PAOLI, Pasquale de (1725-1807), generalissimo of Corsica, was the son of Giacinto Paoli, a Corsican patriot, and his mother was descended from the old family of the Caporali. He was born in the village of La Stretta in the district of Rostino, 25th April 1725. After the hopes of the Corsicans were overthrown by the French in 1738, he accompanied his father to Naples, where he entered the military college. In an expedition against Calabrian bandits he greatly distinguished himself, and when in 1755 he returned to Corsica he had acquired so high a reputation that he was chosen generalissimo in a full assembly of the people. His refusal to accept Matra for a colleague, led the latter to take advantage of the dissatisfaction of some influential Corsicans to stir up an insurrection. With the aid of the Genoese, Matra for a time made a formidable stand, but after his death in battle Paoli turned his arms against the Genoese with such success that in 1761 they proposed terms of peace. As Paoli would consent to nothing less than the complete independence of Corsica, the Genoese, despairing of their ability to establish a hold on the island, sold it in 1768 to France. The French effected a landing in 1769 with 22,000 men under Count Vaux, and after a stubborn and prolonged resistance Paoli was totally defeated, and, barely succeeding in cutting his way through the enemy, escaped on board an English frigate and went to England. His rule in Corsica, notwithstanding the distraction of the continual struggle to maintain its independent, had been marked by the introduction of many important reforms, such as the remodelling of the laws, the establishment of permanent courts, the regulation of the coinage, and the furtherance of various measures for the encouragement of agriculture, ...