No. XI.

The Governor's Reply to Count Bertrand's Letter relative to the Presents.

Castle, James Town, July, 25th, 1817. SIR, I have received your letter of the 10th instant. The frequent use in it of the imperial title, and the tone in which you convey your sentiments to me when you employ it, would perfectly warrant me in declining to acknowledge it, as being addressed to me in an admissible form, and in referring you to mine of the 30th August, 1816, to Count Montholon. I shall not, however, avail myself of these arguments for not replying to its contents.

The only object I had in view in addressing you on on the 8th instant, was to avoid its being conceived I tacitly participated in, or approved the acknowledgement given to the imperial rank, in the crown placed every where over the initial of Napoleon on presents sent by a British subject particularly, and coming from a British factory.

Had I suffered them to proceed without any remark, the inference would have been obvious, I saw no impropriety in it; and I am too well aware how far this precedent might have been alleged, and what complaints would have sprung upon any future deviation from it, had I not explicitly made known the grounds upon which in this instance I had suffered them to reach you.

The donor's sentiments are his own, but I have a free right to the exercise also of my opinion, in not making myself the medium of them; and in suffering the presents to proceed with no other qualification than what my note expressed, I went to the extreme boundary of what any attention to General Bonaparte's desires or expectations could demand of me.

You ask me, sir, "est-ce à ce que ces objets ne sont pas arrivés par le canal du ministre ?" &c.

I should have considered myself fully warranted in keeping them back upon the general principle of my in

structions, without reference to the decoration upon them, until there was an express authority obtained from my government for their delivery, unless I assumed upon my own discretion to examine them and satisfy myself they covered no means of communication or assistance by which a clandestine intercourse was attempted.

That the latter was the principle upon which I was always ready to act, instead of waiting the delay of returns from England, was sufficiently apparent by my sending you the letter before the articles were even landed.

You observe, sir, I rejected with indignation the accusation, that letters brought by the post on private occasions should have been sent back to London to return to this country. I rejected, sir, with indignation, this accusation, and the reflections built upon it, because there was no foundation of truth or justice in them: because I revolted at that feeling which extracted injury and reproach from acts of attention, (for in sending their family letters I had exercised a discretion in favour of the persons who addressed me, not warranted by my instructions,) but I did not admit that I had not the right, and was not fully justified in sending letters back to England, if I thought proper so to do, when they came by irregular channels. Presents may be as obnoxious to the security of detention as a letter, and might require to be examined with a minuteness that would baffle any purpose of ornament or utility to be derived from them. A letter may be concealed under the squares of a chess board, or the folds of a book cover, as well as in the lining of a waistcoat; and I am not necessarily called upon to place my trust in any person by whom they are sent. If articles have been permitted to reach you, it has been because I have felt satisfied they were not of an objectionable nature; and you certainly have no reason to complain, sir, of the mode I have used my discretion in permitting generally every article that has arrived to be delivered, and in suffering many to proceed that had come addressed to myself, the trans

mission of which from the delicacy of the persons who sent them, had been left entirely to my option.

You observe, sir, "seroit ce parceque sur les jettons il y a une couronne," &c. &c. &c.; and ask if any regulation exists, which prevents your possessing an article with a crown upon it.

There is certainly, sir, no specific written regulation prohibiting any article with a crown on it reaching Longwood, nor to prevent your possessing an object with such a decoration upon it; but it was in this case the imperial crown over the initial of Napoleon, carved, gilt, or engraved, on almost every article. His own abdication-the convention of Paris-and the acts of the British parliament, supersede the necessity of any regulation upon that head.

The articles now at Longwood, with the imperial crown on them, were thus marked before the abdication. I have never disputed their possession, nor any gratification they might afford.

The quotation from the debates in Parliament, I must beg leave to observe, is inexact, as taken from any newspaper I have seen. The papers themselves differ; for one speaks of regulations, another of instructions, not restrictions, being the same, (without any substantive alteration,) as those at first prescribed.

You say, sir," Vous n'avez pas le droit d'en faire." The act of parliament, the warrant, and instructions I possess, are, sir, my surest guides on this point; whilst I may at the same time, however, be allowed to observe, that the original instructions you wish to refer to as my only rule, have received a more ample interpretation than what their strict letter would imply in the degree of freedom from personal restriction General Bonaparte at present enjoys.

You add, "L'Empereur ne veut de grace," &c. &c.

I have not the pretention to bestow a favour on General Bonaparte, and still less the arrogance of subjecting him to any act of my caprice. He is under no restriction which my government does not know, and which all the world may not know.

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It is not irrelevant on this occasion to observe, that at two interviews with General Bonaparte, he personally observed to me that I was a general-officer to act upon instructions, and not execute my duty as a "consigne :" at present it is as a consigne, it appears I am required to perform it. On another occasion he objected to cune inspection directe ou publique." How do these suggestions accord with the narrow limit to which it is at present sought to restrict the exercise of my duties? The views you have now presented coincide most with my own, (seeing that every exercise of my discretion even in points where I seek to act most favourably, only entails fresh discussion,) but where such opposing sentiments are conveyed to me, you must, sir, admit the difficulty of reconciling them.

You say, sir," L'Empereur me charge de protester contre l'existence de toute restriction," &c. &c. &c.

Any communication made to me in the proper name of the person whom you thus designate, it is my bounden duty to consider, wherever circumstances will permit it. The notification of a regulation arising from a sudden case cannot, however, be made previous to the occurrence which calls it forth. The matter of which you now speak was not of a nature to require previous communication, but it was here, at all events, not carried into execution before communicated.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your most obedient,

And most humble Servant,

(Signed)

H. LOWE, Lieut. General.*

Count Bertrand.

*For the deep obscurity and rambling construction of some pas sages in this state paper, it is hoped the reader will hold only its author responsible.

No. XII.

Letter from Count Bertrand to the Governor, containing the Grievances of Longwood.

Longwood, 30th September, 1817.

GOVERNOR,-I have made known to the emperor, that you did me the honour to come to me the day before yesterday, (Sunday,) that you told me some anxieties had been excited in you respecting his ill health, and that as this was attributed to want of exercise, why did he not ride out on horseback?

I replied to you, what had been said in various circumstances, and I have the honour to repeat to you now, that the existence of the emperor, particularly for the last six weeks, has been extremely painful; that the swelling of his legs increases every day; that the symptoms of scurvy which had been remarked in his gums, are already such as to occasion him almost constantly acute pains; that the medical men attribute this to want of exercise; that ever since the month of May, 1816, that is to say, for seventeen or eighteen months, the emperor has not been on horseback, has scarcely ever been. out of his apartment, except sometimes, and very rarely, when he came about forty toises, to visit my wife; that you know perfectly well what has prevented, and does prevent the emperor from going out; namely, the restrictions of the 9th October, 1816, which began to be put into execution six weeks after your arrival; that those restrictions contain among others, a prohibition from speaking or listening to any person we may meet, and from going into any house; this makes him think that your intention was to compromise him with the sentries, and to outrage his character.

You have observed to me, that you have suppressed that part of the restrictions, and such is the case. Admiral Malcolm, on his return from the Cape, made some observations to you on the subject, and you decided on suspending them, which you did by your letter of the