ome near us. The
person alluded to proved afterwards to have been the lawyer mentioned
by Lord Keith; not with a Habeas Corpus, but a subpoena for
Buonaparte to attend a trial at the Court of King's Bench as a
witness. He was, however, foiled: as Lord Keith avoided him, and got
on board the Prometheus, off the Ramehead, where he remained until
joined by the Tonnant; while the guard-boat prevented him from
approaching near enough to the Bellerophon, to serve his writ on
me.[10]

[Footnote 10: [The business of the Habeas Corpus is so
whimsical that Capt. M. should get some legal friend to give
a brief idea of the nature of the process and the purpose for
which it was resorted to. The book will certainly be
instantly translated into French, and such an explanation as
I have hinted at will be extremely necessary. It should be
thrown into a note; a few words should be added on the
absurdity of the attempt. It will be otherwise thought and
said that Bonaparte was kidnapped out of England contrary to
the English laws. The real nature of the transaction should
be distinctly explained.--SCOTT. The following note
accordingly appears in the original edition:--]

To prevent erroneous impressions from going abroad, and to
put this curious circumstance in its true light, I have
prevailed on a friend, who was educated for the English bar,
to favour me with the following account of the writs of the
Habeas Corpus and subpoena; by which it will appear that no
such process, or any other, as far as I can understand, could
have had the effect of removing Buonaparte from one of His
Majesty's ships, and causing him to be landed in England in
opposition to the commands of the Government of the country.

"It is a common mistake to suppose that the celebrated Habeas
Corpus Act made it a matter of right, for every person, under
any restraint whatever to obtain this writ. That statute
related to persons committed by legal process for criminal
offences, and the object of it was to prevent them being
detained an unnecessary or unreasonable length of time,
without being brought to trial. Other cases of alleged
illegal detention were left as at common law: in these the
granting or r