BOOK XVII. to all the French who had strayed, but it announced, at the same time, that some persons would be excepted from pardon.

CHAP. II.

1815.

These announced punishments, these limitations to the amnesty, in other respects promised with so much liberality, were not of a nature to satisfy those who had taken part in the revolution, and who were then in the possession of the civil and military government of France. The chiefs of the army would have preferred perishing a thousand times with arms in their hands, to preserving their lives for the melancholy prospect of a criminal tribunal. The heads of the government and the functionaries attached no less importance to the point of sheltering themselves from all re-action.

To dissipate all fears in this respect, and inspire all minds with confidence, an article was inserted in the convention, which runs thus:-" In like manner shall be respected persons and private property. The inhabitants, and in general all the individuals who are in the capital, shall continue to enjoy their rights and liberties, without being troubled or sought after in any thing relative to the functions which they occupy, or shall have occupied, or for their conduct or political opinions.'

For greater security, article 13 was added, stating," that if any difficulties should arise as to the execution of any of the articles of the present convention, they should be interpreted in favor of the French army and the city of Paris."

Marshal Ney was evidently included in the terms of article 12; he was an inhabitant of Paris, he had his residence there in law and in fact; he exercised functions there-he belonged to the

army.

Accused, he invokes the benefit of this article. But it is objected to him, that "the king had not ratified the convention of the 3d of July; that the stipulation written in article 12 only expressed a renunciation of the high powers on their own account of troubling any person whosoever in France, on account of his conduct or political opinions, and that they had no intention to interfere, in any way, with the acts of the king's govern

ment.

This reply, made to the lady of Marshal Ney, does not solve the difficulty.

The high powers could not renounce, on their own account, any inquiry after any person whatever in France, on account of his conduct or political opinions, unless they actually possessed the right to make these inquiries. We, undoubtedly, cannot renounce any right whatever, excepting as far as we have acquired it, and we can only pardon as far as we were able to punish. Ejus est permittere cujus est votare. Ejus est nolle, qui potest velle.-L. 1. ff. de reg. Jur. Quod quis si velit habere non potest, id repudiare non

potest.-L. CLXXIV. ff. de reg. Juris. Is potest, repudiare qui et acquirere potest.-L. xvm. ff. de acquirenda vel omittenda hereditate.

There is, likewise, a principle of the rights of men, that "foreign nations ought not to interfere in the interior government of an independent state. It is not for them to judge between the citizens whom discord induces to fly to arms, nor between the prince and the subjects; the two parties are equally foreign to them, equally independent of their authority: it remains for them to interpose their good offices for the re-establishment of peace, and natural law invites them to it.-Vattel, lib. III. cap. 18. sec. 296.

Thus the high powers bad only the rights of war in the country which the force of arms placed in their power, but they had not (according to the law of nations) the power of judging the conduct and the political opinions of the citizens who had taken part in the revolution.

This principle was well known on the part of the plenipotentiaries who concluded the conven tion of Paris; it is, therefore, impossible to understand art. 12 in the sense which the high power understood it, viz. renouncing a right which they had not.

But the King of France was their ally; it wa in his holy cause that they had taken up arms; they acted for him and in his name. The proc mation of the 25th of June, and the treaty of the 20th of November, leave no doubt in this respect; it cannot, therefore, be said, that the convention of the 3d of July was not binding on the King of France.

His majesty, always great and generous, had not wished to unite his arms, nor those of his f mily, to the instruments which Providence bas made use of to punish treason," (proclamation of 25th of June,) but the allied generals, "where powerful efforts dissipated the satellites of the tyrant (same proclamation,) had necessarily, with the power of acting offensively in the interest d the alliance, and what the lawyers call eas fœderis, the power of making capitulations a truces, which, in stopping the effusion of blood. would naturally hasten the epoch of the pacifce tion and return to order. Otherwise, and if w only suppose them to possess the first of these powers, without admitting the second, it follows, that war once commenced, could only terminat with the extinction of all the combatants; a pr ciple too repugnant to the rights of nations, i humanity, and, above all, to the paternal sest ments of his majesty for his people.

Thus, the same generals who had the powers attacking the French army, and taking Par case of resistance, had certainly the right of gra ing the clauses of a convention, which spared city the horrors of a siege, and the conseque of being taken by storm.

