"MY DEAR LORD,
"I have transmitted to Mr. Nepean, by way of Vienna, a duplicate of my letter to the commander in chief: which, of course, will likewise be sent you from him; and it will inform you of all which has passed, from the determination of leaving Naples to our arrival at Palermo.
"The day after I left Naples, I received a letter from Sir Sidney Smith, with several inclosures. I send you my answer. Every thing which the extracts sent me by Sir Sidney Smith point out to him, has been fully talked over, and fully explained, by Kelim Effendi; a person holding the office similar to our under-secretary of state, who had been sent with my Order of Merit: for, by the form of the investiture, that seems to me the properest name to call it.
"And now, my lord, having left the command of the two sail of the line in the Levant Seas to Sir Sidney Smith—than whom, I dare say, no one could be so proper—Commodore Duckworth will ably, I am sure, watch Toulon; for I shall very soon, I hope, be able to send him one or two sail of the line: and, Captain Troubridge, or some other of my brave and excellent commanders, being left to guard the One Sicily, and the coast of Italy; I trust, I shall not be thought hasty, in asking permission to return to England for a few months, to gather a little of that ease and quiet I have so long been a stranger to.
"Captain Troubridge goes directly to Egypt, to deliver up to Sir Sidney Smith the blockade of Alexandria, and the defence of the Ottoman empire by sea; for, I should hope, that Sir Sidney Smith will not take any ship from under my command, without my orders; although Sir Sidney, rather hastily, in my opinion, writes Sir William Hamilton, that Captain Hood naturally falls under his orders. I am, probably, considered as having a great force; but I always desire it to be understood, that I count the Portuguese as nothing but trouble. Ever believe, my dear lord, your most obliged
"Nelson."
"January 2d. General Acton has just wrote me, that the French are within thirty miles of Naples, on the 30th. Marquis De Niza is prepared to burn the ships when the French get a little nearer. Mack is at Capua, with a strong force, numbers not mentioned. Dreadful weather! The great queen very ill: I fear for her.
"N."
Two causes, in a short time, particularly contributed, as it should seem, to tranquillize the mind of our hero, with regard to what he could not but consider as Sir Sidney Smith's too great assumption of authority: one of these was, the hope that his friend Captain Troubridge might effect the destruction of the transports at Alexandria before Sir Sidney's arrival; and the other, immediate information from the Earl of St. Vincent, that he was as little satisfied as Lord Nelson himself, with the business which had so deeply affected his feelings, and had therefore exerted his own power to prevent any such future occurrence. "Sir Sidney Smith," says his lordship, writing this month to Captain Ball, "from a letter he wrote the Earl of St. Vincent off Malta, has given great offence; having said, that he presumed, all the ships in the Levant being junior to him, he had a right to take them under his command. His lordship has, in consequence, given him a broad hint, and taken him handsomely down; and, to prevent any thing of the kind happening in future, he has ordered Sir Sidney to put himself immediately under my command." These great men, however, though they felt jealous of their own command, had minds superior to the retention of any continued animosity; and, when they fully understood each other, became very sincere friends. They were all equally anxious for the good of the country; for the honour of the profession; and, for their own individual reputation. Their differences consisted more in the manner than in the form and substance of the thing; and, perhaps, on the whole, Lord Nelson's excess of feeling may be regarded as having, for a time, punished both himself and Sir Sidney with far more severity than the necessity of the case, when coolly considered, could by any means render requisite.
One of the first public measures taken by his Sicilian majesty, after arriving at Palermo, was that of sending away, from the whole island of Sicily, every Frenchman it contained, of whatever description. A resolution which, if it did not originate with our hero, was too consonant with his lordship's known inveterate Antigallicanism, not to have received his hearty approbation.
The following notice, dated on board the Vanguard, 6th January 1799, was accordingly issued by Lord Nelson.
"His Sicilian Majesty having directed, that all French, of whatever description, should leave the Island of Sicily—A ship of six hundred tons, an English transport, will be ready, by to-morrow morning, to receive French emigrants; say, two hundred. She will have put on board her biscuit, salt provisions, peas, oatmeal, and the common wine of the country. As this will be an additional gratuity, on the part of the King of Great Britain, the emigrées will, if they chuse it, lay in such stock of fresh provisions, and other comforts, as they please.
"All those pensioned by Great Britain, will be received by a note from the British agent; and all those pensioned by his Sicilian Majesty, by a note from the Neapolitan agent.
"A Neapolitan corvette to be attached to this ship, to convey her to Trieste, and back again, and to receive on board such emigrées as the court shall direct. The transports and corvette out to sail as soon as possible. Their time of departure will depend on the king's order."
On occasions of this sort, no doubt, there will always be some cases of peculiar hardship; but the difficulty of discriminating between the treacherous and the sincere, among a people so excessively insidious, and the danger to be dreaded from deceit, by those who were so severely suffering it's effects, maybe considered as sufficiently justifying the measure.
Captain Troubridge, having arrived on the 5th, sailed on the 7th, with the Culloden, Theseus, Bulldog, and victuallers, for Syracuse; with orders to collect the bombs, and proceed with them and the Theseus to Alexandria, for the purpose of making a vigorous attack on the shipping in that harbour. In writing, on this subject, to the Earl of St. Vincent, Lord Nelson says—"If the thing can be done, Troubridge will do it."
Captain Louis, of the Minotaur, the present celebrated Admiral Louis, ever one of his lordship's most deservedly favourite friends, had been now ordered to command on the coast of Italy towards Leghorn: and Commodore Mitchell, of the Portuguese squadron, was directed by Lord Nelson, if he could not, by the rules of the Portuguese service—a subject which, his lordship remarked, this was not the time to enter on—put himself under that very old and respectable officer, Captain Louis; at least, to co-operate with him in the service on which he was ordered, and to remain on that service till farther orders from his lordship, or Captain Louis's consent for leaving it. In a letter of this day, to the Earl of St. Vincent, his lordship says—"Minotaur is gone to Leghorn, to endeavour to do good; and Louis will act, I am sure, for the best, as circumstances arise." This very letter, sent by Captain Hope, he thus concludes—"I must refer you, my dear lord, to Hope, who is very zealous and active." So warmly affectionate was the heart of this great and good man to all his worthy officers; and, indeed, to every deserving person under his authority.
On this day, Lord Nelson wrote no less than five public letters: that already noticed, to the Earl of St. Vincent; another, to Earl Spencer; two to Constantinople, one of them for Spencer Smith, Esq. and the other for Francis Wherry, Esq. a fourth to Commodore Duckworth; and the fifth, to the Honourable Lieutenant-General Stuart.
Besides what has been extracted from the letter to the Earl of St. Vincent, it contains the following intelligence relative to the then state of Naples—"On the 4th, the French were not at Naples; but were only sixteen miles distant, negociating with the nobles of Naples, for the exclusion of the king. The French long to give them the fraternal squeeze. Another party is for making the Duke of Parma's son, married to the king of Spain's daughter, now at Madrid, king under French protection. The lower class are the only loyal people; and they, we know, may any moment take a wrong turn. Mack is at Capua; but, it was determined, should retreat towards Salerno. On the 3d, at night, the French attempted to force the lines of Capua. They did not succeed. What occasioned their retreat, is difficult to guess; although the Neapolitan army is twenty-five thousand, and the French not eight thousand. Is not this a dream! Can it be real?"
The letter to Earl Spencer is as follows.
"Palermo, Jan. 7, 1799.