Star. — London, England, 1817-03-19 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGC HOUSE OF LORDS, MARCH 11. The Silk Bounty Bill and the Annual indemnity Bill passed through Committees, and were reported. The Mutiny Bill, and the Royal Marine Mutiny Bill, were brought up from the House of Commons by Mr. brogdan, and other Members, and read a first time. Tie Earl Of LAUDERDALE asked, whether jbere was any alteration in she Mutiny Bill f The Earl of LIVERPOOL replied, that It was only far six inentka ia.tearl of twelve,. as the Estimates for the year were to be considered at a feline period. He was not aware of any other material aheration—if there was any, be would Mention it in the course of the progress of the Bill BONAPARTE. The Order of the Day having been read, Lord HOLLAND said, in rising to call the at tention of their Lordsh.ps to the motion of which be had given notice, he wished .to be distinctly under stood as to the motives which had induced hitt to bring them forward. Whist he might in some de gree be influenced by compassion and humanity to wards the individual, who had in so extraordinary a manner been exiled to the island of St. Helena , ' he Must say, that his chief, if not his only motive, was to rescue the character of Parliament and the Country from that stain, which would attach, if any harsh or ungenerous treatment had been used towards Napo leon Bonaparte. He had nu wish to enter again into the discussinn of the justice or policy of the confine ment of Bonaparte in the island of St. Helena; he arias ready to admit that his Majesty's Ministers in bringing forward the very extraordinai y measure by which the unction of Pediment was given to that confinement, had the public opinion along with them, and he was not now disposed again to quetti , in the measure. The grounds were kn iwn upon which he had opposed that measure ; but lie was not such a coxcomb as to imagine that the opinions he then ex pressed, and in which the two Houses of Parliament disagreed, would now have any weight. Leaving, therefore, all questions as to the justice or policy of the exile and confinement of Bonaparte at St. Helena out of the consideration, he-merely looked to the per sonal treatment of that individual, with the view that the character of Parliament and the Country might be relieved from the odium, which must of course attach, in the public opinion, not only of this coun try, but of Europe, to any unnecessary severity or harshness used towards Napoleon Bonaparte ; with the view also that the character of Parliament and the Country should stand right in die eyes of poste. rity, who would not fail to judge with severity of any netiot unnecessary harshness used towards an indivi dual so exiled and imprisoned—(Hear, hear).—As to any other motives that might be insinuated against him, if his character and coaduct were not sufficient to shield him from such imputations, certainly no. thing be could say would have ary effect for such a purpose. Trusting, however, that the character he hid maintained, and the conduct he had evinced, would effectually shield him from such imputations, he felt himself fully authorized in treating such potations with the utmost contempt. He had not been influenced upon the present occasion hy any po litical hostility to his Majesty's Ministers. he looked to the character of the Government as well as that of Parliament and the Country, and an this view was as solicitous that any stain with regard to harsh and ungenerous treatment of Bonaparte should be re moved Irom the character of the Government as from that of Parliament and the Country. The grounds upon which the measure was brought forward, which was to give powers to his Majesty's Goverment to imprison Bonaparte in the Island eel St. Helena, were. that it was required in order to preserve the tran quillity 4 01 Europe, and through that the safety of this Country. Necessity was then the express ground for this extraordinaty measure, and undoubtedly the Parliament in passing it never contemplated that any more severity was to be used than was actually re. quired for the purposes of safety. It had been well said, upon another occasion, by the Noble and Learn ed Lord on the Woolsack, that what necessity creates necessity limits; and applying this to the case of Napoleon Bonaparte, he must say that no other re striction ought to be imposed than what was actually necessary for his safe custody—(Hea►, hear).—Nn other species of restriction was in the contemplation of Parliament when the Bill for the safe custody of Bonaparte was passed, and it was for the express purpose of this safety that St. Helena was chosen.