better authority for it than that of the blundering and ignorant newspaper reporters, before it can be credited. Those three Lords, however, all strenuously opposed the Bill, and it was of course rejected. Lord Grey, who appears to have very well supported and defended the Bill, thought it most prudent not to divide the House. My present intention is to bring the Bill on again in the next Session. July 4th, Tu. Sir Henry Parnell moved an address to the Regent, to appoint a commission to inquire into the nature and effects of the Orange Societies in Ireland. I voted for the question, and, as is always the case in important questions of this kind relative to Ireland, in a very small minority. We were only 20, the majority being upwards of 80. Orange SoIreland. cieties in pillory. 5th, Wed. On the motion of Lord Ellenbo- Punishrough, the Bill for abolishing the punishment of ment of the the pillory was rejected by the House of Lords. He admitted that it ought not to exist as a punishment in all the cases in which it may now be inflicted, but said that the subject required consideration and ought to be referred to the Judges (observe that the Bill has been now more than two months depending in the House of Lords). He talked about the antiquity of the punishment both in England and the rest of Europe, and said that it was mentioned by Fleta, and that its antiquity appeared from Ducange; and, as usual, declaimed against * On the 10th of July, 1815, the House of Lords ordered the Judges to prepare and lay before the House a Bill for reducing into one Act all the laws now in force which impose the penalty of the pillory. Very bene ficial Bills, which had passed the Commons unanimously, rejected by the Lords. Thanks to the Duke of York. innovation.* This is the fifth Bill sent up by the Commons, in the course of the present Session, for making very material improvements in the law, which has been rejected at the instance of Lord Ellenborough and Lord Redesdale. The four others were: 1st, The Bill to render the remedy by habeas corpus more effectual, which was the same as one drawn in the latter end of the reign of Geo. II. by Mr. Justice Foster, and then approved by all the Judges. 2d, The Bill to prevent the binding poor children apprentices at a great distance from their parishes. 3d, The Bill to make Freehold Estates assets for the payment of simple contract debts. 4th, The Bill to prohibit British subjects embarking their capital in the foreign slave trade. Except this last, all these Bills passed the Commons without one dissentient voice. Yesterday, July 4th, the thanks of the House of Commons were voted to the Duke of York, upon the motion of Sir J. Majoribanks, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh. The Duke has, I believe, great merit, but to vote thanks to a Commander-inChief, or any other person at the head of any ministerial department, merely because during his administration a great victory has been obtained, was never before heard of, and was a piece of gross adulation in the person who moved it. I waited with great inconvenience to myself, a long time to * In the next year an Act was passed for abolishing the punishment of the pillory in all cases, except perjury and subornation of perjury. — See Stat. 56 Geo. III. c. 138. The punishment of the pillory was finally abolished in all cases by 1 Vict. c. 23. — Ed. - vote against it, but was at last obliged to go to the Rolls, before I had any opportunity of voting or speaking. I see by the newspapers, that Sergeant Best took that opportunity of pronouncing a high panegyric on the Regent. 6th, Th. Poor Whitbread this morning de- Whitbread. stroyed himself, as it should seem, in a sudden fit of insanity. His friends have, for some time past, felt great anxiety about him. His health has been manifestly declining, and though he spoke, only two days ago, in the House of Commons, against the vote of thanks to the Duke of York, he has, I understand, for some time past, occasionally discovered an unaccountable despondency. A greater loss the country could not at the present moment experience than it has suffered in poor Whitbread. He was the promoter of every liberal scheme for improving the condition of mankind, the warm and zealous advocate of the oppressed in every part of the world, and the undaunted opposer of every species of corruption and ill-administration. The only faults he had proceeded from an excess of his virtues. His anxious desire to do justice impartially to all men certainly made him, upon some occasions, unjust to his friends, and induced him to give credit and to bestow praises on his political enemies to which they were in no respect entitled. (3d. Paris capitulated to the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Blucher. 