and guarded, to whom so much liberty and range for exercise was allowed.  With an officer he may go over any part of the island:  wholly unobserved, his limits extend four miles—­partially observed, eight—­and overlooked twelve.  At night the sentinels certainly close round Longwood itself.”  It indeed appears impossible to conceive of a prisoner more liberally treated in all these respects.  There remains the constantly repeated vituperation of the climate of St. Helena.  It appears, however, by tables kept and published by Dr. Arnott, that the sick list of a regiment, stationed close to Buonaparte’s residence during his stay, rarely contained more than one name out of forty-five—­a proportion which must be admitted to be most remarkably small.  In effect, the house of Longwood stands 2000 feet above the level of the sea; the ocean breezes purify the air continually; and within the tropics there is probably no healthier situation whatever.  If it be said that Napoleon should not have been confined within the tropics at all—­it is answered that it was necessary to remove him from the neighbourhood of the countries in which his name was the watchword of rebellion and discord—­and that, after all, Napoleon was a native of Corsica, one of the hottest climates in Europe, and was at all times, constitutionally, able to endure the extremes of heat much better than of cold—­witness Egypt and Russia.

There was a rule that Napoleon’s correspondence should all pass through the hands of the governor of St. Helena—­and this Sir Walter Scott condemns.  Had the English government acted on the Buonapartean model, they would have made no such regulation, but taken the liberty of privately examining his letters, and resealing them, after the fashion of the post-office under Lavalette.  It diminishes our regret when we learn from Sir Walter Scott’s next page, that, in spite of all laws and severities on this score, Napoleon and the companions of his exile contrived, from the beginning to the end, to communicate with their friends in Europe, without the supervision of any English authorities whatever.

The finishing touch is put to the picture of unworthy duplicity by one of Napoleon’s own followers, and most noisy champions, General Gourgaud.  This gentleman himself informed the English government, that at the time when Napoleon, in order to create the notion that his supplies were restricted beyond all endurance, sent some plate to James’s Town to be broken up and sold, he, Napoleon, had in his strong box at Longwood at least L10,000 in gold coin.

There is one name which will descend to posterity laden with a tenfold portion of the abuse which Napoleon and his associates lavished on all persons connected in any degree with the superintendence and control of his captive condition—­that of Sir Hudson Lowe, a general officer in the English army, who became governor of St. Helena in May, 1816, and continued to hold that situation down to the period of the ex-emperor’s