PARIS. 
Englilh nation, to hear, on the one hand, that the moft 
milerable economy was practifed towards Bonaparte and 
his luite; and, on the other, that the expenfes of keep¬ 
ing them were beyond meafureextravagant. Mr. Hume, 
on the 29th of March laft (1821), moved in the houfe of 
commons, for accounts of the total expenditure incurred 
by this country, for the detention of Napoleon Bonaparte, 
lincfc his furrender to the Britifh. He believed that no 
account of that expenditure had been publilhed fince 
Bonaparte was firft fent to St. Helena. Whatever opinions 
might prevail on the fubjedt of his being detained in cuf- 
tody it might, in the prefent financial difficulties of this 
country, become a fubjedt of very ferious confideration, 
how far England fliould have to pay the whole of an ex¬ 
penditure, arifing folely out of that detention. On the 
calculation of the expenfe, he thought he might fay, that, 
fliould it be deemed neceffary to keep Bonaparte a pri- 
foner at St. Helena, it might be effedtually done for one- 
tenth of the expenditure at prefent incurred for that pur- 
pofe. It was, however, a very ferious queffion, why Eng¬ 
land fliould incur the whole of an expenfe, for an objedt 
in which other countries had an equal, or indeed a greater, 
interefl. At all events, if the expenditure were to be con¬ 
tinued, it ought to be laid before parliament in the annual 
accounts. He had feen what he believed to be corredt 
estimates of the expenfes in 1819 ; and he had not heard 
that fince that any great redudtion had taken place in the 
amount of the accounts. The houfe would judge of the 
importance of the fubjedt, when he ftated the following 
items as forming a part of the expenfe of Bonaparte’s de¬ 
tention : For the ftaff alone, there was an expenditure of 
nearly 24,000!. for military eflablifliment, 193,674b other 
incidental and contingent expenfes at the Longwood ef- 
tablifliment, 57,000b vefl'els for provifioning the ifland, 
exclufive of the navy, he had heard eftimated at 3000b 
4000 b or 5000b naval expenfes of one 74-gun fliip, and nine 
fmaller vefl'els, 16o,oool. making a total confiderably exceed¬ 
ing 400,000b per annum, for the foie purpofe of keeping 
Bonaparte a prifoner. If it fliould be deemed advifable 
to detain Bonaparte, the country was entitled not only 
to inquire into the expenditure which would be neceffary 
for fuel) a purpofe, but more particularly into the circum- 
ftance of who fhould pay it. He concluded by moving 
for the following feries of papers: Copies of all correfpon- 
dence or contracts between government and the Eaft 
India Company, relating to the detention of Bonaparte 
at the ifland of St. Helena ; alfo accounts of the pay, al¬ 
lowance, contingencies, extraordinaries, &c. of the mili¬ 
tary eflablifliment kept up on that ifland, diflinguifhing 
the number and pay of the troops, accounts of the num¬ 
ber and expenditure of all fliips of war, and other vefl'els 
on that ftation, and of all expenfes paid in England, and 
to whom paid, relating to Bonaparte’s detention, diflin- 
guifliing the rel'pedtive amounts, and for what and to whom 
paid, as well as out of what lource, and whether any and 
what part was defrayed by other powers/ Tliefe accounts 
to comprife the annual and total amount fince Bonaparte’s 
detention. Mr. Hume, after moving for thefe accounts, 
faid that government had hitherto laid no accounts of this 
expenditure on the table of parliament; and he thought 
it quite time, now in the lixth year of peace, that not 
only thefe accounts fliould be forthcoming, but alfo that 
it fliould be known whether there was any fecret under- 
ftanding with other powers, and to what extent, for meet¬ 
ing the expenfe.—The papers were ordered. 
From the flrfl arrival of Bonaparte at St. Helena, it 
was acknowledged that the houfe at Longwood was not a 
residence fitted to a perl'onage of his high rank ; and 
another was ordered to be eredted for him, the framework 
and materials of which were fent from England. After 
being five years in hand, it has at length been completed; 
and the lateft news from the ifland, which are dated the 2d 
of March, ftate, that Bonaparte was in good health, had 
taken poffeflion of it, and was veryunuch pleafed with it. 
