"The examination shall be made in the presence of a person named by the General: the inventory of the effects to be retained, shall be signed by this person as well as by the Rear-admiral, and by the person whom he shall appoint to draw up the inventory.

"The interest on the principal, (according as his property is more or less considerable,) shall be applied to his support; and in this respect the principal arrangements to be left to him.

"For this reason, he can, from time to time, signify his wishes to the Admiral, till the arrival of the new governor of St. Helena, and afterwards to the latter; and if no objection lies to be made to his proposal, the Admiral or the Governor can give the necessary orders, and the disbursement will be paid by bills on His Majesty's treasury.

"In case of death, he can dispose of his property by a last will, and be assured that the contents of his testament shall be faithfully executed.

"As an attempt might be made to cause a part of his property to pass for the property of the persons of his suite, it must be signified that the property of his attendants is subject to the same regulations.

"The disposal of the troops intended to guard him, must be left to the Governor. The latter, however, has received a notice, in the case which will be hereafter mentioned, to act according to the desire of the Admiral.

"The General must be constantly attended by an officer appointed either by the Admiral or the Governor. If the General is allowed to go out of the bounds where the sentinels are placed, one orderly man at least must accompany the officer. When ships arrive, and as long as they remain in sight, the General must be confined to the limits where the sentinels are placed. During this time all communication with the inhabitants is forbidden. His companions in St. Helena are subject, during this time, to the same rules, and must remain with him. At other times it is left to the judgment of the Admiral or Governor to make the necessary arrangements concerning them.

"It must be signified to the General, that if he makes any attempts to fly, he will be put under close confinement; and it must be notified to his attendants, that if it should be found they are plotting to prepare for the General's flight, they shall be separated from him, and likewise put under close confinement.

"All letters addressed to the General, or to persons in his suite, must be delivered to the Admiral or Governor, who will read them before he suffers them to be delivered to those to whom they are addressed. Letters written by the General or his suite, are subject to the same rule.

"No letter that does not come to St. Helena through the Secretary of State must be communicated to the General or his attendants, if it is written by a person not living in the island. All their letters, addressed to persons not living in the island, must go under the cover of the Secretary of State.

"It will be clearly expressed to the General, that the Governor and Admiral have precise orders to inform His Majesty's Government of all his wishes and representations which he may desire to address to it; in this respect they need not use any precaution: but the paper on which such request or representation is written, must be communicated to them open, that they may both read it, and when they send it, accompany it with such observations as they may judge necessary.

"Till the arrival of the new Governor, the Admiral must be considered as entirely responsible for the person of General Buonaparte; and His Majesty has no doubt of the inclination of the present Governor to concur with the Admiral for this purpose.

"The Admiral has full power to retain the General on board his ship, or convey him on board again, when, in his opinion, the secure detention of his person cannot be otherwise effected.

"When the Admiral arrives at St. Helena, the Governor will, upon his representation, adopt measures for sending immediately to England, the Cape of Good Hope, or the East Indies, such officers or persons in the military corps of St. Helena, as the Admiral, either because they are foreigners, or on account of their character or dispositions, shall think it advisable to dismiss from the military service in St. Helena.

"If there are strangers in the island, whose residence in the country shall seem to be with a view of becoming instrumental in the flight of General Buonaparte, he must take measures to remove them.

"The whole coast of the island, and all ships and boats that visit it, are placed under the surveillance of the Admiral. He fixes the places which the boats may visit: and the Governor will send a sufficient guard to the points where the Admiral may consider this precaution to be necessary.

"The Admiral will adopt the most vigorous measures to watch over the arrival and departure of every ship, and to prevent all communication with the coast, except such as he shall allow.

"Orders will be issued to prevent, after a certain necessary interval, any foreign mercantile vessel from going in future to St. Helena.

"If the General should be seized with a serious illness, the Admiral and Governor will each name a physician, who enjoys their confidence, in order to attend the General, in common with

his own physician: they will give them strict orders to give in every day a report of the state of his health.

"In case of his death, the Admiral will give orders to convey his body to England.

"Given at the War Office, July 30th, 1815."

