A large number of books have been written concerning Correggio. The principal modern authority is Conrado Ricci,Life and Times of Correggio(1896); see also Pungileoni,Memorie storiche di Antonio Allegri(1817); Julius Meyer,Antonio Allegri(1870, English translation, 1876); H. Thode,Correggio(1898); Bigi,Vita ed opere(1881); Colnaghi,Correggio Frescoes at Parma(1845); Fagan,Works of Correggio(1873); and T. Sturge Moore,Correggio(1906) (a work which includes some adverse criticism on the views of Bernhard Berenson, in hisStudy of Italian Art, 1901, and elsewhere).
A large number of books have been written concerning Correggio. The principal modern authority is Conrado Ricci,Life and Times of Correggio(1896); see also Pungileoni,Memorie storiche di Antonio Allegri(1817); Julius Meyer,Antonio Allegri(1870, English translation, 1876); H. Thode,Correggio(1898); Bigi,Vita ed opere(1881); Colnaghi,Correggio Frescoes at Parma(1845); Fagan,Works of Correggio(1873); and T. Sturge Moore,Correggio(1906) (a work which includes some adverse criticism on the views of Bernhard Berenson, in hisStudy of Italian Art, 1901, and elsewhere).
(W. M. R.)
CORRENTI, CESARE(1815-1888), Italian revolutionist and politician, was born on the 3rd of January 1815, at Milan, of a poor but noble family. While employed in the public debt administration, he flooded Lombardy with revolutionary pamphlets designed to excite hatred against the Austrians, and in 1848 proposed the general abstention of the Milanese from smoking, which gave rise to the insurrection known as the Five Days. During the revolt he was one of the leading spirits of the operations of the insurgents. Until the reoccupation of Milan by the Austrians he was secretary-general of the provisional government, but afterwards he fled to Piedmont, whence he again distributed his revolutionary pamphlets throughout Lombardy, earning a precarious livelihood by journalism. Elected deputy in 1849, he worked strenuously for the national cause, supporting Cavour in his Crimean policy, although he belonged to the Left. After the annexation of Lombardy he was made commissioner for the liquidation of the Lombardo-Venetian debt, in 1860 wasappointed councillor of state, and received various other public positions, especially in connexion with the railway and financial administration. He veered round to the Right, and in 1867 and again in 1869 he held the portfolio of education; he played an important part in the events consequent upon the occupation of Rome, and helped to draft the Law of Guarantees. As minister of education he suppressed the theological faculties in the Italian universities, but eventually resigned office and allied himself with the Left again on account of conservative opposition to his reforms. His defection from the Right ultimately assured the advent of the Left to power in 1876; and while declining office, he remained chief adviser of Agostino Depretis until the latter’s death. On several occasions—notably in connexion with the redemption of the Italian railways, and with the Paris exhibition of 1878—he acted as representative of the government. In 1877 he was given the lucrative appointment of secretary of the order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus by Depretis, and in 1886 was created senator. He died at Rome on the 4th of October 1888. He left a considerable body of writings on a variety of subjects, none of which is of exceptional merit.
See E. Massarani,Cesare Correnti nella vita e nelle opere(1890); and L. Carpi,Il Risorgimento italiano, vol. iv. (Milan, 1888).
See E. Massarani,Cesare Correnti nella vita e nelle opere(1890); and L. Carpi,Il Risorgimento italiano, vol. iv. (Milan, 1888).
(L. V.*)
CORRESPONDENCE(from med. scholastic Lat.correspondentia,correspondere, compounded of Lat.cum, with, andrespondere, to answer; cf. Fr.correspondence), strictly a mutual agreement or fitness of parts or character, that which fits or answers to a requirement in another, or more generally a similarity or parallelism. In the 17th and 18th centuries the word was frequently applied to relations and communications between states. It is now, outside special applications, chiefly applied to the interchange of communications by letter, or to the letters themselves, between private individuals, states, business houses, or from individuals to the press. The “doctrine of correspondence or correspondences,” one of the leading tenets of Swedenborgianism, is that every natural object corresponds to and typifies some spiritual principle or truth, this being the only key to the true interpretation of Scripture. In mathematics, the term “correspondence” implies the existence of some relation between the members of two groups of objects. If each object of one group corresponds to one and only one object of the second, and vice versa, then a one-to-one correspondence exists between the groups. If each object of the first group corresponds to β objects of the second group, and each object of the second group corresponds to a objects of the first group, then an α to β correspondence exists between the two groups. For examples of the application of this notion seeCurve.
CORRÈZE,a department of south-central France, formed from the southern portion of the old province of Limousin, bounded N. by the departments of Haute-Vienne and Creuse, E, by Puy-de-Dôme, S.E. by Cantal, S. by Lot, and W. by Dordogne. Area, 2273 sq. m. Pop. (1906) 317,430. Corrèze is situated on the western fringe of the central plateau of France. It forms a hilly tableland elevated in the east and north, and intersected by numerous fertile river valleys, trending for the most part to the south and south-west. The highest points, many of which exceed 3000 ft., are found in the north, where the Plateau de Millevaches separates the basins of the Loire and the Garonne. Except for a small district in the extreme north, which is watered by the Vienne, Corrèze belongs to the basin of the Garonne. The Dordogne waters its south-eastern region. The Corrèze, from which the department takes its name, and the Vézère, of which the Corrèze is the chief tributary, rise in the Plateau de Millevaches, flow south-west, and unite to the west of Brive. The climate of Corrèze is, in general, cold, damp and variable, except in the south-west, where it is mild and agreeable. The majority of the inhabitants live by agriculture. About one-third of the department is arable land, most of which is found in the south-west. Rye, buckwheat and wheat (in the order named) are the most abundant cereals. Hemp, flax and tobacco are also grown. The more elevated regions of the north and east are given over to pasture, sheep being specially numerous on the Plateau de Millevaches. Pigs and goats are reared to a considerable extent; and poultry-farming and cheese-making are much practised. The vineyards of the neighbourhood of Brive produce wine of medium quality. Chestnuts, largely used as an article of food, walnuts and cider-apples are the chief fruits. Coal in small quantities, slate, building-stone and other stone are the mineral products, and clay, used in potteries and tile-works, is also worked. The most important industrial establishment is the government manufactory of fire-arms at Tulle. There are flour-mills, breweries, oil-works, saw-mills and dye-works; and hats (Bort), coarse woollens, silk, preserved foods, wooden shoes, chairs, paper and leather are manufactured. Coal and raw materials for textile industries are leading imports; live stock and agricultural products are the chief exports. The department is served by the Orléans railway, and the Dordogne is navigable. The department is divided into the arrondissements of Tulle, Brive and Ussel, containing 29 cantons and 289 communes. It belongs to the archdiocese of Bourges, the region of the XII. army corps, and theAcadémie(educational division) of Clermont-Ferrand. Its court of appeal is at Limoges. Tulle, the capital, and Brive are the principal towns of the department. Uzerche is a picturesque old town on the Vézère, with a Romanesque church, old houses, a gate and other remains of medieval fortifications. At Aubazine (or Obazine) there is a Romanesque church of the 12th century, formerly belonging to the celebrated Cistercian abbey, of which Étienne “of Obazine” (d. 1159 and subsequently beatified) was the founder and first abbot. It contains the fine sculptured tomb of the founder. To the same style belong the abbey church of Beaulieu, the south portal of which is elaborately carved, the abbey church of Meymac, and the abbey church of Vigeois. Treignac, with its church, bridge and ramparts of the 15th century, and Turenne, dominated by the ruins of the castle of the famous family of that name, are ancient and interesting towns. The dolmen at Espartignac and the cromlech of Aubazine are the chief megalithic remains in the department. A Roman eagle and other antiquities have been found close to Ussel, which at the end of the 16th century became the centre of the duchy of Ventadour.