"Since a general and a commandant of a place ought naturally to be provided with all the powers necessary for the exercise of their functions, we have a right to presume, that they have these powers; and that of concluding a capitulation is certainly of the number, especially when the orders of the sovereign cannot be waited for. The treaty which they shall make on this subject will be valid, and will bind the sovereigns in whose name and authority the respective commanders acted."-Vattel, lib. III. art 16. sec. 261.

Will it be said, that this convention was made with rebels? If so, it would not be the less a treaty, a faith sworn, and an obligatory convention. Let us hear what Vattel says on the subject. "The most certain means of appeasing seditions, and at the same time the most just, is that of giving satisfaction to the people; and if they have risen without a cause, which, perhaps, never happened, we ought, as we have observed, to grant an amnesty to the greater number. As soon as the amnesty is published and accepted, all the past ought to be buried in oblivion, no one ought to be troubled for what he had done relative to the commotions. And, in general, the prince, a religious observer of his word, ought to keep all he has promised even to the rebels, by whom I understand those who had revolted without reason or necessity. If his promises are not inviolable, there will be no longer any safety for the rebels in treating with him. As soon as they have drawn the sword, they must throw away the sheath, as an old author observed. The prince will be wanting in the gentlest and most salutary means of appeasing a revolt, and there will only be left to him to put it down and to exterminate the revolters. Despair will render them formidable, while compassion will procure them aid, increase their party, and the state will find itself in danger. What would have become of France if the leaguers had not been able to confide in the promises of Henry the Great?"-Vattel, book 11. ch. 18. sect. 291. Will it still be said, that article 12 is out of the Ordinary terms of a capitulation?

We reply no, because the parties only capituate to save their lives and liberty, and it would not be saving them, to exchange the chance of a annon-ball for the expectation of the gallows; O stipulate for a partial and temporary amnesty, f use to-day and of no value to-morrow; bindng on the allies, from whom they had nothing to ear, and without effect as to the King of France, vho alone had the right of punishing legally.

In the second place we reply, that "if it hapen in the conferences for a capitulation, that one f the commandants insists on conditions which he other does not think it in his power to grant, ey have one step to take, which is to agree on a

Thus, when his majesty entered Paris, amidst the lively acclamations of a people intoxicated with the happiness of seeing him again, he did not disavow the convention of the 3d of July, which, it is to be presumed, his majesty would not have failed to have done, if his intention had not been, in profiting by the benefit of the convention, to carefully maintain all the stipulations. "We have shewn," says Vattell," that the state cannot be bound by an agreement made without its order, and without authority on its part; but is it absolutely bound to nothing? that is what we have to examine. If the things still remain in statu quo, the state, or the sovereign, can simply disavow the treaty, which falls to the ground by this disavowal, and is perfectly as if it had not been made; but the sovereign ought to manifest his will as soon as the treaty comes to his knowledge; not, in fact, that his silence can give force to a convention which ought to have none without his approbation, but there would be bad faith in leaving the time to the other party to execute, on his part, an agreement not intended to be ratified." -Vattel, book 11. chap 16. sect. 212.

Now the fact is, that his majesty has not disavowed the convention of the 3d of July, after being made acquainted with it. Not only his majesty has not disavowed the convention of the 3d of July, but it may be said, that his government suffered and procured its execution in what concerned the retreat of the army behind the Loire, and remitting the arms of Paris and Vincennes; and that he claimed its execution in the interest of the monuments, whose preservation was stipulated for to the profit of the city of Paris, &c. &c.

Will it be objected, that these partial executions do not bear on article 12? We briefly reply, that conventions are indivisible; that we cannot rescind the dispositions, or reject one and retain another, because they altogether form the general condition under which the contract was made, and without which it would not have been made.

If the allied generals had not granted article 12, we should have fought; 250,000 men would have lost their lives, and Paris would have been taken, pillaged, burnt, and destroyed. All these miseries are spared by the convention; and if it has been necessary to subscribe to an amnesty, which, at the most, could only benefit a few individuals, we may easily console ourselves on reflecting on all the calamities which the rejection.

1815.

