JOSEPH NAPOLEON BONAPARTE,* the eidest brother of Napoleon, of all the menibers of his family the one in whom the emperor placed the greatest confidence, was born January 7, 1768, at Corte, in the island of Corsica. His father being sent to Paris, as the deputy of the estates of that province, carried him to the continent, and placed him at the college of Autun, in Burgundy, where he completed his course of studies with great diligence. Joseph was desirous of entering the military service, but, in compliance with the last wishes of his father, who died at Montpellier, in the prime of life, he returned to his native country in 1785, and, in 1792, became a member of the departmental administration, under the presidency of the celebrated Paoli. When the English took possession of Corsica, Joseph retired to the continent. In 1794, he married the daughter of

*Joseph Napoleon were the names given to the subject of this article at his baptism, but he was accustomed to use both names only on important occasions. We give the present article more space than the limits of this work would seem to allow, because the short period, during which Joseph Bonaparte reigned in Naples and Spain, the eradication of almost every thing good which had been attempted under his administration, on the return of the Bourbons, and the disfiguring effect of party reports, render it very difficult to arrive at the truth in regard to this interesting portion of recent history.-We take this opportunity to correct some errors in our article Bonaparte. It was not madame Letitia, the mother of Napoleon, that married captain Fesch, the father of the cardinal, but her mother, madame Ramolini, as we have stated in the article Fesch. Madame Letitia did not die in 1822, although an account of her death, with all the particulars of her dying moments, was published about that time. She is still alive. Carletta is a mistake for Paoletta. 48

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M. Clary, a rich citizen of Marseilles.t Joseph united with his colleagues of the department in urgent entreaties for supplies requisite to drive the English out of the island, but their applications were disregarded until 1796; and it was not until after the occupation of Italy by the French army, that their efforts were crowned with success. In the beginning of this campaign, Joseph accompanied his brother Napoleon, who, after the victory of Mondovi, sent him to Paris tc convince the directory of the necessity of concluding a peace with the king of Sardinia. Peace was concluded, and Joseph appointed minister of the republic at Parma, and, a few months afterwards, minister, and then ambassador, at Rome. He had obtained from Pius VII the promise of a brief, exhorting the Vendeans to lay down their arms, and to submit to the republic, when the intrigues of the enemies of France, and the temerity of the revolutionists, produced the catastrophe which obliged him to leave Rome. The papal secretary of state, and the diplomatic characters connected with Joseph, united in rendering him justice in their statements to the French directory. (See the Moniteur of Nivose 23, year VI-January 12, 1798.)

The sister of Joseph's wife was married to Bernadotte, and is the present queen of Swe

den.

It has often been erroneously stated, that Joseph Bonaparte was secretary to Salicetti, a member of the convention (the only member from Corsica who voted for the death of the king). It has likewise been erroneously stated, that Joseph was this year elected member of the five hundred, and that opposition was made to his taking a seat in that body, on the ground tha he was not of legal age. Joseph was at this time (9th Fructidor, year V-September 4, 1797; ambassador at Rome.

The pope not giving satisfaction for the murder of general Duphot, committed in the presence of Joseph, who never lost his calmness, and used every means in his power to prevent further bloodshed and outrage, the latter returned to Paris, where the directory expressed their entire satisfaction with his conduct at Rome.* He was now offered the embassy to Prussia, but preferred to enter the council of the five hundred, which soon chose him their secretary. When Napoleon was in Egypt, the French experienced important reverses in Europe. The battle of the Trebia had been lost; the French had evacuated the Genoese territory; the French army in Switzerland was in a critical situation until the decisive victory of Masséna at Zurich, and all the conquests in Italy were at stake. Joseph despatched a Greek of Cephalonia, named Burmbacki, to Egypt, to induce his brother to hasten back; and he assisted him the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, year VIII,which placed general Bonaparte at the head of the consular government. Under the consulate, Joseph was a member of the council of state, and, as such, was appointed, with Roederer and De Fleurieu, to terminate the differences then existing between France and the U. States. The treaty of September 30, 1800, was signed at Joseph's estate of Mortefontaine. Soon after (February 9, 1801), he signed, with count Cobentzl (q. v.), the treaty of Lunéville, between France and Austria. March 25, 1802, the treaty of Amiens was signed, which, on the part of France, had been likewise conducted under his direction. Whilst engaged in diplomatic pursuits, Joseph suggested a plan to unite France, England, Spain and Holland, for the suppression of that system of rapine and piracy, whereby smaller states were annoyed by the corsairs of Barbary, to the disgrace of the great powers of Christendom. His brother, then first consul, adopted the plan. In 1803, Joseph was created a senator and grand officer of the legion of honor, and presided, in the same year, in the electoral college of the department of the Oise. Joseph Bonaparte was one of the signers of the concordate with the pope, by which the immunities of the Gallican church were secured, and the torch of fanaticism,