— The choice of this spot was, in other resFects, at tended by cousiderable inconveniencies, and he be. lieved he might se/ that an expense altogether of from one to two hundred thousand pounds a-year was, by this choice, entailed upon the country (Hear, hear).—This estimate might be exaggerated, but certainly the expense of the custody of Bonaparte was very considerably greater at St. Helena than it would have been in any other situation. If it were a t a ll necessary, therefore, to impose harsh restric tions upon this individual, St. Helena must, alter all, have been very ill chosen—(Deer, hear). —He trust ed, however, it would be satisfactorily shewn, that all the reports upon the subject of harsh treatment towards Bonaparte were utterly unfounded, and he should greatly rejoice if that were the result. His object was, that an opportunity to prove the rumours which had been circulated upon this point, to be totally unfounded, should be distinctly afforded. or if any pan of them were true, that Parliament should interfere to correct the treatment—(Hear, hear).— In bringing forward these mations, he begged to dis claim the slightest intention of throwing any imputa tion whatever upon Sir Hudson Lowe, an Officer whom he knew to possess many good qualities, and who, he was satisfied, would not• exceed his instruc tions with regard to the treatment. of his cap:ive.— From the part which he (Lord Holland) had taken I in• the discussion of the Bill regarding the custody of Napoleon Bonaparte, and his Protest, which was re corded on the Journals, it was natural that complaints respecting the treatment of that individual should ✓each him so:mer than they could the public in general; and from this cause lie had received, during the last three or-tour months, several rumours respecting the conduct observed towards Bonaparte--(Hear, hear). These, bowerer,eolning as they did, in an unauthen- Gusted shape, he dill "not think worthy of attention. At length abtataineat bad appeared, bearing prima fait the stamp of authority, and referring to ( l oco . Assents which give it the-air of authenticity. He 1 4 . mented the publication of the statements upo n t hi s ▪ *et, because be wished that they should not have been published until by their being noticed in Paha- '~yh Rent, the refutation could have been published along, with the statements. These papers, however, having met with publicity, it became doubly imperative that some steps should be taken, either to disprove the truth altogether of the allegations of fact contained in these statements, or if there was any truth in them, to.correct the treatment complained of. With re spect•to the allegations themselves, it was stated, that additional restrictions had been imposed upon Bona pane, with regard to the space allowed him for ex ercise. St. Hsiena, he believed, enjoyed, generally speaking, a very good climate, but it was neverthe less true, as be understood, that the upper part of it, where Bonaparte was confined, was of that species of climate, which from its dampness was calculated to aggravate the evils of imprisonment. It Was also stated, that the hours at which exercise could be taken with the most comfort, and in a manner the most conducive tohealth, were those during which all ingress and egress were interdicted to Longwood. This was a point which undoubtedly deserved inquiry, in order that the evils of imprisonment might not be needlessly aggravated. It was also alledged, that Bonaparte was deprived of the means of subscribing to journals, or of procuring the books he wanted, and this he (Lord Holland) should have considered of itself sufficient to warrant a Parliamentary inquiry. He was utterly at a loss to imagine what reason could exist for refusing to Bonparte the permission of ob. taining such journals as he wanted, in order to af ford him information respecting recent events, nor could he look upon such a restriction, if it existed, in any other light than as a needless aggravation of the calamities of the prisoner. Another topic of com plaint was, that Bonaparte was not all iwed to send a sealed letter to the Prince Regent, being informed that it must be sent open, that the contents might he seen. This involved a question of no small impor tance, particularly at the present moment, when the liberties of tile people were placed at the disposal of his Majesty's Government. Was it to be endured, , that prisons placed in confinement should not hare the means of forwarding their complaints to their Sovereign, or that when possibly the subject matter of that complaint might involve the conduct of the individual in whose custody they were placed, that individual should have the power of