Napoleon--Sir Hudson Lowe | Autograph letter signed, criticising Sir Pulteney Malcolm's meetings with Napoleon, 1817

Napoleon--Sir Hudson Lowe

Autograph letter signed, as Governor of St Helena, to Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm

a long letter written eight days after the Admiral had left St Helena criticising him for his many and lengthy meetings with Napoleon, listing each meeting that Malcolm had had with Napoleon, expressing his irritability at these occurrences, 25 pages, 4to, green silk ties, gilt edges, 12 July 1817

"...the visit at your departure for the Cape frustrated all the effect of your preceding line of conduct. It took place in opposition to my own judgement and without my concurrence and under such circumstances, viewing the responsibility of the personal charge of General Bonaparte rested solely with me, I am of the opinion it was my sentiments...that ought to have regulated..."

This extraordinary letter demonstrates Lowe's splenetic and choleric nature. Malcolm, who had commanded St Helena Station until earlier in 18187, had maintained a respectful relationship with Napoleon for a number of years, although hardly a close friendship (see lot 115). His meetings with Napoleon were enough to earn him the ire of Hudson Lowe, the island's governor, who was entirely alienated from his famous prisoner. Lowe and Napoleon had a total of six increasingly acrimonious meetings during their first months together on the island, after which the two men, living just a few miles apart on one of the most remote islands on the planet, steadfastly refused to meet. There is a substantial correspondence between Lowe and Malcolm in the British Library (Add. MSS 20115-120, 20140, 20147-8, 20160 and 20205), which also holds Malcolm's own account of his meetings with Napoleon (BL Add. MS 63107). 

PROVENANCE:

Lazarus Collection; Sotheby's, London, 15 May 1996, lot 240