"SIR,
"I beg leave to present to your royal highness, Captain Hardy, late of the Foudroyant: an officer of the most distinguished merit; and, therefore, highly worthy of your notice. He will tell you of all my arduous work in this country; and, that all my anxiety is, at present, taken up with the desire of possessing Malta. But, I fear, notwithstanding all my exertions, that I shall not get any British troops from Minorca: without which, the business will be prolonged, perhaps, till it is relieved; when all the force which we could collect would be of little use, against the strongest place in Europe. I am anxiously waiting the arrival of General Fox; and hope he will not consider the order for the removal of one or two regiments, of such great consequence as the reduction of Malta, by keeping them for two months longer in the Mediterranean. On the one hand, they must, in England, or on the continent, be like a drop of water in the ocean. By staying here, and employed, they would liberate us from our enemy close to our door; gratify the Emperor of Russia; protect our Levant trade; and relieve a squadron of our ships from the service: besides giving us one eighty-gun ship, two forty-gun frigates, a Maltese new ship of the line ready for sea, and two frigates. With these in the scale, I cannot comprehend that a moment can be lost in deciding. But, Sir, I find, few think, as I do—that, to obey orders, all perfection. To serve my king, and to destroy the French, I consider as the great order of all, from which little ones spring; and, if one of these little ones militates against it—(for, who can tell exactly, at a distance?)—I go back to obey the great order, and object; to down, down, with the damned French villains! Excuse my warmth; but my blood boils at the name of a Frenchman. I hate them all; royalists and republicans.
"My late letters from Egypt are, that Sir Sidney Smith is hurt at the notorious cowardice and want of discipline in the Turkish army; and I find, that General Koehler does not approve of such irregular proceedings, as naval officers attacking and defending fortifications. We have but one idea; to get close along-side. None but a sailor, would have placed a battery only a hundred and eighty yards from the Castle of St. Elmo: a soldier must have gone according to art, and the zig-zag way; my brave Sir Thomas Troubridge went straight, for we had no time to spare. Your royal highness will not believe, that I mean to lessen the conduct of the army. I have the highest respect for them all. But General Koehler should not have wrote such a paragraph in his letter. It conveyed a jealousy which, I dare say, is not in his disposition.
"May health and every blessing, attend your royal highness, is the constant prayer of your attached and obliged servant,
"Bronte Nelson."
Lord Nelson had, as it may be seen, signed his letters to foreigners as Duke of Bronte, from the time of obtaining that honour; but this epistle to the Duke of Clarence was one of the first in which he ever prefixed the word Bronte to his name when addressing any British subject. It is probable, therefore, that he had, about this time, received his sovereign's recognition of that Sicilian title.
Though his lordship had hitherto been unsuccessful in his repeated applications for troops at Minorca, he continued still to offer new reasons why they ought to be sent. With the most unwearied exertions, did this great man constantly labour for the promotion of whatever related to the honour or advantage of his king, his country, and his friends; and his assiduities never relaxed, till he had secured the accomplishment of his object. He tried, in particular, on this occasion, for the possession of Malta, all the arts of that powerful eloquence which flowed so naturally from his pen; and he might well say, as he did, in a letter of the 10th of November, to Mr. Nepean, "it has been no fault of the navy, that Malta has not been attacked by land; but we have neither the means ourselves, nor influence with those who have the power." In short, the history of this protracted siege, including all the military and political perplexities with which our hero's naval operations were entangled, would alone form a volume of no inconsiderable magnitude.
It appears that, about this time, suspicions were entertained, by Sir John Acton, respecting our intentions with regard to Malta; which first manifested themselves in a remark addressed to Lord Nelson, that the flag of the order was to be hoisted, instead of the three flags, when that island should be taken. This observation, he remarks, in a letter immediately written to Sir John, dated at Palermo, 18th November 1799, seems to convey, that his sentiments of respect for his Sicilian Majesty's flag were lessened. "I send you," says his lordship, with that noble frankness, and prompt decision, for which he was ever remarkable, "two papers, on which my order to good Captain Ball was founded. If I have erred, it is not too late to call back my order; and, if you think so, I shall be happy to meet your excellency, and the minister of England and Russia, on this subject. There is not, I can assure you, that man on earth, who would so strongly unite the two monarchs whom we serve as myself; and may perdition seize the wretch who would do the least thing towards lessening that harmony! And could it ever happen, that any English minister wanted to make me an instrument of hurting the feelings of his Sicilian Majesty, I would give up my commission sooner than do it. I am open to your excellency; and, I think, you are so to me. The interests of our sovereigns require it; and, I am sure, that we both only think of uniting the courts of London and Naples still closer together. I am placed in such a situation—a subject of one king, by birth; and, as far as is consistent with my allegiance to that king, a voluntary subject of his Sicilian Majesty—that, if any man attempted to separate my two kings, by all that is sacred, I should consider even putting that man to death as a meritorious act! Therefore, my dear Sir John, never, never, for a moment, think that I am capable of doing any thing but endeavouring to exalt the glory of their Sicilian Majesties."
