nion was entertained by some favourers of Buonaparte in this country, who imagined that his arrival in Britain conferred upon him all the privileges of a British subject, afforded hin the protection of her laws, entit, led him to claim his Habeas Corpus, to fix his own residence, and to transfer to England the centre of those intrigues, by which he might in future be able to disturb the peace of the continent. The Morning Chronicle published a letter upon this subject from one Mr Capel Lofft, and stated besides, that Mr Waddington was desirous of bringing the question before the Common Hall; and he sent a copy of his resolution previously to the Lord Mayor, who probably considered it to be drawn up in terms too strong and violent for public discussion." It is probable that Buonaparte reckoned upon the existence of some such wrong-headed persons in England, when he finally resolved to surrender himself to the captain of the Bellerophon. But foreigners, unused to the general and uninterrupted free dom allowed by our laws to the circulation of opinions of every sort, are apt to consider the reveries of wild and speculative persons, which the daily papers give them an opportunity of intruding on the public, as sentiments seriously entertained by an efficient party having weight in the state. They are ignorant, that, in Britain, the restless and violent politicians who speculate and bluster in the public prints, have but little influence of any kind upon the practical maxims by which the state is managed. Indeed, the sentiments of the people of England, in general, though as subject to constant agitation as the magnetic needle, soon re-assume the polar direction of common sense and sound reason. The crowds who sailed round the Bellerophon, and cheered Buonaparte as he shewed himself on deck, would have VOL. VIII, PART 1. done the same honour to the wildest lion in Africa but would have been equally surprised at an attempt to give the devastating monster the benefit of the Habeas Corpus act. When, therefore, the said Mr Capel Lofft protested that "the intelligence that the great Napoleon will not be permitted to land, and is to be sent perhaps to St Helena, was almost overwhelming to him, though long accustomed to suffer much and to expect everything;" foreigners were struck mute with astonishment at such extremity of folly, or concluded it must be backed by a strong body of desperate fanatics, ready to bear Buonaparte on their shoulders into St James's or Windsor Castle. But Englishmen, who know well how easily the most absurd sentiments will find crack-brained individuals to support, promulgate, and advocate them, from the mere humour of singularity, only indulged in a hearty laugh at the sentimental distress, the sufferings, and the expectations of Mr Capel Lofft, and the meditated motion of Mr Waddington, which was too strong for the Lord Mayor's digestion. That Buonaparte was a prisoner of war was evident, from his surrender to a captain in the British navy, after his power had been destroyed in a dreadful battle betwixt his forces and those of Britain; and if there is a maxim of public law more clear than another, it is that which puts into the hands of the victorious combatants the power of disposing of the captive enemy who surrenders at discretion. It is a right constantly exercised during a period of hostility. Each nation shuts up its prisoners of war in places of confinement; or if any of them are allowed freedom upon their parole, they are deprived of it and placed under actual restraint the instant it is discovered that their tie of honour is not to be trusted. Buonaparte stood in this latter predica Y ment. Sad experience had shewn that the most favourable treaty could not bind him as a prince, and that he possessed both means and inclination to renew scenes of confusion in Europe. As a gentleman and a soldier, his word could be still less trusted, since Lefebvre and other officers, who had broken their parole in England, were received by him, not only with impunity, but with favour and preferment. It had been too much his object to disregard and even to deface those points of honourable feeling and sentiment by which the military character is at once dignified and softened, and to sacrifice, on all occasions, faith and honour to instant convenience and advantage. A just, though severe retribution, has rendered him the victim of his own want of faith and indifference to character. After mature consideration, the mi. nisters of Great Britain, who would have had on their heads all the blood which might afterwards have been shed on this man's account, had they omitted to secure his person when in their power, determined that his future residence should be on the island of St Helena, a place which seemed in a singular degree to combine the necessary quality of absolute security with facilities of exercise and domestic freedom, which could hardly have been united with it elsewhere. It was determined that he should be considered as a captive general, whom circumstances, arising out of his own character and conduct, prevented from being set at large on his parole, but to whom, nevertheless, the British nation was desirous, from a respect to misfortune, to soften captivity as far as it could receive alleviation. " The intention of the British government was communicated to Buonaparte by Lord Keith. It would seem he had buoyed himself up with hopes of being permitted to reside in some part of Britain, whence he might have watched and inflamed at pleasure such causes of irritation as should occur on the continent, or perhaps in Britain itself, and he was furious at the disappointment. He gave his indignation vent in a protest, which, we presume, contains the essence of his cause of displea sure. Aug. 4. "I protest solemnly, in the face of heaven and of men, against the violation of my most sacred rights, by the forcible disposal of my person and of my