CORRIB, LOUGH,a lake of western Ireland, in the counties Galway and Mayo. It lies N.W. and S.E., and is 27 m. long, including a long projecting arm at the north-west. The extreme breadth is 7 m., but the outline is extremely irregular, and the lough narrows near the centre to a few hundred yards. Lough Corrib is very shallow, hardly exceeding 30 ft. in depth at any point, and it is covered with islands, of which there are some 300. It lies 29 ft. above sea-level, and drains by the short river Corrib to Galway Bay. The large Lough Mask lies to its north and is connected with it by a partly subterranean channel. The scenery is pleasant, but the shores are low, except at the north-west, where the wild foothills of Joyce’s Country rise.
CORRIDOR(Fr.corridor, from Ital.corridore, Med. Lat.corridorium, a “running-place,” fromcurrere, to run), a main passage in a large building, on which various apartments open. In public offices, prisons, workhouses, hospitals, &c., the corridors are usually of severe simplicity; but in mansions and palaces large corridors (galleries) are often adorned with works of art, whence comes the term “picture gallery” applied to many collections. The term “corridor carriage” is applied to the modern style of railway carriage in which a narrow passage connects the separate compartments, the object being to combine a certain degree of privacy for the traveller with access from one compartment to another whilst the train is in motion.
CORRIE(Gaeliccoire, cauldron; hence whirlpool, or circular hollow), a term used in the Highlands of Scotland for a steep-sided, rounded hollow in a mountain-side, from the lower part of which a stream usually issues as the outlet of a small lake ponded by glacial debris. Corrie-lakes are common in all glaciated mountain regions. (SeeCirque.)
CORRIENTES,a north-eastern province of the Argentine Republic, and part of a region known as the Argentine Mesopotamia, bounded N. by Paraguay, N.E. by Misiones (territory), E. by Brazil, S. by Entre Rios, and W. by Santa Fé and theChaco. Pop. (1895) 239,618; (1904 estimate) 299,479; area, 32,580 sq. m. Nearly one-third of the province is covered by swamps and lagoons, or is so little above their level as to be practically unfit for permanent settlement unless drained. The Iberá lagoon (c. 8500 sq. m., according to theArgentine Year Bookfor 1905-1906) includes a large part of the central and north-eastern departments, and the Maloya lagoon covers a large part of the north-western departments. Several streams flowing into the Paraná and Uruguay have their sources in these lagoons, the Iberá sending its waters in both directions. The southern districts of the province, however, are high and rolling, similar to the neighbouring departments of Entre Rios, and are admirably adapted to grazing and agriculture. The north-eastern corner is also high, but it is broken by ranges of hills and is heavily forested, like the adjacent territory of Misiones. The climate on the higher plains is sub-tropical, but in the northern swamps it is essentially tropical. Corrientes is the hottest province of Argentina, notwithstanding its large area of water and forest. The exports include cattle and horses, jerked beef, hides, timber and firewood, cereals and fruit. The principal towns are Corrientes, the capital; Goya, a flourishing agricultural town (1906 estimate, 7000) on a side channel of the Paraná, 150 m. S. of Corrientes, the seat of a modern normal school and the market-town of a prosperous district; Bella Vista (pop. 1906 estimate, 3000), prettily situated on the Paraná, 80 m. S. of Corrientes, the commercial centre of a large district; Esquina (pop. 1906 estimate, 3000) on the Paraná at the mouth of the Corrientes river, 86 m. S. of Goya, which exports timber and firewood from the neighbouring forest of Payubre; Monte Caseros (pop. 1906 estimate, 4000) on the Uruguay river, from which cattle are shipped to Brazil, the eastern terminus of the Argentine North-Eastern railway (which crosses the province in a N.W. direction to Corrientes), and a station on the East Argentine railway (which runs northward to Paso de Los Libres, opposite Uruguayana, Brazil and to San Tomé, and southward to a junction with the Entre Rios railways). A considerable district on the upper Uruguay was once occupied by prosperous Jesuit missions, all of which fell into decay and ruins after the expulsion of that order from the Spanish possessions in 1767. The population of the province is composed very largely of Indian and mixed races, and Guarani is still the language of the country people.
CORRIENTES(San Juan de Corrientes), a city and river port, and the capital of the above province, in the north of the Argentine Republic, on the left bank of the Paraná river, 20 m. below the junction of the Upper Paraná and Paraguay, and 832 m. N. of Buenos Aires. The name is derived from thesiete corrientes(seven currents) caused by rocks in the bed of the river just above the town. Pop. (1895) 16,129; (1907 local estimate) 30,172, largely Indian and of mixed descent. The appearance of Corrientes is not equal to its commercial and political importance, the buildings both public and private being generally poor and antiquated. There are four churches, the more conspicuous of which are the Matriz and San Francisco. The government house, originally a Jesuit college, is an antiquated structure surrounding an open court (patio). There is a national college. The commercial importance of Corrientes results from its unusually favourable situation near the confluence of the Upper Paraná and Paraguay, and a short distance below the mouth of the Bermejo. The navigation of the Upper Paraná and Bermejo rivers begins here, and freight for the Upper Paraná and Chaco rivers is transhipped at Corrientes, which practically controls the trade of the extensive regions tributary to them. Corrientes is the western terminus of the Argentine North-Eastern railway, which crosses the province S.E. to Monte Caseros, where it connects with the East Argentine line running S. to Concordia and N. to San Tomé. The principal exports are timber, cereals, maté, sugar, tobacco, hides, jerked beef, fruit and quebracho.
CORRIGAN, MICHAEL AUGUSTINE(1839-1902), third archbishop of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New York, in the United States, was born in Newark, New Jersey, on the 13th of August 1839. In 1859 he graduated at Mount St Mary’s College, Emmittsburg, Maryland, and began his studies for the priesthood as the first of the twelve students with whom the American College at Rome was opened. On the 19th of September 1863 he was ordained priest, and in 1864 obtained the degree of D.D. Returning to America, he was appointed professor of Dogmatic Theology and Sacred Scripture, and director of the ecclesiastical seminary of Seton Hall College at South Orange, New Jersey; soon afterwards he was made vice-president of the institution; and in 1868 became president, succeeding Rev. Bernard J. M‘Quaid (b. 1823), the first Roman Catholic bishop of Rochester. In October 1868 Corrigan became vicar-general of Newark, a diocese then including all the state of New Jersey. When Archbishop Bayley was transferred to the see of Baltimore in 1873, Pius IX. appointed Corrigan bishop of Newark. In 1876 he resigned the presidency of Seton Hall College. In 1880 Bishop Corrigan was made coadjutor, with the right of succession, to Cardinal McCloskey, archbishop of New York, under the title of archbishop of Petra; and thereafter nearly all the practical work of the archdiocese fell to his hands. He was at the time the youngest archbishop in the Catholic Church in America. On the death of Cardinal McCloskey in 1885 Archbishop Corrigan became metropolitan of the diocese of New York. He died on the 5th of May 1902. He was a scholar of much erudition, with great power of administrative organization, simple, generous and kindly in character. The earlier years of his archiepiscopate were disturbed by his controversy with Edward McGlynn (1839-1900), a New York priest (and a fellow-student with Corrigan at Rome), who disapproved of parochial schools, refused to go to Rome for examination, and was excommunicated in July 1887, but returned to the church five years later.
SeeMichael Augustine Corrigan: A Memorial, with biographical sketch by John A. Mooney (New York, 1902).
SeeMichael Augustine Corrigan: A Memorial, with biographical sketch by John A. Mooney (New York, 1902).
CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE,Mercuric Chloride, Perchloride of Mercury(HgCl2), a white solid obtained by the action of chlorine on mercury or calomel, by the addition of hydrochloric acid to a hot, strong solution of mercurous nitrate, Hg2(NO3)2+ 4HCl = 2HgCl2+ 2H2O + 2NO2, and, commercially, by heating a mixture of mercuric sulphate and common salt, the mercuric chloride subliming and being condensed in the form of small rhombic crystals. It melts at 288°, and boils at 303°; it is sparingly soluble in cold water, more so in hot; it is very soluble in alcohol and ether. It is soluble in hydrochloric acid forming compounds such as HgCl2·2HCl, 3HgCl2·4HCl, 2HgCl2·HCl, according to the temperature and concentration; it also forms double salts with many chlorides;sal alembroth, 2NH4Cl·HgCl2·H2O, is the compound with ammonium chloride. It absorbs ammonia to form HgCl2·NH3, which may be distilled without decomposition. Various oxychlorides are formed by digesting corrosive sublimate with mercuric oxide. Corrosive sublimate has important applications in medicine—as an astringent, stimulant, caustic and antiseptic (seeMercury).
CORRUPT PRACTICES,a term used in English election law, as defined by the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act 1883, to include bribery, treating, undue influence, personation, and aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring personation. Bribery and corruption at elections have been the subject of much legislation, statutes for their prevention have been passed in 1729, 1809, 1827, 1842, 1854, 1868 and 1883.
By the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act 1883 (which incorporated the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act 1854, an act that repealed all former legislation) the following persons are to be deemed guilty ofbribery:—
1. Every person who shall directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, give, lend, &c., or offer, promise, or promise to procure, &c., any money or valuable consideration to or for any voter or any other person in order to induce any voter to vote or refrain from voting, or shall corruptly do any such act on account of such voter having voted or refrained from voting at any election.
2. Every person who shall similarly give or procure or promise,&c., any office, place or employment to or for any voter or other person in order to induce him to vote, &c.
3. Every person who shall make any gift, loan, promise, &c., as aforesaid to any person to induce such person to procure the return of any person to serve in parliament or the vote of any voter.
4. Every person who shall, in consequence of such gift, procure or engage, promise or endeavour to procure the return of any person or the vote of any voter.
5. Every person who shall pay any money with the intent that it should be spent in bribery, or who shall pay money in repayment of any money wholly or in part expended in bribery.
6. Every person who before or during an election shall receive or contract for any money, &c., for voting, or refraining, or agreeing to vote or to refrain from voting.
7. Every person who, after the election, receives money, &c., on account of any person having voted or refrained, &c.
Treating.—Any person who corruptly by himself or by any other person either before, during or after an election, directly or indirectly gives or provides, or pays wholly or in part the expense of giving or providing any meat, drink or entertainment, or provision to or for any person in order to be elected, or for being elected, or for the purpose of corruptly influencing such person to give or refrain from giving his vote at an election, &c., shall be deemed guilty of treating, and every elector corruptly accepting such meat, drink, &c., shall also be guilty of treating.
Undue Influence.—Every person who shall directly or indirectly make use of or threaten to make use of any force, violence, &c., or inflict or threaten to inflict any temporal or spiritual injury, &c., upon any person to induce or compel such person to vote or refrain from voting, or who shall by abduction, duress, or any fraudulent device or contrivance impede or prevent the exercise of the franchise of any elector, or shall thereby compel, induce, &c., any elector to give or refrain from giving his vote, shall be guilty of undue influence.
Illegal, as distinguished from “corrupt,” practices are certain acts and omissions in regard to an election which are now prohibited, whether done or omitted, honestly or dishonestly. They may be classified under the following heads:—(1) Acts which are illegal practices by whomsoever committed. These are as follows: Payment or receipt or contracts to pay or receive money for conveyance of voters to or from the poll, on account of any committee room beyond the number allowed by the act, or to an elector for use of house or land to exhibit addresses, &c., or for exhibition by him (otherwise than in the ordinary course of his business of advertising agent) of such addresses, &c.; payment of election expenses otherwise than by or through the election agent, and payment otherwise than to a candidate or election agent of money provided by any other person for election expenses; voting or procuring to vote of any person prohibited from voting, if the person offending knows of the prohibition; knowingly publishing a false statement that a candidate has withdrawn, or publishing with a view to affect the return of a candidate a false statement as to his character or conduct. (2) Acts and omissions which are illegal practices in the case of candidates and agents only, being breaches of duties specially imposed on them. These are the payment or incurring expenses in excess of the maximum authorized by the legislature, the omitting without lawful excuse to make a return and declaration of expenses in due time, and the payment by an election agent of any election expense amounting to 40s. not vouched by bill of particulars and receipt, of any claim for expenses not sent in in due time, or of any such claim after the time allowed for payment thereof. (3) Acts which are illegal practices when done by a candidate or agent, and are a minor offence when done by any one else. These are illegal payments, employment and hiring, and printing, publishing or posting a bill, placard or poster not bearing on its face the name of the printer or publisher. Illegal payments are knowingly providing money for prohibited payments or expenses in excess of the maximum, corruptly inducing a candidate to withdraw by payment or promise of payment (the candidate so induced being guilty of the like offence), paying or agreeing to pay for torches, flags, banners, cockades, ribbons and other marks of distinction (the receiver being guilty of the like offence if he is aware of the illegality). Illegal employment is the employment for payment or promise of payment of persons beyond the number allowed by the legislature or for purposes not authorized. The employé is guilty of the like offence if he knows of the illegality. Illegal hiring is the letting or lending, or the employing, hiring, borrowing or using to carry voters to the poll of stage, or hackney carriages, or horses, or of carriages or horses ordinarily let for hire, and the hiring of committee rooms in premises licensed for the sale of intoxicants, in a club (not being a permanent political club) where intoxicants are sold, in premises where refreshments are ordinarily sold, or in a public elementary school in receipt of a parliamentary grant. Personation and aiding, abetting, &c., of personation are felonies punishable with two years’ imprisonment with hard labour. All other corrupt practices are indictable misdemeanours (in Scotland, crimes and offences) punishable with one year’s imprisonment, with or without hard labour, or a fine not exceeding £200. Conviction of any corrupt practice also renders the offender incapable for seven years of being registered as an elector, or voting at any election, parliamentary or other, in the United Kingdom, or of holding any public or judicial office, or of being elected to or sitting in the House of Commons; and any such office or seat held by him at the time is vacated. In the case of a parliamentary candidate, if an election court finds that there has been treating or undue influence by him, or any other corrupt practice with his knowledge or consent, he becomes incapable of ever being elected for the same constituency, and incurs the like incapacities as if he had been convicted on indictment; if it is found by the election court that he has been guilty by his agents of a corrupt practice, he becomes incapable for seven years of being elected for the same constituency. Illegal practices are offences punishable on summary conviction with a fine not exceeding £100, and with five years’ incapacity for being registered or voting as a parliamentary elector, or an elector to public office within the county or borough where the offence was committed. Illegal payments, employment and hiring, and printing and publishing of bills, &c., not bearing the printer’s or publisher’s name, are, when committed by any one who is not a candidate or agent, offences punishable on summary conviction with a fine not exceeding £100, but carry with them no incapacities. Where an election court finds that any illegal practice has been committed with the knowledge or consent of a parliamentary candidate, he becomes incapable for seven years of being elected to or sitting in the House of Commons for the same constituency. He incurs the like incapacity, limited to the duration of the parliament for which the election was held, if the election court finds that he was guilty by his agents of an illegal practice. A prosecution for any of the above offences cannot be instituted more than a year after the offence was committed, unless an inquiry by election commissioners takes place, in which case it may be instituted at any time within two years from the commission of the offence, not being more than three months after the date of the commissioners’ report.
The law as to corrupt and illegal practices, as above stated, applies equally to parliamentary, municipal, county and parish council elections. Incapacities corresponding to those incurred by parliamentary candidates found guilty by an election court are incurred by municipal and other candidates in the like case, e.g. a municipal candidate found personally guilty of a corrupt practice is incapacitated forever, and a candidate found guilty by his agents is incapacitated for three years from holding corporate office in the borough.
See Rogers,On Elections, 3 vols.; Fraser,Law of Parliamentary Elections.
See Rogers,On Elections, 3 vols.; Fraser,Law of Parliamentary Elections.