inspecting the contents of the letter, and thus in consequence the treatment of the prisoner might be rendered more harsh and vexatious ? He knew of no law under which such an authority was derived. It might be said that the law never contemplated such an impri sonment as that to which Napoleon Bonaparte was sentenced, but he could not conceive that any general principle of law could be construed to prevent that individual from communicating his complaints in a sealed letter to the Prince Regent; nor could he con. ceive the existence of any principle to prevent the il lustrious individual exercising the functions of sove reignty from using his own discretion as to whether he would receive.a sealed letter or not. It might be said that there was an etiquette to be observed upon this point; but at any rate he thought it there was such an etiquette, it ought to be confined to the Se cretary of State, and that a sealed letter to the Prince Regent ought at any rate to be allowed to reach in that state, the office of the Minister. He was ready to admit that it was not fitting to allow an unre strained correspondence to an individual placed i.i that state of imprisonment to which Bonaparte had been sentenced, but it was going much too far to say, that he should not be allowed, in a sealed letter, to solicit the clemency of the Prince Regent, with a view to the mitigation of his situation, particularly when that illustrious individual was so humanely dis posed to mercy and clemency. He could not but think also, that much injustice was done to Bona parte, in not allowing him the means of writing an account of his former acts. Many prejudices had been excited against him, many crimes had been im puted to him, some justly and others unjustly ; and surely it was but bare justice to allow him to speak' for himself, to do away, if he could, the impressions against him; to appeal to posterity against the judg ment of the present age. Not to allow him to do so, was indeed a loss to the world, by depriving it of i much valuable and important information. He now came to the financial part of the subject. It appeared by the statement of Count Monthol in. to which he had alluded, that the sum of £20,000 per annum, the amount originally fixed for the maintenance of Botlapaite was to be reduced to £B,OOO. In arguing that this was unjust, it might be asked, why he, who was fur reducing as low as possible all the establish-, merits of the country, should be only hostile to the reduction of the establishment of Bonaparte ? To this he had to answer, that were Bonaparte confined in any other place, he should think 48,000 per an num fully sufficient for his establishment ; but St. Helena had been chosen as the place of his imprison ment, because it combined the greatest means of safety, and it was attended with this disadvantage, that the expense of obtaining the common corn forts and necessaries of life was enormously large._ It was in this view, that he objected to the reduction of the annual sum hitherto appropriated to the main tenance of Bonaparte, because undoubtedly lie ought not to be deprived of the means of procuring those common comfotts and necessaries, and it was in fact so doing to tell him that eight thousand pounds only would be allowed, and he must find the other twelve thousand where lie could. He wished most anxiously that these statements might be found to be mere fa brications, but it was impossible to shut their eyes to I these allegations of fact. It was not merely the pub lic opinion of the present day, perhaps prejudiced or warped, to which they were to look, but to the judg ment of posterity, unbiassed by any of those motives which now operated to obscure the judgment. The judgment of posterity, it was well known, was in many instances decidedly at variance with the opi nions of those amongst whom the circumstances to which it related occurred. Take, for instance, the case of Wary, Queen of Scots: nobody now doubted of her guilt, but every one must regret that the glo rious reign of Queen Elizabeth should be deeply stained by the harsh and ungenerous treatment of her rival. The allegations of fact which he had stated, were of that importance that undoubtedly de served the serious attentica of their Lordships (and he could not but observe with regard to St. Helena, that before Bonaparte quitted Elba, the sending him to Sc. Helena was talked of at the Congress of Vienne.) The statements were of too much impor tance, as involving the character of the Government.; the Parliament, and the country. not to excite atten , tion. He thought it especially incumbent upon the House to take steps either to disprove these state ments, or to correct the evil, and as the Noble. Earl i at the head of the Treasury was fond of precedents, he would mention one in point. When the late Mr. Pitt, either in 09 . 