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ment, and of dignity to clemency, In the earlier period of his restoration, his sole efficient force, exclusive of that tendered by the royalists, or the constitutionalists, and which could only be used on their own conditions, was the military strength of the allies, a fulcrum, no doubt, capable at the moment of shaking France to the centre, but of which Louis could not have availed himself without exciting prejudices against him in the mind of his subjects, of more lasting evil, perhaps, than the dangers which a frank application to the allied sovereigns might have enabled him to remedy.

Here, then, as at a great and natu. ral landmark, we interrupt our account of the affairs of France for this year. The history of the proceedings in her legislature and cabinet, subsequent to the opening of the Chambers, will fall naturally under the details of the next year. And devoutly do we hope and pray, that France may at no future period occupy such a disproportionate space of the annals of Europe, as, for her own misfortune, as well as that of other nations, it has been her fate to do for the last quarter of a century.

CHAP. XX.

Buonaparte's arrival at Rochefort.-His Indecision.-He Surrenders to the British and goes on board the Bellerophon.-Arrival at Torbay.-Arguments respecting the Mode of Treating him.-It is resolved to send him to St Helena. He protests against the Measure, and threatens Suicide, but is safely embarked and landed on the Island.-Disturbances among the North Country Seamen.-East Indies.-Nepaul War.-Unsuccessful attempt to storm Kalunga, and Death of General Gillespie.-Kalunga evacuated.Operations of General Ochterlony-Spirited Resistance of Amur SingHis Advice to the Rajah of Nepaul.-Taking of Almerah.-Defeat of Amur Sing, and his Surrender of the disputed Provinces.-Disagreements with the Chinese.-Conquest of Candy.-Reflections.

OUR narrative must now return to the fate of Buonaparte, whom, almost forgotten by the French people, and even by those who had done and dared so much for his sake, we left at Rochefort under the surveillance of General Becker, anxious equally to avoid those toils in which he was enveloped on shore by his late ministers, and the dangers which awaited him, in case of embarkation, from the British blockading squadron.

He entered Rochefort on July 3. the day of the capitulation of Paris, and remained six days at the hotel of the maritime prefect, Baron Bonnefoux. Pressed by General Becker and by Bonnefoux to hasten his departure, the day of the king's entry into the capital was that in which he left the shore 8. and embarked on board La Saale, a small French frigate, which, with the Medusa, her

consort, was destined by the provisional government to escort him to America. The wind was favourable for his voyage, but a British man-ofwar, the Bellerophon, commanded by Captain Maitland, lay in sight, and that officer's complete acquaintance with the station, together with the moon being clear and at the full, rendered it impossible that the frigates could escape his vigilance. Napole on's brother, Joseph, now arrived and informed him of July 11. all the events which had taken place at Paris,-the capture of the capital, the dissolution of the provisional commission, and the restoration of Louis XVIII. This was a death-blow to any hopes he might yet entertain of being recalled to power by some unexpected change of circumstances, by the necessities of the provisional government, or the voice of the army. His situation at Roche

fort became hourly more precarious; Count Bonnefoux had already hoisted the white flag in that town, an order for the arrest of Napoleon might be instantly apprehended, and his safety, indeed, only depended on the precarious protection of his late minister, Fouché. His first idea was to land on the small island of Aix, which is well protected by batteries, and there to defend himself to extremity,-his next, to effect a secret escape. For this purpose, Buonaparte at one time determined to employ a Danish brig, with two shallops, and at another purchased a small French vessel, hoping she might escape the vigilance of the cruisers in the darkness, or if she were boarded, that he might remain concealed under some obscure disguise. The entreaties of Bertrand and his wife prevailed on Buonaparte to abandon a schem which seemed hopelessly desperate. His last resource was in negociation. He sent a flag of truce to the commodore of the British squadron, requesting permission to pass to America. The permission, as might have been anticipated, was positively refused. The dangers with which the exemperor was surrounded now pressed him more closely. It was almost impossible that an attempt to seize him would not soon be made either by some zealous royalist, or by the constituted authorities. Thus hemmed in by land and sea, he resolved rather to surrender to the arms of England than to abide the consequences of his usurpation of the throne of France. Las Casas and Lallemand were dispatched to Captain Maitland with a proposal that he should receive on board of his vessel Napoleon Buonaparte, for the purpose of throwing himself on the generosity of the Prince Regent. They attempted to stipulate for his living at freedom and on his parole in any part of Britain he might chuse; but Captain Maitland, to use

his own words, "that no misunderstanding might arise, explicitly and clearly explained to the Count Las Casas that he had no authority whatever for granting terms of any sort, and that all he could do was to convey Buonaparte and his suite to England, to be received in such manner as his Royal Highness should deem most expedient."

Napoleon's condition admitted of no choice. In the morning of the 15th July he left the Isle of Aix under a flag of truce, and about eight o'clock presented on the quarter-deck of the Bellerophon the most mortal enemy of Britain, a captive to her arms. The appearance and dress of this remarkable person are thus described by one of the officers of the Bellerophon, in a letter dated July 24" He is about five feet seven Laches in height, very strongly made, and well proportioned; very broad and deep chest; legs and thighs proportioned with great symmetry and strength; a small, round, and handsome foot. His countenance is sallow, and as it were deeply tinged by hot climate; but the most commanding air I ever saw. His eyes grey, and the most piercing that you can imagine. His glance, you fancy, searches into your inmost thoughts. His hair dark brown, and no appearance of grey. His features are handsome now, and when younger he must have been a very handsome man. He is rather fat, and his belly protuberant, but he appears active notwithstanding. His step and demeanour altogether commanding. He looks about 45 or 46 years of age. He dresses in green uniform, with red facings, and edged with red, two plain gold epaulettes, the lapels of the coat cut round and turned back, white waistcoat and breeches, and military boots and spurs, the grand cross of the Legion of Honour on his left

breast." His address to Captain Maitland was sufficiently dignified. "I am come," he said, "to claim the protection of your prince and of your laws." He showed some arrogance in exacting the punctilious respect due to his former rank, which the British officer, unwilling to be deficient in generosity towards a fallen enemy, and having no order to the contrary, was contented to yield to him.

