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  _NAPOLEON’S_
  APPEAL
  TO THE
  BRITISH NATION,
  ON
  _HIS TREATMENT_
  AT
  SAINT HELENA.

  THE OFFICIAL MEMOIR, DICTATED BY HIM,
  AND DELIVERED TO
  SIR HUDSON LOWE.

  [Illustration]

  London:
  _Printed by Macdonald and Son, Cloth Fair_,

  FOR WILLIAM HONE, 55, FLEET STREET,
  AND 67, OLD BAILEY,

  THREE DOORS FROM LUDGATE HILL.

  1817.

  _Price Two-Pence._




APPEAL, &c.


M. Santini, Huissier du Cabinet de l’Empereur NAPOLEON, arrived at
Portsmouth from St. Helena on the 25th February 1817. He affirms,
that Napoleon, on his arrival at St. Helena, was treated by Sir
George COCKBURN with respect and delicacy. He was afterwards
transferred to Longwood, once a farm belonging to the East India
Company. In this wretched asylum he still remains. His sleeping
chamber is scarcely large enough to contain a bed and a few chairs.
The roof of this hovel consists of paper, coated with pitch, which is
beginning to rot, and through which the rain-water and dew penetrate.
In addition to all these inconveniences, the house is infested by
rats, who devour every thing that they can reach. All the Emperor’s
linen, even that which was lately sent from England, has been gnawed
and completely destroyed by them. For want of closets, the linen is
necessarily exposed upon the floor. When the Emperor is at dinner, the
rats run about the apartment, and even creep between his feet. The
report of a house having been sent from England is false. The _new_
Governor has introduced into the house of the Emperor _absolute want_.
The provisions he furnished were always in too small a quantity, and
also very often of bad quality, and in the latter case, when sent
back, were never replaced by others more fit for use. Often being
without butcher’s meat for the Emperor’s table, the steward has sent to
purchase a sheep for _four guineas_, and sometimes could only procure
_pork_ for making soup. Captain Poppleton, of the 53d regiment, has
often lent candles, as well as bread, butter, poultry, and even salt.
M. Santini was, even from necessity, in the habit of repairing secretly
to the English camp to purchase butter, eggs, and bread, of the
soldiers’ wives, otherwise the Emperor would often have been without
breakfast, and even without dinner. The Governor sent seven servants to
Longwood, but the Emperor was obliged to dismiss four of them, _from
inability to supply them with food! The Emperor is limited to a bottle
of wine per day!_ Marshal and Madame Bertrand, General Montholon and
his Lady, General Gourgand, and Count de Las Cassas, have also each
their bottle. Marshal Bertrand has three children; M. de Montholon two;
and M. de Las Cassas one, about fifteen or sixteen years of age; and
for all these mouths the Governor allows no rations.

In this state of things the Emperor has been compelled to sell all his
plate to procure the first necessaries of life. M. Santini broke it in
pieces before it was sent to the market. The produce was deposited,
by order of the Governor, in the hands of Mr. Balcombe. When the
house-steward, wishing to supply the deficiency of the provisions
furnished by the Governor, makes purchases himself (which happens every
day), he can only pay them by orders upon Mr. Balcombe. When M. Santini
did not succeed in shooting a few pigeons in the neighbourhood of their
dwelling, the Emperor frequently had nothing for breakfast. Provisions
did not reach Longwood until two or three o’clock in the afternoon.

There is no water fit for cooking at Longwood. Very good water may,
however, be procured at a distance of 1200 yards, which might be
conveyed to the Emperor’s barracks at an expence of from 12 to 1500
francs. The house is only