of bishops and priests.  Furthermore, their subjection to the State is definitely secured by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July, 1790) which invalidates their allegiance to the Pope.  Most of the clergy refuse:  these are termed non-jurors or orthodox priests, while their more complaisant colleagues are known as constitutional priests.  Hence arises a serious schism in the Church, which distracts the religious life of the land, and separates the friends of liberty from the champions of the rigorous equality preached by Rousseau.

The new constitution of 1791 was also a source of discord.  In its jealousy of the royal authority, the National Assembly seized very many of the executive functions of government.  The results were disastrous.  Laws remained without force, taxes went uncollected, the army was distracted by mutinies, and the monarchy sank slowly into the gulf of bankruptcy and anarchy.  Thus, in the course of three years, the revolutionists goaded the clergy to desperation, they were about to overthrow the monarchy, every month was proving their local self-government to be unworkable, and they themselves split into factions that plunged France into war and drenched her soil by organized massacres.

* * * * *

We know very little about the impression made on the young Buonaparte by the first events of the Revolution.  His note-book seems even to show that he regarded them as an inconvenient interference with his plans for Corsica.  But gradually the Revolution excites his interest.  In September, 1789, we find him on furlough in Corsica sharing the hopes of the islanders that their representatives in the French National Assembly will obtain the boon of independence.  He exhorts his compatriots to favour the democratic cause, which promises a speedy deliverance from official abuses.  He urges them to don the new tricolour cockade, symbol of Parisian triumph over the old monarchy; to form a club; above all, to organize a National Guard.  The young officer knew that military power was passing from the royal army, now honeycombed with discontent, to the National Guard.  Here surely was Corsica’s means of salvation.  But the French governor of Corsica intervenes.  The club is closed, and the National Guard is dispersed.  Thereupon Buonaparte launches a vigorous protest against the tyranny of the governor and appeals to the National Assembly of France for some guarantee of civil liberty.  His name is at the head of this petition, a sufficiently daring step for a junior lieutenant on furlough.  But his patriotism and audacity carry him still further.  He journeys to Bastia, the official capital of his island, and is concerned in an affray between the populace and the royal troops (November 5th, 1789).  The French authorities, fortunately for him, are nearly powerless:  he is merely requested to return to Ajaccio; and there he organizes anew the civic force, and sets the dissident islanders an example of good discipline by mounting guard outside the house of a personal opponent.