What a cynical mockery of a man this creature of Wellington, Castlereagh, and Lord Bathurst was!  He carried out their behests, and after the ugly deed of vindictiveness, rage and frenzy had wrought the tragic end, they shielded their wicked act by throwing the guilt on him, and he was hustled off to a distant colony to govern again lest his uneasy spirit should put them in the dock of public opinion.  He pleaded with them to employ the law officers of the Crown to bring an action against Doctor Barry O’Meara, whose “Voice from St. Helena” teemed with as dark a story as was ever put in print, in which he and his coadjutors figured as the base contracting parties.  And the more he urged that the book was a libel against himself, the more O’Meara demanded that the action against him should be brought, and for very substantial reasons it never was.  The Duke of Wellington said of Sir Hudson, “He was a stupid man.  A bad choice and totally unfit to take charge of Bonaparte.”  And the great French Chieftain has left on record his contemptuous opinion of the Duke, as I have already said.  “Un homme de peu d’esprit sans generosite, et sans grandeur d’ame.”  (He was a poor-spirited man without generosity, and without greatness of soul.) “Un homme borne.” (A man of limited capacity.) His opinion of Nelson was different, although our Admiral had hammered the French sea power out of existence and helped largely to shatter any hope Napoleon may have had of bringing the struggle on land to a successful conclusion.

But these tragic happenings did not bring repose to the nations.  Pitt died in 1806, so he missed seeing the fulfilment of his great though mistaken ambition.  Who can doubt, as I have said, that the lack of diplomatic genius in preventing the spreading of the Napoleonic wars has been the means of creating other wars, and especially the greatest of all, in which the whole world is now engaged!

That Napoleon himself was averse to a conflict which would involve all Europe and bring desolation in its train is shown by the following letter, written by his own hand, to George III.  How different might the world have been to-day had the letter been received in the same spirit in which it was conceived.

SIR AND BROTHER,—­Called to the throne of France by Providence, and the suffrages of the Senate, the people, and the Army, my first sentiment is a wish for peace.  France and England abuse their prosperity.  They may contend for ages, but do their Governments well fulfil the most sacred of their duties, and will not so much bloodshed uselessly, and without a view to any end, condemn them in their own consciences?  I consider it no disgrace to adopt the first step.  I have, I hope, sufficiently proved to the world that I fear none of the chances of war, which presents nothing I have need to fear; peace is the wish of my heart, but war has never been inconsistent with my glory.  I conjure your Majesty not to deny yourself the happiness of giving peace