I’m still edging my way forward through Napoleon’s memoirs. At a point Napoleon was in discussions with other French about why he had appointed members of his family to various positions as monarchs in other countries.

Napoleon’s strategy is complex, and I’m not going to discuss it here.

I had long suspected that Napoleon used his family because he feared that LOYALTY was a problem if he promoted others.

In his memoirs Napoleon said a remarkable thing which I thought worth mentioning. Napoleon said that in Europe that there WAS NO SHORTAGE OF TALENTED PEOPLE! He said that all sorts of people could rise up and become competitors and enemies!

But the key issue was that he said that there was NO SHORTAGE OF TALENTED PEOPLE!

That to me is a huge compliment to Europeans. I am myself convinced about the talent of our race so it does not surprise me, but it’s lovely to read it from the mouth of a great man who had tremendous experience and who had travelled almost every inch of Europe.