CORRY,a city of Erie county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 37 m. S.E. of Erie, in the N.W. part of the state, at an elevation of about 1430 ft. Pop. (1890) 5677; (1900) 5369 (671 foreign-born); (1910) 5991. It is served by the Erie and the Pennsylvania railways. Corry is situated in the midst of a fine farming region, which is rich in petroleum and natural gas, andis widely known for its mineral springs. One mile W. of the city is a state fish hatchery, and there are fine trout streams in the neighbourhood. Among the city’s manufactures are steel, engines, locomotives, radiators, shovels, bricks, flour, furniture and leather. Corry was settled in 1860, and was incorporated as a borough in 1863 and as a city in 1866.
CORSAIR(through the Fr. from the Med. Lat.cursarius, a pirate;cursus, orcursa, fromcurrere, to run, being Late Latin for a plundering foray), the name given by the Mediterranean peoples to the privateers of the Barbary coast who plundered the shipping of Christian nations; they were not strictly pirates, as they were commissioned by their respective governments, but the word came to be synonymous, in English, with “pirate.” The French wordcorsaireis still used for “privateer,” andguerre de courseis applied to the use in naval warfare of “commerce-destroyers.” (SeePirate,Barbary PiratesandPrivateer.)
CORSICA(Fr.Corse), a large island of the Mediterranean, forming a department of France. It is situated immediately to the north of Sardinia (from which it is separated by the narrow strait of Bonifacio), between 41° 21′ and 43° N. and 8° 30′ and 9° 30′ E. Area, 3367 sq.m. Pop. (1906) 291,160. Corsica lies within 54 m. W. of the coast of Tuscany, 98 m. S. of Genoa and 106 m. S.E. of the French coast at Nice. The extreme length of the island is 114 m. and its breadth 52 m. The greater part of the surface of Corsica is occupied by forest-clad mountains, whose central ridge describes a curve from N.W. to S.W., presenting its convexity towards the E. Secondary chains diverge in all directions from this main range, enclosing small basins both geographically and socially isolated; on the west and south of the island they either terminate abruptly on the shore or run out to a great distance into the sea, forming picturesque bays and gulfs, some of which afford excellent harbours. The highest peaks are the Monts Cinto (8881 ft.), Rotondo (8612), Paglia Orba (8284), Padro (7851) and d’Oro (7845). On the eastern side of the island, between Bastia and Porto Vecchio, there intervenes between the mountains and the sea a considerable tract of low and unhealthy, but fertile country, and the coast is fringed in places by lagoons.
Geology.—Corsica may be divided into two parts, which are geologically distinct, by a line drawn from Belgodere through Corte to the east coast near Favone. West of this line the island is composed chiefly of granite, with a large mass of granophyres, quartz porphyries and similar rocks forming the high mountains around Mt. Cinto; but between the Gulfs of Porto and Galeria, schists, limestones and anthracite, containing fossils of Upper Carboniferous age, occur. The famous orbicular diorite of Corsica is found near Sta. Lucia-di-Tallano in the arrondissement of Sartène. In the eastern part of the island the predominant rocks are schists of unknown age, with intrusive masses of serpentine and euphotide. Folded amongst the schists are Strips of Upper Carboniferous beds similar to those of the west coast. Overlying these more ancient rocks are limestones with Rhaetic and Liassic fossils, occurring in small patches at Oletta, Morosaglia, &c. Nummulitic limestone of Eocene age is found near St Florent, and occupies several large basins near the boundary between the granite and the schist. Miocene molasse withClypeaster, &c., forms the plain of Aleria on the east coast, and occurs also at St Florent in the north and Bonifacio in the south. A small patch of Pliocene has been found near Aleria. The caves of Corsica, especially in the neighbourhood of Bastia, contain numerous mammalian remains, the commonest of which belong toLagomys corsicanus, Cuv.See Hollande, “Géologie de la Corse,”Ann. sci. géol., vol. ix. (1877); Nentien, “Études sur les gîtes minéraux de la Corse,”Ann. Mines Paris, ser. 9, vol. xii. pp. 231-296, pi. v. (1897).
Geology.—Corsica may be divided into two parts, which are geologically distinct, by a line drawn from Belgodere through Corte to the east coast near Favone. West of this line the island is composed chiefly of granite, with a large mass of granophyres, quartz porphyries and similar rocks forming the high mountains around Mt. Cinto; but between the Gulfs of Porto and Galeria, schists, limestones and anthracite, containing fossils of Upper Carboniferous age, occur. The famous orbicular diorite of Corsica is found near Sta. Lucia-di-Tallano in the arrondissement of Sartène. In the eastern part of the island the predominant rocks are schists of unknown age, with intrusive masses of serpentine and euphotide. Folded amongst the schists are Strips of Upper Carboniferous beds similar to those of the west coast. Overlying these more ancient rocks are limestones with Rhaetic and Liassic fossils, occurring in small patches at Oletta, Morosaglia, &c. Nummulitic limestone of Eocene age is found near St Florent, and occupies several large basins near the boundary between the granite and the schist. Miocene molasse withClypeaster, &c., forms the plain of Aleria on the east coast, and occurs also at St Florent in the north and Bonifacio in the south. A small patch of Pliocene has been found near Aleria. The caves of Corsica, especially in the neighbourhood of Bastia, contain numerous mammalian remains, the commonest of which belong toLagomys corsicanus, Cuv.
See Hollande, “Géologie de la Corse,”Ann. sci. géol., vol. ix. (1877); Nentien, “Études sur les gîtes minéraux de la Corse,”Ann. Mines Paris, ser. 9, vol. xii. pp. 231-296, pi. v. (1897).
Corsica is well watered by rivers and torrents, which, though short in their course, bring down large volumes of water from the mountains. The longest is the Golo, which rises in the pastoral region of Niolo, isolated among the mountains to the west of Corte and inhabited by a distinct population of obscure origin. It enters the sea on the east coast to the south of the salt-water lake of Biguglia; farther south, on the same side of the island, is the Tavignano, while on the west there are the Liamone, the Gravone and the Taravo. The other streams are all comparatively small. Owing to the rugged and indented outline of the western coast there are an unusual number of bays and harbours. Of the bays the most important are Porto, Sagone, Ajaccio and Valinco; of the ports, St Florent (San Fiorenzo), Ile Rousse (Isola Rossa), Calvi, Ajaccio and Propriano. On the eastern side, which is much less rugged and broken, the only harbours worth mentioning are those of Bastia and Porto Vecchio (thePortus Syracusanusof the ancients), and the only gulfs those of Porto Vecchio and Santa Manza. At the extreme south are the harbour and town of Bonifacio, giving name to the strait which separates Corsica from Sardinia.
The climate of the island ranges from warmth in the lowlands to extreme rigour in the mountains. The intermediate region is the most temperate and healthy. The mean annual temperature at Ajaccio is 63° F. The dominant winds are those from the south-west and south-east.
There are mines of anthracite, antimony and copper; the island produces granite, building stone, marble, and amianthus, and there are salt marshes. Among other places Guagno, Pardina Guitera, and Orezza have mineral springs.
The agriculture of Corsica suffers from scarcity of labour, due partly to the apathy of the inhabitants, and from scarcity of capital. The cultivation of cereals, despite the fertility of the soil, is neglected; wheat is grown to some extent, but in this respect, the population is dependent to a large degree on outside supplies. The culture of fruit, especially of the vine, cedrates, citrons and olives (for which the Balagne region, in the north-west, is noted), of vegetables and of tobacco, and sheep and goat rearing are the main rural industries, to which may be added the rearing of silk-worms. The exploitation of the fine forests, which contain the well-known Corsican pine, beeches, oaks and chestnuts, is also an important resource, but tends to proceed too rapidly. Chestnuts are exported, and, ground into flour, are used as food by the mountaineers. Most of the inhabitants are proprietors of land, but often the properties are so split up that many hours, or even a whole day, are spent in going from the vineyard or olive plantation to the arable land in the plain or the chestnut-wood in the mountain. A great part of the agricultural labour is performed by labourers from Tuscany and Lucca, who periodically visit the island for that purpose. Sheep of a peculiar breed, resembling chamois and known asmouflons, inhabit the more inaccessible parts of the mountains. The uncultivated districts are generally overgrown with a thick tangled underwood, consisting of arbutus, myrtle, thorn, laurel broom and other fragrant shrubs, and known as themaquis, the fragrance of which can be distinguished even from the sea.
