"Les nations indigneés," says Dupin, "have a right to demand by what right Great Britain treated her prisoners in a manner only known among barbarous and uncivilized nations?" To which we reply, that the confinement of those people was an act to which we were impelled by Napoleon himself; and that every human effort was resorted to, on our part, but in vain, to procure an exchange of prisoners. Not only the sick, but officers in perfect health, were sent over to France, with the most amicable and honourable proposals to the government. Captain Jurieu, of the Franchise, in 1803, went on his parole to procure the exchange of Captain Brenton, under a promise to return, should he not effect his purpose. The gallant Frenchman, faithful to his word, unable to procure the release of the British captain, was preparing to return to England, when he was ordered to Brest, and officially informed by his government, that he should be shot if he attempted to go back. He, however, never accepted of service, and wrote three years afterward to Captain Brenton, stating these facts, and requesting he would still use his influence to effect the exchange.

Let us observe what Napoleon himself says on this subject in a letter to Decrees, dated Coblentz, 19th September, 1804. Precis, vol. xi. p. 203.

We have our customs, the English theirs; we have always maintained our prisoners, and I shall make no alteration in that respect. It is my intention to clothe the English prisoners, be

cause they are in my power, and because generosity and the laws of nations require that they should have whatever is necessary. Let the English do the same. **** I desire then that the English prisoners shall cost nothing to their government, and that such as they may have of mine, may be treated in the same manner. I approve of the answer which you propose making for Captain Jurieu. As to the proposal of sending agents to superintend the prisoners on either side, let it be understood that the question has not been submitted to the emperor, but to the minister, who thinks the emperor would not object to an arrangement so consonant with the rights of nations, as soon as he knows who the person is that the English propose sending.

Here is a transparent veil of falsehood and subterfuge to conceal injustice and cruelty.

It only remains to make a few observations on the prison-ships, which, with real or pretended philanthropy, are described by Dupin, as "hideous old carcasses, having the appearance of ships blackened by a recent conflagration; floating tombs, in which prisoners of war were buried alive; in which a greater number of men were confined, than the war complement of the ship would have admitted." P. 181, he says, we had twenty-one floating prisons or hulks, from first rates to fifties (the war complement of the former is eight hundred and fifty, and of the latter four hundred); and that we had on board of them eleven thousand, two hundred and forty-nine prisoners. This would give on an average about five hundred and thirty-one to each ship, and as the generality of them were first, second, and third rates, the numbers could in no instance have been so great as what are usually found on board

C

of our cruising ships, which for weeks together are unable to open a lower-deck port. Add to this, that a prison-ship, having neither guns, seamen's chests, cables, stores, or other lumber on board, can afford double the space to a prisoner, which is commonly allotted to an Englishman. That their cleanliness and ventilation were well attended to, we know. They were commanded in general by officers of character, and inspected by captains, with the proper medical officers; a fact, which is proved by the selection and release of the sick and that they had a proper allowance of wholesome food we can vouch, having seen it dressed and prepared for them. If we grant that the expense of keeping them on board these ships, might be greater than that of the casernes ;"

still this is a question for us to consider, and not the French, who had refused to receive them upon honourable terms. If M. Dupin attempts to justify the conduct of France, by our early and unexpected declaration of war on the 16th May, we shall remind him, that Bonaparte commenced hostilities in December, 1802; or, more properly speaking, never ceased them during the peace of Amiens, and never intended they should cease, until England became a province of France.

In the Voice from St. Helena," there is a whining complaint against our pontons, of cruelty towards the prisoners, and a thousand other enormities, which never existed but in the brain of their author. Why, if Napoleon was so kind and

tender-hearted a being, did he permit his men to "rot in these floating dungeons," when their release depended on himself. Why did he not increase their allowance of food, as we did that of our men, when it was found insufficient? The reason is simple and plain; Bonaparte knew that by keeping these unhappy men in England, he should subject the British government to many inconveniences. First, by the number of troops appointed to guard them; secondly, by the charge of their maintenance; thirdly, the making us unpopular in France, by their reports when they should be released; fourthly, by the hopeless duration of confinement, he expected to render his men more desperate in action; and lastly, in case of invasion, which he certainly meditated, they might, to the number of fifty thousand, have been at once turned loose upon us, ready to take up arms.

Such were, no doubt, some of the reasons of Napoleon for his cruel and relentless policy; the defence set up for him by his apologists, is weak and frivolous. We are far from exulting over the mortifications and the sorrows which accompanied him in his distant exile, and gladly would we have seen them alleviated. We have nothing to do with the conduct of Sir Hudson Lowe, or the assertions of Mr. O'Meara; let us profit by the awful lesson of fallen grandeur and retributive justice. 'Vengeance, though slow, is sure; it comes with leaden feet, but strikes with

iron hands." He that refused to open the door of

the prison-house, who had no pity for the hapless parent or husband, debarred by his malice or caprice from the society of those most dear to them, was himself, by the inscrutable decrees of Providence, taught to feel in hopeless anguish, and total separation from those he loved, the horrors of insurmountable confinement.

Wirion, the commandant of Verdun, after a number of years spent in the practice of every act of oppression over the English detenues, which his cruelty or his avarice suggested, at last, being summoned to Paris, to give an account of his stewardship, died by his own hand, unable to meet the frowns of his master.

We honour M. Dupin for the humanity of his sentiments, we agree with him as to the cruelty of confining prisoners of war like felons; but we wish he would point out in what way we are to secure them, more compatibly with our own safety. Heaven grant, should we have future wars, that the laws of nations may be respected, and the captives taken by either party treated with the kindest hospitality, and safely and speedily conveyed to their own country. But let it never be believed, that Great Britain has in any instance, in the care of her prisoners, exceeded a just degree of vigilance and caution.

We shall conclude this chapter with a letter from the first lord of the admiralty to the transport board, which will afford a comparison much to the advantage of the British government.