14th.—About four o’clock a great number of visitors came to Longwood, They were passengers who had arrived by the East India Fleet, and the Emperor had signified his willingness to receive them. The party consisted of Mr. Strange, the brother-in-law of Lord Melville, First Lord of the English Admiralty; a Mr. Arbuthnot; and Sir William Burroughs, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Calcutta; two of Lord Moira’s Aides-de-camp; and some others, together with several ladies. We were all conversing together in the ante-chamber, when the Emperor left his own room to proceed to the garden. This circumstance excited the curiosity of our visitors, who eagerly flew to the windows to see him pass by:—the scene reminded us of Plymouth. The Grand Marshal conducted our visitors to the presence of the Emperor, who received them with the most perfect grace, and with that captivating smile which has exercised such irresistible power. Curiosity and lively emotion were painted in the countenances of all.
The Emperor conversed with each individual, and, according to custom, instantly seized any circumstance that happened to be connected with their names, as he heard them announced. He discoursed with the Supreme Judge on legislation and the administration of justice; with the Company’s officers on trade and the internal Government of India. He questioned the military gentlemen as to how many years they had served and how many wounds they had received; he paid many flattering compliments to the ladies, and remarked, that the climate of Bengal had not spoiled the delicacy of their complexions, &c. Then, addressing himself to one of Lord Moira’s aides-de-camp, he observed that the Grand Marshal had informed him that Lady Loudon was on the Island, and that, had she been within his limits, he should have had great pleasure in paying his respects to her; but that, as she happened to reside beyond the boundaries which had been prescribed to him, he had no more opportunity of seeing her than if she were still in Bengal.
During these conversations, in which I acted as interpreter, Mr. Strange, with whom I had previously been talking, drew me aside by the flap of my coat, and in a tone of surprise and satisfaction said:—"What grace and dignity of manner the Emperor displays!—he shows that he has been accustomed to the etiquette of holding a levee!"
We conducted the company to the drawing-room, and curiosity led them to take a peep at the Emperor’s apartments. Sir William Burroughs, who, from the post he holds, may be supposed to have some connection with the English ministry, on entering the drawing-room asked me whether it was our dining-room. I informed him that it was the drawing-room, or that we might more properly say, it was the only room in the house; at this he was much astonished. I then pointed out to him through the window, the two little chambers which are all the Emperor has for his own use. His countenance expressed regret, and he seemed, in his own mind to be drawing comparisons between the present and the past. Remarking the wretchedness of the furniture and the narrow limits of our abode, he said, with an air of concern—"You will be better provided for soon."—"How," said I, “is there any intention of removing us from the Island?”—"No, but some elegant furniture and a commodious house are to be sent to you."—"We do not," I replied, “complain of the furniture, or the house; but of the rock to which we have been banished, and the latitude in which it is situated. This latitude cannot be changed and we can never be well here.”
I repeated to him literally what the Emperor had, a few days previously said to the Governor on the same subject. Sir William was amazed, and, pressing my hand, he said with a degree of warmth:—"My dear Sir, he is too great and too gifted a man; we have too much cause to dread and fear him."—"But," said I, in my turn, “why not have driven the car of glory together, instead of mutually destroying each other by dragging it different ways? What might not then have been its course?” He looked at me, and again pressing my hand, he said with a pensive air:—"Yes, that would doubtless have been better; but...."
All were particularly struck with the Emperor’s freedom of manner, and his tranquil expression of countenance. I know not what they had expected to see. One remarked that he could scarcely form a conception of the strength of mind necessary to enable Napoleon to endure such wonderful reverses. “That is,” replied I, "because nobody yet well knows the Emperor’s character. He told us the other day that he had been like a block of marble during all the great events of his life; that they had slipped over him without producing any impression either on his moral or physical faculties."
After dinner, the Emperor asked us, as he often does, what we should like to read. Some one proposed that we should resume the Dictionary of Weathercocks; but this the Emperor objected to, on the ground that it served but to render his evenings the more unpleasant. “Rather let us amuse ourselves with fiction,” said he; and, asking for Jerusalem Delivered, he read aloud several cantos of that poem, occasionally translating passages into French. He then read the chief part both of Phedre and Athalie, always expressing his great admiration of the writings of Racine.
EQUALITY OF PUNISHMENTS.—THE EMPEROR REQUIRES ME TO GIVE HIM A DETAILED HISTORY OF MY ATLAS.
15th.—The Emperor, during his walk, conversed on various subjects, and at length happened to light on that of crimes and punishments. He observed that the greatest jurists, even those who had been influenced by the spirit of the age, were divided as to the principle of the equalization of capital punishments. At the establishment of the Code, he should have been averse to equalization, had not circumstances obliged him to adopt a contrary course. He asked my opinion: “I am,” said I, "decidedly favourable to the inequality of punishments. Our notions demand a gradation in punishments, analogous to that which we conceive in crimes. The harmony of our sensations seems to require this. I can never bring myself to rank on a level with each other the wretch who has murdered his father and him who has merely committed a slight robbery accompanied by violence. Should these two criminals be visited by the same punishment?
“In this question the criminal himself is least of all to be considered. The punishment is his business; and humanity discovers many hidden modes of relieving his physical suffering. His ideas previously to the commission of the crime, the feelings which his punishment creates in the minds of the spectators, and the effect it produces on society in general:—these are the points which must claim the attention of the legislator in deciding the question of the equalization of punishments. It is erroneous to suppose that death alone is sufficient, and that the kind of death has no influence on the mind of the criminal in the premeditation of his crime; for if there be inequality of punishment, there is no culprit who would not make his choice if he were permitted so to do. Let any member of society consult his own feelings: he would shudder at the very idea of certain punishments, while perhaps he would be totally indifferent to certain modes of death. The inequality of punishments and the solemnity of executions belong therefore to the justice and policy of civilization. Yet I conceive that it would now be impossible to subdue public opinion on this point.”[[11]]