Fishing and shooting are allowed almost everywhere to the possessor of a government licence; special permission, where it is necessary, is easily obtained. Wild boars, stags, in the eastern districts, and hares as well as themouflonare found, while partridges, quail, woodcock, wild duck and water-fowl are abundant. Trout and eels are the chief fish. The flesh of the Corsican blackbird is considered a delicacy. The fisheries of tunny, pilchard and anchovy are extensively prosecuted for the supply of the Italian markets; but comparatively few of the natives are engaged in this industry.
The Corsican is simple and sober but unenterprising; dignified and proud, he is possessed of a native courtesy, manifested in his hospitality to strangers, the refusal of which is much resented. He is, however, implacable towards his own countrymen when his enmity is once aroused, and the practice of the blood-feud orvendettahas not died out. Each individual is attached to some powerful family, and the influence of this usage is specially marked in politics, the individual voting with his clan on pain of arousing the vindictiveness of his fellow-members. Another dominant factor in social life in Corsica is the almost universal ambition on the part of the natives towards an official career, a tendency from which commerce and agriculture inevitably suffer.
The manufactures of the island are of small importance. They include the extraction of gallic acid from chestnut-bark, the preparation of preserved citrons and other delicacies, and of macaroni and similar foods and the manufacture of fancy goods and cigars.
The chief ports are Bastia, Ajaccio and Ile Rousse. A railwayruns from Bastia to Ajaccio with branches to Calvi and Ghisonaccia, but, in general, lack of means of communication as well as of capital are a barrier to commercial activity. In 1905 imports reached a value of £113,000. The chief were tobacco furniture and wooden goods, wine, cereals, coal, cheese and bran. Exports were valued at £336,000, and included chestnut-extract, charcoal, timber, citrons and other fruits, seeds, casks, skins, chestnuts and tanning bark.
Corsica is divided into five arrondissements (chief towns—Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi, Corte and Sartène), with 62 cantons and 364 communes. It forms part of theacadémie(educational circumscription) and archiepiscopal province of Aix (Bouches-du-Rhône) and of the region of the XV. army corps. The principal towns are Ajaccio, the capital and the seat of the bishop of the island and of the prefect; Bastia, the seat of the court of appeal and of the military commander; Calvi, Corte and Bonifacio. Other places of interest are St Florent, near which stand the ruins of the cathedral (12th century) of the vanished town of Nebbio; Murato, which has a church (12th or 13th century) of Pisan architecture, which is exemplified in other Corsican churches; and Cargese, where there is a Greek colony, dating from the 17th century. Near Lucciana are the ruins of a fine Romanesque church called La Canonica. Megalithic monuments are numerous, chief among them being the dolmen of Fontanaccia in the arrondissement of Sartène.
History.—The earliest inhabitants of Corsica were probably Ligurian. The Phocaeans of Ionia were the first civilized people to establish settlements there. About 560 B.C. they landed in the island and founded the town of Alalia. By the end of the 6th century, however, their power had dwindled before that of the Etruscans, who were in their turn driven out by the Carthaginians. The latter were followed by the Romans, who gained a footing in the island at the time of the First Punic War, but did not establish themselves there till the middle of the 2nd century B.C. Both Marius and Sulla founded colonies—the one at Mariana (near Lucciana) in 104, the second at Aleria in 88. In the early centuries of the Christian era Corsica formed one of the senatorial provinces of the Empire, but though it was in continuous commercial communication with Italy, it was better known as a place of banishment for political offenders. One of the most distinguished of those was the younger Seneca, who spent in exile there the eight years ending A.D. 49.
During the break-up of the Roman empire in the West the possession of Corsica was for a while disputed between the Vandals and the Gothic allies of the Roman emperors, until in 469 Genseric finally made himself master of the island. For 65 years the Vandals maintained their domination, the Corsican forests supplying the wood for the fleets with which they terrorized the Mediterranean. After the destruction of the Vandal power in Africa by Belisarius, his lieutenant Cyril conquered Corsica (534) which now, under the exarchate of Africa, became part of the East Roman empire. The succeeding period was one of great misery. Goths and Lombards in turn ravaged the island, which in spite of the prayers of Pope Gregory the Great the exarch of Africa did nothing to defend; the rule of the Byzantines was effective only in grinding excessive taxes out of the wretched population; and, to crown all, in 713 the Mussulmans from the northern coast of Africa made their first descent upon the island. Corsica remained nominally attached to the East Roman empire until Charlemagne, having overthrown the Lombard power in Italy (774), proceeded to the conquest of the island, which now passed into the hands of the Franks. In 806, however, occurred the first of a series of Moorish incursions from Spain. Several times defeated by the emperor’s lieutenants, the Moors continually returned, and in 810 gained temporary possession of the island. They were crushed and exterminated by an expedition under the emperor’s son Charles, but none the less returned again and again. In 828 the defence of Corsica was entrusted to Boniface II., count of the Tuscan march, who conducted a successful expedition against the African Mussulmans, and returning to Corsica built a fortress in the south of the island which formed the nucleus of the town (Bonifacio) that bears his name. Boniface’s war against the Saracens was continued by his son Adalbert, after he had been restored to his father’s dignities in 846; but, in spite of all efforts, the Mussulmans seem to have remained in possession of part of the island until about 930. Corsica, of which Berengar II., king of Italy, had made himself master, became in 962, after his dethronement by Otto the Great, a place of refuge for his son Adalbert, who succeeded in holding the island and in passing it on to his son, another Adalbert. This latter was, however, defeated by the forces of Otto II., and Corsica was once more attached to the marquisate of Tuscany, of which Adalbert was allowed to hold part of the island in fee.
The period of feudal anarchy now began, a general mellay of petty lords each eager to expand his domain. The counts of Cinarca, especially, said to be descended from Adalbert, aimed at establishing their supremacy overThe Terra di Comune.the whole island. To counteract this and similar ambitions, in the 11th century, a sort of national diet was held, and Sambucuccio, lord of Alando, put himself at the head of a movement which resulted in confining the feudal lords to less than half of the island to the south, and in establishing in the rest, henceforth known as the Terra di Comune, a sort of republic composed of autonomous parishes. This system, which survived till the Revolution, is thus described by Jacobi (tom. i. p. 137), “Each parish or commune nominated a certain number of councillors who, under the name of ‘fathers of the commune,’ were charged with the administration of justice under the direction of apodestà, who was as it were their president. The podestas of each of the states or enfranchised districts chose a member of the supreme council charged with the making of laws and regulations for the Terra di Comune. This council or magistracy was called the Twelve, from the number of districts taking a share in its nomination. Finally, in each district the fathers of the commune elected a magistrate who, under the name ofcaporale, was entrusted with the defence of the interests of the poor and weak, with seeing that justice was done to them, and that they were not made the victims of the powerful and rich.”
