[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sni,—In your issue of May 19th your correspondent " W. A. P." takes exception to my description of Longwood as " that residence which Lowe declined with disgust for Lady Lowe." He thinks it a suggestion against Lowq himself. I " suggested " nothing, but simply stated a fad founded on Count Bahnain's own Report of a conversation with Sir Hudson Lowe. The Report is dated January 8th; 1818. Balmain, the Russian Commissioner, was a man of probity and honour, and subsequently married one of Lowe's daughters.
He writes : " I asked the Governor why they did not establish the French at Plantation House. He told me : ' It was because those persons would damage it too much...' He added : Then I should have to live at Longwood. LadX Lowe is not very well, and I will never sacrifice my wife's health to Bonaparte's whims 1" " W. A. P." goes on to state that " Napoleon chose Longwood himself." Here he is in conflict with Dr. Holland Rose, whose Life of Napoleon is a standard authority, and who writes (Vol. ii., 539), " Afte conferring with Governor Wilks and others, Cockburn decided on this residence." His carpenters of the Northumberland ' rendered it, in Cockburn's phrase, " if not as good as might be wished, yet at least as commodious as necessary." Some- thing might be added on that head.
I am, of course, aware how difficult a captive Napoleon proved himself, of the impossibility of Plantation House as his residence, and of the many worries which beset Lowe on his arrival, worries which seem to have set him at variance with well-nigh everyone he had to deal with.—I am, Sir, &c., YOUR REVIEWER.
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