Napoleon Bonaparte-the rising dictator of continental Europe-seeking redress in Westminster Hall for libels alleged to have been published against him. It was not the first time that our laws had been appealed to by foreign magnates in cases of alleged libel. We have noticed one action in which the Emperor of Russia was plaintiff, and obtained a verdict against a London Newspaper; in another instance the Queen of France sought damages for an alleged libel published in this country. But whilst foreigners complained of libels printed in England, an echo of the charge might have well been raised by England against the press of the Continent. In truth, both sides, during the war, indulged also in a conflict of words, in which few scruples checked the combatants. Amongst the libels, in The Moniteur for instance, it is on record that there was a revival of a report charging the English Government with having caused the murder of Roberjot and Bonnier, the two French plenipotentiaries, who were assassinated near Radstadt. As if to give greater publicity to this libel, a design for a monument to the unfortunate men, was placed in the gallery at Versailles, and upon a pedestal in the picture were the following words" Est puvent egages par des assassins soudoyes parle Gouvernment Anglais." The Argus, not to be behind the official Journal, roundly accused Mr. Windham of contemplating the assassination of the First Consul, and of having expressed his intentions even in the Parliament House. He is reported by The Argus to have alluded to " the probability of see

ing some opportunity recur of making an attempt on the life of the First Consul."

Bonaparte, in the first instance, applied to the Court of St. James's, to expel from their refuge, in Great Britain, the French writers, whom he regarded as the authors of the attacks upon his policy and proceedings. Peace then existed between the French Directory and the English King, but this demand, conceived in the spirit of a military dictator, was not to be complied with by a constitutional monarch. Napoleon required his envoy, Otto, " to complain to the British Government, asserting that a deep and continued system existed to injure his character, and prejudice the effect of his public measures through the medium of the press; and, at the same time, he peremptorily demanded the extradition of the French Royalists." The English minister replied that the French Journals were equally violent in their abuse of the British Government, which in fact had no control over the free press of England; while, on the other hand, the French Journals were completely under the surveillance of their own Government. He stated also, that the courts of law in England were equally open to the foreigner as to an Englishman; and at the same time he refused, in decided terms, to send the Royalist emigrants out of the country.

But Bonaparte was not to be put off in this way. He returned to the subject, and proposed that " means should be adopted to prevent in future any mention being made, either in official discussions, or in polemical writings in England, of what was passing in France; as, in like manner, in the French official dis

cussions and polemical writings, no mention whatever should be made of what was passing in England." This reciprocity being also declined, the future Emperor is said to have manifested much indignation; and though the authors of the attacks upon him were not given up to his vengeance, the English Ministers sought to appease the anger of their French ally, by directing the Attorney General to proceed against the writer of one of the obnoxious Papers. Thus it was that Napoleon Bonaparte's name appeared in Westminster Hall, as asking justice for alleged libels published by the Frenchman, M. Peltier. This trial is memorable for more reasons than one. It exhibited the spectacle of a great soldier asking the help of the law; of a foreign potentate suing in an English court; and it gave an opportunity for a Journalist, Mr. Mackintosh, to vindicate still more completely his claim to the character of an orator and a lawyer. Mackintosh, it is well-known, had come to London in search of fortune, and had applied his pen to the service of a Morning Newspaper. This fact, and his general reputation as a thinker and writer of the liberal party, no doubt influenced M. Peltier to select him as an advocate; and the satisfactory mode in which Mackintosh fulfilled his high duty, his eloquent argument for the liberty of the press, not only increased his reputation, but doubtless contributed to smooth the way to the legal promotion he afterwards secured. The public excitement created by the approach of this trial was very great. The peace had existed but a short time, and its duration was very generally believed to be dependant upon

the result of the proceedings in Westminster Hall. When the days came the court and all its avenues were crowded, and an equally intense feeling was excited in another place. The Stock Exchange was in a fever of expectation, and during the week that preceded the trial, money speculations were made upon the belief that Peltier's acquittal would be regarded in France as tantamount to a declaration of war against the First Consul, and wagers were laid that a verdict of not guilty would lower the funds five per cent. The jobbers had messengers at Westminster Hall, prepared to run with all possible speed from the court to the Stock Exchange, with the first news of verdict, if it should be pronounced before the House shut. It was under these unpropitious omens," says Peltier, in describing his trial," that I sat in the Court of Queen's Bench, and my anxiety was naturally increased when the first objects that I saw there, were the aide-de-camp, and the secretary of the ambassador of the First Consul, placed, in some sort, en faction, beneath the box of the jurymen.”

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The case came on for trial on Monday, February 21, 1803, before Lord Ellenborough and a special jury. The case for the Crown was conducted by the Attorney General, Spencer Percival, the future minister, and victim of the assassin Bellingham. Manners Sutton, Abbott, and Garrow, all afterwards judges, followed on the same side; whilst Mackintosh, (the future Sir James Mackintosh, recorder of Bombay), with Mr. Fergusson, appeared for the defence.

The information stated, that there subsisted "friendship and peace between our sovereign lord the

"citizen

King, and the French Republic;" that, Napoleon Bonaparte was First Consul of the said Republic, and as such, Chief Magistrate of the same;" and further, that certain libels had been printed and published by Jean Peltier, of St. Anne, Westminster, traducing and vilifying the said Napoleon Bonaparte, and calculated to bring him into contempt; and to excite the animosity, jealousy, and hatred of the First Consul and the French Republicans against the King and people of England. The libels when read now, nearly half a century after their publication, appear harmless enough; but, during the excitement of 1803, were doubtless thought to be of very serious character. The most pointed and severe of these attacks on the First Consul, and the one on which the law-officers of the crown much relied, may be quoted to illustrate this remarkable trial.

"Wish of a good patriot on the fourteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and two.

"What fortune has the son of Lætitia arrived at! A Corsican, he becomes a Frenchman, his new country adopts him, nourishes him in the rank of its children, and already promises him the greatest destinies. A storm arises. By the force of the tempests the state is overturned-the most noble persons fall—everything is broken. The unhappy Frenchman regrets with sighs his error and his wishes. Napoleon appears flying from victory to victory-he reaches the summit of glory-the east, the west witnesses of his exploits, are vanquished by him, and receive his laws. The Nile had shuddered; but the lot that forces him on, recalls his vanquisher to the banks of the Seine. Five chiefs, or five tyrants, shared the power. He forces from their hands the sceptre and the censer. Behold him then seated where the throne was raised. What is wanting to its wishes? -a sceptre ?—a crown? Consul, he governs all-he makes