which was only optional. The next complaint was, that he had not received letters from his relations and friends in Europe, and that it was impossible for him to receive them. This was not true; it was not impossible for any of his relations and friends to communicate with him, if they chose to send their letters to the Secretary of State, where they would be opened, and afterwards undoubtedly would be forwarded to him. But there was one preliminary to his receiving letters from his friends, which was, that his friends should write to him; and the fact was, that only one of his relations had written to him, namely, his brother Joseph, whose letter reached the office in October last, where it was opened, and immediately forwarded to him. Another complaint of the same nature was, that he was not permitted to send a sealed letter to the Prince Regent. Of course, Sir Hudson Lowe, if any application had been made to him, would have obeyed the instructions which had been read to their Lordships; but, in point of fact, no application had been made to Sir Hudson Lowe on that subject. An application had indeed been made to Sir Geo. Cockburn, (he believed from Count Bertrand,) to know whether, if a letter were written by the Emperor to the Prince Regent, he would undertake to deliver it without suffering it to be opened by any person. Sir G. Cockburn, of course, could give no such assurance; but all that he could do was to communicate the substance of his instructions respecting letters written by General Buonaparte, and then leave him to his judgment how he might act. Since that time no further application of that nature had been received. In directing that any complaint against the conduct of the Governor towards General Buonaparte, sent to the Government in this country, should be left open, there was not any discretion remaining with the Governor, whether he would or would not transmit them; but, at the same time, he was allowed to enter into an explanation of the allegations contained in the letter. The object of this regulation was, on the one hand, to protect the Governor against frivolous charges, and, on the other hand, if any grave charge could be adduced, to insure relief sooner than would otherwise be possible, because it would not be necessary to send back to St. Helena to inquire into the truth of it, before steps could be taken to remove the inconvenience complained of. It was in that sense that this part of the instructions had been taken by General Buonaparte, as might be inferred from a letter of Sir G. Cockburn to him, of which he should read a passage. The passage ran to this effect:

I have no hesitation in agreeing with you, that the spirit which influenced his Majesty's Government in this part of their

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instructions, was the desire of speedily remedying any inconvenience you might have to complain of; but, though the spirit is favourable to you, they do not lose sight of the circumstance, that it is due in justice to me and my successors, to prevent any complaint against us from being known in Europe for six months without being accompanied by any observation from us.'

"Now, it was clear, that as the Governor was bound to send every charge against him to Europe, that General Buonaparte had no reason whatever to complain. As to the sealed letters to the Prince Regent, he could only say, that if Sir G. Cockburn or Sir Hudson Lowe had thought fit to allow any such letters to come to Europe, sealed up, he (Earl B.) should have felt it to be his duty to open them. He agreed with the noble mover, that if he had prevented any such letters from reaching his Royal Highness, he should have been guilty of a base and unwarrantable breach of duty; but, at the same time, in this country, where the ministers were responsible for the acts of the Sovereign, he did not know how he could discharge his duty, if he did not make himself acquainted with the nature of such communications. The next complaint of General Buonaparte was, that when he had requested to have some books from Europe, those which referred to modern times had been kept back. The fact was this: soon after his arrival at St. Helena, he expressed a wish for some books to complete his library, and a list was made out by General Buonaparte himself, and transmitted to this country. This list was sent to an eminent French bookseller in this town, with orders to supply such of the books as he had, and to obtain the rest from other booksellers. As several of the books were not to be obtained in London, the bookseller was desired to write to Paris for them. He accordingly obtained some of them from Paris, but others of them could not be obtained; those which could not be procured, were principally on military subjects. These books, to the amount of 13 or 1400l. worth, (which the memorial called a few books,) were sent, with an explanation of the circumstances which prevented the others from having been sent. This anxiety to attend to the wishes of the individual in question was not at all taken, in the paper he had referred to, as an excuse for the omission. A complaint connected with this was, that newspapers had been withheld. As to this he should say, that if the noble mover thought that General Buonaparte should be furnished with all the journals he required, he (Earl B.) had a different sense of the course which it was proper for him to pursue. And this opinion was grounded on the knowledge that attempts had been made, through the medium of newspapers, to hold communications with

