Should the testimony of disappointed sycophants, whose pens are dipped in the venom of thwarted ambition and vanity, or the accusations of bitter foes, whose opinions are biassed by political intrigues, be believed against the character of Napoleon, rather than his own noble utterances, and the testimony of his incorruptible friends?
That his invasion of Egypt was aggressive and unjust, we will admit; but should England be the one to make the loudest outcry against this expedition, when it was only following her own policy when she increased her possessions by her conquests in India? And even the superiority of English literature and English writers should not make us blind to the unjust prejudices of English critics. Had Napoleon not quelled the insurrection, and given the final death-blow to the Revolution, how can any monarchy in Europe be certain that all thrones in Europe might not have tottered and fallen; that all European kingdoms might not have had to face a revolution? Had Napoleon died upon the throne of France, even his English foes, who feared the lonely exile, whom their duplicity and treachery had banished to the dreary rock of St. Helena, more than they feared any European monarch, would doubtless have joined the plaudits of the world in honor of the Hero of Success, irrespective of methods or motives. It is only because Napoleon outlived his marvellous and almost miraculous success that the world condemns, and his enemies malign him. Had our own Washington been unsuccessful, then would he have been hung as a rebel, and our own glorious Revolution would have been called a rebellion, and none would have been so loud in the outcry against us as England.
But our success has compelled her recognition, and our marvellous growth in strength, power, and resources has gained her reluctant admiration. It is hardly to be expected that England should ever forget how Napoleon made her tremble, and how near she came to being the conquered rather than the conqueror.
From an earthly point of view, his was the greatest life of mortal man; but from a heavenly standpoint, even his greatness crumbles into dust, and his own higher nature was true enough to realize and acknowledge the instability of earthly renown, and the failure of even such phenomenal greatness as his own, to satisfy the higher cravings of the immortal soul.
To properly estimate the genius of Napoleon, and his achievements in behalf of France, a glance must be given to the bloody background of the Revolution, which rises up with all its ghastliness and horrors. The rights and liberties of the French people had been trampled under foot by despotic and profligate kings and nobles; and then brute force arose against oppression; and brute force for a time conquered.
Mobs surge like a mighty ocean through the streets of Paris. Men, women, and children are turned into wild beasts of fury, thirsting only for blood. And blood they get—till Paris runs red like a river, and all the demons of hades seem to have been let loose upon the world. Such was the hydra-headed monster of bloody, lawless license and ignorant defiance which confronted the dawning manhood of Napoleon Bonaparte. Such was the ferocious fury which the genius of this small, slender, pale-faced, smooth-cheeked youth of twenty-five encountered with such dauntless courage and quelled by his irresistible foresight and execution.
The monarchy of France had been dethroned. Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette had paid with their lives the forfeit of oppression which was not all their own. The Royalists and the Jacobins had joined the howling mob of insurgents, and all together were rushing onward to attack the Convention, which was the only representative of government then in France. The troops of the Convention had been sent to meet the mob, but retired in fear and panic. The mob advanced with demoniacal shouts of menace. The Convention trembled. In the midst of the terror and confusion one member exclaims,—
“I know the man who can defend us if any can. It is a young Corsican officer, Napoleon Bonaparte.” The Convention immediately sent for him. All expected to see a stalwart soldier, of gigantic frame and imperious bearing. Their surprise was unbounded, when a young slender man of boyish presence appeared before them. The astonished president incredulously inquired,—
“Are you willing to undertake the defence of the Convention?”