Nor was this the only prejudice which malevolence seems now to have been secretly exciting against our hero. Though it has been sufficiently seen, that his lordship's indefatigable endeavours for the possession of Malta, which were never surpassed, either in activity or address, had constantly in view the merited aggrandizement of his persevering, brave, and conciliating friend, Captain Ball—for whom he had implored both emoluments and honours, which no consideration on earth could ever have induced him to solicit for himself—some apprehensions of our hero's diminished regard had been malignantly insinuated into the bosom of that worthy commander: as appears from the following expressions, which occur in a letter written to him by Lord Nelson on the 24th of November 1799. "My dear Ball, I love, honour, and respect you; and no persons ever have, nor could they, were they so disposed, lessen you in my esteem, both as a public officer and a private man: therefore, never let such a thought come into your head; which was never more wanted to be clear from embroils, than at this moment." Then, fortifying his perseverance with assurances that Commodore Troubridge is immediately coming with ships, and Colonel Graham with troops, he thus affectionately proceeds—
"But, my dear friend, your holding your post so long as you have, is matter of the greatest credit to you;" and, with unexampled kindness, concludes with thus arming his friend against the worst—"If you are forced to quit the island, it cannot lessen your exertion or abilities; and do not let such an event, should it unfortunately happen, depress your spirits for a moment: and believe me, as ever, your obliged and affectionate friend,
"Bronte Nelson."
These unpleasant events did not fail momentarily to affect his lordship's sensibility, and with more permanency his health. In every excess of anxiety, or even of joy, his heart continued to suffer a renewal of that agony which it had first experienced during his search after the French fleet destined for Egypt; and such were the ever-shifting scenes of his active life, that he was seldom, for many days together, exempted from the effects of it's influence, by the occurrence of one or other of these causes.
As if it were not enough, that his mind was perpetually harrassed with professional cares, he had private and domestic sources of inquietude The former, he could freely impart to his numerous friends and in some degree fellow-sufferers; but the latter was scarcely communicable to any, and no one could be implicated in the same identical cause of distress. Even the very quality in which he surpassed, perhaps, every commander, even by sea or land, that of keeping up a punctual and widely-extended correspondence, did not, at this oppressive period, entirely preserve him from censure. He received, what he calls, in a familiar letter to his friend Rear-Admiral Duckworth, of the 27th November 1799, "a severe set-down from the Admiralty, for not having written, by the Charon, attached to a convoy; although," adds his lordship, "I wrote, both by a courier and cutter, the same day. But I see, clearly, that they wish to shew I am unfit for the command. I will readily acknowledge it; and, therefore, they need have no scruples about sending out a commander in chief." In this letter, his lordship tells Rear-Admiral Duckworth, that he approves very much of his calling at Algiers. "I am aware," says he, "that the first moment any insult is offered to the British flag, is to get as large a force as possible off Algiers, and seize all his cruizers; but if, in such a contest, any English vessel is taken, I know what will be said against me, and how little support I shall experience. But, my dear admiral, where the object of the actor is only to serve faithfully, I feel superior to the smiles or frowns of any board." His lordship afterwards concludes—"Sir William and Lady Hamilton desire their kindest regards. I am nearly blind; but things go so contrary to my mind, out of our profession, that truly I care not how soon I am off the stage." In a postscript, his lordship does not forget to add—"Pray, do not let the Admiralty want for letters of every occurrence."
His lordship wrote, on the same day, a serious and respectable justification of his conduct, to Mr. Nepean; in which he observes, how perfectly conscious he is, that want of communicating where and when it is necessary, cannot be laid to his charge. After stating, that he actually wrote to Mr. Nepean, as well as to Earl Spencer, by a Neapolitan courier, who left Palermo on the very day the Charon sailed, he spiritedly says—"I own, I do not feel that, if cutters and couriers go off the same day, that it is necessary to write by a convoy. I know the absolute necessity of the board's being exactly acquainted with every thing which passes; and they, I beg, will give me credit for attention to my duty. As a junior flag-officer," he observes, "of course, without those about me—secretaries, interpreters, &c.—I have been thrown into a more extensive correspondence than ever, perhaps, fell to the lot of any admiral; and into a political situation, I own, out of my sphere. It is a fact, which it would not become me to boast of, but on the present occasion—I have never, but three times, put my feet on the ground, since December 1798; and, except to the court, that till after eight o'clock at night I never relax from business. I have had, hitherto," concludes his lordship, "the board knows, no one emolument, no one advantage, of a commander in chief."
In a letter written to Earl Spencer next day, the 28th, this exalted man, after observing that General Fox orders Colonel Graham not to incur any expence for stores, or any other articles but provisions, asks—"What can this mean? But I have told Troubridge, that the cause cannot stand still for want of a little money. This would be, what we call—penny wise, and pound foolish. If nobody will pay it," nobly adds our hero, "I shall sell Bronte, and the Emperor of Russia's box; for I feel myself above every consideration, but that of serving faithfully. Do not, my dear lord," he most pathetically concludes, "let the Admiralty write harshly to me; my generous soul cannot bear it, being conscious it is entirely unmerited!" The reader of sensibility will not fail to feel this very affecting deprecation; and to lament, that it should ever have been necessary.
On the day following, however, Lord Nelson had the satisfaction of receiving eight thousand ounces from his Sicilian Majesty, for the relief of the poor Maltese; which his lordship immediately sent to Captain Ball, by the Perseus bomb; and, determined that nothing in his power should be wanted, he not only took on himself, from the discouraging circumstance of General Fox's orders to Colonel Graham, to augment his numerous other occupations, by becoming a commissary for these troops, but actually pledged Bronte for twelve thousand ounces—six thousand six hundred pounds—should any difficulty arise in the payments.
On the 19th, Lord Nelson having been informed, by his friend Sir William Hamilton, that the principal inhabitants of Rome, and other professors and admirers of the fine arts, were about to erect, in that city, a grand monumental testimony of their gratitude to his lordship, for having delivered the country, as well as those valuable treasures of art and antiquity which had for ages formed it's proudest boast, from the tyranny and rapacity of French cruelty and barbarism, he immediately addressed the following letter to Mr. Fagan, an ingenious artist at Rome, who had so handsomely made the communication of this pleasing intelligence, through Sir William, and with whom the design of that honourable intention appears to have chiefly originated.
Palermo, 19th Dec. 1799.