8th. Louis XVIII. re-entered Paris.) 12th, Wed. Parliament prorogued. Parliament prorogued. Aug. 3d, Th. Bonaparte has now been a short Bonaparte, time in this country, but has not been permitted to land in it. After having delivered himself up, as he termed it, to the generosity of the English nation, he was brought by Captain Maitland, to whom he had surrendered himself, to Torbay. From thence he was removed to Plymouth, where he still is on board the Bellerophon, Captain Maitland's ship. It is the intention, it seems, of Government, to send him very shortly to the island of St. Helena. The newswriters are in the daily habit of loading him with the lowest and meanest abuse; while some individuals take a very strange interest in his Sir Francis fate. Sir Francis Burdett called upon me this morning, and told me that, if moving for a writ of habeas corpus would procure him his liberty, or in any way be useful to him, he would stand forward to do it. I told him that I thought that Bonaparte could not possibly derive any benefit from such a proceeding. Burdett. General Savary's letter from on board the Bellerophon. 6th, Sun. I received a letter from General Savary (Duke of Rovigo), of which the following is a copy he was to me a total stranger. "La reputation dont vous jouissez et le caractere personnel bien connu que vous y avez reuni m'ont donné la confiance de solliciter le secours de vos lumières, dans une circonstance où l'honneur du pavillon Britannique est autant compromis que ma sureté personnelle est menacé de l'etre, pour y avoir eu confiance. Je vais vous exposer ma situation, et vous prie de m'accorder vos conseils et votre assistance dans cette affaire, que je n'ai nul moyen de suivre dans un pays ou je suis tout a fait étranger. "Mon nom seul vous expliquera comment j'ai eté amené dans ce pays à la suite de l'infortune la plus illustre dont l'histoire nous a rapporté la souvenire.* "Je suivois l'Empereur Napoleon lors qu'un concours de circonstances l'ont determiné a venire chercher un azile sur les vaisseaux de votre nation, après s'etre assurré d'avance de l'inviolabilité de sa personne et avoire recu des paroles positives de * The faults of spelling and grammar in this copy are all to be found in the orginal. In the same cover as contained the letter of Savary and the copies of the letters referred to in it, was enclosed a paper not in any manner mentioned or referred to in any of the letters; it was entitled "Considérations sur Napoléon Bonaparte et sa situation civile et politique en abordant en Angleterre," and in the margin was written, "Tirer des extraits pour les papiers publics, et faire de ce document les bases d'un plaidoyer célébre et digne du talent et de l'ame elevée d'un bon Anglois, et meriteroit la reconnoissance et le suffrage de tous les cœurs grands et généreux. In this paper three questions are discussed.-1. Quels seroient les droits du gouvernement sur Napoléon s'il étoit prisonnier de guerre? 2. Napoléon est-il prisonnier de guerre ? 3. Enfin l'ordre donné par le Gouvernement Anglois au Capitaine Maitland de le recevoir, lui et sa suite, pour le mener en Angleterre, s'il se presentoit, ne l'a-t-il pas admis de fait à la protection des lois du pays? The most remarkable passage in this memorial is one, in which it is represented that Bonaparte, when he went on board the Bellerophon, might still, if he had remained in France, have been extremely formidable : · Le General Clauzel" (it observes)" tenoit à Bordeaux à la tête d'une armée, et l'on sait que c'est un de ses plus chauds partisans. Le General Lamarque tenoit à Nantes et lui est également devoué. Les garnisons de Rochefort, de l'isle d'Aix, étoient tout à lui. Le pavillon tricolore flottoit partout. Davoust arrivoit sur la Loire, et pour tout dire en un mot, ce n'est qu'après l'appareillage du Bellerophon que le pavillon blanc à été arboré dans le pays. Il étoit donc le maitre de demeurer en France à la tête de corps considerables, et pouvoit au moins faire des conditions: contester ces faits c'est contester les dates, les époques de la soumission des troupes et du déployement du pavillon blanc." In a subsequent letter from Savary, no such faults are to be found. See infrà, p. 267. — Ed. VOL. III. |