Delayed by contrary winds on her passage, the Bellerophon did not arrive at Torbay until the 24th of July, so that government had full time to prepare for the reception of this extraordinary prisoner. A letter of the following tenor was forwarded on his behalf to the Prince Regent, immediately on the vessel's arrival:

Royal Highness,-Exposed to the factions which divide my coun try, and to the enmity of the great powers of Europe, I have terminated my political career, and I come, like Themistocles, to throw myself upon the hospitality (m'asseoir sur les foyers) of the British nation. I place myself under the protection of its laws, which I claim from your Royal Highness, as the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous of my enemies. "NAPOLEON.

"Rochefort, 13th July."

The Bellerophon was immediately ordered round to Plymouth, with strict orders that no one should be allowed to go aboard as visitors, and that neither Napoleon nor any of his party should be permitted to land. Armed boats performed the service of rowing round the vessel by day and night, and preventing all communication. But beyond their circuit, the bay was absolutely crowded with small craft and boats of every description, filled with those whose curiosity led them to gaze on this remarkable person. Buonaparte seemed to be not insen

sible to this kind of admiration, or unwilling to gratify their curiosity, and set down to his own account the shouts of the spectators at his appearance, though perhaps they were rather designed to gratulate the triumph of the nation, implied in his being in British custody. Meantime, his further destiny was the object of much speculation.

There was a diversity of sentiment in Great Britain concerning the mode of disposing of this extraordinary prisoner. There was one class of reasoners, who, looking rather at Buonaparte's deserts in time past, than at his present circumstances, or the relation in which he stood to our government, contended that we should best do our duty to Europe by delivering him up to the. King of France, to be by him capitally executed. This opinion was entertained and expressed by many, who considered the great moral lesson which such retribution might produce, without sufficiently attending to circumstances, which would have utterly destroyed its effect, and rendered it an act of cruelty, if not of perfidy. The right of the judge to inflict punishment is as essentially necessary to legalize an execution as the demerits of the criminal; nor has it been ever doubted that a murder may be committed on the person of a man, who, if possible, deserved to suffer death a thousand times. Respecting France, Buonaparte held by the trea ty of Fountainbleau the character of an independent prince. Whatever his former crimes and usurpations had been, he had subsequently been recog nized by Europe (unwisely, indeed, but still formally recognized) as Emperor of Elba, and as such had the right to make war upon, and conquer if he could, the neighbouring realm of France, with the moral guilt, indeed, that attends all wars undertaken to gratify unjust ambition, but without

incurring any specific penalty by the code of nations. Such is the legal view of the case; but there is one more obvious and natural, which speaks to the feelings of every one. If the French nation, or a large portion of them, were so blindly devoted to Buonaparte as to place him at their head once more, was it to be supposed that he incurred a capital punishment in availing himself of their disposition in his favour? Napoleon had already held the government of France for many years, acknowledged by the sovereigns whom he had humbled, and who were now, in their turn, inflicting on him a lesson of humility. Was it wonderful that he should have endeavoured to resume an authority once so generally recognized in Europe and in France, still longed for by a large body of the citizens and the whole army? If, like Murat, he had undertaken an enterprize desperate and hopeless, and fallen at Cannes or at Grasse into the hands of the government he had attempted to unsettle, there would have been some colour for treating him as a desperate disturber of the public peace. But the number of his faction, as it made his strength and his temptation, made also his apology, and the general error which received him as a sovereign and installed him in the Tuilleries, was, in a court of justice, a sufficient apology for his accepting their homage. It is only in oriental revolutions that unsuccessful ambition is punished with death, nor can we consider Buonaparte taking the advantage of a tempting opportunity to resume his authority, as entitling a rival who could not keep the field against him without foreign aid, to put him to death as the penalty of his failure. His former murders, his ty ranny, his unbounded ambition, were covered by the amnesty of Fontain.

bleau, and the purple robe of the Emperor of Elba.

But if the King of France could not legally punish Buonaparte capitally, still less could Great Britain, in fair and honourable interpretation of his surrender to Captain Maitland, deliver him up to be so placed in danger of his life. It has been indeed adjudged, that where rebels surrender to their own government, the quarter granted to them only insures them from being put to the sword, and by no means against the consequence of subsequent judicial proceedings against them. But the case is different if the surrender is made to the military force of a power different from that which has been offended. In such cases, to deliver up prisoners of war to the vengeance of those who thirst for their blood, has been, in all times, accounted the act of a mean or perfidious government. It was clear that Buonaparte was entitled to claim something by his surrender to the British officer, and the least which could be assigned to him was personal security; but the safety of life and limb, implied in every unconditional surrender, would have been strangely infringed had he been instantly transferred to the French government, to be by them put to death. In fact, no such thing was required at our hands, and the French government, far from desiring to have him delivered up to them, would have been very much embarrassed by such an offer. And however much those who keenly felt the injuries inflicted on Europe by the last usurpation of Buonaparte may have desired to see them expiated, we are certain they would rather that this capital offender had survived for ages, than that a single drop of his blood should sully the fair honour of their country.

Another and far more absurd opi

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