I have the honour to be,
Your very humble and very obedient servant,
(Signed) The GENERAL COUNT DE MONTHOLON.
After I had signed this letter, I received your’s of the 17th August, in which you subjoin the account of an annual sum of £20,000 sterling, which you consider indispensable for the support of the expences of the establishment at Longwood, after having made all the reductions which you thought possible. We do not think we have any thing to do with the discussion of this point; the table of the Emperor is scarcely provided with strict necessaries, and all the provisions are of the worst quality. You ask of the Emperor a fund of £12,000 sterling, as your Government will only allow £8000 for all the expences. I have already had the honour of informing you that the Emperor had no funds, that for a year past he had neither written nor received any letter, and that he is altogether ignorant of what has passed, or is passing, in Europe. Transported by force to this rock, without being able to write or to receive any answer, the Emperor is now entirely at the mercy of English agents. The Emperor has always desired, and is still desirous, to provide himself for all his expences, of whatever nature, and he will do it as soon as you render it possible by taking off the interdiction laid upon the merchants of the Island with regard to his correspondence, and directing that it should not be subjected to any inquisition on your part, or by any of your agents. Thenceforth the wants of the Emperor would be known in Europe, and those persons who interested themselves in his behalf might send him the funds necessary to provide for them.
The letter of Lord Bathurst, which you have communicated to me, gives birth to strange ideas. Are your Ministers, then, ignorant that the spectacle of a great man in captivity and adversity is a most sublime spectacle? Are they ignorant that Napoleon at St. Helena, in the midst of persecutions of every description, to which he opposes nothing but serenity, is greater, more sacred, and more venerable, than when seated upon the first throne in the world, where for so long a time he was the arbiter of Kings? Those who in such a situation are wanting to Napoleon are blind to their own character, and that of the nation which they represent.
MONTHOLON.
To General Sir Hudson Lowe.
FINIS.
Printed by Macdonald and Son, 46, Cloth Fair, London.