On the 12th of April Lieutenant-general Sir Hudson Lowe was appointed governor of the island of St. Helena, to whom the custody of Buonaparte's person was consigned, under similar regulations to those quoted above. It is not our object to enter into the petty disputes which have occupied the columns of the daily newspapers as to the propriety of Buonaparte's treatment. The governor of the island was under heavy penalties, including the compromisement of his character, as well as the forfeiture of his situation, not to allow of the escape of his prisoner. The conduct of Buonaparte on a former occasion afforded ample excuse for all those restrictions which in any, even the remotest, degree referred to the security of his person. Sir Hudson Lowe was furnished with unequivocal orders from this government, from which it was not at his option to deviate without exhibiting a dereliction of his duty in the important responsibility which had been vested in him.' In attending to these instructions, he could not fail of becoming obnoxious to Napoleon and his adherents: he could not have fulfilled his engagements to his country had it been otherwise. The main grievance would seem to have been, that the Ex-Emperor was so securely watched as to preclude altogether the possibility of his effecting his escape. The frequent and petulant remonstrances of Buonaparte and his dependants to the governor, against the restrictions which had been imposed, absolutely, by the British Government, upon him and suite, might probably have indisposed the former to shew him any indulgence inconsistent with the letter of the instructions under which he acted.

3

In 1817, a memorial was addressed by Buonaparte, through the Count de Montholon, to Sir Hudson Lowe, which excited much attention and sympathy, until Lord Holland brought it into the House of Lords; where it received a

complete refutation from Earl Bathurst, a portion of whose speech on the subject we here subjoin, as it contains, not only the complaints of Buonaparte, but his Lordship's reply to them.

On Tuesday, March 18. 1817, upon a motion made by Lord Holland for the production of papers relative to the treatment of Napoleon Buonaparte in the Island of St. Helena.

"The noble mover had laid the foundation of his motion, partly on a paper written by order of Napoleon, and signed Count Montholon, and partly on rumours which had reached him from other quarters. It was not his (Earl B.'s) intention to reply to these rumours, any more than to a paper signed by a man named Santini, to which no credit whatever was due. It was creditable to the noble Lord, that he had not made that paper the foundation of his remarks; for no one, looking at it for a moment, could fail to perceive that it was full of the grossest misrepresentations. He (Earl B.) should therefore look upon that publication as disavowed, and thus totally unworthy of attention, and should confine his remarks to that paper which certainly was authentic, and which was signed by the Count de Montholon. He should first show to their Lordships what the instructions to Sir Hudson Lowe were, and he should then show that all the complaints contained in that paper, written by order of Napoleon Buonaparte, either arose out of the due execution of those instructions, or were misrepresentations of facts, or were direct and absolute falsehoods. In the first place, as to the instructions to Sir Hudson Lowe, their Lordships had been long in possession of these instructions; for when Admiral Cockburn went out to St. Helena, instructions were given him, which would apply to him while he remained there, and which would also apply to his successor after his departure. These instructions had been published on the continent, whence they had found their way to the papers in this country. That authentic copy had been long before their Lordships, and it was the general opinion they contained nothing improper, considering the end for which they were drawn up. Those instructions considered Napoleon as a prisoner of war, and consequently laid down this general rule, that all restrictions should be imposed which were necessary to his secure detention, but that no restrictions should be imposed which were not necessary to that detention. This principle, he was prepared to show, had actuated all the instructions from his Majesty's Government, and all the steps which Sir Hudson Lowe had taken in pursuance of those instructions. Up to this moment he was prepared also to

state there had been no substantive alteration of those instructions. All the communications from the Government to St. Helena had been rather in the way of explanation than instructions, and whatever change had taken place, either in the explanation of the instructions, or the execution of them, were to the benefit of the person who was the subject of it. He should classify the complaints made respecting the treatment of the individual, and should then read what parts of the instruction applied to the several heads of those complaints. The complaints which had been made, might be reduced under two heads. 1st. Restrictions as to the communication of the prisoner with others, either in writing or personally; and, 2d. Those complaints which apply to the personal treatment of the individual himself. In the first place, as to the communications with others by writing, the noble mover had stated that there was an utter impossibility of his communicating with his wife and child, or relations. Now he (Earl B.) should read the part of the instructions which referred to all communications in writing with the individual in question. The instructions were these:

"All letters addressed to the General, or to persons in his suite, must be delivered to the Admiral or the Governor, (as the case may be,) who will read them before they are delivered to those to whom they are addressed.

"Letters written by the General, or his suite, are subject to the same rule.

« No letter that comes to St. Helena, except through the Secretary of State, must be communicated to the General or his attendants, if it be written by a person not residing on the island; and letters addressed to persons not living on the island, must go under cover to the Secretary of State.

"It will be clearly expressed to the General, that the Governor and Admiral are strictly commanded to inform his Majesty's Government of all the wishes and representations which the General may desire to address to it. In this respect they need not use any precaution; but the paper in which such request or representation is written, must be communicated to them open, that they may read it, and accompany it with such observations as they may think necessary.'

"Thus, then, when Napoleon Buonaparte represented that it was impossible for him to write to those to whom he wished to write, it was not true. If he meant to say that he could not write without those letters being opened, that was merely in conformity to the instructions which had been delivered to the Governor. But he had no right to represent that as an absolute prohibition,