“It will perhaps be necessary, on entering on my career as an auctioneer, to make some kind of a little introductory address to my auditors on the occasion. Will you, my good sir, furnish me with such a thing? it will render me a service, and I will not remain in your debt for it. All I wish to observe is, that from the local knowledge I possess of many of the articles, and to insure their coming fairly before the public, induces me to sell them myself, without any of the manœuvres sometimes resorted to in a sale of this description, and particularly to impress on the minds of my hearers that every article is fairly and without reserve before them.
“When I come to the Buonapartian subject, perhaps it may not be amiss to mention what is most singular in my history, that everything that originated with Napoleon has been successful. I have put it down in my uncouth way, on a separate paper, and shall be obliged by your opinion and correction.
| MR. BULLOCK: BUONAPARTE RELICS. | 87 |
“I cannot help feeling a kind of superstitious fear
and interest for the fate of Napoleon,
on account of the remarkable coincidence and kind of dependence on
advantage derived to myself from everything originating or arising from
that man. An accidental possession of a medal of him, when
General Buonaparte (one of the first portraits of
him that came to England), laid the foundation of the London Museum. A
purchase in France of his property was the most advantageous speculation I
ever made; but the personal property left me, as a last legacy, by the
Emperor on the evening of his political death of the memorable 18th of
June, and transmitted me through the hands of the Prince Regent, was more advantageous in a pecuniary point
of view than the entire labours of my life. I allude to his far-famed
Military Carriage, which, with its curious and valuable contents, as is
well known, became my property: these (like
Elijah’s mantle) gave me the power of
accomplishing, in a few months, what, with all his talents, riches, and
armies, he could never succeed in doing; for in that short period I
over-ran England, Ireland, and Scotland, levying a willing contribution on
upwards of 800,000 of his Majesty’s subjects; for old and young,rich
and poor, clergy and laity, all ages, sexes, and conditions, flocked to pay
their poll-tax, and gratify their curiosity by an examination of the spoils
of the dead lion. But those days are passed; the meteor is extinguished,
like the dream of greatness which intoxicated the man himself; but still
the influence of Napoleon on my destinies seems to
exist, for in the cases that I received from his Royal Highness the Prince
Regent, has been discovered a talisman, whose magic power was to act after
that of its original possessor had for ever ceased; a talisman whose single
touch will, in a short time, take from me and scatter over the world the
| 88 | AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. |
