English Caricature and Satire on Napoleon I. Volume 2 (of 2)Ashton, John
History
English Caricature and Satire on Napoleon I. Volume 2 (of 2)
Ashton, John
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Caricatures and cartoons
‘Our paper of this day will satisfy the sceptics, for such there were
beginning to be, as to the capture of that bloody miscreant, who has
so long tortured Europe, NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. Savages are always found
to unite the greatest degree of cunning to the ferocious part of their
nature. The cruelty of this person is written in characters of blood
in almost every country in Europe, and in the contiguous angles of
Africa and Asia which he visited and nothing can more strongly evince
the universal conviction of his low, perfidious craft, than the opinion
which was beginning to get abroad, that even after his capture had been
officially announced, in both France, and England, he might yet have
found means to escape. However, all doubts upon this point are at an
end, by his arrival off the British coast; and, if he be not now placed
beyond the possibility of again outraging the peace of Europe, England
will certainly never again deserve to have heroes such as those who
have fought, and bled, at Waterloo, for this, his present overthrow.
The lives of the brave men who fell on that memorable day will have
been absolutely thrown away by a thoughtless country; the grand object
attained by their valour will have been frustrated, and we shall do
little less than insult over their remains, almost before they have
ceased to bleed. But Fortune, seconding their undaunted efforts, has
put it in our power to do far otherwise.
‘Captain Sartorius of the _Slaney_ frigate, arrived yesterday with
dispatches from Captain Maitland of the _Bellerophon_, confirming
all the antecedent accounts of Buonaparte’s surrender, with various
other details, and closing them by their natural catastrophe--his
safe conveyance to England. He is, therefore, what we may call, here.
Captain Sartorius delivered his dispatches to Lord Melville, at
Wimbledon, by whom their contents were communicated to Lord Liverpool,
at his seat at Combe Wood; summonses were immediately issued for a
Cabinet Council to meet at 12 o’clock; what passed there was, of
course, not suffered to transpire; our narrative must therefore revert
to the _Slaney_ frigate, and the accounts brought by her. She had been
sent forward by Captain Maitland to Plymouth, with the dispatches
announcing that Buonaparte was on board the _Bellerophon_, with a
numerous suite. But it was the intention of Captain Maitland himself,
to proceed to Torbay, and not to land his prisoners until he had
received orders from Government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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