The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-02-26 00:00:00

DR. O'MEARA.

I before stated, that, though I never read the Doctor's
hook, I did publish an article which might induce some
persons to read it. This being the case ; that is to say,
1 basing published an article which, by implication,
might wean, that I thought the Doctor's a good book;
as my opinion would necessarily have a good deal of
weight with many persons; as the book is full of charges
against Sir Hudson Lowe and the Ministers, and divers
other persons : this being the case, I think it a duty—a
duty towards the public, towards all the accused parties,
and towards Sir Hudson Lowe in particular, to insert the
following article from the last Quarterly Review. The
reader will see, that the Reviewer refers his readers to
Mr. MURRAY for a sight of O'NIEARA'S original notes
and letters. Nut able to spare the time myself yesterday,
I sent to Mr. MURRAY a person in whom I ran safely con.
fide. He saw all the notes, copies of which are publish-
ed by the Reviewer, together with several others ; and,
though he is unacquainted with the hand-writing of
O'MEARA, he says, that there cannot be the smallest
doubt of the authenticity of these documents. O'MEARA
has published a letter to the Editor of the Morning
Chroniee, in which he says, that the Reviewer is a
scoundrel; but he does not deny the authenticity of the
documents. The article in the Review relates to all the
books that have been published about the treatment of
Napoleon and the French at St. Helens. The extract
relates to O'MEARA'S book only. I shall make no
comment on this extract : it needs none ; it is conclusive
against every thing short ofproving thenotes to be forge-
ries.

We have engigcd to make O'Meara refute Ii weft,
and to convict him Lsy his own confessions ; and we arc
now alma to produce another batch of his letters, which,
we are confident, will surpass any expectation that can
have been formed of the man's baseness and folly.
Mr. O'Meara 1111 y, perhaps, affect to see some differ-
ence between being a spy for the governor, and a spy
for his official friends in England, or for the booksellers;
but even this paltry subterfuge we shall not allow him ;
we shall show that, after all his rant about principles
and honour, he volunteered to he A sir to the gorcrnor
himsey; and consummated his duplicity by lurciag on
Sir Hudson Lowe his reports, not only of what passed
amongst the men at Longoood, but even interlarded the
details relative to Ws female patients. with sneers and
sarcasms of the Iblitioit kind: we 'could not'have believed
this' on any verbal 'statement whatsoever—nothing, in
short, but the having before our eyes—Os we here—the
proofs, would have induced us to state so incredible a
' fact ; and we now proceed to lay them before the eyes of
our readers.
Sir Hudson Lows was accompanied to St. Helens by
U.ptaln 8k Thomas Read, as aide-de-camp, and Major
(now Lieut.-Colonel) liorteqner. as military secretary.
These two gentlemen partake of course, neat to Sir
Hudson, the boisour of O'Meara's abuse ; almost every
time that he mentions their names it is to east some ridi-
cule or odinM upon them. Yet it is to these gentlemen
that he was is the habit voluntarily of addressing fee-
(pent notes containing the intelligence which we are
about so produce, and which, after all the surgeon's
boasting of Sir Uudson's designs, and of Isis own high
principles of honour, will astonish the world.
In these notes we see no allusion to their bring answers
to any inquiries; and several 1041111(CA distinctly show
that the/ were O'Meara's own unprompted effusions.—
In a note to Sir 'I homes Read, Jahr' the hits of July,
1516. after reeonnsing an anecdote of Madame Bertrand,
(which we shall hereafter quote for another purpose,)
he concludes—
.' // frost think Sir Hudson would like to know the
shove circumstances, you had better communicate them
to Win."
Ilere we find that so little desirous was Sir 111111.011 of
healing tittle-tattle, that in a matter of curiosity aad
importance, (as we shall see when we cone to the awe-
dote itself,).LEMeara speaks.duubsfully about Sir Hud-
son's even n ishin,i to bear any reports. Agali Ise says,
in another note to Sir Thomas Read, dated the 12th
July, 1616 •
" Madan» Bertrand told'Me yesterday, that Las Cases
bad said the Emperor was his god—the object of his vc-

