Part 4

Buonaparte died on Saturday, and the funeral took place the following Wednesday at 12 o'clock. A grand procession was formed of the officers, soldiers, and marines; which, altogether, made a very striking exhibition. The troops were drawn up two men deep on the road side, out of Longwood gates; each man resting the point of his musket on his foot, with the left hand on its butt; and the left cheek leaning on his hand in a mournful position; the band stationed at the head of each corps playing a dead march.

He was buried at the head of Rupert's Valley, about half-way between James' Town and Longwood, under the shade of a large willow-tree, near a small spring well, the water in which is both good and pleasant. For some years past he had water carried to him daily from this well, in two silver tankards which he brought from Moscow. Some years since, when visiting this well, in company with Madame Bertrand, he said, if the British Government buried him on St. Helena, he wished this to be the spot. It is certainly a very retired pretty situation, surrounded by high hills in the form of an amphitheatre, the public road to Longwood leading along the top of the ridge.

After letting the coffin into the grave, three vollies from 11 field pieces were fired, and the flag-ship also fired 25 minute guns. The Catholic priest performed the ceremony after the rites of the Romish Church.

The grave was 10 feet long, 10 deep, and five wide; the bottom happened to be solid rock, in which a space was cut to receive the coffin; the sides and ends of the grave were each walled in with one large Portland flag, and three large flags were put immediately over the coffin, and fastened down with iron bars and lead, beside Roman cement. The top of the grave is elevated about eight inches above the surface of the ground, and covered over with three rough slates.

NAPOLEON (1821).

=Source.=--P. B. Shelley's _Poems_.

What! alive and so bold, O Earth? Art thou not over bold? What! leapest thou forth as of old In the light of thy morning mirth, The last of the flock of the starry fold? Ha! leapest thou forth as of old? Are not the limbs still when the ghost is fled And can'st thou move, Napoleon being dead?

How! is not thy quick heart cold? What spark is alive on thy hearth? How! is not _his_ death-knell knolled? And livest _thou_ still, Mother Earth? Thou wert warming thy fingers old O'er the embers covered and cold Of that most fiery spirit, when it fled-- What, Mother, do you laugh now he is dead?

"Who has known me of old," replied Earth, "Or who has my story told? It is thou who art over bold!" And the lightning of scorn laughed forth As she sung, "To my bosom I fold All my sons when their knell is knolled, And so with living motion all are fed, And the quick spring like weeds out of the dead.

"Still alive and still bold," shouted Earth, "I grow bolder and still more bold. The dead fill me ten thousand fold Fuller of speed, and splendour, and mirth. I was cloudy, and sullen, and cold, Like a frozen chaos uprolled, Till by the spirit of the mighty dead My heart grew warm. I feed on whom I fed.

"Ay, alive and bold," muttered Earth, "Napoleon's fierce spirit rolled, In terror and blood and gold, A torrent of ruin to death from his birth. Leave the millions who follow to mould The metal before it be cold; And weave into his shame, which like the dead Shrouds me, the hopes that from his glory fled."

NAPOLEON AND ENGLAND (1821).

=Source.=--Lord Tennyson's _Early Sonnets_, V. 1832.

BUONAPARTE.

He thought to quell the stubborn hearts of oak, Madman!--to chain with chains, and bind with bands That island queen that sways the floods and lands From Ind to Ind, but in fair daylight woke, When from her wooden walls, lit by sure hands, With thunders, and with lightnings and with smoke, Peal after peal, the British battle broke, Lulling the brine against the Coptic sands. We taught him lowlier moods, when Elsinore Heard the war moan along the distant sea, Rocking with shattered spars, with sudden fires Flamed over: at Trafalgar yet once more We taught him: late he learned humility Perforce, like those whom Gideon school'd with briers.

MONROE DOCTRINE (1823).

=Source.=--_Annual Register_, 1823 (Public Documents).

_President Monroe's Message to Congress, Dec. 2, 1823._

"In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy to do so. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defence. With the movements in this hemisphere we are, of necessity, more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective governments. And to the defence of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of our most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition, for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States."

SLAVERY (1823).

=Source.=--_The Political Life of George Canning_, by A. G. Stapleton. 1831. Vol. III. p. 90.

He concluded with moving as a resolution, "that the state of Slavery was repugnant to the principles of the British Constitution, and of the Christian Religion, and that it ought to be abolished throughout the British Colonies with as much expedition as might be found consistent with a due regard to the well-being of the parties concerned."