Meanwhile the south remained under the sway of the counts of Cinarca, while in the north feudal barons maintained their independence in the promontory of Cape Corso. Internal feuds continued; William, marquis of Massa, ofPapal sovereigntythe family known later as the Malaspina, was called in by the communes (1020), drove out the count of Cinarca, reduced the barons to order, and in harmony with the communes established a dominion which he was able to hand on to his son. Towards the end of the 11th century, however, the popes laid claim to the island in virtue of the donation of Charlemagne, though the Frankish conqueror had promised at most the reversion of the lands of the Church. The Corsican clergy supported the claim, and in 1077 the Corsicans declared themselves subjects of the Holy See in the presence of the apostolic legate Landolfo, bishop of Pisa. Pope Gregory VII. thereupon invested the bishop and his successors with the island, an investiture confirmed by Urban II. in 1190 and extended into a concession of the full sovereignty. The Pisans now took solemn possession of the island and their “grand judges” (judices) took the place ofRule of Pisa.the papal legates. Corsica, valued by the Pisans as by the Vandals as an inexhaustible storehouse of materials for their fleet, flourished exceedingly under the enlightened rule of the great commercial republic. Causes of dissension remained, however, abundant. The Corsican bishops repented their subjection to the Pisan archbishop; the Genoese intrigued at Rome to obtain a reversal of the papal gift to the rivals with whom they were disputing the supremacy of the seas. Successive popes followed conflicting policies in this respect; until in 1138 Innocent II., by way of compromise, divided the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the island between the archbishops of Pisa and Genoa. This gave the Genoese great influence in Corsica, and the contest between the Pisans and Genoese began to distract the island. It was not, however, till 1195 that the Genoese, by capturing Bonifacio—a nest of pirates preying on thecommerce of both republics—actually gained a footing in the country. For twenty years the Pisans fought to recover the fortress for themselves, until in 1217 the pope settled the matter by taking it into his own hands.
Throughout the 13th century the struggle between Pisans and Genoese continued, reproducing in the island the feud of Ghibellines and Guelphs that was desolating Italy. In order to put a stop to the ruinous anarchy the chiefs of the Terra di Comune called in the marquis Isnard Malaspina; the Pisans set up the count of Cinarca once more; and the war between the marquis, the Pisans and Genoese dragged on with varying fortunes, neither succeeding in gaining the mastery. Then, in 1298, Pope Boniface VIII. added to the complication by investing King James of Aragon with the sovereignty of Corsica and of Sardinia. In 1325, after long delay, the Aragonese attacked and reduced Sardinia, with the result that the Pisans, their sea-power shattered, were unable to hold their own in Corsica. A fresh period of anarchy followed until, in 1347, a great assembly ofcaporaliand barons decided to offer the sovereignty of the island to Genoa. A regular tribute was to be paid to the republic; the Corsicans were to preserve their laws and customs, under the council of Twelve in the north and a council of Six in the south; Corsican interests were to be represented at Genoa by anorator.
The Genoese domination, which began under evil auspices—for the Black Death killed off some two-thirds of the population—was not destined to bring peace to the island. The feudal barons of the south and the hereditarycaporaliGenoese domination.of the north alike resisted the authority of the Genoese governors; and King Peter of Aragon took advantage of their feuds to reassert his claims. In 1372 Arrigo, count of La Rocca, with the assistance of Aragonese troops, made himself master of the island; but his very success stirred up against him the barons of Cape Corso, who once more appealed to Genoa. The republic, busied with other affairs, hit upon the luckless expedient of investing with the governorship of the island a sort of chartered company, consisting of five persons, known as theMaona. They attempted to restore order by taking Arrigo della Rocca into partnership, with disastrous results. In 1380 four of the “governors of the Maona” resigned their rights to the Genoese republic, and Leonello Lomellino was left as sole governor. It was he who, in 1383, built Bastia on the north coast, which became the bulwark of the Genoese power in the island. It was not till 1401, after the death of Count Arrigo, that the Genoese domination was temporarily re-established.
Meanwhile Genoa itself had fallen into the hands of the French, and in 1407 Leonello Lomellino returned as governor with the title of count of Corsica bestowed on him by Charles VI. of France. But Vincentello d’ Istria, who had gained distinction in the service of the king of Aragon, had captured Cinarca, rallied round him all the communes of the Terra di Comune, proclaimed himself count of Corsica at Biguglia and even seized Bastia. Lomellino was unable to make headway against him, and by 1410 all Corsica, with the exception of Bonifacio and Calvi, was lost to Genoa, now once more independent of France. A feud of Vincentello with the bishop of Mariana, however, led to the loss of his authority in the Terra di Comune; he was compelled to go to Spain in search of assistance, and in his absence the Genoese reconquered the island. Not, however, for long. The Great Schism was too obvious an opportunity for quarrelling for the Corsicans to neglect; and the Corsican bishops and clergy were more ready with the carnal than with spiritual weapons. The suffragans of Genoa fought for Benedict XIII., those of Pisa for John XXIII.; and when Vincentello returned with an Aragonese force he was able to fish profitably in troubled waters. He easily captured Cinarca and Ajaccio, came to terms with the Pisan bishops, mastered the Terra di Comune and built a strong castle at Corte; by 1419 the Genoese possessions in Corsica were again reduced to Calvi and Bonifacio.
At this juncture Alphonso of Aragon arrived, with a large fleet, to take possession of the island. Calvi fell to him; but Bonifacio held out, and its resistance gave time for the Corsicans, aroused by the tyranny and exactions of theAragonese intervention.Aragonese, to organize revolt. In the end the siege of Bonifacio was raised, and the town, confirmed in its privileges, became practically an independent republic under Genoese protection. As for Vincentello he managed to hold his own for a while; but ultimately the country rose against him, and in 1435 he was executed as a rebel by the Genoese, who had captured him by surprise in the port of Bastia.
The anarchy continued, while rival factions, nominal adherents of the Aragonese and Genoese, contended for the mastery. Profiting by the disturbed situation, the Genoese doge, Janus da Fregoso, succeeded in reducing the island, his artillery securing him an easy victory over the forces of Count Paolo della Rocca (1441). To secure his authority he built and fortified the new city of San Fiorenzo, near the ruins of Nebbio. But again the Aragonese intervened, and the anarchy reached its height. An appeal to Pope Eugenius IV. resulted in the despatch of a pontifical army of 14,000 men (1444), which was destroyed in detail by a league of some of thecaporaliand most of the barons under the bold leadership of Rinuccio da Leca. A second expedition was more fortunate, and Rinuccio was killed before Biguglia. In 1447 Eugenius was succeeded on the papal throne by Nicholas V., a Genoese, who promptly made over his rights in Corsica, with all the strong places held by his troops, to Genoa. The island was now, in effect, divided between the Genoese republic; the lords of Cinarca, who held their lands in the south under the nominal suzerainty of Aragon; and Galeazzo da Campo Fregoso, who was supreme in the Terra di Comune.
An assembly of the chiefs of the Terra di Comune now decided to offer the government of the island to the Company or Bank of San Giorgio, a powerful commercial corporation established at Genoa in the 14th century.1The bankThe Bank of San Giorgio.accepted; the Spaniards were driven from the country; and a government was organized. But the bank soon fell foul of the barons, and began a war of extermination against them. Their resistance was finally broken in 1460, when the survivors took refuge in Tuscany. But order had scarcely been established when the Genoese Tommasinoda Campo Fregoso, whose mother was a Corsican, revived the claims of his family and succeeded in mastering the interior of the island (1462). Two years later the duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, overthrew the power of the Fregoso family at Genoa, and promptly proceeded to lay claim to Corsica. His lieutenant had no difficulty in making the island accept the overlordship of the duke of Milan; but when, in 1466, Francesco Sforza died, a quarrel broke out, and Milanese suzerainty became purelyMilanese intervention.nominal save in the coast towns. Finally, in 1484, Tommasino da Campo Fregoso persuaded the duke to grant him the government of the island. The strong places were handed over to him; he entered into marriage relations with Gian Paolo da Leca, the most powerful of the barons, and was soon supreme in the island.
Within three years the Corsicans were up in arms again. A descendant of the Malaspinas who had once ruled in Corsica, Jacopo IV. (d’Appiano), was now prince of Piombino, and to him the malcontents applied. His brother Gherardo, count of Montagnano, accepted the call, proclaimed himself count of Corsica, and, landing in the island, captured Biguglia and San Fiorenzo; whereupon Tommasino da Campo Fregoso discreetly sold his rights to the bank of San Giorgio. No sooner, however, had the bank—with the assistance of the count of Leca—beaten Count Gherardo than the Fregoso family tried to repudiate their bargain. Their claims were supported by the count of Leca, and it cost the agents of the bank some hard fighting before the turbulent baron was beaten and exiled to Sardinia. Twice he returned, and he was not finally expelled from the country till 1501; it was not till 1511 that the other barons were crushed andthat the bank could consider itself in secure possession of the island.