MAN

aeration sod adoration! This‘ele desired ash woe. to
mention, I forgot to tell it to Sir Hudson yeaterclity ; I
dare say it will make him smile."
Here, again,•is a piece of idle chit-chat of no kind
importance, except that Madame Bertrand desired it not
to be repeated ; and vet O'Meara, merely with a view to
rnake Sir Hudson smile, hastens to impart it to Sir Thee.
Read, with a kind of apology for having forgotten to
betray his female patient the very day she bad wade him.
her confidant.
In a third note O'Meara states a certain fact to Sir
Thomas Read, and authorizes him, "if he thinks it
would be acceptable to communiu a'e it to Sir Hudson
Lowe, but not as coming from him."
We suppose our readers will not ask any further proof
that O'Meara's communications of this nature were not
only not forced, but not even asked, from him, and that
they were, io the strictest sense of the word voluntary.
Nor were they what can be called private; for the two
officers seem to have hal no private acquaintance with
O'Meara, and the notes were generally addressed to them
in their officiabeharacters. They usually began with some
matter of business, and then the little anecdotes—speci-
mens of which we are about to produce, were, as if casu-
ally, Adel in. The:honourable minds of SirThos. Read,
and Colonel Gorretpier never conceived the double
treachery which O'Meara was practising, and they
looked upon Mete anecdotes as the ordinary gossip of
a village doctor, and paid little attention to them tilt the
subsequent conduct and calumnies of O'Meara recalled
them to recollection ; and it was found that, by goad
luck, enough of this correspondence ha I been preserved
to .confou no thewriter.
We have Sir Thomas Read's and Colonel Gorrequer's au-
thority for this statement, and the notes themselves are de-
posited in Mr. Murray's hands, to Satisfy any one who
might doubt the accuracy of our quotatiees, which we con-
fess will be scarcely credible.
Let us look at some of the topics of these communications,
and compare them with the corresponding passages of his
work. 'flue reader will see, that to the baseness of " es-
pionnagc— he adds that of falsifying in I.is book the state-
meats which he had originally made.
One of the most grievous, and apparently the least excu-
sable, offences, charged upon Sir Hudson Lowe, is that on
the arrival of the Marquess de Monclsenu, ithe French com-
missioner, at St. Helena, Sir Hudson refused Madame Ber-
trand permission to see, and inquire of the Marquess the
state of her mother's health, whoni he had lately seen ; and
that lie rejected, with equal cruelty, a similar desire from
Las Cases to inquire after his wife.
" July 6th, ISlS.—Madame Bertrand informed Captain
Poppitton and myself, that she had written a letter to M.
alonclienu, in which she had requested him to oall at her re-
sidence. as she had heard that he had seen her mother, who
true in an indifferent stale of health, and she was very de-
sirous to inquire shoot her ; that Las Cases would also come
and meet him on his arrival, as he was informed that Mon-
chenu had seen his rift a short time before his departure
from Paris."—Vol. i. p. 70.
The fact of this letter having been sent direct to the
French commissioner, and without the governor's know-
ledge, was enough of itself to prevent M. de Menclienu's
accepting the invitation ; but this was wrested into a de-
sign of Sir Hudson to tonnent Madame Bertrand, when,
in fact, he only disapproved of the invitation having
been sent by, an improper and secret channel. It is ob-
vious that if Madame Bertrand could have a letter of
invitation irregiearly conveyed, she might equally well
have had letters of another import, and the practice once
established,there would have been no limits to the corres-
pondence, and no check whatsoever on Buonaparte's in-
trigues. But was it, indeed, likely that Madame Ber-
trand's filial piety, and poor Las Cases' uxorious anxiety
were to lie made the cover of a communication of Buona-
parte's?—perhans not likely, but it was so!—the story
of the mother and tqfe was all a fable, and .the whole
was a device of Buonaparte's own to open a canoneni-
cation with the newly arrived Frenehmen ; and the best
part of the affair is, that It was O'Meara hirosel—the
faithful, confidenial, high-minded O'Meara—who be-
trayed the plot, and put Sir Hudson Lowe on his gnarl
against the fraudulent pretences of Madame Bertrand's
letter. On the very day that Madame Bertram I !wide
him the cunfideuce above stated, viz. on the Gth July, he
writes to Sir Thos. Read the following very different ac-
count of it:—
" Madame Bertrand told me this mornitg, that the
letter she wrote to Monclienn seas at the express desire of
Buonaparte.hiniselp repeated twice to her ; and that in
case he had come up, old Las Cases was to have immedi-
ately proceeded to her house in order to have an INTER-
view' with him.
" If you think Sir Unison would like to know the
above circumstances, yen had better communicate them
to him."
Nut a word of the mother—not a word of the rife—
not the slie:litest allusion to ill-health and anxieties : hut
a direct and clear warning to Sir Hnilson Lowe to be-
ware of the girt which Buonaparte had planned, and to
prevent the Is:Tenet euv—which word, in order to mark
his own suspicions that an illegal interview was In-
tended, O'Meara had written in great letters, and doable-
untied i neut.
As Madame Bertrand's letter had been sent privately,
this advice of O'aleara's was all that Sir Hudson Lowe
could have known of the matter, and it is not therefore
surprising that he should have refused his s unction to the
asvreaview, if ever, indeed, his sanction was asked,
which does not appear.
Whst will O'Meara and his friends and admirers say
to this? Here is another dilemma, quite as fatal as that
proposed in Mr. Croker's letter; the mention of the icife,
and mother, and ill health, as stated in his publication,
is either a gross falsehood, or the omitting to mention
them in his note of the same day, and the giving .another
chararter to the tran,ae ion, are gross suppression and
perversion of the truth.
All this happened on the Gth July; yet, under the
date °lithe 11th July. O'Meara relates, in his Journal.
the folloning conversation with Sir 'Hudson :
" His Eewellent y asked me, whether I knew what
they (the French) wunted with the Marquis de Mon-
chenn !—I replied, that Madame Bertrand wished to in-
quire after her mother's health; and that Las Cases was
to have met him at her house, and that I was informed
lie was very anxious tu inquire about hi* wife, se beheld
been told that Munchen's had seen her shortly before his
departure from Paris."—Vol. i. p.
This is evidently a falsehood ; tor, s• lie haul, on the
Gth acquainted Sir Thomas Rend, fur Sir Hodson Lowe's
information, that the letter was a device of Baosnparte's
own, it was impossible that lie shotild have told Sir Hud-
son himself, on the I lth, that it was prompted by Ma-
dame Bertrand'• anxiety about her mother. lint then
comes, what perhaps was a chief object of the whole in-
trigue—the abuse of Sir Hodson Lowe for having been
so wantonly cruel to " poor Madame Bertrand." On
the 13th, 0' Meara describes Buonaparte as a ,ying—
" This Governor is a wretched creature, and wor e than
the island. Remark his conduct to that poor lady, Ma-
dame Bertrand; he has deprived her of the little liberty
she haul, and has prevented peap!e fruin coining to visit
ber."—Vol. i. p. 74.
Again, on the 16th, Buonaparte returns to the subject
with a taste and delicary quite characteristic of Ilion:
" This Governor has really the heart of a hangman, for
nobody but a hangman would unnecessarily increase the
miseries of peopte situated like us, already too unhappy.—
His hands soil every thing that passes through them. See
how he torments that poor lady, Madame Bertrand. '—
Vol. I. p. 74.
What can be said of a man who publishes to the world
. such calumnies in such language, and coacealt —first. tha,
of I

