already decided to surrender himself to Captain Maitland, and accordingly on the 15th of July, he and his suite were received on board the Bellerophon. He was received with no peculiar honours; and his appearance is thus described: 'Buonaparte's dress was an olive-coloured great coat over a green uniform, with scarlet cape and cuffs, green lapels turned back and edged with scarlet, skirts hooked back with bugle-horns embroidered in gold; plain sugar-loaf buttons and gold epaulettes; being the uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval of the Imperial Guard. He wore the star, or grand cross of the Legion of Honour, and the small cross of that order; the Iron Crown; and the Union, appended to the button-hole of his left lapel. He had on a small cocked hat, with a tri-coloured cockade; plain gold-hilted sword, military boots, and white waistcoat and breeches, The following day he appeared in shoes, with gold buckles, and silk stockings-the dress he always wore afterwards, while with me."p. 70. The circumstances of his reception and conduct on board the Bellerophon are so generally known and remembered, that we need not follow Captain Maitland in this part of his narrative, though it is really minute, and animated in a high degree. From the first moment of seeing him, it is evident that the impression made by Napoleon on the Captain was of the most favourable description. He speaks of his manners as extremely fascinating, unassuming, and gentleman-like during the whole period of his stay in the Bellerophon. It is very pleasing to observe, that Captain Maitland on his side treated the fallen conqueror with all the respect to which his misfortunes and his situation entitled him, without at the same time transgressing the line of his duty. We pass over the arrival of the Bellerophon in Torbay, and afterwards off Plymouth, the extreme anger of Buonaparte and his suite on hearing that he was to be sent to St. Helena, his well known "Protest" against this measure, the attempt of Madame Bertrand to throw herself into the sea, and a crowd of other interesting circumstances more or less known, as our limits do not allow us to enter into them. The books that Buonaparte chiefly read were a life of Washington and Ossian's poems. One of the most curious circumstances that occurred while the Bellerophon was off Plymouth was an attempt made by a person under prosecution for a libel on a naval officer, censuring his conduct on the West India station, when a French squadron was in those seas, to serve a subpoena on Napoleon, in order to get him to prove that at the time the French ships were in an unserviceable.condition! This was the process that Lord Keith and Captain Maitland, and indeed the public generally, believed to be a habeas corpus; and it is quite amusing to observe the ingenuity and vigilance with which the Admiral and the Captain combined their efforts in order to prevent the libeller from serving either themselves or Napoleon with the habeas corpus! - a writ that, even if it had been issued, could have had no possible effect under the circum stances. On the 7th of August, Buonaparte and those of his suite who agreed to go with him to St. Helena, were 'transferred to the Northumberland; and upon completing his narrative up to this period, Captain Maitland adds a few anecdotes, from which we shall select two or three as specimens.. Napoleon Buonaparte, when he came on board the Bellerophon, on the 15th of July, 1815, wanted exactly one month of completing his forty-sixth year, being born the 15th of August, 1769. He was then a remarkably strong, well-built man, about five feet seven inches high, his limbs particularly well-formed, with a fine ancle and very small foot, of which he seemed rather vain, as he always wore, while on board the ship, silk stockings and shoes. His hands were also very small, and had the plumpness of a woman's rather than the robustness of a man's. His eyes light grey, teeth good; and when he smiled, the expression of his countenance was highly pleasing; when under the influence of disappointment, however, it assumed a dark gloomy cast. His hair was of a very dark brown, nearly approaching to black, and, though a little thin on the top and front, had not a grey hair amongst it. His complexion was a very uncommon one, being of a light sallow colour, differing from almost any other I ever met with. From his having become corpulent, he had lost much of his personal activity, and, if we are to give credit to those who attended him, a very considerable portion of his mental energy was also gone. It is certain his habits were very lethargic while he was on board the Bellerophon; for though he went to bed between eight and nine o'clock in the evening, and did not rise till about the same hour in the morning, he frequently fell asleep on the sofa in the cabin in the course of the day. His general appearance was that of a man rather older than he then was. His manners were extremely pleasing and affable: he joined