liberty. I came freely on board the Bellerophon. I am not the prisoner, I am the guest of England. Once seated on board the Bellerophon, I was immediately entitled to the hospitality (Je fus sur le foyer) of the British people. If the government, by giving orders to the captain of the Bellerophon to receive me and my suite, intended merely to lay a snare for me, it has forfeited its honour, and sullied its flag. If this act be consummated, it will be in vain that the English will talk to Europe of their integrity, of their laws, of their liberty. The British faith will be lost in the hospitality of the Bellerophon. I appeal, therefore, to history; it will say that an enemy who made war for 20 years on the people of England, came freely in his misfortune to seek an asylum under its laws. What more striking proof could he give of his esteem and of his confidence? But how did they answer it in England? They pretended to hold out an hospitable hand to this enemy, and when he surrendered himself to them in good faith, they sacrificed him. "NAPOLEON.". In this morsel of bombastic expostulation, Napoleon assumes, as granted, the very question on which the decision of the justice of the proceed ings of Great Britain depended, by declaring that he came freely on board the Bellerophon; which is no otherwise true than as a criminal may be said to walk freely to the gallows, when the executioners stand by to drag him thither in case he pauses or resists. At Rochefort, he could not stay without falling into the hands of the royalists. On the isle of Aix, he could not remain, for it was neither tenable against force, nor against blockade. He had conceived various modes of escape, and found each and all of them impossible: He had tried to gain a free passage by negociation, it had been refused. He had made an attempt to annex his present proposal of residing as a prisoner at large in Britain, as a stipulated condition of his surrender, and it had been reject, ed. The absurdity of the charge against the captain of the Bellerophon having spread an ambush for him, is grossly evident. Captain Maitland, with the feelings of an English officer and a man of honour, had given Napoleon's emissary, Las Casas, distinctly to understand, that he was empowered to give him no conditions whatever; and if ever a prisoner of war could be said to surrender at discretion, that prisoner was Napoleon Buonaparte. The doom inflicted on him was indeed more severe than probably would have been imposed on any other individual in similar circumstances: but the se verity was that of caution, not of cruelty, and it was rendered necessary by the character of the person to whom it was applied, What attention to his word of honour could be expected from one who had encouraged a breach of parole amongst his own officers, by promoting and distinguishing those who had committed that dishonourable crime? Or why should the British government have trusted, that he whom the treaty of Fontainbleau, with all its advantages, could not re strain from trafficking in his old trade of ambition, would be contented to reside a private and suspected individual in Great Britain, bound only by his verbal engagement, which, in restraining the passions of a tyrant, is, says the eastern proverb, like a band of flax around a blazing faggot! When the late emperor of France understood that the British government were peremptory in their resolution, and that he was to be removed from the Bellerophon to the Northumberland, commanded by Sir George Cockburn, and destined to convey him to St Helena, he had recourse to one of those mean tricks, which, mixing with and degrading what is grand in his character, have procured for him the apt name of Jupiter-Scapin. He declared publicly, that he would never be removed into the Northumberland alive, and solemnly reiterated his protestation with such an affectation of desperate sincerity, that all who heard him expected some tragical event. The road by which ancient warriors escaped to death from defeat and captivity, is closed against Christians by the Divine command;" and far be it from us to censure the losing gamester of ambition, for not adopting the desperate course of the congenial gambler, ruined at the hazard table, We blame only the poor unworthy artifice, by which Napoleon endeavoured to work upon the feelings of those around him, and view, in the meanness with which he quietly sneaked from the Bellerophon into the Northumberland, without any attempt to realize his threats, the disgrace of a detected trickster. On Monday, 7th August, Buonaparte, with the part of his train who were permitted to attend, being the faithful Bertrand, with Montholon, Las Casas, Gourgaud, and the wives of Bertrand and Montholon, four children, and twelve domestics, were transferred to the Northumberland, which instantly set sail for St Helena. They arrived safely at August 16. their place of destination, where Buonaparte commenced his future line of life, under the inspection of Sir Hudson Lowe, who had been appointed governor of the island. He was lodged for the time in a villa, which, by a remarkable coincidence, had been for a fortnight the residence of the Duke of Wellington, while the vessel in which he went out to India was lying at St Helena. At the very time when Napoleon was tenant of this sequestered mansion, the Duke of Wellington was in possession of his favourite palace of the Elysee-Bourbon at Paris. The rules to which Buonaparte was subjected, with his mode of confinement in general, became the subject of a debate in parliament at a subsequent period, when they will fall most properly under our consideration. In the conferences carried on at Paris, there was only one concession made to Great Britain in her national capacity, which was the ratification of her authority as protectress of the Seven Ionian Islands. By Nov. 5. a special treaty, to which all the allied powers acceded, these