The Press. — London, England, 1853-07-02 00:00:00

JULY 2, 1853• Yittraturt. History of the Captirity of Napoleon at St. Helena. By William Forayth. 3 vols. London: Murray. IT would have been better for Sir Hudson Lowe's ►rivate peace of mind and public rrl►u tation had this explanation been published much earlier : such was the sound advice given thirty years ago by Lord Bathurst, when the action against Mr. O'Meara broke down, not from its merits, but because also brought too late. In these cases plaintiffs must be ready, calumny must be combated with facts, ere the disease becomes chronic. Sir Hudson, who had not the pen of a ready writer, and was conscious of his own rectitude, and the approval of his Government, by too long treating the libels with contempt, paid the penalty of standing mute: these uncontradieted state ments were wafted over the world by political and party malice,until his branded name became a byword of Europe, synonymous with the gaoler and the tormentor. The prolonged sug gestion of the false, and suppression of truth, raised prejudices even inLord Liverpool's mind ►cad Scott, Alison, and Lord Campbell confirmed rather than reversed the unfavourable verdict. Difficult as it is to unsettle opinions, settled and familiar as household words, truth is great, and, appearing even in the eleventh hour, must ultimately prevail. A fatality of accidents has delayed the publication of this " emphatically true narrative ;" Sir Hudson had entrusted the editorship of his tardy self-vindication to Sir Harris Nicolas, by whose and his own death new delays arose. The collected materials at last were handed to Mr. Forsyth, who, in the spirit of Hortensius, has stated and tr►ed the issue giving a true verdict according to the evidence. The original ► a id official papers to be grappled with were appalling ; the diary alone of Sir Hudson amounting to thirty-four fblio volumes. At least the antidote equalled the bane, and the means of contradiction were commensurate with the masses of calumny put forth by the 0' Meatus and " pests of literature," who have poisoned the sources of history, and deliberately and systematically disseminated falsehood. The most interesting episode in modern annals has at last become an accom plished and historical fact. Every document is here printed at full length; thus the entire story is told in one work, with no necessity of recur rence to other authorities. The length and number of these necessary papers may occa sionally be tedious, but their pith or marrow is more interesting than any romance, so much stranger is truth than fiction. - - - - Sir Hudson, the governor, cradled in the camp, had seen varied service, and especially in Italy, where his command of the Rangers of Corsica made him master of the language and Machiavellianism of the natives. He felt fully the responsibility of his difficult and un gracious duty of watching over the safe custody of one whose escape from Elba hail set Europe in flames, and, in spite of accumulated provo cations, he discharged " his arduous trust with strict fidelity, discretion, and humanity," com bining secure detention with every practicable indulgence. His shortcomings appear to have arisen more from manner than meaning, from some want of very delicate tact and good taste : thus his kindly-intentioned invitation of Napo leon to dinner, which was repulsed with such scornful derision, was a mistake. His eye, again, microscopic by nature, and necessarily sharpened by his very office, occasionally mag nified molehills into mountains, as when he suspected treason in the colour of green beans and haricots btanca : yet these volumes demon strate how seldom he suspected wrongfully. His situation from first to last partook of the turnkey ; and when, after the death of his pri soner, he was made a scapegoat, few had the moral courage to reopen the past or stand up for an unpopular man. Those who, unfortu nately, have a case and a grievance, become bores to their friends, and doubly so to foes. So when the Whigs, who had hallooed on every cabal cry and calumny, came into power, Sir Hudson died neglected, without place or pension, and poor indeed, his good name filched front him, to be restored only now when praise or blame is indifferent. • • THE PRESS. The captivity of Napoleon opened and ended witlt false pretensions and misconceptions of his position. He was neither a Charles Y. nor a Themistoeles, neither an ex-Emperor nor a renegade guest. Placed by Europe out of the pale of political relations, he surren dered a prisoner of war at discretion and without terms, when escape was impossible. and the deck of the Bellerophon was deemed safer than the ditches of Vincennes. Treated Its a general only, his wounded vanity of vanities never fin-gave the denial of the imperial title; and to this constant cause Of irritability much of the subsequent difficulties—so much is there in a mime—must be traced. 'Vet Sir linilson, on this point, only did his strict duty, according to his peremptory instructions from home. The bauble prefix of " ex-Emperor" might have been indulged to one who, when on a real throne, had made gingerbread kings by the dozen, anti whose titles, by his ktrace, still exist. The soreness of the " General' was kept up by the petty court of Longwood, which, ill-selected and ill-assorted as it was, at least agreed on this point of pretension. Mr, For syth, whose sympathies, on beginning his work, were all in Napoleon's favour, is coin pelted by stern facts once more to de throne the Great Napoleon. Stripped of the ermine and externals of the Tuileries, the Jupiter Seapin stands revealed, and the monarch is lost in the man, for he was not a gentleman in any sense of the word. The early habits anti idiosyncrasies of one raised suddenly from the barracks to the palace reap pear ; for la ravine seat rs le ha 'vow. N icon, when seen so near, exhibited himself as a hero neither to the eyes otitis valet nor his so called "gaoler." His ordinary phraseology of the choicest vernacular Corsican tonneked more Of the camp than the court of l'a'ser. The coarsest, most indecent terms were applied nlike to his " courtiers" as to Sir Hudson, who, feeling what was tine to himself, never lost his temper; and his impassible " phlegm," on which the feria Francesca bent, vainly, us the surge does on the rock, only maddened Napoleon, from whom he parted at his