in every conversation, related numerous anecdotes, and endeavoured, in every way, to promote good humour: be even admitted his attendants to great familiarity; and I saw one or two instances of their contradicting him in the most direct terms, though they generally treated him with much respect. He possessed, to a wonderful degree, a facility in making a favourable impression upon those with whom he entered into conversation: this appeared to me to be accomplished by turning the subject to matters he supposed the person he was addressing was well acquainted with, and on which he could show himself to advantage. This had the effect of putting him in good humour with himself; after which it was not a very difficult matter to transfer a part of that feeling to the person who had occasioned it. Lord Keith appears to have formed a very high opinion of the fascination of his conversation, and expressed it very emphatically to me, -after he had seen him : speaking of his wish for an interview with the Prince Regent, "D-n the fellow," he said, "if he had obtained can interview with His Royal Highness, in half an hour they would have been the best friends in England." He appeared to have great command of temper; for, though no man could have had greater trials than fell to his lot during the time he remained on board the Bellerophon, he never, in my presence, or as far as I know, allowed a fretful or captious expression to escape him: even the day he received the notification from Sir Henry Bunbury, that it was determined to send him to St. Helena, he chatted and conversed with the same cheerfulness as usual. It has been asserted that he was acting a part all the time he was on board the ship; but still, even allowing that to be the case, nothing but great command of temper could have enabled him to have sustained such a part for so many days, in his situation.' pp. 208-212. We believe it is not doubted that Napoleon had a very strong affection for Maria Louisa and his son. The following trait confirms the general impression as to his feelings with respect to them: 'One morning he began to talk of his wife and child, and desired Marchand to bring two or three miniature pictures to show me: he spoke of them with much feeling and affection. "I feel," said he, "the conduct of the allied sovereigns to be more cruel and unjustifiable towards me in that respect than in any other. Why should they deprive me of the comforts of domestic society, and take from me what must be the dearest objects of affection to every man-my child, and the mother of that child?" On his expressing himself as above, I looked him steadily in the face, to observe whether he showed any emotion: the tears were standing in his eyes, and the whole of his countenance appeared evidently under the influence of a strong feeling of grief.' — pp. 214, 215. It is remarkable that during the greater part of the time which Napoleon spent on board the Bellerophon, though it was so soon after the most signal disasters that perhaps any man had ever encountered, and though it brought him the tidings that he was to be exiled for life to the remote and desolate island of St. Helena, yet his spirits were usually cheerful, and his conversation fluent and amusing. His opinion concerning the Duke of Wellington has often been a subject of curiosity. 'I never heard Buonaparte speak of the battle of Waterloo, or give an opinion of the Duke of Wellington; but I asked General Bertrand what Napoleon thought of him. "Why," replied he, "I will give you his opinion nearly in the words he delivered it to me. The Duke of Wellington, in the management of an army, is fully equal to myself, with the advantage of possessing more prudence.' - p. 222. We shall subjoin but one more extract, which relates to Napoleon's habits of living while on board the Bellerophon. During the time that Buonaparte was on board the Bellerophon, we always lived expressly for his accommodation - entirely in the French manner; that is to say, a hot meal was served at ten o'clock in the morning, and another at six in the evening; and so nearly did they resemble each other in all respects, that a stranger might have found difficulty, in coming into the cabin, to distinguish breakfast from dinner. His maître d'hôtel took the joints off the table, cut them up in portions, and then handed them round. Buonaparte ate a great deal, and generally of strong solid food: in drinking he was extremely abstemious, confining himself almost entirely to claret, and seldom taking more than half-a-pint at a meal. Immediately after dinner, strong coffee was handed round, and then some cordial; after which he rose from table, the whole meal seldom lasting more than twenty or twenty-five minutes; and I was told, that during the time he was at the head of the French government, he never allowed more than fifteen minutes for that purpose. pp. 222, 223. The reader will have been enabled to judge, from the extracts which we have given, of the attractive character of this work. It is throughout written with the utmost simplicity and impartiality, and forms a most essential document for one of the most extraordinary and romantic passages in the history of the late war. NOTICES. ART. XIII. An Historical Outline of the Greek Revolution; with a few Remarks on the present State of Affairs in that Country. By W. M. Leake, late Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Artillery. 