in life.

Here is Napoleon's own version of each of his brothers and sisters and
of his mother. It was given in course of conversation to Las Cases at
St. Helena. "The Emperor," he says, "speaks of his people; of the
slight assistance he has received at their hands, and of the trouble
they had been to him; he goes on to say that for the rest, we should
always, as a last resort, endeavour to form a judgment by analogy.
What family, in similar circumstances, would have done better? And,
after all, does not mine furnish, on the whole, a record which does me
honour? Joseph would be an ornament to society wherever he might
happen to reside; Lucien, an ornament to any political assembly;
Jerome, had he come to years of discretion, would have made an
excellent ruler; I had great hopes of him. Louis would have been
popular, and a remarkable man anywhere. My sister Elisa had a man's
intellect, a brave heart, and she would have met adversity
philosophically. Caroline is a very clever and capable woman.
Pauline, perhaps the most beautiful woman of her day, has been, and
will be until the end, the most charming creature living. As for my
mother, she is worthy of every respect. What family as numerous could
make a finer impression?"

If unprejudiced history counts for anything, this testimony is true,
and it is doubtful whether any of the ruling families of France who
preceded them, or even those of other countries, who took part in
bringing about their downfall (taking them as a whole), could tabulate
a better record of worthiness. Certainly no previous ruler of France
ever made the efforts that the head of the Bonaparte family did to
fashion his brothers and sisters into filling the positions he had
made for them in a way that became princes and princesses.

The fact is, the political mind was whirling and permeated with the
idea of his ambition only, and the human aversion to the introduction
of new and improved conditions of life. The ruling classes were seized
with alarm lest the spirit of the French Revolution would become
popular in this country, and that not only their possessions might be
confiscated, but that their lives would be in peril if the doctrines
he stood for were to take hold of the public imagination. They were
afraid, as they are now, of the despotism of democracy, and so they
kept the conflict raging for over twenty years. Then came the fall of
the greatest genius and most generous warrior-statesman who ha