curities proposed by the right honourable gentleman, it was obvious that the establishment of such a system must interfere most injuriously with the transfer of property. For who could calculate that, under such a system, any property purchased might not most unexpectedly be swept away by an exchequer extent, or extent in aid?

Lord Cochrane thought the money should be given to the people as a repayment for what had been taken from them, and no securities required. We had been told from authority, that commerce would revive; but had that been the case? That revival was ob

means of employing capital, and rendering it productive. And unless they could provide a market for the produce of labour-unless they could revive the commerce of the country, he did not see how the issue of exchequer bills could be of any benefit, for they could not create resources.

Mr Brougham was most willing to allow this plan to produce all the good effects of which it was capable; but he entertained very strong doubts of its efficacy. The poor were to be employed almost entirely in public works; but what prevents public works from being carried on at present? Is it want of capital? He was afraid it would be found to be solely want of demand. There was at present no want of capital in the country. There was no fear of exchequer process on the part of the borrowers. Private lenders were preferable to a public creditor. The only effect of the measure would be a facility of obtaining loans. It would throw L.1,500,000 into the market, and thus facilitate loans; and this would be its only effect, its only be

The resolutions were then agreed to.

Few circumstances, during the present year, excited a stronger interest than the reports and representations transmitted from St Helena relative to the illustrious individual to whom that island had been assigned as a prison. There is something very remark able in the estimate formed throughout this country of that extraordinary personage. There never, perhaps, was an individual, all whose views and conduct were so thoroughly those of a despot. He obliterated every vestige of that liberty on whose foundation he had risen; every thing in France, under him, was governed at the point of the bayonet; and in all the states over which he acquired influence, he demanded and enforced the abolition even of the most moderate forms of popular suffrage. Yet in Britain, each party, in proportion to the zeal avowed by them in the cause of liberty, has made him their favourite; till, among the most inveterate sticklers for popular rights, he is reverenced almost as an earthly divinity. Yet, glaring as is this inconsistency, it were probably unjust to charge them on that account with a want of sincerity in their political creed. It is difficult to estimate the varied motives by which the human

mind is guided in its passions and predilections. The most operative, in the present instance, appears to us to have been the same which we know a witty old gentleman to have assigned as the cause of the love men of large property are observed to entertain for their grandsons-that of being the enemy of their enemy. The natural and irreconcileable enmity between the French emperor and the British ministry, formed a tie between him and the individuals in question, to which every other consideration was apt to appear as secondary.

It must be confessed, that the admirers of Napoleon had something to boast of in the dignified serenity and courtesy of his deportment, when received on board a British vessel, and in the first moments of so mighty a fall. We should scarcely, indeed, from a survey of his life, be justified in ascribing it to a greatness of soul so high, as to render its possessor superior to all the vicissitudes of human fortune. It manifested, however, a very uncommon energy and self-command, not, indeed, unsupported by powerful motives; for Buonaparte, on the deck of the Northumberland, had the eyes of mankind as intensely fixed upon him

as when seated on the greatest throne of the world. The same motives, too, operated in his first communications with the British military and medical officers, who were immediately about his person, and whom he employed as instruments for conveying to Europe his own representations relative to himself. But when all that was new and striking in this situation was over, and when day after day rolled over his head in hopeless monotony, his eagerly restless spirit began to prey upon itself, and to devote its thoughts wholly to the means of escape from this detested thraldom. That this was really the motive of that system of violent remonstrance which was now set on foot, appears to us very evident. All the complaints so vehemently urged,*

were so contrived as to terminate in a demand, not for increase of physical accommodation, but for an enlarged intercourse with Europe, and a relaxation of the strictness with which he was guarded-something, in short, which might be made subservient to escape. We do not consider him as absolutely without a claim to employ stratagems of this nature. There was certainly nothing in the treatment which he had received from Britain to terminate that long and rooted enmity which had subsisted between him and that power. Treated as an enemy, and converted into a state prisoner, he might justly consider himself as in a state of war with the power which had so acted towards him, and as entitled to employ against it the stratagems of war. This, of course, does not in the least abate of their title to counteract, by every possible means, the fulfilment of his purpose, and to disregard every complaint, which had escape for its real object.

It seems scarcely to be denied, that Buonaparte derived some claims to for

bearance from the manner in which he put himself into the power of Britain. By placing himself at the head of what remained of the army, he might have caused delay and trouble; and if he had finally succeeded in making his way to America, Europe would have been left in a state of permanent insecurity. It seems also becoming the character of a great and magnanimous nation, when an enemy has fallen so low, to forbear all vindictive proceed. ings, and to inflict no punishment beyond the ample one arising from the comparison of his past and present fortune. At the same time, it was totally out of the question, on account of the comfort of one individual, to commit, in any degree whatever, the repose of a hundred millions. Whatever indulgence, therefore, was grant ed to him, it was essential that it should not trench in any degree on the strictness of the guardianship under which he was kept. Such appears to have been the conception of government in sending him to St Helena, whose rocky walls, in the depth of so vast an ocean, seemed to dispense with any artificial and closer prison. There, it should seem, he might be allowed a greater degree of liberty, combined with perfect security against escape, than in any other part of the world. It seems perfectly astonishing, that so strong a mind should ever have indulged the chimera of being allowed to live at liberty, and watch the opportunity of re-ascending the throne of France. He had recently afforded too ample a specimen of what might be expected from him, or indeed from any deposed sovereign, even though much less ambitious, and fallen from a much lower height. Under these considerations, combined with the statements now to be laid before our readers respecting the treatment of

Buonaparte, it will probably be judged that he has received all the indulgence to which he was fairly entitled. We must only dissent as to the denial of the empty name of Emperor to the fallen master of the world. This was an indignity which could have no effect except the pain excited by it; no additional security was afforded, nor benefit of any description produced. It appears to us even, that it was the interest of sovereigns to consider the sovereign title, once obtained and acknowledged, as ever after indelible. It had been acknowledged, not only by the people of France, but by all the great monarchs on the continent, virtually even by Britain; and there was a decided littleness, we think, in now denying it. Here, however, we take leave of this mighty name, now sinking so fast into oblivion, and which, we trust, is never again destined to hold any conspicuous place in the history of the world.

