Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume 2 (of 2): Including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess CharlotteHamilton, Anne, Lady
History
Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume 2 (of 2): Including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess Charlotte
Hamilton, Anne, Lady
Caroline, Queen, consort of George IV, King of Great Britain, 1768-1821; George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820 -- Relations with courts and courtiers; George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830 -- Relations with courts and courtiers; Great Britain -- Court and courtiers -- History -- 18th ce
"The Emperor Napoleon protests against the contents of that treaty. He
is not the prisoner of England: after having abdicated, into the hands
of the representatives of the nation, for the advantage of the
constitution adopted by the French people, and in favour of his son, he
repaired voluntarily and freely to England, to live there as a private
individual, in retirement, under the protection of the British laws. The
violation of all laws cannot constitute a right; in point of fact, the
person of the Emperor Napoleon is in the power of England; but in fact,
and of right, he has not been and is not in the power of Austria,
Russia, and Prussia, even according to the laws and customs of England,
who never admitted into the balance, in the exchange of prisoners, the
Russians, the Austrians, the Prussians, the Spaniards, the Portuguese,
although she was united to those powers by treaties of alliance, and
made war conjointly with them. The convention of the 2nd August, made
fifteen days after the Emperor Napoleon was in England, cannot, of
right, have any effect; it exhibits only a spectacle of a coalition of
the four great powers of Europe for the oppression of a SINGLE MAN!--a
coalition disclaimed by the opinion of all people, and at variance with
all the principles of sound morality. The Emperors of Austria and of
Russia, and the King of Prussia, not having, either in fact or of right,
any controul over the person of the Emperor Napoleon, they have had no
power to decree any thing concerning him. If the Emperor Napoleon had
been in the power of the Emperor of Austria, that prince would have
recollected the relations which religion and nature have placed between
a father and a son,--relations which are never violated with impunity.
He would have recollected, that Napoleon has four times restored him to
his throne: at Leoben, in 1797, and at Luneville, in 1801, when his
armies were under the walls of Vienna; at Presburg, in 1806, and at
Vienna, in 1809, when his armies were masters of the capital, and of
three-fourths of the monarchy. That prince would have recollected the
protestations which he made to him at the bivouac of Moravia, in 1806,
and at the interviews at Dresden, in 1812. If the person of the Emperor
Napoleon had been in the power of the Emperor Alexander, he would have
called to mind the bonds of friendship contracted at Tilsit, at Erfurt,
and during twelve years of daily intercourse. He would have remembered
the conduct of the Emperor Napoleon on the day after the battle of
Austerlitz, when, having it in his power to make him prisoner with the
wreck of his army, he contented himself with his parole, and suffered
him to operate his retreat. He would have called to mind the dangers
which the Emperor Napoleon personally braved to extinguish the
conflagration of Moscow, and preserve to him that capital. Certainly,
that prince would not have violated the duties of friendship and
gratitude towards a friend in misfortune.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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