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 would not have forgotten, in the presence of a disarmed enemy, the protestations of attachment, and the sentiments of gratitude, which he testified to him in 1812, at the interview in Dresden.

It accordingly appears, from Articles II. and V. of the Treaty of the 2d of August, that these Princes, being incapable of exercising any influence over the disposal of the Emperor, who was not in their power, accede to what may be done thereon by his Britannic Majesty, who takes upon himself the charge of fulfilling every obligation. These Princes have reproached the Emperor Napoleon with having preferred the protection of the English laws to their’s. The false ideas which the Emperor Napoleon had formed of the liberality of the laws of England, and of the influence of the opinion of a great, generous, and free people over their government, decided him to prefer the protection of these laws to that of a father-in-law, or an old friend.

The Emperor Napoleon had it in his power to secure, by a diplomatic treaty, whatever was personal to himself, by putting himself either at the head of the army of the Loire, or at the head of the army of the Gironde, commanded by General Clausel; but wishing, henceforth, for nothing but retirement, and the protection of the laws of a free state, either English or American, all stipulations appeared to him unnecessary. He conceived that the English people were more bound by a conduct which was, on his part, frank, noble, and full of confidence, than they would have been by the most solemn treaties. He has been deceived: but this error will for ever cause true Britons to blush; and will, in the present, as well as the future generations, be a proof of the bad faith of the English administration.

Austrian and Prussian Commissioners are arrived at St. Helena. If the object of their mission be the fulfilment of a part of the duties which the Emperors of Austria and Russia have contracted by the Treaty of the 2d of August, and to take care that the English Agents, in a small colony in the midst of the ocean, do not fail in the respect due to a Prince connected with these Sovereigns by the bonds of relationship and so many other ties, proofs of the character which belong to these two Monarchs will be recognized in this proceeding; but you, Sir, have declared that these Commissioners have neither the right nor the power of giving any opinion on what may be passing on this rock!

The English Ministers have caused the Emperor Napoleon to be transported to St. Helena, at the distance of 2000 leagues from Europe! This Rock, situated within the tropics, and 500 leagues from any continent, is subject to the devouring heats of these latitudes. It is covered with clouds and fogs during three-fourths of the year, and is at once the most arid and the most humid country in the world. Such a climate is most inimical to the health of the Emperor, and hatred must have dictated the choice of this residence, as well as the instructions given by the English Ministry to the officers commanding in the Island.

They have even been ordered to call the Emperor Napoleon General, as if it were wished to oblige him to consider himself as never having reigned in France.

The reason which determined him not to assume an incognito name, as he might have resolved to do on leaving France, were these: First Magistrate for life of the Republic under the title of First Consul, he concluded the preliminaries of London, and the treaty of Amiens, with the King of Great Britain; and received, as ambassadors, Lord Cornwallis, Mr. Merry, and Lord Whitworth, who resided in that quality at his court. He accredited to the King of England Count Otto and General Andreossi, who resided as ambassadors at the court of Windsor. When, after an exchange of letters between the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the two Monarchies, Lord Lauderdale came to Paris invested with full powers from the King of England, he treated with the Plenipotentiaries possessing full powers from the Emperor Napoleon, and remained for several months at the court of the Thuilleries. When Lord Castlereagh afterwards signed, at Chatillon, the ultimatum, which the Allied Powers presented to the Plenipotentiaries of the Emperor Napoleon, he recognised by that the fourth dynasty. This ultimatum was more advantageous than the treaty of Paris; but, in exacting that France should renounce Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine, it exacted what was contrary to the propositions of Frankfort, and the proclamations of the Allied Powers—what was contrary to the oath, by which, at his coronation, the Emperor swore to maintain the integrity of the Empire. The Emperor, besides, thought that these natural limits were necessary, both for the security of France, and to preserve the equilibrium of Europe; he thought that the French nation, in the situation in which it was, ought rather to run the hazard of all the chances of war than to depart from that policy: France had obtained this integrity, and would have preserved it with honour, if treason had not arrayed itself in aid of the allies. The Treaty of the 2d of August, and the Act of the British Parliament, called the Emperor Napoleon, Buonaparte, and gave him only the title of General. The title of General Buonaparte is doubtless eminently glorious; the Emperor bore it Lodi, at Castiglione, at Rivoli, at Arcole, at Leoben, at the Pyramids, at Aboukir: but for seventeen years he has borne that of First Consul and Emperor, which proves that he has been both First Magistrate of the Republic, and Sovereign of the fourth Dynasty. Those who think that nations are flocks which belong, of divine right, to certain families, do not belong to the age; nor do they participate in the spirit of the English legislature, which has several times changed the order of its Dynasty, because great changes had taken place in public opinion, in which the reigning Princes not participating, they became enemies to the welfare of the great majority of the nation: for kings are only hereditary Magistrates, who exist for the welfare of nations, and not nations for the satisfaction of Kings.

It is in the same hateful spirit that orders have been given that the Emperor Napoleon shall not be allowed to write or receive any letters, unless they are opened and read by the English Ministers and the officers at St. Helena. They have interdicted to him the possibility of receiving intelligence from his wife, his mother, his son, or his brothers; and when, in order to avoid the inconvenience of having his letters read by subaltern officers, he wished to send letters sealed to the Prince Regent, he was told that the order could not be departed from, and that the letters must pass open, such being the instructions of the Ministry. This conduct needs no observation; it gives rise, however, to strange ideas as to the spirit of the Administration which could dictate what would be disavowed even at Algiers. Letters have arrived at St. Helena, for the Officers in the suite of the Emperor; they were broke open and transmitted to you, but you have not communicated them, because they did not come through the channel of the English Ministry. Thus they had to go back 4000 leagues; and these Officers had the grief of knowing, that there was intelligence on the Rock from their wives, their mothers, their children, and that they could not know the nature of it for six months:—the heart must solace itself.