The assassination of general Duphot, and that of the unfortunate Basseville, who, at the time of his death, five years previously, was French envoy at Rome, determined the directory to declare war against the pope, and, February 15, 1798, the States of the Church were changed into a republic

only, even among the crowds of still excited lazzaroni, faithful to his opinion that the people feel confidence in those who trust them, and never pay with bad treatment those who have treated them well. No sooner had he organized a provisional government in the capital, than he set out with a corps d'élite under the command of general Lamarque (q. v.), to inform himself of the actual state of the country, and of the feasibility of an attempt upon Sicily. He soon convinced himself of the abject situation of the inhabitants (whom the character of former governments had rendered pretty indifferent as to any change of the administration, believing that nothing would improve their situation), and of the impracticability of a landing in Sicily. It was during this journey, that Joseph first received intelligence that the emperor had recognised him king of Naples. Napoleon, fearing that Joseph would refuse the throne of Naples, as he had refused that of Lombardy, consented that Joseph's relations with France should remain the same; and the senate, of which he was president, in his capacity of grand-elector, deputed three of its members to him to induce him to accept the offered crown. These were marshal Perignon, general Ferino and count Roederer. Joseph received them as his old colleagues, lodged them in the palace, and retained count Roederer (q. v.), who had long been his friend, as minister of finance. Joseph was always pleased to acknowledge his obligations to this friend, for his services in the administration of the finances, and in the formation of the laws and institutions which created a public credit-something till then unknown in that country. Napoleon said that the loss of count Roederer from his council of state was never adequately supplied. Joseph's reign in Naples forms the period of his life on which the biographer dwells with the greatest satisfaction. It was the misfortune of Joseph to be twice called to rule over nations guided by priests, and left in ignorance, and therefore easily to be excited against any change; yet the critical nature of his situation did not deter him from trying every means in his power to ameliorate the condition of his subjects. He introduced into his council, among others, Frenchmen distinguished by their abilities; such as Roederer, Salicetti, Dumas, Miot, &c. With them he planned such changes as his unreserved conversations with men of

all classes, on his long journey, had suggested to him. He held up to the mem

bers of his administration the advantageous consequences of the French rev olution, contriving to avoid its evils, and enjoining them to make justice and moderation the guides of all their measures. The country was soon entirely cleared of the enemy. Convents were abolished, and their inmates provided for; their rich possessions were in part used to contribute to the solidity of the public credit; feudalism was overthrown, leaving only the honorary titles; provincial intendants were appointed instead of the former presidi, a kind of proconsuls; public instruction greatly improved; the finances regulated, as we have already mentioned, under the care of Roederer; the interior custom-lines, so injurious to the welfare of nations, removed to the frontiers; the system of justice greatly improved by substituting the French code for the confused pragmatiche, and by organizing the judiciary; national guards were formedan institution which, in that as well as all the other Italian countries, would have had the best effects. These effects, indeed, were in part apparent in the growth of a civic spirit among the inhabitants, so long degraded by foreign or domestic tyranny. A new army was created; the public debt was put on a systematic footing; all banks were united into one; excavations (q. v.) at Pompeii and in Magna Græcia begun, and a learned society founded, under the name of the royal academy, divided into four classes; the roads were improved; the system of the mesta* abolished, according to an early plan of the celebrated Filangieri; the stiff and pompous Spanish court etiquette was much curtailed, so that the king became accessible to his subjects; and the half-barbarous lazzaroni were civilized. Villages were established, and the lazzaroni were made to labor in excavations or workshops. Their pay was partly given in beds, and in domestic utensils, so that their improvement was begun in the only way in which it could be successful

