nnumerable trees of liberty recently
planted.

"Andrea Doria," he wrote, "was a great sailor and a great
statesman. Aristocracy was liberty in his time. The whole of Europe
envies your city the honour of having produced that celebrated man.
You will, I doubt not, take pains to rear his statue again: I pray
you to let me bear a part of the expense which that will entail,
which I desire to share with those who are most zealous for the
glory and welfare of your country."

In contrasting this wise and dignified conduct with the hatred which
most Corsicans still cherished against Genoa, Bonaparte's greatness of
soul becomes apparent and inspires the wish: _Utinam semper sic
fuisses!_

Few periods of his life have been more crowded with momentous events
than his sojourn at the Castle of Montebello in May-July, 1797.
Besides completing the downfall of Venice and reinvigorating the life
of Genoa, he was deeply concerned with the affairs of the Lombard or
Cisalpine Republic, with his family concerns, with the consolidation
of his own power in French politics, and with the Austrian
negotiations. We will consider these affairs in the order here
indicated.

The future of Lombardy had long been a matter of concern to Bonaparte.
He knew that its people were the _fittest_ in all Italy to benefit by
_constitutional rule_, but it must be dependent on France. He felt
little confidence in the Lombards if left to themselves, as is seen in
his conversation with Melzi and Miot de Melito at the Castle of
Montebello. He was in one of those humours, frequent at this time of
dawning splendour, when confidence in his own genius betrayed him into
quite piquant indiscretions. After referring to the Directory, he
turned abruptly to Melzi, a Lombard nobleman:

"As for your country, Monsieur de Melzi, it possesses still fewer
elements of republicanism than France, and can be managed more
easily than any other. You know better than anyone that we shall do
what we like with Italy. But the time has not yet come. We must
give way to the fever of the moment. We are going to have one or
two republics here of our own sort. Monge will arrange that for
us."

He had some reason for distrusting the strength of the democrats in
Italy. At the close of 1796 he had written that there were three
parties in Lombardy, one which accepted French guidance, another which
desired liberty even wit