Mr. Canning rose immediately after Mr. Buxton had concluded, in the hope that by at once making known the opinions of the Government he might restrain the warmth of debate on so "fearful" a question, on which he said the use of "one rash word," perhaps even of one too "ardent an expression, might raise a flame not easily to be extinguished."

After pointing out the impropriety, not to say unfairness, of Mr. Buxton, in having recourse to the by-gone question of the Slave Trade as a topick of declamation, and remarking that the course pursued by that gentleman of addressing himself not to the judgment, but to the feelings of the House, was the one the least likely to lead to a satisfactory result, Mr. Canning entreated the members to look at the then "situation of the West Indies not as a population accumulated by a succession of crimes, but simply as it then existed." We might deplore the crimes and condemn those who had encouraged their commission; but committed they had been with the sanction of the British Parliament, whose duty it then was to look at the subject not with reference to the crimes alone, but to the nature of that state of society which had grown up in consequence of their perpetration.

"Looking at the West Indies," said Mr. Canning, "I find there a numerous black population with a comparatively small proportion of whites. The question, therefore, to be decided is, how civil rights, moral improvement, and general happiness, can be communicated to this overpowering multitude of slaves with safety to their lives, and security to the interests of the White Population? For the attainment of so great a good as raising these unfortunate creatures in the scale of being, sacrifices ought undoubtedly to be made; but would I therefore strike at the root of the system--a system the growth of ages--and unhesitatingly and rashly level it at a blow? Are we not all aware that there are knots which cannot be suddenly disentangled and must not be cut--difficulties which, if solved at all, must be solved by patient consideration and impartial attention, in order that we may not do the most flagrant injustice by aiming at justice itself."

THE STATE OF IRELAND (1823).

=Source.=--_The Diary and Correspondence of Charles Abbot, Lord Colchester_, Vol. III. p. 302.

_From Lord Redesdale._

"Batsford, October 30th.

"My Dear Lord,

"I think the state of Ireland at this time most perilous.

"The government of a dictator, firm and well judging, assisted by a great armed force ready to execute his will, is now become necessary to the peace of Ireland. A Cromwell, at the head of such an army as he had, not subject to the control of a Cabinet in England--where is to be found such a man? Where is to be found such an army? And how is the government of such a man, if found, to be rendered independent of a Cabinet here?

"He ought also to have so fully the confidence of Parliament, and the spirit of the measures adopted by him ought to have been so fully previously adopted in Parliament, that there should remain no hope of obtaining countenance here for any complaint against him. The people of Ireland must be fully persuaded that his orders must be obliged. His government must bear some resemblance to that of the French in Italy, but it must be uncorrupt, just, and humane, and so far different from the French Government in Italy.

"In this conceit I have imagined what is not possible; but if we mean to save Ireland from great misery, we must approach as nearly to what I have imagined as possible.

"The first thing to be done must be to put an end to all the hopes of the Roman Catholics obtaining the overthrow of the Protestant establishment. This can only be done by a firm union of all Protestants in both islands. Can we hope for this? The two Houses of Parliament might pass strong resolutions on this subject. But can we hope for unanimity in such resolutions? Can we hope to carry such resolutions without strong opposition? May we not rather fear that such propositions would be rejected, or so modified as to be more mischievous than beneficial? I despair, therefore, of bringing Ireland to a state of quiet. The system now pursued, I think, must lead to increased agitation, and finally to insurrection, and perhaps open war is better than the secret war now carried on.

"I consider the late Tithe Bill as an experiment, which I apprehended would, if it produced no other effect, show the unreasonableness of the Irish landholders on the subject of tithes. Tithes are undoubtedly a great oppression to agriculture. They are a tax upon the most important manufacture, the production of food. If the woollen manufacturers, for instance, were obliged to pay the tenth yard of cloth manufactured for the maintenance of the clergy, what would be the effect? Just the same as the payment of the tenth of agricultural produce. The price must be raised in proportion to the charge, or the profit of the manufacturer would be wholly absorbed. A profit of 10 per cent. is esteemed a fair mercantile profit; but the tithe of the manufactured cloth would be more than 10 per cent. on the price for which cloth now sells. Importation would keep down the price, but it would ruin the manufacturer if the article could be imported at a cheaper rate. If, therefore, tithes could be transferred from the occupier to the landowner, it would be beneficial to cultivation, though it would fall heavy on the proprietors of land. On this ground also, I have approved of the commutation of tithes in enclosures.