If the character of the Corsicans has been distinguished in modern times for a certain wild intractableness and ferocity, the cause lies in their unhappy past, and not least in the character of the rule established by the bank of San Giorgio. The power which the bank had won by ruthless cruelty, it exercised in the spirit of the narrowest and most short-sighted selfishness. Only a shadow of the native institutions was suffered to survive, and no adequate system of administration was set up in the place of that which had been suppressed. In the absence of justice the blood-feud orvendettagrew and took root in Corsica just at the time when, elsewhere in Europe, the progress of civilization was making an end of private war. The agents of the bank, so far from discouraging these internecine quarrels, looked on them as the surest means for preventing a general rising. Concerned, moreover, only with squeezing taxes out of a recalcitrant population, they neglected the defence of the coast, along which the Barbary pirates harried and looted at will; and to all these woes were added, in the 16th century, pestilences and disastrous floods, which tended still further to impoverish and barbarize the country.
In these circumstances King Henry II. of France conceived the project of conquering the island. From Corsican mercenaries in French service, men embittered by wrongs suffered at the hands of the Genoese, he obtained all the necessaryFirst French Intervention, 1553.information; by a treaty of alliance concluded at Constantinople (February 1, 1553) with Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent he secured the co-operation of the Turkish fleet. The combined forces attacked the island the same year; the citadel of Bastia fell almost without a blow, and siege was at once laid simultaneously to all the other fortresses. The capitulation of Bonifacio to the Turks, after an obstinate resistance, was followed by the treacherous massacre of the garrison; soon, of all the strong places, the Genoese held Calvi alone. At this juncture the emperor Charles V. intervened; a strong force of imperial troops and Genoese was poured into the island, and the tide of war turned. The details of the struggle that followed, in which the Corsican national hero Sampiero da Bastelica gained his first laurels, are of little general importance. Fortresses were captured and recaptured; and for three years French, Germans, Spaniards, Genoese and Corsicans indulged in a carnival of mutual slaughter and outrage. The outcome of all this was a futile reversion to thestatus quo. In 1556, indeed, the conclusion of a truce left Corsica—with the exception of Bastia—in the hands of the French, who proceeded to set up a tolerable government; but in 1559, by the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, the island was restored to the bank of San Giorgio, from which it was at once taken over by the Genoese republic.
Trouble at once began again. The Genoese attempted to levy a tax which the Corsicans refused to pay; in violation of the terms of the treaty, which had stipulated for a universal amnesty, they confiscated the property ofSampiero da Bastelica.Sampiero da Bastelica. Hereupon Sampiero again put himself at the head of the national movement. The suzerainty of the Turk seemed preferable to that of Genoa, and, armed with letters from the king of France, he went to Constantinople to ask the aid of a fleet for the purpose of reducing Corsica to the status of an Ottoman province.2All his efforts to secure foreign help were, however, vain; he determined to act alone, and in June 1564 landed at Valinco with only fifty followers. His success was at first extraordinary, and he was soon at the head of 8000 men; but ultimate victory was rendered impossible by the indiscipline among the Corsicans and by the internecine feuds of which the Genoese well knew how to take advantage. For over two years a war was waged in which quarter was given on neither side; but after the assassination of Sampiero in 1567 the spirit of the insurgents was broken. In 1568 an honourable peace, including a general amnesty, was arranged with the Genoese commander Giorgio Doria by Sampiero’s son Alphonso d’Ornano, who with 300 of his friends emigrated to France, where he rose to be a marshal under Henry IV.
From this time until 1729 Corsica remained at peace under the government of Genoa. It was, however, a peace due to lassitude and despair rather than contentment. The settlement of 1568 had reserved a large measure of autonomy to the Corsicans; during the years that followed this was withdrawn piecemeal, until, disarmed and powerless, they were excluded from every office in the administration. Nor did the Genoese substitute any efficient system for that which they had destroyed. In the absence of an effective judiciary thevendettaincreased; in the absence of effective protection the sea-board was exposed to the ravages of the Barbary pirates, so that the coast villages and towns were abandoned and the inhabitants withdrew into the interior, leaving the most fertile part of the country to fall into the condition of a malarious waste. To add to all this, in 1576 the population had been decimated by a pestilence. Emigrationen massecontinued, and an attempt to remedy this by introducing a colony of Greeks in 1688 only added one more element of discord to the luckless island. To the Genoese Corsica continued to be merely an area to be exploited for their profit; they monopolized its trade; they taxed it up to and beyond its capacity; they made the issue of licences to carry firearms a source of revenue, and studiously avoided interfering with the custom of thevendettawhich made their fiscal expedient so profitable.3
In 1729 the Corsicans, irritated by a new hearth-tax known as thedue seini, rose in revolt, their leaders being Andrea Colonna Ceccaldi and Luigi Giafferi. As usual, the Genoese were soon confined to a few coast towns; but theRevolt of 1729.intervention of the emperor Charles VI. and the despatch of a large force of German mercenaries turned the tide of war, and in 1732 the authority of Genoa was re-established. Two years later, however, Giacinto Paoli once more raised the standard of revolt; and in 1735 an assembly at Corte proclaimed the independence of Corsica, set up a constitution, and entrusted the supreme leadership to Giafferi, Paoli and Ceccaldi. Though the Genoese were again driven into the fortresses, lack of arms and provisions made any decisive success of the insurgents impossible, and when, on the 12th of March 1736, the German adventurer Baron Theodor von Neuhof arrived with a shipload ofKing Theodore of Corsica.muskets and stores and the assurance of further help to come, leaders and people were glad to accept his aid on his own conditions, namely that he should be acknowledged as king of Corsica. On the 15th of April, at Alesani, an assembly of clergy and of representatives of the communes, solemnly proclaimed Corsica an independent kingdom under the sovereignty of Theodore “I.” and his heirs. The new king’s reign was not fated to last long. Theopéra bouffenature of his entry on the stage—he was clad in a scarlet caftan, Turkish trousers and a Spanish hat and feather, and girt with a scimitar—did not, indeed, offend the unsophisticated islanders; they were even ready to take seriously his lavish bestowal of titles and his knightly order “della Liberazione”; they appreciated his personal bravery; and the fact that the Genoese government denounced him as an impostor and set a price on his head could only confirm him in their affection. But it was otherwise when the European help that he had promised failed to arrive, and, still worse, the governments with which he had boasted his influence disclaimed him. In November he thought it expedient to proceed to the continent, ostensibly in search of aid, leaving Giafferi, Paoli and Luca d’Ornano as regents. In spite of several attempts, he never succeeded in returning to the island. The Corsicans, weary of the war, opened negotiations with the Genoese; but the refusal of the latter to regard the islanders as other than rebels made a mutual agreement impossible. Finally the republic decided to seek the aid of France, and in July 1737 a treaty was signed by which the French king bound himself to reduce the Corsicans to order.
The object of the French in assisting the Genoese was not the acquisition of the island for themselves so much as to obviate the danger, of which they had long been aware, of its falling into the hands of another power, notably GreatIntervention of France, 1738.Britain. The Corsicans, on the other hand, though ready enough to come to terms with the French king, refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of Genoa even when backed by the power of France. A powerful French force, under the comte de Boissieux, arrived in the spring of 1738, and for some months negotiations proceeded. But the effect of the French guarantee of Corsican liberties was nullified by the demand that the islanders should surrender their arms, and the attempt of Boissieux to enforce the order for disarmament was followed, in the winter of 1738-39, by his defeat at the hands of the Corsicans and by the cutting up of several isolated French detachments. In February 1739 Boissieux died. His successor, the marquis de Maillebois, arrived in March with strong reinforcements, and by a combination of severity and conciliation soon reduced the island to order. Its maintenance, however, depended on the presence of the French troops, and in October 1740 the death of the emperor Charles VI. and the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession necessitated their withdrawal. Genoese and Corsicans were once more left face to face, and the perennial struggle began anew.