WHILE the events we have related were passing in France, Bonaparte had quietly taken up his residence at St. Helena. The conduct and conversations of this extraordinary personage and his suite, during the voyage and first months of his residence at that] island, are faithfully related by Mr. Warden, surgeon of the Northumberland, in a series of letters written by him to a friend in England, which was afterwards published. this work of Mr. Warden, we have not only corrections of many incidents, which had been strangely misrepresented through other channels, but some account of the present situation of the ex-emperor-his feelings and opinions-his mode of life-and of some of the events of his past career. But what renders the work particularly interesting to political readers, and perhaps to the historian (should Napoleon not persevere in completing the Annals of his Life) are some notices and explanations respecting events which are yet fresh in the public mind-we allude to the execution of the Duke d'Enghien-the sudden death of Pichegru-the alledged murder of our countryman, Captain Wright-the poisoning at Jaffa-and the massacre at El-Arish. In fact, the work abounds in such a variety of interesting matter, that we cannot refrain front presenting the reader with the following extracts:

"Bonaparte, previous to his leaving the Bellerophon, was, it seems, recommended to select three of his suite to accompany him to St. Helena. Bertrand was, at that time, supposed to be particularly proscribed; but it is understood, that Lord Keith took upon himself the responsibility of including such an attached friend in the number of the exiled general's attendants. The others were the Count de las Casas, who had been a captain in the French navy, and is a man of literary attainments; General Count Montholon, and Lieutenant-general Gourgond, his two aides-de-camp, who were devoted to his fortunes. The latter officers served him in the Russian campaign, and describe the winter which they encountered there in all its horrors. The Russian cavalry they extol; but represent the Cossacks as easily dispersed. They do not appear to hold the Prussians in very high estimation, but consider them, at the same time, as superior to the Austrians. The English infantry, at the battle of Waterloo, filled them with absolute astonishment; but they repre

sent our cavalry as much too impetuous; they probably found them so on that glorious day.

"In a conversation with Count Bertrand, which happened to glance on that subject, he could at hide his sensations. The little he said was in a plaintive tone, though expressed with candour, and accompanied with expressive shrugs of la mentation. We fought that day,' he said, for the crown of France; but you gained the battle, and we are undone.'-I asked him, whether he had read Marshal Ney's letter to the Duke of Otranto, in defence of his conduct on the bloody field. That publication, it appeared, he had no seen; and when I informed him in what manner the marshal had censured his master's conduct and that, in the public opinion, he was though to have cleared himself from the imputation of erroneous conduct;- Well well,' he replied 'had I been in the command of Marshal Ney's division, I might, perhaps, have done worse; but, as I was, I saw much to blame;' but, in compar ing Bonaparte with Ney, he cast his eyes upward to the heavens, and suddenly lowering them to the earth, he exclaimed, with a very significan action, Indeed, indeed, the difference is equally great.'

6

"From the information I received in my versation with our French guests, it appears, in the emperor's abdication, in favor of his son, is a matter which, as far at least as my knowledge etends, has been altogether misconceived in E land: I mean as referring to the immediate an proximate causes of it. If the communicatio made to me were correct, and I am not willing imagine that they were invented merely to impe upon me, a grand political scheme was contrived by Fouche to out-wit his master, and it prove successful. The name of that crafty politicia and ready revolutionist is never mentioned by the members of our little cabin Utica without t accompaniment of execrations, which it is net te cessary for you to hear, as it would be ridicule for me to repeat. Not Talleyrand himself is s loaded with thein as the arch-betrayer, whe ba been just mentioned. It was, indeed, a decide opinion of the moment, among our exiles, dr Fouche would contrive to hang Talleyrand; that the latter would provide an equal fate for former; and that if they both were suspende from the same gibbet, it ought to be preserved a

an object of public respect for the service it had done to mankind, by punishing and exposing two as consummate offenders as ever disgraced the social world.-The historiette to which I have alluded, was thus related.