*The italics and large letters are so ;narked in O'Meara's
original note, with the obvious view of "Wing the itavern-
or's suspicions to the real facts of the caw

!~

they are wholly unmerited; and, laCcoaly. that it turret bad
been any thing to Willie, it was prompted by his etrit sag-

gestions !
But while all this brutal insolence against Sir Hudson, on
pretence of his treatment of Madame Bertrand. is thus re-
corded, it appears, from another note of (lateara's to Sic
Thomas Read, that the poor lady herself felt no resent:nen•,
had no complaint to make, and that she herself laid the
blame of nuonaparte's violence against Sir liudsbn on the
malicious representations of Las Cases.
" Madame Bertrand also says, that Las Cases is the nein-
cipa' person who sets Ruonaparie so much agaiu,t Sir
Ilud-
son; and that Duonaparte says, the English Government
have sent out two sharks to devour them, the one Sir GAO,
Cockburn, and the oilier Sir lludson."—Note of titlt July,

1816.
We shall conclude this inipor:unt topic by obtervinr,
that Buonaparte's design in having this letter written
was, probably, not any hope he t mertained of sedating.
M. tie Monchenu ; hot the .Ist of Parliament for regu-
lating the interccurse at St. !Wens had just arrived,
anti the governor, in obedience thereto. had pnblished a
proclamation forbidding (except under certain specified
regulations) any written communication between the
detenus and the other inhabitants. It was to brave this
proclamation that Buonapare immediately on it: pabli-
cation, desired. and by repeated orders obliged Maclaine
Bertrand to break the law and defy the governor's au-
thority ; an I. with his usual artilicr.lte thought it would
sound more cruel to have it said that it was the letter of
a poor lady which was Intercepfed : and—that the letter
itself might not want the sympathy of tender he 'vs
the fable of the wife, and the mother, and the ill-hada,
and the anxiety, nas introduced. In short it is insporsi-
bin to rive a-more s•riliiiig specimen of the canloar and
simplicity of Buonaparte. awl of the honour and accu-
racy of O'Meara, than may be collected from a dee cot -
sideration of the whole of this extraordinary transn-
lion, which, by the f ,rtuaate preservation of O'Meara's
note to Sir Thomas Read, we bare been enabled thus to

develop.
We need not (indeed our limits would not permit i.)
extract the thouswal pavnges in which O'Meara's ptibe-
cation reecats the complaints of the French upon tb.ir
hard usage and ill-treatment; neatly half his book is
composed of them; and all that Warden, Santini, Lis
Cases, and Moniholon, have written on this point, is re .
pealed with additional vehemence and exaggeration by
O'Meara; but as to the truth of these compleiats, and of
the objects for which, and the spirit in which, they wore
mwieby Ituonaparte and his followers, we haveolleara's
own evidence. In another of his precious notes to Sir
Thomas Read, siali July 24, 1816.
I understand from Madame &draw', that they (the
Frew's) hare it in contemplation to forward a letter 4
complaint weainst Sir Hudson Lowe to England (by what
channel! did not understand), containing no dodo( vs-
riOnS UNTRUTHS, and praying that he may he re-called :
you had better ;;ice Sir il wlvon a hint about it; hut let
it be between sou and Me only; as, though 1 have reason
to think soma PLOT us Hammer°, I am not quite snre
of it, and any premat ire disclosure would nut be the
thing."
beg o
Not the thing! elegant O'Meara! And we er
readers to observe his anxiety, lest any premature disclo-
sure should disable him (run detecting the proem-an of
the plot. One is cnrions to know what this plot was, the
hatching of which the close and trusty surgeon ,bus
communicates; what the untruths were of which los
delicacy awl honour apprise Sir Thos. Read. Our read-
ers must remember the famous letter written by Butane
parte himself, and signed by Montholon (reviewed in our
Number of April , 1817.) This letter is the authentic
text-ho k loin which all the partisans of Booesparte
h •ve drawn their facts of his ill-treatment; this letter
waa, we believe, the chief cause of Lord Holland's motion
