1 / 2
AGUTTES
44
-
O’MEARA Barry Edward (1786–1836), Irish doctor, Napoleon’s s…
See original version (French)
44
-
O’MEARA Barry Edward (1786–1836), Irish doctor, Napoleon’s s…
See original version (French)
Estimate €1,500 - €2,000
Voluntary lot
Description
O’MEARA Barry Edward (1786–1836), Irish doctor, Napoleon’s surgeon on St Helena.
L.A.S. ‘Barry E Omeara’, London, 18 June 1823, to the Countess of Survilliers [Julie BONAPARTE, née Clary] in Brussels; 3 pages in-4, address; in French.
Note:
To the wife of Joseph Bonaparte, following the lawsuit brought against O’Meara by Hudson Lowe.
O’Meara published a book entitled *Napoleon in Exile, or A Voice from St Helena* in order to ‘defend the reputation of the late Emperor Napoleon, your illustrious brother, and to refute the appalling slanders with which our ministers and their bribed agents have sought to defile his memory, and also to portray this great man, full of noble courage, dying at the claws of that monster, half-ape and half-tiger, who had been chosen as his jailer [Hudson LOWE]; the latter brought a sort of libel case against me five months ago’. O’Meara succeeded in gathering ‘statements from the Frenchmen who had the honour of taking part in his exile’, and from English officers who were ‘witnesses to the infamous treatment to which he was subjected’, notably Major Poppleton, ‘who for two years served as the aide-de-camp in charge of the Emperor’s person’, as well as the Counts of Las Cases and Montholon, Antommarchi, Marchand, and others. The judges dismissed Lowe’s complaint, but O’Meara must pay the costs of the trial; he thanks the Countess for granting him ‘a pension of 1,200 francs annually for the rest of my life […] If I am not mistaken, I believe I have benefited from your generosity on only two occasions, namely for the years 1819 and 1820’; he takes the liberty of asking her “to draw up, for the amounts due for the years 1821, 1822 and the current year, three bills of exchange for 1,200 francs each”. His book, translated into French, has been published in London, and he is ready to send copies to Brussels. The translation published in Paris is ‘a travesty rather than a translation. I have disavowed it in the English newspapers. Indeed, not only has it undergone all the necessary alterations to enable it to circulate without falling foul of the Attorney General, but it also contains more misinterpretations than pages, most of them ridiculous or slanderous, and some of them appalling’…
At the top, a note regarding the reply: she can only comply with this request after consulting her husband…
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like