n of W. C. Crane.
Bonaparte, General in Chief of the Army of Italy.]

In a letter written about the beginning of July, probably to Lucien or
possibly to Joseph, and evidently intended to be read in the Jacobin
Club of Ajaccio, there are clear indications of its writer's temper.
He speaks with judicious calmness of the project for educational
reform; of Lafayette's appearance before the Assembly, which had
pronounced the country in danger and was now sitting in permanence, as
perhaps necessary to prevent its taking an extreme and dangerous
course; of the French as no longer deserving the pains men took for
them, since they were a people old and without continuity or
coherence;[27] of their leaders as poor creatures engaged on low
plots; and of the damper which such a spectacle puts on ambition.
Clearly the lesson of moderation which he inculcates is for the first
time sincerely given. The preacher, according to his own judgment for
the time being, is no Frenchman, no demagogue, nothing but a simple
Corsican anxious to live far from the madness of mobs and the
emptiness of so-called glory.

[Footnote 27: The rare and curious pamphlet entitled
"Manuscrit de l'Ile d'Elbe," attributed to Montholon and
probably published by Edward O'Meara, contains headings
for ten chapters which were dictated by Napoleon at Elba
on February twenty-second, 1815. The argument is: The
Bourbons ascended the throne, in the person of Henry IV,
by conquering the so-called Holy League against the
Protestants, and by the consent of the people; a third
dynasty thus followed the second; then came the
republic, and its succession was legitimated by victory,
by the will of the people, and by the recognition of all
the powers of Europe. The republic made a new France by
emancipating the Gauls from the rule of the Franks. The
people had raised their leader to the imperial throne in
order to consolidate their new interests: this was the
fourth dynasty, etc., etc. The contemplated book was to
work out in detail this very conception of a nation as
passing through successive phases: at the close of each
it is worn out, but a new rule regenerates it, throwing
off the incrustations and