Napoleon. The next complaint was, that he was not allowed to open a correspondence with a bookseller. Now, this was not true, unless it meant that that correspondence could not be carried on under sealed letters; for there was no reason for preventing that correspondence, unless it was carried on in that particular manner. It was also said that he could not correspond even with his banker or agent. Now it was, in point of fact, open to him to enter upon any such correspondence under the restrictions he had mentioned: and there was no reason why a letter to a banker should be sent sealed up. He (Earl B.) did not deny, that in a correspondence between friends, the necessity of sending letters open was a most severe restriction, because it was impossible to consign to paper the warm effusions of the heart, under the consciousness that it would be subject to the cold eye of an inspector. But this did not apply to a correspondence with a banker. Who had ever heard of an affectionate draught on a banking-house, or an enthusiastic order for the sale of stock? He now came to the most important point of charge, which was, that the letter sent by General Buonaparte, or persons of his suite, were read by subaltern officers. This was not true: Sir Hudson Lowe had exercised the trust reposed in him with the utmost delicacy; and when any letters were transmitted through his hands, had never permitted any individual, however confidential, to see them, whether they were addressed to individuals at home or at St. Helena. It was difficult to know on what general charges were founded; but the following occurrence was the only one which he could conceive to have any reference to it: when Napoleon and his suite were first sent out to St. Helena, from the haste in which the ships sailed, they were left in want of many necessaries, such as linen and other articles of that kind. It was judged that great inconvenience might be felt, if they were obliged to wait till they could send to this country for them; and, accordingly, a considerable quantity of such articles were sent out in anticipation of their wants. It so happened, that about the time when these articles arrived, Las Casas wrote a letter to Europe, which of course came under the inspection of Sir Hudson Lowe, who found that it contained an order for some of those very articles which had been sent out. Sir Hudson Lowe then wrote to Las Casas, to inform him that he had those articles which he had ordered, and which were much at his service, and observed, that it would not perhaps be necessary to send the letter, or that he might now omit that order. Las Casas returned an answer full of reproaches to Sir Hudson Lowe for his presumption, in reading a letter directed to a lady, and for offering him articles out of a common stock, when he knew that he had been solely

supported by the Emperor. Thus was Sir Hudson Lowe treated, and such was the only foundation for this part of the charge. The next complaint was in these words:

"Letters have arrived at St. Helena for officers in the suite of the Emperor; they were broken open and transmitted to you, but you have not communicated them, because they did not come through the channel of the English ministry. They had thus to go back 4000 leagues, and these officers had the grief of knowing that there was intelligence on the rock from their wives, their mothers, their children, and that they could not know the nature of it for six months. The heart revolts at this.'

"Now this was a direct falsehood, for which there was not the smallest foundation. Sir Hudson Lowe, on seeing this passage in the memorial, wrote to Montholon, saying there was no foundation for this charge, and calling on him to give instances. No instances had been given, no answer had been returned; and the reason was this, that the assertion was absolutely false. Indeed, in the voluminous papers which had been transmitted from St. Helena, nothing was more painfully disgusting than the utter indifference to truth shown throughout. Having said thus much as to the restriction on communication by letter with General Buonaparte, he should proceed to the complaints of restraints on his personal intercourse with others. He should read the part of the instructions which referred to this subject, and which had been a year and a half before the country, and to which no objection had ever been made. The words were these:

"When ships arrive, and as long as they are in sight, the General must remain confined within the boundary where sentinels are placed. During this interval, all intercourse with the inhabitants is forbidden.' Such was the letter of the instruction; but the execution of it had been very liberal: : persons who arrived at the island were, on procuring a pass from the Governor or Admiral, permitted to go up to Longwood; but to prevent the privacy of the General from being broken in upon by the curiosity of individuals, they were prevented from going to Longwood, unless they obtained the previous consent of Count Bertrand, or some of the individuals near his person. The complaint that all intercourse with the inhabitants was prevented was untrue. It was true that the inhabitants could not approach him without a pass, but there was no instance in which a pass had been refused, or that any had been prevented from going to him; but those who had been detected in attempting to approach him in disguise, or in false characters. It had been also said, that he had been prevent ed from having any intercourse with the officers of the garrison.

There was no foundation for this. He had on one occasion entered into conversation with an officer of the 53d regiment, in which he bestowed high praises upon that regiment and its officers, (none of which could be too high for their deserts,) and then expressed a regret that all intercourse with them was interdicted him. The officer assured him that no such interdiction existed, at which he expressed some surprise, but since that time he had not more frequent communication with them than he had previously, when he supposed the prohibition which he so much lamented to have existed.

“He had thus answered complaints of restrictions on the communication of Buonaparte with individuals, either by letter or personally; and he should next advert to the charges respecting his personal treatment. The instructions on this subject were these: The General must always be attended by an officer appointed by the Admiral or the Governor, as the case may be. If the General is allowed to go beyond the boundary where the sentinels are placed, he must be accompanied by one orderly-man at least.' Now the practice had been, that during the first period of his confinement, he had a circumference of no less than twelve miles, in which he might ride or walk without the attendance of any officers, and that range was not reduced till it had been found that he had abused the confidence reposed in him by tampering with the inhabitants. That range was now reduced to eight miles instead of twelve, and within that boundary he might at present walk without the attendance of any officer. Beyond those limits he might go over any part of the island, attended by an officer of rank, not lower than a captain in the army. On this ground, therefore, it could not be objected that there was an unreasonable degree of restraint. The next complaint which the noble mover had urged was, that General Buonaparte could not move out of his house at the only time when exercise was healthy in that climate. Now, the fact was, that though he had not free passage through the island after sun-set, he might at any hours walk in his garden. Sentinels were stationed there after sun-set, and he had expressed his dislike to walk where he was thus watched. Sir Hudson Lowe, with every desire to attend to his wishes, after that fixed the sentinels in places where they would not look on him. Would their Lordships wish these sentinels to be removed altogether, just at the time when it was most likely that he should escape? Let them suppose for a moment, that instead of debating on the motion of the noble Lord, that intelligence was brought them by Sir Hudson Lowe that General Buonaparte had actually escaped. Let them suppose, that instead of sitting to