8 or 1799, found th it the most ! calumnious statements were circulated in France, with regard to the treatment of toe French prisoners f in this country, that Minister himself moved for a Committee to inquire into the subject, before whom he laid all the d cuments relating to it ; the result was the complete and triumphant disproval of all those calufrnious statements, by which they were totally put down. ht this case, in like manner, he! called upon their Lordships to disprove to the world' the statements that had been put forth respecting the I harsh and ungenerous treatment of Napoleon, and should his motto() have the effect of producing in the result of the inquiry facts which would utterly dis- I pro , 'e the allegations of :act that had been published, I he should must sincerely rtjoice in it. All that he was anxious for was that such an opportunity should be distinctly afflrded, and that it should be clearly proved that no stain whatever rested upon the coun try with regard t the treatment of this individual. He did not mean to assert the trtrh of the statements to which he had referred, of their truth he knew no thing, but the y had been put forth in a plausible s''ape, and with the appearance of authentic evidence to support them ; and he thought it was mainly in. cumbent upon the House either to disprove their truth, or if any part of them were trus, to take care that the treatment of this individual should be cor rected, and rendered what in con,rurn fairness and justice it ought to be. His Lordship concluded by moving, for an Address to the Prince R.-gent, pray ing the communication of copies of Instructions issued to the Governor or Governors of St. Helena, respect ing the personal tr eatment of Napoleon Bonaparte; extracts of c.nnorinications from the Governor or Governors of St. Helena, respecting the expense of the mainteranc c of Napoleon Bonaparte, and his attendants; extract: of ditto respecting the personal treatment of Brnaparte; c. mmunications from ditto respecting any application of Bonaparte to send a letter to the Prince Regent, and communications from ditto, respecting any application from Bon a . parte for Religious instruction for the Chodien of Persons accompanying or attending upon him. The last mentioned documents, his Lordship said he moved for in consequence of a rumour, that there Was no person on the island of the religions persua sion of these individuals to communicate religious in structions to the children of some of those who ac ' companied Bonaparte, and which Religious instruc tion had been, it.was said, applied for. Earl BATHURST said, he should give no other answer to the rumours alluded to by the Noble Lori', or to the publication of M. Santini, than to say that they were not deserving of the least credit. He should confine himself to the paper which was from authority, and was addressed by M. Monthohon to Sir Hudson Lowe. He would thew, in the first place, what were the instructions given to Sir Hudson Lowe; and next, that the treatment complained of either grew out of the iostructions, or were absolute falsehoods. The instructions were given, in the first instance, to Si, George Cockburn, and a!terwards from him to Sir Hudson Lowe. Having. been pub lished on the Continent, they had made their way into the prints of this country. By them it would appear, that General Bonaparte was to be considered as a prisoner of war, and that all the restrictions which were necessary to the safe custody of his per son should be put upon him. By that principle, every part of the conduct of Sir Hudson Lowe was regu lated—since then no substantial alteration was made in them, and any alteration that was made was for the benefit of the person himself. The complaints might be classed under two general heads : the re strictions which applied to his communication with others, and those which applied to himself. It was stated in the paper, that he found it impossible to communicate with his wife, his relations, and friends Ha should read from the instructions what referred to this part of the subject. According to these, all letters addressed by Bonaparte to others, were first to be delivered to the Admiral or Governor, and by them to be read; and no letters addressed to him were to be delivered, unless forwarded, in the first instance, to the Secretary of State. The General had been given to understand, that the Governor must forward any communication he might wish to make to the British Government, without any exor cise