. fhook off the chains with which he had been manacled for centuries. There was alfo fomething in his manners and habits that announced him equal to the fituation for which he seemed destined: inftead. of imitating the frivolities of the age, his mind was continually ocVOL. II.-No. 20. cupied

F

tri, fix leagues diftant from Genoa. Here he was attacked by the troops under General Beaulieu, and driven back to his lines near Savona. Prefuming on their

cupied by useful studies; and from the lives of Plutarch, a volume which he always carried in his pocket, he learned at an early age, to copy the manners, and emulate the actions of antiquity.

"With this difpofition, it is but little wonder that he should have dedicated his life to the ufe of arms. We accordingly find him, while yet a boy, presenting himself as a candidate for a commiffion in the artillery; and his fuccefs equalled the expectation of his friends, for he was the twelfth on the lift, out of thirty-fix who proved victorious in the conteft. In confequence of this event, he became a lieutenant in the French army, and ferved as fuch for two or three years, in the regiment of La Fere.

"In 1790, General Paoli repaired to France, where he was honoured with the civic crown, and there embraced the fon of his old friend who had ferved under him at St. Fiorenzo, in 1768. They met again foon after in Corfica, where Bonaparte, now a Captain, was elected Lieutenant-colonel of a corps of Corfican national guards in activity.

"On the fecond expedition fitted out against Sardinia, he embarked with his countrymen, and landed in the island of Madalena, which he took poffeffion of in the name of the French republic; but finding the troops that had been got together for this expedition, neither poffeffed organization nor difcipline, he returned to Ajaccio, whence he had fet out.

"In the mean time, a scheme was formed for the annexation of Corfica to the crown of England; (of which we have already given an account) and the British cabinet, in an evil hour, acceded to a propofition, which, while it diminished the wealth, contributed but little either to the honour or advantage of this country. Bonaparte had a difficult part to act on this occafion. He was perfonally attached to Pafquale Paoli; he refented the treatment he experienced during the reign of the terrorifts, and had actually drawn up, with his own hand, the remonftrance tranfmitted by the municipality of Ajaccio against the decree declaring the General an enemy to the commonwealth. Indeed, he was fuppofed to be fo intimately connected with him, that a warrant was actually iffued by Lacombe de St. Michel and the two other commiflioners of the Convention, to arreft young Bonaparte. Nothwithstanding this he was determined to remain faithful to his engagements; and learning that the English fleet in the Mediterranean had failed for the purpose of feizing his native island, he embarked, along with his family, for the continent, and fettled within eighteen leagues of Toulon.

"That

their fuccefs, the Auftrian troops advanced in hopes of cutting off the retreat of the divifion which they had repulfed but Bonaparte, who had forefeen this retreat,

had.

"That town, the fecond fea-port in France, was at this moment in poffeffion of the Englith, having been just feized upon by Admiral Lord Hood, who had fubftituted the Britith crofs in the place of the three coloured flag. The military talents of the young Corfican were well known to Salicitti, who introduced him to Barras, now one of the directory, to whom he afforded undubitable proof of the fincerity of his profeffions, at a period when fufpicion was juftified by the most serious and frequent defections. He was accordingly advanced from the rank of chef de brigade, to that of General of artillery, and directed, under General Dugommier, the attacks of the various redoubts that furrounded and strengthened this important port, in which Collot d'Herbois foon after declared, that he had found the galley-flaves alone faithful to the repub lic!' It is almoft needless to add, that the energy of the French troops, added to the scientific arrangements of the engineers, overcame the zeal and refistance of the motley garrison, reltored the key of the Mediterranean to France.

"It may be neceffary to remark, however, that Bonaparte, in 1793, took an active part against General Paoli ar the English ; for, in the course of that year, he appeared with a fmall armament before Ajaccio, the town and citadel of which he fummoned in the name of the republic; but he met with a formidable enemy in his own coulin, the brave Captain Mafferia, who commanded a corps of Corficans during the fiege of Gibraltar, and had learned the application of red hot thot under Lord Heathfield.

"The conquest of Toulon contributed not a little to raise the credit of Bonaparte; and it proved equally advantageous to his friend Barras. That deputy had been alto bred a military man, and was employed by his colleagues on all great emergencies. One of thefe foon occurred; this was the commotion among the fection of Paris, known by the name of the infurrection of Vendemiaire. On this occafion he took care to be furrounded with able men, among whom was General Bonaparte, whom he had invefted with the command of the artillery at the fiege of Toulon. Gentili was fucceeded in the command of the army, at this crifis, by Bonaparte, and it was to the mafterly difpofitions made by that intrepid officer, that the triumph of the reprefentative body is to be principally af cribed. It is but justice to say, that the moderation displayed on this occafion, is perhaps unequalled in the hiftory of the civil wars of modern times.

"A nobler field now opened for the exertions of Bonaparte, for he was foon after invelled with the chief command of the French

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