DESCRIPTION of the ISLAND of ST. HELENA.
WRITTEN BY AN OFFICER IN THE HON. EAST INDIA COMPANY'S SERVICE.
Rugged rocks and lofty mountains,
Interspers'd with crystal fountains,
Here and there a grove of trees,
Are all the wandering stranger sees;
The tradesmen, imitating fops,
With heads as empty as their shops;
The girls, drest out from top to toe,
Like painted dolls in puppet-show;
Unsocial wretches here reside,
Alike their poverty and pride,
Throughout this Isle, there's scarce a creature
With either breeding, or good nature:
For rugged rocks, and barren fields,
Are all that St. Helena yields*.
*Except an abundance of water-cresses and plenty of fish.
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The following is Bonaparte's certificate, on leaving the School of Brienne:
"M: de BONAPARTE (NAPOLEON) born the 15th of August, 1769, four feet, eleven inches, has completed his four years. Constitution? excellent health; Character, submissive, mild, polite, and obliging; Conduct? extremely regular; has always distinguished himself by his application to the mathematics. He knows his history and geography very tolerably; is very deficient in the politer exercises; will make an excellent seaman; worthy to enter the Military School of Paris."
A letter from Vienna, dated July 26, says - "When the intelligence of Napoleon having surrendered himself to the English arrived here, the Empress went to Baden to prepare the Archduchess Maria Louisa for this news. She received it with firmness, but after the departure of our august Sovereign the Archduchess shut herself up in her apartments. We are assured that she will soon leave Baden to return to the Castle of Schoenbrunn. She has forbid the persons who attend on her son to inform him of the events which have occurred in France."
The above letter is a proof that, notwthstanding the lies that have been told of this Lady, she still bears towards her husband the duty and affection of a wife.? How to reconcile the conduct of her father towards her, to any thing resembling honour or humanity, we profess ourselves wholly unable.
"Were the friends of freedom," says Mr. Cobbett, "as unfeeling as their adversaries, they would exult in the fall of Bonaparte as the triumph of their principles. For who is it that has fallen? Not 'the child and champion of jacobinism'? as he once had the honour to be styled by the child and champion of corruption? not the darling hero of democracy with 'Liberty and Equality or Death,' inscribed on his banners. No? But and Emperor and King? the Son in Law of the House of Austria? the eulogist, the associate, the friend, the preserver, the restorer, the upholder, the creator of Nobles and Kings. It is not Napoleon, driving the lazy Monks from their cells, and scattering to the winds the relics of superstition; but Napoleon crowned by the Holy Father, re-establishing in some degree Bishops and Priests, and daily prostrating in his own person, the interests of truth before the mummeries of the mass."
Guadaloupe has declared for Bonaparte. The two British Commanders on that station offered the assistance of a British force to Linois, the French Governor, to support the authority of Louis XVIII. which he declined, alledging that he would trust to the loyalty of the troops. He, however, on the 18th June, the memorable day on which the hopes of Bonaparte were for ever extinguished, hoisted the tri-coloured flag, and sanctioned the act by a solemn proclamation, acknowledging Bonaparte as the Sovereign of France.
The Gazette de France, making the third newspaper within a fortnight, has been suppressed, because it proposed that the weight of the expence for the reimbursement of the Allies should fall on those Frenchmen only who had declared for Bonaparte. This may have been a very foolish paragraph, but surely its folly might have been demonstrated, and its impolicy refuted. These acts of tyranny are calculated to ruin the unfortunate Louis. It is in vain that he has taken up Talleyrand and Fouche? in vain that he affects moderation, when he imitates the practice of the most despotic Sovereigns who now are his visitors, or rather, his landlords, in this dearest aliment of mental life. Nothing can be so true as the maxim which an illustrious member of his family is said to have submitted to him before his indiscreet departure from Ghent-- that his throne could only be supported by moral as well as physical force.
The French Papers mention that Marshal Brune, who lately commanded at Toulon, has committed suicide. Ney has been arrested and has been conveyed to Paris, but whether the King will dare to put him to death, or even to try him, seems doubtful.
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We are informed by a Gentleman who has left Paris within these few days, that the account of Bonaparte's surrender to this country, and his subsequent removal to St. Helena, are wholly disbelieved in France by the great mass of the population. They laugh at the thing as a ridiculous story invented by the partizans of Louis XVIII. to strengthen their own cause, and weaken that of the Bonapartists. The general belief is, that Bonaparte is still in France, and that he will soon re-appear at the head of an army to dispute once more the sceptre with Louis. - Such are the consequences of a shackled press! - It is known that nothing can be admitted into the Paris Papers but what the Government permits, and hence truth and falsehood are received with equal incredulity.