last interview with the observation, " Your re marks force me to smile, while your rudeness causes my pity.' _ _ Napoleon, whose policy and practice through life was "La ruse doublet) de force," com menced such a system on landing. He hoped to obtain his release by fixing the eyes of Europe on his rock. He calculated on the reaction Of good men's minds, on the pity—akin to love — for greatness fallen from such a pride of place, and trusted that a generous enemy would forgive his crimes in the excess of punishment. He felt sure of enlisting in his favour every spurious sympathy of revolutionary hero worshippers ; he succeeded in becoming the cynosure of party out of power ; and his monologues and mystitications were bolted as gospel from Brookes's to Botany Bay ; the bulletins of the caged eagle were manu ti►ctured after "the old style,' and he never wanted agents. In England peers were ready to recite them in the House, and " Perry Of the Uhroniele to assist publication :" while at St. Helena him knowledge of character and powers of fascination secured a supply of ready recipients, whose long cars he converted into closu•ns of calumny and untruth. The real character of the mouthpieces through whom he used to bear his false witness is now revealed by Mr. Forsyth, and we will take the reporters seriatim. Mr. Warden, thin navy surgeon,—one of a (lass Napoleon had a knaek of catching,—Was the first " Voice from St. Helena" to raise the cuckoo note of scandalous treatment, privation, an►l shortening of days. This titr sago, which purported to have been written On board the Northumberland, was dressed up in London, and so badly that even Gourgand —a good judge of a, lie—pronounced it a "tissu des menmongem," and, however re eommended by the Edinburgh Rerieir, was classed among the " eoglionerie " by even Napoleon, who turned on his blundering tool us "an fat," a fool. The next "Appeal to the British Nation" was put fiwth under the MUM of' Santini, an ex-mervant and tailor at Longwood, whose ex pulsion was contrived fur this very purpose by Napoleon. Arrived in London, the agent found out by instructions ono Colonel Mueeroni of NI tarot notoriety, who wrote the brochure, " full of lies," sai►l even the arch-originator. The grand manifesto w•as issued by the sur geon O'Meara, and dedicated to lady Holland. and its title to credit and " uninq►eaehed ac etnnry was also certified by the Edinburgh Eerie..• (June. Is2ll. The author, who. it may be added, also had served in Corsica, was skilled in that tongue no less than in his Hibernian blarney, and l►leased Napoleon on the rock, as he afterwards did a rich widow, who took him tOr her third husband, the first having been hanged fOr poisoning a relation This witness, when placed in Mr. Forsyth'ii hands, tutus out to have been a volunteer spy and betrayer of all 'unties. Pledged to seerec) by Napoleon, he communieated what he heard to Sir Hudson, the newspapers. and friends at !MW. By one of the latter at the Admiralty these were shown to Lord ltatluu•st, who, most unfairly to Sir Hud son Lowe, encouraged their continuance without communicating the fact to hint. This private correspondence is now proved to vary importantly front his printed I►ook ; and he stands co n victed on his own showing of forgery and falsehood His bulletins of his patient's health were cooked for the purpotte of exaggerating illness, and attributing to the climate of St. Helena a liver complaint, which at the subsequent autopsy wits proved never to have existed. This awkward filet, which put an end to all hepatical inventions, was the true reason why Antommarehi, at the advice of Bertrand, refused to sign the certificate of his colleague dissectors. O'Meara, when found out by Sir Hudson, and dismissed front the service, vowed a Corsican revenge, and then raised his falsetto voice against the " governor and his gang." Mow lacrywee ! In like manner, the Edinburgh lierietr's romance of Lam Caties's " generous devotion " to his fidlen master vanishes when tested by the touchstone of facts. This versatile, jesuitical amanuensis was originally a vain litteratair, whose real object of joining the exile was to (silica matet•ials f i n• a book of his own, and. when his Bonaparte budget was complete, in vented a trick to get himself arrested as if for sending messages to Istril Holland and Cobbett. He then courted exile front Longwood, and sel fishly refused to return when Napoleon, who used hint, desired it. Las Cases kept a sort of Boswell diary, and the object of his "pennies," a composition rather than a real journal, was to raise his Emperor to the " godhead." General Gourgitud, with whom Scott ditlered and would have done battle in duello, front main • nutting a sort of independence at Longwood, was so treated " like a dog" that he petitioned to be removed from St. Helena, and on his return was one of the first to expose the conduct of the very O'Meara with whom afterwards ho acted in concert. The Count Montholon also henceforward must rank among the minor satellites of our Jupiter: all parties de rided this poor Polomus, whose nickname at l.omtgw•ood wits " it bugiando," the liar; while Napoleon generally termed him the" imbecile," the " eottliohe ;" and O'Aleant added " bameuess" to this ehantete►• of his coadjutor. Such were the" Voices" by which the world's earhas so long been abused. 11ir.Forsyth, having dissected the joints of the tail, applies his scalpel to the great ex-agitat.s. of Europe himself. It is now cleaves notn that every reasonable indulgence was granted : the eommunientions of Lord Bath rn•st and Sir Hudson an. throughout marked with good sense and feeling. The prisoner had a nowt , of twelve miles fie• exereise, fora• of which were of the strictest privacy. His ol►jeet to get this extended " a force des phi intes" was to increase his means of intrigue and escape : for the former he found ample means, and might have effected the latter had he not feared being shot—like Murat—if taken in tlu. at tempt ; and he felt sure when his friends the Whigs carne into office that he would be set free. His command of money and credit was unlimited ; and all the forced sale of imperial plate, as a means to stave off starvation, Is now shown to be a pure dodge of Napoleon himself, with the special object of giving more colour to the cry of ill-treatment, and this while Sir Hudson, on his own responsibility,