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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 supplied by the water which is brought from
this fountain; it is open only once during the day, at all other times
it is locked. It is guarded by an English officer, who is scarcely ever
present when water is wanted. There is a conduit for conveying water to
the English camp; but it was thought unnecessary to do as much for the
unfortunate Napoleon.

The last visit the Governor made to Longwood, and at which M. Santini
was present, he offended the Emperor to such a degree, that he said,
“Have you not then done with insulting me? Leave my presence, and let
me never see you again, unless you have received orders from your
government to assassinate me: you will then find me ready to lay open
my breast to you. My person is in your power. You may shed my blood.”

Admiral Cockburn marked out a circuit of two leagues for the Emperor’s
promenade; the present Governor abridged it to _half a league_.

The climate of Longwood, and the humidity to which the Emperor is
exposed, have considerably injured his health. It is the opinion of his
English physician, that he cannot remain there another year without
hazarding his life.

The Emperor’s plate being sold, he dispensed with the services of the
keeper of the plate; and, for want of a sufficient supply of forage,
he discharged one of his two pike-men. Having no longer any cabinet,
he thought proper to dismiss M. Santini. In the same manner, objects
of the first necessity for his household suffer daily diminution. Col.
Poniatowski has been removed from the Island by order of the Governor.

M. Santini departed from St. Helena on the 28th of October, on board
the Orontis, sailed to the Cape of Good Hope, and again returned to St.
Helena, but was not suffered to land. The Emperor sent some provisions
on board the vessel; but M. Santini sent back the live-stock, as
the Captain insisted on his killing it immediately. As for wine, he
never tasted it during the voyage, as he would not submit to have the
Emperor’s present, which was strictly his own, distributed in _rations_
by the Captain.

On landing at Portsmouth, M. Santini proceeded to London, and published
the following Memorial.




Memorial.


GENERAL,

I have received the Treaty of the 3d of August 1815, concluded between
his Britannic Majesty, the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of Russia,
and the King of Prussia, which accompanied your letter of the 23d of
July.

The Emperor Napoleon protests against the contents of that Treaty. He
is not the prisoner of England. After having placed his abdication in
the hands of the Representatives of the Nation, for the _advantage of
the Constitution adopted by the French People, and in favour of his
Son_, he repaired voluntarily and freely to England, with the view of
living there, as a private individual, under the protection of the
British laws. The violation of every law cannot constitute a right. The
person of the Emperor Napoleon is actually in the power of England;
but he neither has been, nor is, in the power of Austria, Russia, and
Prussia, either in fact or of right, even according to the laws and
customs of England, which never included, in the exchange of prisoners,
Russians, Prussians, Austrians, Spaniards, or Portuguese, though united
to these powers by treaties of alliance, and making war conjointly with
them.

The Convention of the 2d of August, concluded fifteen days after the
Emperor was in England, cannot have of right any effect. It exhibits
only a spectacle of the coalition of the four greatest Powers of Europe
for the oppression of _a single man_!--a coalition which the opinion of
every nation and all the principles of sound morality equally disavow.

The Emperors of Austria and Russia, and the King of Prussia, having
neither in fact or in right any claim over the person of the Emperor
Napoleon, could decide nothing respecting him.

Had the Emperor Napoleon been in the power of the Emperor of Austria,
that Prince would have recollected the relations which religion and
nature have formed _between a father and a son_--relations which are
never violated with impunity. He would have recollected that Napoleon
had _four_ times restored to him his throne; _viz._ at Leoben in
1797--at Luneville in 1804, when his armies were under the walls of
Vienna--at Presburg in 1806--and at Vienna in 1809, when his armies
had possession of the capital and three-fourths of the monarchy! That
Prince would have recollected the protestations he made to Napoleon at
the _bivouac_ in Moravia in 1806--and at the interview in Dresden in
1812.

Had the person of the Emperor Napoleon been in the power of the
Emperor Alexander, he would have recollected the ties of friendship
contracted at Tilsit, at Erfurth, and during _twelve years of daily
correspondence_. He would have recollected the conduct of the Emperor
Napoleon the day after the battle of Austerlitz, when, though he could
have made him, with the wreck of his army, _prisoner_, contented
himself, with taking his parole, and allowed him to operate his
retreat. He would have recollected the dangers to which the Emperor
Napoleon personally exposed himself in order to extinguish the fire at
Moscow, and to preserve that capital for him; assuredly, that Prince
would never have violated the duties of friendship and gratitude
towards a friend in misfortune.

Had the person of the Emperor Napoleon been in the power of the King of
Prussia, that Sovereign could not have forgotten that it depended on
the Emperor, after the battle of Friedland, to place another Prince on
the throne of Berlin. He