of discretion upon his part, but that the letter must be left open for his inspection, in order that he might accompany it with such explanations as might be necessary. Such was the rule universally adopted in the case of all prisoners of war. If the General meant to state, that he could not write to his friends, the assertion was not true; but if lie only meant that he could not write to them without leaving the letter open for the inspection of the Governor or Admiral, the instructions required that condition. Ile had I said he could not hear from his relatives, because it was impossible ; that was not the fact, for any letters directed to the Secretary of State would be imme diately sent to him, and ere tram his brother Joseph, the only one that was so addressed, was opened and forwarded. Another complaibt was, that a letter addressed by Lint to the ?since Regent was not per mitted to be sent. The tact was, that he had applied-1 to Sir George Cockburn to know whether he could come that a letter to the Prince Regent should go unopened Sir George Cockburn telerred him to his instructions, and the application was never re newed. The object intended by the condition, that all papers should be opened, was to protect the Go vernor against frivolous charges, and also to enable his Majesty's Government to grant relief to the com plainant, isi case his charges were just, in the most , expeditious manner possible. But if Sir George COckburn had thought proper to forward t!'e letter to his Royal Highness, sealed up,he (Lord Bathurst) should havefelt it his duty to open it before he delivered it. He would allow that it would be a base and un just act to withhold it altogether ; but in this free country, where Ministers were responsible for the acts of the Crown, the Gewernment could not be carried on :without subjecting such communications to the perusal of Ministers. Another complaint was, that all books and publications which related modern times were denied to him. The fact with regard to this charge was, that shootly after the arrival of Ge . send Bonaparte in St. Helena, ie sent a list of books that he wished to have, which list was sent by Qv vernment to a French bookseller in this countt y, with instructions that he should send to Paris for such et them as he could not otherwise pricers. Al! that could he obt lined were f rwarded to the Ce eeral, with an explan •tion why the others were lilt rr(S• cured. He ILO not made any afrlication for French Jeurnal- ; and if the Noble Lori th eight he was bound to supply him with all such patiVc ations, he would tell him that he knew attemrs %etre- maJe 5o keep up a correspondence with that ittlividu il:n the newspepers. He denied thet there WAS eny pratileie don of corteseonafence v..th his heektelier rr haelter. All that was required was, AS :le had already stated, that his cerrespandence should be open. lieerreuld allow that this was a severe though necesery rsstriee tien, in mehoeit.ing a cerrespondence with fr:ends; but lie did not see how ;t could be ennsidered so in those cases. It might be painful to inherit the warns feelings of the heart to the cold nnsympathising eye of a third person ; hut no one bad over he red of a tender note to a hanker. He denied that hls Mere were ever opened by subaltern officers. bir Hudson Lowe had observed the utmost deiicacy in this pest. It was disgusting to notice the utter disre gard to truth that appeared in the voluminons let ters from 3t. Helene. The prnlubiticn of inter. course with the inhabitant; SAS also unteondecl.—• Persons were ptrinitteil, on a peas frau the Gcs. veneer, to vi:it him, even from tale chips ; lit never except with his own consent. The only case of any interruption to his iii,ercourse inhabia tants, was when they were found going to him iii dis guise. Any one could have a pus up in applicaticn. Neither was he refused intercourse with the Officer's of the garrison ; he was informed so by one of ti , s Officers, and had never attempted any intercourse with them since. He came now to the restrictions that were applied to his person. The instructions required that he should be attended by an OCer and one Orderly, when he went without she ei.clusere, but while he remained wet. in it, that was not re quired. The enclosure was originally a circum ference of twelve miles,- but on being abused, it was reduced to eight. He might reside in any part of the island he pleased, it attended by a Cap tain in his Majesty's service. He had refused to wale in his garden in the evening, because sentinels vine placed these ; but Sir H. Lowe caused them to be so stationed that they could not lock at him while walkii,g, yet he still