In 1743 “King Theodore,” supported by a British squadron, made a descent on the island, but finding that he no longer possessed a following, departed never to return. The Corsicans, assembled in diet at Casinca, now electedSardinian and British Intervention, 1746.Giampietro Gaffori and Alerio Matra as generals and “protectors of the fatherland” (protettori della patria), and began a vigorous onslaught on the Genoese strongholds. They were helped now by the sympathy and active aid of European powers, and in 1746 Count Domenico Rivarola, a Corsican in Sardinian service, succeeded in capturing Bastia and San Fiorenzo with the aid of a British squadron and Sardinian troops. The factious spirit of the Corsicans themselves was, however, their worst enemy. The British commander judged it inexpedient to intervene in the affairs of a country of which the leaders were at loggerheads; Rivarola, left to himself, was unable to hold Bastia—a place of Genoese sympathies—and in spite of the collapse of Genoa itself, now in Austrian hands, the Genoese governor succeeded in maintaining himself in the island. By the time of the signature of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, the situation of the island had again changed. Rivarola and Matra had departed, and Gaffori was left nominally supreme over a people torn by intestine feuds. Genoa, too, had expelled the Austrians with French aid, and, owing to a report that the king of Sardinia was meditating a fresh attempt to conquer the island, a strong French expedition under the marquis de Cursay had, at the request of the republic, occupied Calvi, Bonifacio, Ajaccio and Bastia. By the terms of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle,Renewed French Intervention.Corsica was once more assigned to Genoa, but the French garrison remained, pending a settlement between the republic and the islanders. In view of the intractable temper of the two parties no agreement could be reached; but Cursay’s personal popularity served to preserve the peace for a while. His withdrawal in 1752, however, was the signal for a general rising, and once more, at a diet held at Orezza, Gaffori was elected general and protector. In October of the following year, however, he fell victim to avendettaand the nation was once more leaderless. His place was taken for a while by Clemente Paoli, son of Giacinto, who for a year or two succeeded, with the aid of other lieutenants of Gaffori, in holding the Genoese at bay. He was, however, by temperament unfitted to lead a turbulent and undisciplined people in time of stress, and in 1755, at his suggestion, his brother Pasquale was invited to come from Naples and assume the command.
The first task of Pasquale Paoli, elected general in April at an assembly at San Antonio della Casabianca, was to suppress the rival faction led by Emanuele Matra, son of Gaffori’s former colleague. By the spring of 1756 this was done, and the Corsicans were able to turn a united front against the Genoese. At this juncture the French, alarmed by a supposed understanding between Paoli and the British, once more intervened, and occupiedPasquale Paoli.Calvi, Ajaccio and San Fiorenzo until 1757, when their forces were once more called away by the wars on the continent. In 1758 Paoli renewed the attack on the Genoese, founding the new port of Isola Rossa as a centre whence the Corsican ships could attack the trading vessels of Genoa. The republic, indeed, was now too weak to attempt seriously to reassert its sway over the island, which, with the exception of the coast towns, Paoli ruled with absolute authority and with conspicuous wisdom. In the intervals of fighting he was occupied in reducing Corsican anarchy into some sort of civilized order. The vendetta was put down, partly by religious influence, partly with a stern hand; the surviving oppressive rights of the feudalsignoriwere abolished; and the traditional institutions of the Terra di Comune were made the basis of a democratic constitution for the whole island.
As regarded the relations of Corsica all now depended on the attitude of France to which both Paoli and the republic made overtures. In 1764 a French expedition under the comte de Marbeuf arrived, and, by agreement withCorsica sold to France.Genoa, garrisoned three of the Genoese fortresses. Though Genoese sovereignty had been expressly recognized in the agreement authorizing this, it was in effect non-existent. French and Corsicans remained on amicable terms, and the inhabitants of the nominally Genoese towns actually sent representatives to the nationalconsultaor parliament. The climax came early in 1767 when the Corsicans captured the Genoese island of Capraja, and occupied Ajaccio and other places, evacuated by the French as a protest against the asylum given to the Jesuits exiled from France. Genoa now recognized that she had been worsted in the long contest, and on the 15th of May 1768 signed a treaty selling the sovereignty of the island to France.
The Corsicans, intent on independence, were now faced with a more formidable enemy than the decrepit republic of Genoa. A section of the people indeed, were in favour of submission; but Paoli himself declared for resistance; and among those who supported him at theconsultasummoned to discuss the question was his secretary Carlo Buonaparte, father of Napoleon Bonaparte, the future emperor of the French. Into the details of the war that followed, it is impossible to enter here; in the absence of the hoped-for help from Great Britain its issue could not be doubtful; and, though the task of the French was a hard one, by the summer of 1769 they were masters of the island. On theFrench conquest.16th of June Pasquale and Clemente Paoli, with some 400 of their followers, embarked on a British ship for Leghorn. On the 15th of September 1770, a general assembly of the Corsicans was summoned and the deputies swore allegiance to King Louis XV.
For twenty years Corsica, while preserving many of its old institutions, remained a dependency of the French crown. Then came the Revolution, and the island, conformed to the new model, was incorporated in France as aCorsica and the revolution of 1789.separate department (see Renucci, ii. p. 271 seq.). Paoli, recalled from exile by the National Assembly on the motion of Mirabeau, after a visit to Paris, where he was acclaimed as “the hero and martyr of liberty” by the National Assembly and the Jacobin Club, returned in 1790 to Corsica, where he was received with immense enthusiasm and acclaimed as “father of the country.” With the new order in the island, however, he was little in sympathy. In the towns branches of the Jacobin Club had been established, and these tended, as elsewhere, to usurp the functions of the regular organs of government and to introduce a new element of discord into a country which it had been Paoli’s life’s work to unify. Suspicions of his loyalty to revolutionary principles had already been spread at Paris by Bartolomeo Arena, a Corsican deputy and ardent Jacobin, so early as 1791; yet in 1792, after the fall of the monarchy, the French government, in its anxiety to secure Corsica, was rash enough to appoint him lieutenant-general of the forces and governor (capo comandante) of the island. Paoli accepted an office which he had refused two years before at thehands of Louis XVI. With the men and methods of the Terror, however, he was wholly out of sympathy. Suspected of throwing obstacles in the way of the expedition despatched in 1793 against Sardinia, he was summoned, with the procurator-general Pozzo di Borgo, to the bar of the Convention. Paoli now openly defied the Convention by summoning the representatives of the communesRevolt under Paoli.to meet in diet at Corte on the 27th of May. To the remonstrances of Saliceti, who attended the meeting, he replied that he was rebelling, not against France, but against the dominant faction of whose actions the majority of Frenchmen disapproved. Saliceti thereupon hurried to Paris, and on his motion Paoli and his sympathizers were declared by the Conventionhors la loi(June 26).
Paoli had already made up his mind to raise the standard of revolt against France. But though theconsultaat Corte elected him president, Corsican opinion was by no means united. Napoleon Bonaparte, whom Paoli hadBritish occupation, 1794-1796.expected to win over to his views, indignantly rejected the idea of a breach with France, and the Bonapartes were henceforth ranked with his enemies. Paoli now appealed for assistance to the British government, which despatched a considerable force. By the summer of 1794, after hard fighting, the island was reduced, and in June the Corsican assembly formally offered the sovereignty to King George III. The British occupation lasted two years, the island being administered by Sir Gilbert Elliot. Paoli, whose presence was considered inexpedient, was invited to return to England, where he remained till his death. In 1796 Bonaparte, after his victorious Italian campaign, sent an expedition against Corsica. The British, weary of a somewhat thankless task, made no great resistance, and in October the island was once more in French hands. It was again occupied by Great Britain for a short time in 1814, but in the settlement of 1815 was restored to the French crown. Its history henceforth is part of that of France.