r editions of Hall's
_Voyage to the Corea and the Loochoo Islands_, but is quoted by Scott,
in his _Life of Napoleon_, 1827.]

[269] [Barry Edward O'Meara (1786-1836) began life as assistant-surgeon
to the 62nd Regiment, then stationed in Sicily and Calabria. In 1815 he
was surgeon on board the _Bellerophon_, under Captain F. L. Maitland.
Napoleon took a fancy to him because he could speak Italian, and, as his
own surgeon Mengeaud would not follow him into exile, requested that
O'Meara might accompany him, in the _Northumberland_, to St. Helena. His
position was an ambiguous one. He was to act as Napoleon's medical and,
_quoad hoc_, confidential attendant, but he was not to be subservient to
him or dependent on him. At St. Helena Lowe expected him to be something
between an intermediary and a spy, and, for a time, O'Meara discharged
both functions to the Governor's satisfaction (statements by Dr. O'Meara
are quoted by Lowe in his letter to Lord Bathurst [_Life of Napoleon,
etc._, by Sir W. Scott, 1828, p. 763]). As time went on, the surgeon
yielded to the glamour of Napoleon's influence, and more and more
disliked and resented the necessity of communicating private
conversations to Lowe. He "withheld his confidence," with the result
that the Governor became suspicious, and treated O'Meara with
reprobation and contempt. At length, on July 18, 1818, on a renewed
accusation of "irregularities," Lord Bathurst dismissed him from his
post, and ordered him to quit St. Helena. He returned to England, and,
October 28, 1818, addressed a letter (see Forsyth's _Napoleon, etc._,
iii. 432, 433) to J. W. Croker, the Secretary to the Admiralty, in which
he argued against the justice of his dismissal. One sentence which
asserted that Lowe had dwelt upon the "benefit which would result to
Europe from the death of Napoleon," was seized upon by Croker as
calumnious, and in answer to his remonstrance, O'Meara's name was struck
off the list of naval surgeons. He published, in 1819, a work entitled
_Exposition of some of the Transactions that have taken place at St.
Helena since the appointment of Sir Hudson Lowe as Governor_, which was
afterwards expanded into _Napoleon in Exile, or a Voice from St. Helena_
(2 vols., 1822). The latter work made a great sensation, and passed
through five editions. It was republished in 1888. O'Meara was able, and
generously disposed, but he was not "stiff" (_vide infra_, 489). "He
was," says Lord Rosebery (_N