telosed. Would they have the sentinels withdrawn altogether, merely because Bc, neperte wished it-e-or would it amount to a defence for Si r H. Lowe, at the bar of their House, it Bo naparte had eveaped, and he wes called upset to es• ! plans the reason ? What was the situ idols of S;r H. Lowe ? He was placed in the performance of a duty of the most responsible and invidious nature. Should his prisoner escape, the character of the Governor was at stake—and while he continued in custod7, that character was every day assailed by the insoleace of the prisoner, who complained of being subject to what he called unnecessary rigour. Ttie circuit'- . stance of Bonaparte's not having mad- an atntennt to escape, was probably owing to the excellent adap. tation of those precautions of which be complained to the purposes for which they were intended. (Hear.)—He (Earl B.) now came to the point of residence on the island, which had le , ten allecled to by the Noble Lord. On the arrival of General Bonaparte, with Sir G. Cockburn, at St. Helena, the latter was intrusted with the selection of the pae fielder spot fur histeiidence. The Plentetion Huase was specially excepted by the East India Cempan,. On the day after their arrival, the General and tie George Cockburn rode from the town to the i Iterior of the island, for the purpose of making this selec tion. It was the wish of the Government, that, while on the one hand the personal convenience of Bonaparte was considered, so, on the ether, his se cure detention should not be overlooked. In the course of this ride the General selected LongeeneJ tor his residence, and wished to take up his Abode there at the moment, but this was objected to, as the Lieutenant-Governor sould not at the instant n mot e his family. It was agreed, however, that ti a renteval should take place with the lee.st possible delay. The farm-house in the vicinity was then selected, and Bo naparte took up his abode there in a single room. A tent bad been fitted up not far distant, as a retirin: spot for him when he pleased. In this place he was content to dwell until Longwood could be prepared for his reception. He would do any thing sonnet than return to the town ; arid as a proof of the can dour and fairness of the complaints that were tram mitted from St. Helena, he (Earl B.) had to butt., that within two days atter General Bonaparte reef optionally and by his own &site, taken up bis let - ( &lice at the farm, one of his attendants csimpleintel of the harshness of treatment obset ved by Sir GrQii: t Cockburn, in placing him in such a situation, 11.• though the situation was selected aed desired by !Le individual himself.— (Hear, hear.) —When tie Lite tenant-Governor removed trom Longwood, valets altetatiuns and improvements ware made in the house, at the desire of Bonaparte or his attendargs, and in fact every delay was started, and disinclination sliewn to quit the room in the firm, to occupy at house with superior accommodation, because the fa• cilities of communication between the tome .ad the ton nese more frequent and immediate. Mei in the small farm, the General made no complair.t restrictions, but when at Longwood, where Ix ccelf , conimmd a tide of eight miles , he then compla , :t. ot the mode in which his situation had been coicor, - - _ • scribed. Their Lordships knew that the framewrak a house had been sent out to :it. Helena, for pert r accommodation of the prisoner. When it r iircd at its destination, Sir H. Lowe intormed Gat• ral lionaparte of the circumstance, and soliei:ed his opinion as to the use which should be made of thir frame.avoilt, either in the construction of a ho-::e otherwise. It was worth their ohile to attend re reception ttliich this com:nunicatien met with. in the fist place, objected to the frame-work plicabie tl:e object ter which it was sent out, e-: • then itip:iied how long it orculd take t) build a col house and apply the frame-work to the structure. 0 1 being inharned that soch a work oc.'`P: s2acc of five or six years at :east, be OP' • tdat is useless then—l shall not be I:ere hr :lel; 3 time, and it would be unnecessary to or ,7 ?r:nk oork, There will in all likeiihood be a char , ;:e 'Administration of England in less that , toe yeuts; - : a Revolution in France within the same p..i; ' t • either C . *:.:! 1 must obtain niy try 1 ~ I fr '..'• *or or, cruld _ _ nr tb as lc *I liti lon ba pu ▪ s►F • est pe I 5( isco t DO /01 • a 1 (90 • 11C, ti►i 1 • 1;11 2el r ell r i:► - CAI 9 I E• as fOl int • lii 31c ' t I iu • cif bn • ' pu co I tie to 7 1 nit tie 1,0 101 t.l he ;C. if W t V ► u•► . • • ; cti • / CO 1101 • Ir► thr r en su 4r r ItY1 tY to • tet ••:, ex ] Lu , •