"We give two-ninths of arable, and one-eighth of green land to the tithe-owner. So far as tithes belong to the clergy, they put so much land in mortmain. But land in mortmain is not so injurious to agriculture as tithes taken in hand. And I thought the Bill might lead to some permanent commutation, or at least to a settled rent, putting all the occupiers of land on an equal footing with respect to cultivation.

"The French agriculturists have gained a great advantage by throwing the maintenance of their clergy on the nation at large, instead of tithes which pressed wholly on agriculture. Formerly land was almost the only property productive of income; and, therefore, many charges were imposed on land which ought, in the present circumstances, to be a charge on property generally, if that could be effected. It seems to me that the present state of the European world is so changed that other changes must follow. Moneyed property, the profits of trade and manufacturers, are now a vast proportion of the income of the inhabitants of this country, and the persons deriving income from these sources bear that proportion only of the public burdens which are taxes on expenditure; while the income derived from land maintains the Church, the poor, the roads, the administration of justice, etc., etc., to a vast amount, and pays at the same time all taxes on expenditure; and the direct burdens on land increase with the riches produced by trade and manufactures, and the moneyed property. This I take to be a great cause of distress amongst the agriculturists and their landlords.

"Truly yours,

"REDESDALE."

TRANSPORTATION (1823).

=Source.=--In the _Edinburgh Review_, 1823, by the Rev. Sydney Smith.

Men are governed by words, and under the infamous term convict, are comprehended crimes of the most different degrees and species of guilt. One man is transported for stealing three hams and a pot of sausages; and in the next berth to him on board the transport is a young surgeon, who has been engaged in the mutiny at the Nore; the third man is for extorting money; the fourth was in a respectable situation of life at the time of the Irish Rebellion, and was so ill-read in History as to imagine that Ireland had been ill-treated by England, and so bad a reasoner as to suppose, that nine Catholics ought not to pay tithes to one Protestant. Then comes a man who set his house on fire, to cheat the Phœnix Office; and, lastly, that most glaring of all human villains, a poacher, driven from Europe, wife and child, by thirty lords of manors, at the Quarter Sessions, for killing a partridge. Now, all these are crimes no doubt--particularly the last; but they are surely crimes of very different degrees of intensity, to which different degrees of contempt and horror are attached--and from which those who have committed them may, by subsequent morality, emancipate themselves, with different degrees of difficulty, and with more or less of success. A warrant granted by a reformed bacon-stealer would be absurd; but there is hardly any reason why a foolish hot-brained young blockhead, who chose to favour the mutineers at the Nore when he was sixteen years of age, may not make a very loyal subject, when he is forty years of age, and has cast his Jacobine teeth, and fallen into the practical jobbing and loyal baseness which so commonly developes itself about that period of life.

It is to be believed that a governor, placed over a land of convicts, and capable of guarding his limbs from any sudden collision with odometrous stones, or vertical posts of direction, should make no distinction between the simple convict and the double and treble convict--the man of three juries, who has three times appeared at the Bailey, _trilarcenous_--three times driven over the seas.

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND HIS SONS (1824).

=Source.=--_The Life of the Duke of Wellington_, by G. R. Gleig.

_Letter from the Duke of Wellington to the Rev. H. M. Wagner._

"Hatfield, 10th October, 1824.

"My dear Sir,

"I have received your letter of the 7th, to which I proceed to give an answer; and I request you to communicate it to my sons, which will save both me and them trouble.

"After all inquiries which I have made, I believe that the allowance which they ought to have, and which would go nearest to provide for their education at Oxford, excluding a private tutor, but including everything else, would be for Douro, who will be entered as a nobleman, £800 per annum, including his half-pay; and for Charles, who will be entered as a gentleman commoner, £500 per annum, besides his half-pay. I therefore, by this post, direct Messrs. Coutts to pay Douro £200, and Charles £125, on the 1st October, 1st January, 1st April, and 1st July, each year, beginning with the 1st inst.

"I beg that Charles will observe that I make him this allowance, at present, in order that he may defray the expenses of his education. He must recollect, however, that he is only a younger brother, and that it is not at all clear that he will ever have so much again, unless he should make it by his own industry and talent; and I beg you will tell them both that when I entered the world I had just the sum for the whole year which I now give Charles every quarter.

