Note 68 — Chapter 4 (continued 2)

Paoli, Pasquale de (1726-1807), the Corsican patriot, was in 1755 elected chief of the island, which he governed with wisdom and prudence, and almost delivered from the rule of the Genoese. But in 1768 the Genoese sold Corsica to the French, and a year later Paoli was overpowered by a French army and forced to escape to England. Here he became an intimate friend of Dr. Johnson, who described him as having ‘the loftiest port of any man he had ever seen.’

At the French Revolution Paoli returned to Corsica, but after an unsuccessful attempt to restore its independence, came back in 1796 to England.—(Translator’s Note.)