King Theodore of Corsica. By Percy Fitzgerald, M.A. (Vizetelly and
Co.)—We cannot affect to congratulate the conductor of the new series, "People who have made a Noise in the World," on the felicity of the title. There are, indeed, some good subjects to be included in it ; but it will be difficult to keep to the true métier, which we take to be something of the tragi-comedy kind. Poor Theodore of Corsica, as he called himself, actually Theodore- Stephen do Nouhoff, of Westphalia, certainly fits it to a nicety. His plans, from the first, were eminently melodramatic. Their foundation was a scheme of Turkish domination in Italy and Austria. Verily the champions of oppressed nationalities are con- tent with strange allies I Would the Irish Nationalists be willing to substitute the Crescent for the Union Jack P Theodore was crowned (with a wreath of laurel and oak) on May 2nd, 1736. His actual stay in the island was about a year and a half. In November, 1736, he landed at Leghorn, and proceeded to peregrinate Europe begging for help. Meanwhile the Genoese obtained French assistance, and Corsica was pacified. Still Theodore's hopes were not extinguished. A general European war was imminent (the war in 1743), and he trusted that England would give him back what France had robbed him of. An English squadron did arrive at the island on January 30th, 1743, with the " King " on board, He issued a proclamation, dated on that day, "in the seventh year of our reign." But the Genoese Minister had been at work in London ; and a proclamation came out for- bidding all English subjects to abet the "Corsican rebels." In the course of the year, Theodore was in London, and there he remained for the rest of his life. In 1750 he was imprisoned for debt. Five years afterwards, he was released by virtue of an Act of Parliament, returning in his schedule of effects, "that he is entitled to the Kingdom of Corsica, and hath no other estates or effects but in right of that kingdom." Eighteen months after- wards, he died at No. 5 Little Chapel Street, Soho, in the house of a tailor who humanely took him in. The farce of royalty was kept up to the last. The corpse lay in state. But the undertaker's bill seems never to have been settled ; at least, the copy printed shows an undischarged balance of .22 3s. 2d. A son of Theodore killed himself forty years afterwards in a state of extreme destitution.
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