in the Lords, and furnished the main topie,, of his twee;
this letter, in short, is the authentic and officiel doeisin it
in which are embodied all the hardships and grievances
which ()Arena's publication repeats in a more oelloauial
and diffuse manner, hot with greater vehemence of state-
ment, and grosser violence of language—well ! this rery
letter is the very PLOT which O'Meara deneances; and
these very hardships and grievances are the very re-
v:terns which he suspects to be in preparation. Ile su4-
sequen le tells Sir T. Read—
" I believe I seas pretty ace ttttt in the iefernietian I
gave you about Montholon's letter (these words are un-
derlined by 011eara's own hand.) Montholon has
been very basy finding out the price of every article
us d in the home, which hi caretully committed to pa-
rr ; he keeps a register of every wide in the eating all
&letting way is ltich arrives."
We west here interrupt our spy to observe, that Ws
own publication registers the grievances in " the eating
and drinking nay," with as much detail as aloutholon
could have done, anti, we believe, with eqn al tenth; anti
thrndelout le: work, as we alreelly observed, he I lin•
firma. with all his force, Montholon's etetemeres, which
on Isis private notes he had characterised as orevaurns.
Witness the following extract from his jeurnal' of the
10:11 of Jule, 1816
" A great deficiency haseexitedsted for several days in the
quantity of wine, fowls, and oth-r necessary autielee—
wrote to Sir Thomas Read about it."—Voi. i. p. 71.
Here, at last, is one word of truth. He did write to
Sir Thomas, Read about if,—but meek what f allows. The
letter to Sir Thomas Read has been most fortunately
pr-served,atel in it is fonnd. after the statement of the
deficiency, the fallowing pseaevanh :
'f he first instance we shall rivets very remarkable when
coupled with traleara's own iniputatione against Sir Hud-
son Lowe, relative to the pilaus. A complaint had been
made that the copper saucepans wanted tinning; on this
O'Meara states (vol. I. p. 1210 that lie wrote to Col. Gore'
refiner, " to request that a tradesman might be vent to
repair them. His letter to Col. Oorrequer bas been pre-
served, and contain.' the following pateage:—
" Yoe had better take some step> to have them repair-
ed, as Montholon is malicious enough to assert, that it
was neglected en purpose to poison the„', and veer likely
he hail already done so!"—Note o/' 13th Sept. 186.
lu the publication (vol. i, p. 363) O'Meara imputes to
Sir Iludeon Lowe. the having, on the 31st of January,
1817, called Costa Montholon a liar. Now it happen'
that this was O'Meara's own designation of the Count,
and was used by him to Sir Hudson Lowe, and not eySir
Hudson Lowe to him. In a note to Major Oorreqnee
dated the lush of October, 1816—several months prior
to the imputed use of the word by the governor—baviee
occasion to mention Alontliolon'a mime. he adds—" better
known here (vie, in klnonaparte'l family) by the appellw
lien of ' it briggiordo'—tne et ta."
And again, in another letter to the same offieer—
u 1 (O'Meara) explained to Montholon—who, if he
were not a cowman and a LISS,* would be a fine fella",
and abating these two little defects, is a perfect gentle-
man—that von were combining heaven and earth to
lodge hint and his amiable consert in state, which he is•
seated to, with several hypocritical grimaces and prudes-
sions of thanks."—Note of 21st June, ltilii.
" They (the French) are sufficiently Mauve/axe to
impute all those things to the Governor; instead of set-
ting them down as being owing to the Deflect of sone
of Belcortube (the purveyor's) people. Leery little cir-
cumstance its carrie I directly to Buonsparte, with erery
aggraratiou that It ALIWCITT and lIALISHOOD cal salt-
s gest to evil-disposed and cankered minds "
Need we write another evlialac? Out of Him oats
mouth shalt thou be judged ; amid there if the wret• h-d
man himself were aline concerurd, we should leave harp:
but truth and justice to °theta ob iae us to praceed will'
the nauseous detail of t.•e " malignity anal fai.eboo '," of
this "evil disposed and caikered ailed."—"1 owl
~10r.,4
thee, Jew, fuse teaching me !h t :'