8vo. pp. 204. 7s. 6d. London. Murray. 1826. THERE is no recent work with which we are acquainted that is better calculated than this small volume to lead to a fair view of the merits of the Greek cause, and the probable results of the Greek contest. The principal events of the various campaigns by sea and land, from the commencement of the insurrection to January last, are rapidly sketched. Then the author examines the means which the contending powers have brought into operation, and the resources which are at their command respectively; and this detail is followed by an analysis of the causes of the success of one party and the failure of the other. He is evidently a rational friend to the independence of the Greeks; but his generous sympathy in their favour is properly kept in check by his attachment for truth, and his anxiety to arrive at just conclusions. The work is of the more value on this account, because the greater part of those publications to which an Englishman would turn for correct information on the affairs of Greece are very unsafe to consult, by reason of the imperfect knowledge and exaggerated, though perhaps amiable, views of their authors. In looking back to the results of the struggle, as far as it has been carried, one is apt to wonder that so little progress has been made on either side towards a termination. This is ascribed to the ignorance of both parties of the art of war. Still it is a circumstance which furnishes, according to our author, the strongest grounds of hope as to the issue in their favour, that the Greeks should be enabled, after such an interval of hostilities, to muster in so strong a force. But the advantages on which the revolutionists are chiefly to rely for ultimate success, this writer thinks, consist in the superiority of their seamen, and the natural strength of that part of Greece where they have already their most permanent possessions. In developing the grounds of the latter opinion, Mr. Leake shows the most intinate acquaintance with the geographical position of the country, any difficulty in understanding which is removed by an excellent map which accompanies the volume. Besides this, the Greeks have an irreconcilable hatred to the Ottoman yoke; and they know that they never would be restored to the condition of subjects to the Turkish power. At the bottom of all, however, is to be traced a growing moral superiority in the Greeks, which, sooner or later, must vindicate itself. In speculating on the best means of adjusting the affairs of Greece, Mr. Leake does not indulge in any impossible scheme of chivalrous interference on the part of any foreign power. His plan of settlement is founded on the basis of the independence of the Morea. The practicability of establishing this he clearly shows by reasons drawn from the physical as well as moral condition of the Greeks. The policy of such a step he insists in a very cogent manner. If the revolution is supe pressed, and the Ottoman power resumes its original sway, she will be the immediate prey of Russia; wars upon wars will desolate Europe; Greek enterprise, driven from land, will betake itself to the ocean; the seas about eastern Europe will be the haunt of pirates, and commerce can have no safe channel in that quarter. Whatever be the true reasoning on these matters, we can have no hesitation in paying our tribute to the clear and forcible manner in which this work is written, The author's political views appear to be formed upon just and well-considered grounds, and they are enforced with that moderation and distrust which would rather solicit enquiry than exact belief. upon ART. XIV. Epistles to a Friend in Town, Golconda's Fête, and other Poems. By Chandos Leigh, Esq. 12mo. London. 1826. MR. LEIGH'S poems are evidently the productions of a scholar and a gentleman, and there are occasionally lines and images worthy of a true poet; but there are few passages of sustained beauty, and not a few in which a beautiful conception is spoiled by the careless manner in which the thought is worked out. Some, times, however, when Mr. Leigh thinks proper, he can pour out very rich and harmonious stanzas: And here and there from golden urns arise, Impregn'd with perfumes, purple clouds, that throw, Throughout the palace an Elysian glow, Odorous as roses when they newly blow. And couches, splendid as the gorgeous light Of the declining sun, or high or low, As suits capricious luxury, invite To sweet repose, indeed, each pleasure-laden wight.' p. 72. At other times, Mr. Leigh shows that he can write with great spirit and energy. |