by accustoming them to a home. Thus a numerous class, who had resisted all attempts to civilize them, and with whom neither missionaries nor philanthropists could be successful, were rendered useful,

and a fruitful source of crime would soon have been entirely stopped. He who formed the idea of civilizing these beings by giving them a home, whether it was the king or one of his counsellors, richly deserves the thanks of the country, though the return of the Bourbons was unfortunately also the signal for the return of wretchedness.-The bands of robbers likewise vanished. When Joseph arrived in Naples, the revenue of the state did not exceed 7,000,000 ducati. It was augmented by him to 14,000,000, without increasing the public burdens. Naples then had no constitution, but Joseph, presiding in person at the meetings of the council of state, heard every measure discussed, and no instance is on record of a measure being adopted against the opinion of the majority. Success was crowning his laudable endeavors, when, unfortunately for him, he was, against his will, called by his brother to receive a prouder diadem. As the period upon which we are now entering has been made the subject of great misrepresentations, and forms, at the same time, an important part of the history of Napoleon's time, and of Spain, we shall treat of it at some length. In an interview, some months previous, with the emperor Napoleon at Venice, he received an intimation of the feuds which distracted the reigning house of Spain, and of the political embarrassments to which they must lead. He now received from Bayonne, where the Spanish princes had joined Napoleon, a pressing invitation to proceed without delay to that city. Nothing was yet decided, and no views explained. In this uncertainty, Joseph set out, cherishing the hope of again returning to his family at Naples. At a short distance from Bayonne, he was met by the emperor, who informed him that the passions of the Spanish.princes had produced a crisis, which had arrived but too soon; that they were as far from a harmonious agreement at Bayonne as they had been in Spain; that Charles IV preferred retirement in France, on certain conditions, to reëntering Spain without the prince of peace; that both he and the queen chose rather to see a stranger ascend the throne than to cede it to Ferdinand; that neither Ferdinand nor uny other Spaniard wished for the return of Charles, if he was determined to restore the reign of Godoy, and that they also would prefer a stranger to him; that he (the emperor) perceived that it would cost hun a greater effort to sustain Charles, with the prince of peace, than to

change the dynasty; that Ferdinand appeared to him so inferior, and of a character so vague and uncertain, that it would be highly indiscreet to commit himself on his behalf, or attempt to sustain a son in the struggle to dethrone his father, and that such a dynasty was as little suited to Spain; that no regeneration was practicable whilst it continued; that the first personages of the kingdom, in rank, information and character, assembled in a national junta at Bayonne, were convinced of this truth; and that, since destiny pointed out this course, and he then felt assured of accomplishing what he would not have voluntarily undertaken, he had nominated his brother, the king of Naples, who was acceptable to the junta, and would be so to the nation at large. Ferdinand had long since solicited one of his nieces in marriage, and the kingdom of Etruria, but, since his residence at Bayonne, and more inti mate knowledge of that prince, he did not think proper to accede to his wishes. He further urged that the Spanish princes had gone farther into France, and had ceded to him all their rights to the crown, which he had transferred to his brother, the king of Naples; that it was highly important that his brother should not hesitate, lest the Spaniards, as well as foreign monarchs, might suppose that he (Napoleon) wished to encircle his own brows with this additional crown, as he had done with that of Lombardy, some years before, upon the refusal of Joseph to accept it; that the tranquillity of Spain

of Europe-the reconciliation of all the members of his own family,* depended upon the course which Joseph was then about to adopt; that he could never allow himself to believe, that regret at leaving an enchanting country, where no danger or difficulty remained to be combated, could induce him to refuse a throne where many obstacles, it was true, were to be surmounted, but where also much good was to be accomplished. When Joseph arrived at Bayonne, the members of the junta were all assembled at the château of Marrac, and he was obliged to receive their addresses, to which he returned indefinite answers, postponing a decision until he could, in the course of a few days, see the different members in private. The Spanish princes were gone. The duke del Infantado and Cevallos passed for the warmest partisans of Ferdinand: both were presented the next

*It was then proposed to recognise Lucien as king of Naples.