"On Napoleon's return to Paris, after his disastrous defeat at Waterloo, and when he may be supposed to have been agitated by doubt and perplexity, as to the conduct he should pursue in that extraordinary crisis, a letter was offered to his attention by the Duke of Otranto, as having been received by the latter from Prince Metterpich, the Austrian minister. It was dated in the preceding April, and the diplomatic writer stated the decided object of bis imperial master, to be the final expulsion of Napoleon the First from the throne of France; and that the French nation should be left to their uninterrupted decision, whether they would have a monarchy under Napoleon the Second, or adept a republican form of government.-Austria professed to have no right, and consequently felt no intention to dictate to the French nation. The final and ratified expulsion of the traitor, (such was the expression) is all the Austrian emperor demands of France.

"Napoleon seized the bait; and immediately abdicated in favor of his son: but he had no sooner taken this step, than he discovered the double game that Fouche was playing. The letter was, a forgery, and it soon appeared, that the Emperor of Austria had it not in his power, if he had ever indulged the contemplation, to clothe his grandson with political character.

"After he quitted Paris, the ex-emperor and his suite pursued an uninterrupted progress to the sea-coast, and it is their opinion, that they might have continued in an inactive state, and without any reasonable apprehension of disturbance, for a much longer time than Bonaparte's impatience would allow, in the vicinity of Roche

fort.

—“On his first arrival among us, be occasionally expressed a wish to be informed of the contents of the English newspapers; but as it could not be a pleasant circumstance to him to be made acquainted with the manner in which his character, conduct, and circumstances, were necessarily treated and observed upon by our journals, there was a delicacy maintained in the avoiding a communication of their contents. That truth is not to be spoken, or in any way imparted, at all times, is a proverb which was now faithfully adhered to on-board the Northumberland. The Count de las Casas had, indeed, offered to qualify his general, in the course of a month, to read an English newspaper, with the requisite intelligence of the language; an undertaking which it is not very probable he would have been able to accomplish; but he could not induce his master to become his scholar, for the matter was cut short by the fol

CHAP III.

lowing reply." I well know, that you think me BOOK XVII. a very clever fellow: but, be that as it may, I cannot do every thing; and among those things which I should find impracticable, is the making myself master of the English language in a few weeks.'

"The name of Talleyrand happening to occur in the course of conversation with our French shipmates, the high opinion entertained of his talents by the Bonapartists was acknowledged without reserve. On my asking at what period he was separated from the councils and confidence of Napoleon, it was replied, at the invasion of Spain. I then observed, that the reports in England respecting that circumstance were correct as to time, and I presumed were equally so as to the cause; his unreserved disapprobation of that bold and adventurous enterprize. This met with an instant contradiction; which was followed by a most decisive assertion, that the Prince of Benevento approved of the Spanish war, and founded his recommendation of that measure on his unalterable opinion, which he boldly communicated to the Emperor, that his life was not secure while a Bourbon reigned in Europe.

"I entered further on this subject with Madame Bertrand, and she actually and most unequivocally asserted, that Talleyrand was in secret communication with Napoleon when they were last at Paris, and that he would have joined them in a month. His proposed departure from Vienna to take the waters at Aix-la-Chapelle was under the cloak of indisposition, to conceal his duplicity. Can you persuade yourself, Madame,' I said, that Talleyrand, if he had the inclination, possessed the power to influence the Court of Vienna in favor of the son-in-law.'-The court of Vienna!' she exclaimed, 'O yes, yes: he has the capacity to influence all the courts of Europe! If he had but joined the emperor, we should, at this instant, have been in Paris, aud France would never more have changed its master.'-Of this man's virtues I heard no eulogium; but you will now be a competent judge how his political talents were appreciated in the French circle on-board the Northumberland.-On my asking Count Bertrand which of the French generals had amassed the greatest portion of wealth; he, without the least hesitation, inentioned Massena; though, he added, they have all made very considerable fortunes. Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum, he appeared to think, bad made less than any other. Of Davoust, Duke d'Eckmuhl, he spoke, to our extreme astonishment, in an animated strain of panegyric, which was instantly met with an outcry, from all who heard it, respecting the conduct of that officer, at Hamburgh, which we represented as "atrocious beyond example. This he would not allow on the contrary, he described him as a zealous, correct, and faithful commander; and far from being

1815.

CHAP. III.

1815.