• This part of the Rote is, inilta original, in Italian.

rill"--

Zatt Sotatetintan.

.WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 26, 1523.

PARLIAMENTARY COMMENTARY.

acne LORD3.—No'hing to call for particular notice,
eTrept that it is no more than doe to the Lord Chancel-
lor to say, that he carried himself very temperately in his
triumph over the niarriage act people. Lnrd EuAN-
POROUtsH having atured something about the new new
marriage ant, the Lord Chancellor observed, " that it
" would be better to in' roduce a feu words into this Bill,
"just for the purpose of its being understood, that the
" clauses of the old marriage act, which were repealed
by the let of list Session, were by the present Bill
" again bioubt into operation."
THE UOMMONq.—The only subject worthy of atten-
tion was a notice, given by Mr. BaowsLow, of a motion
Or 15th of May) on the subject of the ex officio iafor-
;maiioas in Irelan I. The reason for this long delay
was, as stated by Mr. BILOWNLOW, in order that the
discussion should take place with the whole of the Irish
nietubers in the Mouse. We Phoild make no remark up-

on this, had the iVurning Chronicle been silent ; but that
paper persists in tubing an open part in favour of Mr.
pi.l4hett; or, rather, it continues to endeavour to justify
the puliry of laird Wellesley, which policy we think not

to 1; j.istitied, however good the intentions of the
\oble Lori may have been. We shall insect the remarks
of the ilfuraing Chronicle to which we allude, in order
to rantiso sr readers against being iutluencrtl by any
observations of the Fame sort.

" It is impossible for auy reflecting mind to be indifferent
"lOSbe critical situation of Ireland. The question is mot
.-",4ether Catholics or Protestants shall be most favoured
" by the State, hut whether the existing laws of the country
" shall be the rule of its Govcrnmeat, -or that Government
" abandon its fanetions and its power to a desperate and
"flogitivus.raction, who acknowledge no guide but Virir