On the 18th of March, Lord Holland introduced into the House a motion upon this subject. He stated, that though he still adhered to the disapprobation formerly expressed by him of the detention of Buonaparte at St Helena, he did not mean to bring that question again under discussion. He only conceived that the official letter published by Count Montholon, with concurring rumours from various quarters, afforded sufficient ground for parliamentary inquiry into the treatment experienced by this distinguished character. It was asserted, that his residence on the island was fixed in a damp and unhealthy situation; that he was debarred from the requisite opportunities of exercise; that he was not permitted to receive the books, journals, and prints, which he wished; that he was not allowed to correspond with his friends, or on business, without the most vexatious restrictions: that he could not even transmit

to the Prince Regent, under whose sovereignty he lived, any representation respecting the treatment experienced from Sir Hudson Lowe, the governor, without its being opened by Sir H. himself, whose enmity would necessarily be increased by its perusal. Finally, it was alleged that comforts, and even necessaries, were withheld from Buonaparte; and that a demand was made of contributing to his own support, without any means being afforded of obtaining the necessary funds. He conceived that parliament, having been a party to the sending Buonaparte to St Helena, were entitled to inquire whether he was treated with any wanton and unnecessary severity. His lordship therefore moved for copies of such letters and dispatches, as might tend to throw light upon the subject.

Earl Bathurst agreed with the no. ble lord, that those who approved the detention of Buonaparte, might not approve the manner in which he was treated; yet when he heard the noble lord disapproving of the detention altogether, he could not help doubting the impartiality of his judgment on the other question. Sir Hudson Lowe had acted in every respect according to the instructions received from the government at home. Napoleon had, for obvious reasons, been prohibited from receiving or sending any letters without their being opened by the governor. Under this restriction he might write to any of his friends, or they to him. But there was one preliminary to his receiving any letters from his friends, which was, that his friends should write to him; and, in fact, only one of his relations had done so, his brother Joseph, whose letter had been received in October last, and forwarded. In regard to the not being allowed to send a sealed letter to the Prince Regent, the object of this regulation was, on the one hand, to pro

tect the governor against frivolous charges; and, on the other hand, if any grave charge should be adduced, to insure relief sooner than would otherwise be possible, because it would not be necessary to send back to St Helena, to inquire into the truth of it, before steps could be taken to remove the inconvenience complained of. In fact, no such application had been made to Sir Hudson Lowe, though it had to Sir George Cockburn. With regard to books, the fact was this: Soon after his arrival at St Helena, he expressed a wish for some books to complete his library; and a list was made out by General Buonaparte himself, and transmitted to this country. This list was sent to an eminent French bookseller in this town, with orders to supply such of the books as he had, and to obtain the rest from other booksellers. As several of the books were not to be obtained in London, the bookseller was desired to write to Paris for them. He accordingly obtain ed some of them from Paris, but others of them could not be obtained; those which could not be procured were principally on military subjects. These books, to the amount of L.1300 or L.1400 worth, (which the letter called a few books,) were sent, with an explanation of the circumstances which prevented the others from having been sent. This anxiety to attend to the wishes of the individual in question, was not at all taken, in the paper he had referred to, as an excuse for the omission. A complaint connected with this was, that newspapers had been withheld. As to this, he should say, that if the noble mover thought that General Buona parte should be furnished with all the journals he required, he (Earl B.) had a different sense of the course which it was proper for him to pursue; and this opinion was grounded on the knowledge, that attempts had been made, through the medium of

newspapers, to hold communication with Napoleon,

The next complaint was, that he was not allowed to open a correspondence with a bookseller. Now this was not true, unless it meant that that correspondence could not be carried on but under sealed letters; for there was no reason for preventing that correspondence, unless it was carried on in that particular manner. It was also said that he could not correspond even with his banker or agent. Now it was, in point of fact, open to him to enter upon any such correspondence under the restrictions he had mentioned; and there was no reason why a letter to a banker should be sent sealed up. He (Earl B.) did not deny, that, on a correspondence between friends, the necessity of sending letters open was a most severe restriction, because it was impossible to consign to paper the warm effusions of the heart, under the consciousness that it would be subject to the cold eye of an inspector. But this surely did not apply to a correspondence with a banker. Who had ever heard of an affectionate draught on a banking-house, or a tender order for the sale of stock?-As to the assertions that the letters had been opened by inferior officers; or that, after arriving at St Helena, they had been sent back to Britain before being delivered, these were positive and direct falsehoods; and, indeed, in the voluminous papers which had been transmitted from St Helena, nothing was more painfully disgusting than the utterindifference to truth shewn throughout. With regard to personal liberty, Napoleon had been allowed at first, during the day, a range of twelve miles unattended; and even after he was found to abuse this liberty by tam pering with the inhabitants, he was still allowed eight miles. Even after sunset he might walk in the garden, observed by a serjeant, but did not