islands were recognised as an independent state, to be governed by a constitution and charter, such as should be adopted with the consent of a lord high commissioner, nominated by Great Britain, the protecting power. Our government, according to recent travellers, had, during the short time it possessed influence in these islands since they were re-conquered, that is from the French, been very beneficial to the inhabitants. Their commerce had already increased, and their revenues, formerly misapplied and abused, had, during the British administration, been devoted to the proper national objects. In another point of view, this arrangement was important, as Russia, already too powerful a neighbour for the Ottoman Porte, would otherwise have acquired a predominating influence in the lonian republic. And, upon the whole, there was sound national policy in the measure, as it gave Britain a strength and an interest with a people and country, whom late events have once more placed within the scope of European politics, and which, in the course of future events, may have considerable importance in the balance of European power. Before procceding to the history of the more remote British settlements during this eventful year, there is one domestic incident of an unpleasing but transitory nature, which claims brief notice from the annalist. The sailors in the ports of the bishoprick of Durham and Northumberland shewed a spirit of insubordination, and a desire to dictate to their employers, which attained an alarming height, although it was altogether unmixed with any political opinions, which so often gangrene and inflame the wounds occasioned by partial and professional dis contents. The paying off so many of the ships of war had occasioned a great influx of seamen at the northern ports, particularly at North and South Shields. The coasters and colliers which daily sailed were unable to give employment to so many hands. Cabals ensued; clubs and daily meetings, processions, with flags and music, and the whole ended in the appointment of a committee of insurgents, and the resolution of the refractory seamen to guard the passage of the Tyne, and suffer no vessel to sail without a permit from the said committee, and being manned in such a manner as they were pleased to prescribe. The navigation of the Tyne was thus strangely interrupted for six or seven weeks, while the attempts of the ship-owners to enter into a negociation with the seamen only increased their insolence and confidence of impunity. At length it was found necessary to resist by force this unlawful system of coercion. The military and naval forces were ordered under arms, and, while a body of ma-, rines seized the chain or bridge of boats with which the refractory seamen had so long stopped the mouth of the river, a body of regular cavalry and yeomanry made a demonstration to disperse the sailors who had assem bled in great crowds on the south side of the Tyne. No resistance was offered, and no lives were lost. Oct. 21. The military were seconded by five hundred special constables, who were sworn in for the occasion, Sir Cuthbert Heron taking his staff among the first. Most of the committee were made prisoners. Af ter this victory, the ship-owners renewed their offers to take two men and one boy to every hundred ton of shipping, and to give some advance of wages. These terms were now gladly acceded to, and an insurrection, which had at first an alarming appearance, entirely subsided, as the seamen at Blythe, Sunderland, and other ports, immediately followed the wholesome example of submission. It may, indeed, be remarked, that the mutinies of seamen resemble in character those of schoolboys, entered into more frequently from wantonness than from a desire of mischief, sustained with sufficient activity and vehemence while the spirit of the frolic is up, but easily abandoned upon opposition, and seldom leaving any impression of permanent rancour on the minds of those engaged in them. Ireland had this year her usual proportion of local and provincial disturbances, never to be mentioned without deep regret. This fine island resembles a volcano; the external beauty and fertility are the same, and, like Etna or Vesuvius, the molten lava with which the interior regions are convulsed, bursts out perpetually, though at different craters. In 1815, Ireland was convulsed as usual: the immediate cause of complaint was the tithes, the tithe-proctors, and the exactions of the protestant clergy in parishes where the people were chiefly catholics. The renewed, or rather the continued, atrocities of the banditti called Carders, (from their employing woolcards to torture their victims) occasioned a revival of what was called the Insurrection-Act. Limerick and Tipperary were proclaimed according to the provisions of this law; but the dreadful and premeditated murder of Mr Baker, a highly esteemed magistrate, in the neighbourhood of Cashel, too plainly shewed that even these severe remedies, though they might repress general insurrection, were unable to prevent the system of private murder and assassination, by which the morals of the lower Irish have been destroyed, and their hearts hardened. The usual debates about the catholic question took place at Dublin, when Lord Fingal declined to take the chair at the aggregate meeting of catholics, and left it to Mr O'Connor, whose opinion admits no compro mise short of unqualified emancipation, though the conditions of restriction should be authorized both by the omnipotence of the British Parliament and the infallibility of the Roman See. The further proceedings on this matter (which, however, we regard less as a cause than as a mode of expressing discontent) we shall attempt to combine in a general view in our next year's volume. The most interesting events in our foreign dominions occurred as usual in the East Indies. Victors over all the nations of Hindostan, the Indian |