BIOGRAPHIES. Of Mirabeau, the best biography in English undoubtedly will be that of F. M. Fling, projected in three volumes, of which Vol. I, The Youth of Mirabeau, was published in 1908; the most recent and convenient French treatment is by Louis Barthou (1913); a standard German work is Alfred Stern, Das Leben Mirabeaus, 2 vols. (1889); and for a real insight into Mirabeau's character and policies, reference should be made to his Correspondance avec le comte de la Marck, 3 vols. (1851). Hilaire Belloc has written very readable and suggestive English biographies of Danton (1899), Robespierre (1901), and Marie Antoinette (1909). Perhaps the best brief appreciation of Danton is that by Louis Madelin (1914); J. F. E. Robinet has written a valuable Danton (1889), and likewise a Condorcet (1893). The elaborate Histoire de Robespierre et du coup d'état du 9 thermidor by Ernest Hamel, 3 vols. (1865-1867), is marred by excessive hero-worship. Jules Claretie, Camille Desmoulins, Lucille Desmoulins: étude sur les dantonistes (1875), a charming biography, has been translated into English. Among other useful biographies of persons prominent during the Revolution, the following might be consulted with profit: J. H. Clapham, The Abbé Sieyès: an Essay in the Politics of the French Revolution (1912); E. D. Bradby, The Life of Barnave, 2 vols. (1915), containing vivid descriptions of the National Constituent Assembly; Francois Chèvremont, Jean-Paul Marat, 2 vols. (1880); Charles Vatel, Vergniaud, 2 vols. (1873), and, by the same author, Charlotte de Corday et les girondins: pièces classées et annotées, 3 vols. (1864-1872); Arthur Chuquet, Dumouriez (1914); Pouget de Saint- André, Le général Dumouriez, 1739-1823 (1914); C. A. Dauban, Étude sur Madame Roland et son temps (1864); Bernard Mallet, Mallet du Pan and the French Revolution(1902); E. B, Bax, Babeuf: the Last Episode of the French Revolution (1911).
CHAPTER XVI
THE ERA OF NAPOLEON
[Sidenote: Introductory]
From 1799 to 1814 the history of Europe was the history of France, and the history of France was the biography of Napoleon Bonaparte. So completely did this masterful personality dominate the course of events that his name has justly been used to characterize this era. The Era of Napoleon stands out as one of the most significant periods in modern times. Apart from its importance as marking a revolution in the art of war, it bore memorable results in two directions: (1) the adaptation of revolutionary theories to French practical political necessities, and the establishment of many of the permanent institutions of present-day France; and (2) the communication of the revolutionary doctrines of the French Revolution far and wide throughout Europe, so that henceforth the movement was general rather than local.
During the first five years of the era (1799-1804) France remained formally a republic. It was in these years that General Bonaparte, as First Consul, consolidated his country and fashioned the nature of the lasting gains of the Revolution. Thenceforth, from 1804 to 1814, France was an empire, established and maintained by military force. Then it was that the national hero—self-crowned Napoleon I, emperor of the French,—by means of war, conquest, annexation, or alliance, spread the ideas of his country far and wide throughout Europe. Before we review the main activities of the constructive consulate or of the proselyting empire, we should have some notion of the character of the leading actor.
THE FRENCH REPUBLIC UNDER THE CONSULATE, 1799-1804
[Sidenote: Napoleon Bonaparte]
When General Bonaparte executed the coup d'état of 1799 and seized personal power in France, he was thirty years of age, short, of medium build, quiet and determined, with cold gray eyes and rather awkward manners. His early life had been peculiarly interesting. He was born at Ajaccio in Corsica on 15 August, 1769, just after the island had been purchased by France from Genoa but before the French had fully succeeded in quelling a stubborn insurrection of the Corsicans. Belonging to a prominent and numerous Italian family,—at the outset his name was written Napoleone di Buonaparte,—he was selected along with sons of other conspicuous Corsican families to be educated at public expense in France. In this way he received a good military education at Brienne and at Paris. He early displayed a marked fondness for the study of mathematics and history as well as for the science of war; and, though reserved and taciturn, he was noticeably ambitious and a keen judge of men.
During his youth Buonaparte dreamed of becoming the leader in establishing the independence of Corsica, but the outbreak of the French Revolution afforded him a wider field for his enthusiasm and ambition. Already an engineer and artilleryman, he threw in his lot with the Jacobins, sympathized at least outwardly with the course of the Revolution, and was rewarded, as we have seen, with an important place in the recapture of Toulon (1793) and in the defense of the Convention (1795). It was not, however, until his first Italian campaign,—when incidentally he altered his name to the French form, Bonaparte,—that he acquired a commanding reputation as the foremost general of the French Republic.