BOOK XVII. destitute of humanity; as, notwithstanding his notions of military obedience, which were known to be of the most rigid kind, he did not act up to the severity of his instructions. As for his taking a bribe, Bertrand declared him incapable of such baseness; and asserted, from his own knowledge, that a very large sum had been offered him to connive at the sailing of some ships from Hamburgh in the night, which he refused with the disdain of a faithful soldier and an honorable

man.

"Count de las Casas also took up the subject of the marshals of France, and spoke of them with very little reserve. He described Massena as having been originally a fencing-master; but that, previous to his campaign in the peninsula, he was considered by the French nation as equal, if not superior, to Bonaparte in his military capacity. From that period the count represented him as having dwindled into absolute insignificance. He is avaricious, he said, in the extreme, though he has only one child, a daughter, to inherit his enormous wealth. He then proceeded to relate the following circumstance of the marshal as the accidental topic of the moment.

"The preservation of the army, on crossing the Danube, was boldly attributed by the soldiers who composed it, and consequently re-echoed as the opinion of the nation, to the superior skill and persevering courage of Massena. It appears, that a sudden and impetuous inundation of the river had destroyed all possible communication between its right and left bank when half the French force had passed it. The remaining half were without ammunition, when Massena threw himself into the village of Essling, where he withstood fifteen repeated attacks of the Austrians, and effected the escape of that part of the French army from the destruction which threatened it. The eulogiums which the army and the nation lavished on Massena, for bis conduct and the success which crowned it, partook of that clamorous character as to imply no inconsiderable degree of blame and censure on Bonaparte himself, which he was supposed to have felt. But he contrived, nevertheless, to dissipate it, by conferring the title of Prince of Essling on Massena, as the merited reward and magnanimous acknowledgment of a service on which depended, for the moment, the success and honorable issue of the campaign. Soult, he said, is an excellent officer, and Ney, brave to a fault; but Suchet possesses a more powerful intellect, with more enlarged information, and political sagacity, as well as more conciliatory manners, than any of the marshals of France.

"I give you the account of Bonaparte's return to France, as it was casually and briefly related

to me.

"The Duke de Bassano was the chief actor. Individuals had gone from several departments in

France to Elba, and the then emperor had been induced to suspect that the allies determined to send him to the island to which he is now destined. On what authority this apprehension was grounded not the most distant idea was communicated. It is certain, however, that he entertained it with such seriousness, as to induce him to make the resolute attempt in meditation before the connect ing plot was ripe for overt measures in France. Even after his little army was embarked, a dis patch arrived from his friends, which contained the most earnest entreaties to postpone his enterprise if it were only for one month. Whether, if he had received them before he had quitted the island, they would have been sufficient to check his impatience and quiet his alarms, was not a subject of conjecture: but be that as it may, whatever the counsels were, they arrived too late to be followed the die was cast.'

"I shall now proceed to give the account of an interesting conversation which I had with the Count de las Casas, on the final resolution of Napoleon to throw himself on the generosity of the English government. He prefaced his narrative with this assurance; No page of antient history will give you a more faithful detail of any extraordinary event, than I am about to offer of our de parture from France, and the circumstances com nected with it. The future historian will cer tainly attempt to describe it; and you will then be able to judge of the authenticity of his mate rials and the correctness of his narration.

"From the time the emperor quitted the ca pital, it was his fixed determination to proceed to America, and establish himself on the banks of one of its great rivers, where, he had no doubt, a number of his friends from France would gather round him; and as he had been finally baffed in the career of his ambition, he determined to retire from the world, and beneath the branches of bis own fig-tree, in that sequestered spot, tranqui'y and philosophically observe the agitations of Erope.' On my observing, that the good people of Washington might entertain very different notions of his philosophy, and rather contemplate with ap prehension such a colony as he would establish, Las Casas replied, Oh, no; the career of Napo leon's ambition is terminated.' He then pro ceeded.

"On our arrival at Rochefort, the difficulty of reaching the land of reaching the land of promise appeared to be much greater than had been conjectured. Every inquiry was made, and various projects proposed: but, after all, no very practicable scheme offered itself to our acceptance. At length, as a dernie resort, two chasse-marees, (small one-masted ver sels) were procured; and it was in actual conten plation to attempt a voyage across the Atlantic in them. Sixteen midshipmen engaged_most w lingly to direct their course; and, during t