They could not obtain either The Morning Chronicle, The Morning Post, or any French Journals. Now and then a few stray numbers of The Times reached Longwood. In consequence of a request made on board the Northumberland, some books were sent; but all those relative to the affairs of late years have been carefully kept back. He wished to correspond with a bookseller in London, in order to have direct the books which he wanted, and those relative to the events of the day: this was prevented. An English author, having made a tour in France, and having published an account of it in London, he took the trouble to transmit it to you, in order that it might be presented to the Emperor; you thought proper not to transmit it because it was not sent to you by the express desire of your Government. It is said also, that other books sent by their authors have not been transmitted, because some of them were inscribed to the Emperor Napoleon, and others to Napoleon the Great. The English Ministry is not authorized to order any of these vexations; the law, although unique, by which the British Parliament regards the Emperor Napoleon as a prisoner of war, has never prohibited prisoners of war from subscribing to journals or receiving printed books: such a prohibition only takes place in the dungeons of the Inquisition.

The Island of St. Helena is ten leagues in circumference; it is inaccessible every where; brigs surround the coast; posts are stationed on the shore within sight of each other, which renders impracticable any communication with the sea. There is only one small town (James Town), where there is an anchorage, and where vessels touch. To prevent an individual from quitting the island, it is sufficient to guard the shore by land and sea. To lay an interdict on the interior of the island can therefore have no other object than to deprive him of a promenade of from eight to ten miles, which it would be possible to make on horseback, and the privation of which will shorten the life of the Emperor. The Emperor has been established at Longwood, exposed to every wind, and where the land is sterile and uninhabitable, without water, and not susceptible of any cultivation. There is a circuit marked out of about 1200 toises; at about 11 or 1200 distance a camp is established on a hill, and another camp in an opposite position at the same distance; in short, in the midst of the heat of the tropic there is nothing to be seen but camps. Admiral Malcolm, having learnt the utility which the Emperor would derive from a tent in that situation, caused one to be set up by his sailors, at twenty paces distance, in front of the house; it was the only place in which a shade could be found. The Emperor had as much reason to be satisfied with the spirit that animated the officers and soldiers of the brave 53d regiment, as he had been with the crew of the Northumberland.

The house at Longwood was built to serve as a barn for the Company’s farm; the Deputy Governor of the Island had since built some chambers; it served him for a country-house, but it was not in a proper habitable state: workmen have been employed at it for a year, and the Emperor has been continually subjected to the inconvenience and insalubrity of inhabiting a house in the progress of building. The chamber in which he sleeps is too small to contain a bed of ordinary dimensions; but every alteration at Longwood prolongs the inconvenience of having workmen there. There are, however, in this miserable territory, beautiful situations, presenting fine trees, gardens, and good houses. There is, besides, Plantation House; but the positive instructions of Government forbad you from giving up this house, although much expence would thereby have been saved to your Government—an expence incurred in fitting up at Longwood a hut, covered with paper, which is already unserviceable.

You have interdicted all correspondence between us and the inhabitants of the islands—you have in fact placed the house at Longwood au secret—you have even prevented any communication with the officers of the garrison;—it seems, therefore, to be your study to deprive us of the little resource which this miserable territory affords, and we are here just as we should be on the insulated and uninhabited rock of Ascension. During the four months that you have been at St. Helena, you have, Sir, rendered the situation of the Emperor much worse. Count Bertrand has observed to you, that you violate even the laws of your Legislature, and that you trample under foot the rights of General Officers, prisoners of war. You have replied, that you act according to the letter of your instructions, and that your conduct to us is not worse than is dictated by them.

I have the honour to be,

Your very humble and very obedient servant,

(Signed) The GENERAL COUNT DE MONTHOLON.

After I had signed this letter, I received your’s of the 17th August, in which you subjoin the account of an annual sum of £20,000 sterling, which you consider indispensable for the support of the expences of the establishment at Longwood, after having made all the reductions which you thought possible. We do not think we have any thing to do with the discussion of this point; the table of the Emperor is scarcely provided with strict necessaries, and all the provisions are of the worst quality. You ask of the Emperor a fund of £12,000 sterling, as your Government will only allow £8000 for all the expences. I have already had the honour of informing you that the Emperor had no funds, that for a year past he had neither written nor received any letter, and that he is altogether ignorant of what has passed, or is passing, in Europe. Transported by force to this rock, without being able to write or to receive any answer, the Emperor is now entirely at the mercy of English agents. The Emperor has always desired, and is still desirous, to provide himself for all his expences, of whatever nature, and he will do it as soon as you render it possible by taking off the interdiction laid upon the merchants of the Island with regard to his correspondence, and directing that it should not be subjected to any inquisition on your part, or by any of your agents. Thenceforth the wants of the Emperor would be known in Europe, and those persons who interested themselves in his behalf might send him the funds necessary to provide for them.

The letter of Lord Bathurst, which you have communicated to me, gives birth to strange ideas. Are your Ministers, then, ignorant that the spectacle of a great man in captivity and adversity is a most sublime spectacle? Are they ignorant that Napoleon at St. Helena, in the midst of persecutions of every description, to which he opposes nothing but serenity, is greater, more sacred, and more venerable, than when seated upon the first throne in the world, where for so long a time he was the arbiter of Kings? Those who in such a situation are wanting to Napoleon are blind to their own character, and that of the nation which they represent.

MONTHOLON.

To General Sir Hudson Lowe.

FINIS.

Printed by Macdonald and Son, 46, Cloth Fair, London.