"I intend that these allowances shall cover all expenses of every description; and I have reason to believe them so ample that I expect they will not run in debt; particularly as I begin by paying them in advance, and as I will take upon myself the following expenses:

"The entrance fees at the college and university for both.

"The expenses of the nobleman's and gentleman-commoner's gowns.

"They must pay for the furniture of their rooms themselves, but if you should think the expense too heavy upon them immediately, I would advance the money, and they can repay me hereafter.

"I give them the horses which they now have with them, of which they may dispose as they may think proper; and they may take any servants they please out of my house or stables, they, of course, paying their wages, and also their expenses, from the time of their leaving me.

"Accordingly, if you let me know what the entrance-money is, and the expense of the gowns, I will send you the money.

"I beg you to impress upon them that there is but one certain and infallible way of avoiding debt, that is, first, to determine to incur no expense, to defray which the money is not in their pockets; secondly, to pay the money immediately for everything they get, and for every expense they incur. They will then be certain that everything they have is their own, and they will know at all times what they can and what they cannot do. There is nothing so easy, provided they begin in time; and I give them these ample allowances, and pay them beforehand, purposely that they may at once pay for everything the moment they get it.

"They should, in adopting this system, advert to the expenses of the college, which they have to defray themselves, their servants' wages and clothes, the keep of their horses, and lay by a sufficiency to defray their expenses till the 1st January. The remainder will be their own, and they will lay it out as they please; observing always, that if this remainder is laid out uselessly or idly, and they act up rigidly to the system of paying for everything at the time they get it, they may want clothes or other necessaries, or reasonable gratifications, before the quarter will expire.

"I think it best to remind them of all this, because I hope that they and I will have no further discussion upon these subjects. In respect of their studies, I am very anxious about their mathematics, as essential to those who serve in the army. If you will let me know what the course is in the university, I will give you my opinion upon other matters. They should likewise have a perfect knowledge of modern geography and history, of course, but I shall hear further from you on these points. I will go and see them shortly after they shall have gone to Oxford, where they ought to be on the 14th. They had better probably go to Strathfieldsaye to make their arrangements for their departure, as soon as you will receive this letter.

"I wish you would let each of them keep a copy of this letter, and send me one."

FREE TRADE (1825).

=Source.=--William Cobbett's _Rural Rides_, ed. by Mr. Pitt Cobbett, 1885.

One newspaper says that Mr. Huskisson is gone to Paris, and thinks it likely that he will endeavour to "inculcate in the mind of the Bourbons wise principles of _free trade_!" What next! Persuade them, I suppose, that it is for _their good_ that English goods should be admitted into France and into St. Domingo with little or no duty? Persuade them to make a treaty of commerce with him; and in short persuade them to make _France help to pay the interest of our debt and dead-weight_, lest our system of paper should go to pieces, and lest that should be followed by a _radical reform_, which reform would be injurious to "the monarchical principle!" This newspaper politician does, however, _think_ that the Bourbons will be "too dull" to comprehend these "_enlightened_ and _liberal_" notions; and I think so too. I think the Bourbons, or, rather, those who will speak for them, will say: "No thank you. You contracted your debt without our participation; you made your _dead-weight_ for your own purposes: the seizure of our museums and the loss of our frontier towns followed your victory of Waterloo, though we were 'your Allies' at the time; you made us pay an enormous tribute after that battle, and kept possession of part of France till we had paid it; you _wished_, the other day, to keep us out of Spain, and you, Mr. Huskisson, in a speech at Liverpool, called our deliverance of the King of Spain an _unjust and unprincipled act of aggression_, while Mr. Canning prayed to God that we might not succeed. No thank you, Mr. Huskisson, no. No coaxing, sir: we saw, then, too clearly the _advantage we derived from your having a debt and a dead-weight_, to wish to assist in relieving you of either. 'Monarchical principle' here or 'monarchical principle' there, we know that your mill-stone debt is our best security. We like to have your wishes, your prayers, and your abuses against us, rather than your _subsidies_ and your _fleets_; and so, farewell, Mr. Huskisson; if you like, the English may drink French wine; but whether they do or not, the French shall not wear your rotten cottons. And, as a last word, how did you maintain the 'monarchical principle,' the 'paternal principle,' or as Castlereagh called it, the 'social system,' when you called that an unjust and unprincipled aggression which put an end to the bargain by which the convents and other Church property of Spain were to be transferred to the Jews and jobbers of London? Bon jour, Monsieur Huskisson, ci-devant membre et orateur du club de quatre-vingt-neuf!"