The circuit to which the ex-emperor was formerly limited, 
571 
has recently been extended ; and he is permitted to ride 
and walk in a fpace of not lefs than fourteen miles. 
The general tone of Englifli fentiment, fince the fur- 
render of this extraordinary man, affords a very ftriking 
inftance of the involuntary homage paid by mankind to 
exalted talent. He is confidered as merely the vanquifhed 
fovereign of a martial people, obliged by force of arms to 
yield to a competitor, which competitor can only remain 
fecure by his captivity. This view of the cafe leaves the 
point of policy entirely open as it regards his lafe difpofal; 
but it clearly abfolves him from the odium attached to 
him as a tyrannic ruler of France: he is a dethroned po¬ 
tentate and prifoner of war, and nothing more. As to 
the commanding qualities which render him an objedt of 
dread, let us dread them if we pleafe, but let us not 
degrade ourfelves by abufing the man becaufe he poffefl'es 
them. They have been mifehievous, no doubt, as great 
energies uniformly are when they afl’ume a military af- 
pedt ; but we are quite at a lofs to know in what refpedt 
they have been more fo than thofe of other conquerors ; 
or why he is peculiarly entitled to the hatred from which 
the fpoliators of Poland, of Turkey, of Hindooftan, and 
fo recently of Naples and Piedmont, have been permitted 
to efcape; 
Of the propriety of banifhing this important captive to 
St. Helena, we profefs to give no opinion : the cold v/ill 
call it prudent, and the warm ungenerous: it may be dis¬ 
agreeable, but it is any-thing but dilhonourable to the 
individual himfelf. Our lighter talk lhall be to convey 
a few of the impreflions they have made upon us, with 
refpedt to the charadter of the man, and of the nature of 
the qualities which give their pofleffor fo much influence 
over mankind. There never was a man who obtained 
equal elevation that was lefs a king Arthur, lefs the king of 
a coronation, than Bonaparte, when at the pinnacle ; and 
certainly there never was a man who endured overwhelm¬ 
ing adverfity with more dignity and compofure. Where- 
ever he fets his foot, his afcendancy is manifett ; and yet 
it feems acquired without any extraordinary effort on his 
own part, by a deportment which, while it evinces his 
quick obfervation, his intuitive fagacity, and his mental 
decifion v is both natural and unconftrained. Doubtlefs 
many yvho have feen him, and who even expedted to fee 
a great man, made up their minds to behold a very differ¬ 
ent perfonage. Some were probably prepared to witnefs 
a ferocious-looking man, with tremendous whilkers; 
others, a (talking elevated fpecies of huflar, like the hero 
of a German tragedy. In Napoleon they fee neither one 
nor the other, and yet they feel him fuperior : how is this ? 
are there nobles of Nature’s creation ? We fuppofe there 
are; and that this man, although he has loft his throne, 
preserves his birth-right. In the mean time, his banilh- 
ment to St. Helena feems, for the prefent, to divorce his 
fortune from that of the world, although many expedt 
that the feparation will not be eternal. With refpedt to 
himfelf we think it is; but, as it may regard his dej'cen- 
dants, we are inclined to think otherwife. 
The greateft of conquerors, in an age when great con- 
quefts appeared no longer poflible; the moft fplendid of 
ufurpers, when ufurpation had not been heard of for cen¬ 
turies ; who entered in triumph almoft all the capitals of 
continental Europe, and led at laft to his bed the daughter 
of her proudeft fovereign ; who let up kings and put them 
down at his pleafure ; and, for fixteen years, defied alike 
the fwoitls of foreign enemies, and the daggers of domeftic 
fadtions ;—this is the man on whom pofterity mult yet lit 
in judgment, but the evidence by which they are to judge 
mult be tranfmitted to them by his contemporaries. 
REIGN of LOUIS the EIGHTEENTH. 
While we have been detailing (under France, as well 
as in the prefent article) the “adtes and geftes of that hor- 
ribyl monfter,” Napoleon Bonaparte, the reader will ftart 
at being reminded that all thefe things were done in the 
reign of Louis the Eighteenth, and that we are now ar¬ 
rived 
