This circumstance produced the following letter to Sir Sidney Smith; which serves to shew that his lordship, though displeased on the occasion, was not altogether unjust in requiring better future discrimination.
"Vanguard, Palermo, 8th March 1799.
"SIR,
"I have received your letters of January the 23d, February 6th, 10th, and 23d. Your situation as Joint-Minister at the Porte, makes it absolutely necessary that I should know who writes to me: therefore, I must direct you, whenever you have ministerial affairs to communicate, that it is done jointly with your respectable brother, and not mix naval business with the other; for, what may be very proper language for a representative of majesty, may be very subversive of that dicipline of respect from the different ranks in our service. A representative may dictate to an admiral, a captain of a man of war would be censured for the same thing: therefore, you will see the propriety of my steering close between the two situations. I have sent you my orders, which your abilities as a sea-officer will lead you to punctually execute. Not a ship more than the service requires shall be kept on any particular station; and that number must be left to my judgment, as an admiral commanding the squadron detached by the commander in chief to the extent of the Black Sea. I shall, of course, keep up a proper communication with the Turkish and Russian admirals, which net captain of a man of war under my orders must, interfere in. I am, Sir, your very humble servant,
"Nelson."
"Sir William Sidney Smith."
The above epistle, which was accompanied by a regular order, dated the preceding day, for Sir William Sidney Smith, captain of his majesty's ship Le Tigre, to put himself under Lord Nelson's command may certainly be considered as sufficiently severe; and, it is probable, his lordship was of that opinion: but he judged it necessary, for his own comfort thus plainly to deliver his sentiments, however painful the task, that he might escape any repetitions of what must continue to excite unpleasant feelings.
On this day, too, Lord Nelson wrote to Captain Ball, from whom he had received letters which gave hopes of a speedy termination to his long and arduous labours. The deputies lately arrived from Malta had solicited supplies of arms, ammunition, and money, from his Sicilian Majesty; and their application, it will appear, had not proved in vain. Money, cloathing, &c. Lord Nelson informs Captain Ball, are difficult to be got; however, some will be sent. "You will," he adds, "receive seven thousand ounces, which the king confides in you to dispose of to the best advantage. Whenever the French are driven out, you are certainly fitted for the station of chief, and I should suppose his Sicilian Majesty could have no objection to give you the proper appointments. You are sure, I shall do every thing that is in my power, for your honour and benefit. Having said this, I will finish, for I am tired to death with writing." His lordship, however, does not conclude without observing that he trusts to nothing but his blockade for the reduction of Malta; that there is yet no news of the emperor's movements, but move he must; that all the lower order of the kingdom of Naples are ready to take arms against the French; that ten thousand Albanese are near Messina; and that ten thousand Russians are on that side Constantinople, for the same destination, besides the Russian army passing the Tyrol. "Apropos," he at length concludes, "the Emperor of Russia has sent me his picture, in a magnificent box; but, this shall not prevent my keeping a sharp look out on his movements against the good Turk."
Part of the money mentioned in this letter, as well as of the arms, ammunition, &c. requested by the deputies, and three of the deputies themselves, were conveyed, in La Bonne Citoyenne, by Captain Nisbet, to Malta, in his return to Constantinople; who was charged with dispatches for Sir Sidney Smith, Spencer Smith, Esq. his brother, and his Excellency Constantine Upsilanti, at the Ottoman court. The remainder of the arms, ammunition, stores, and money, with the other three deputies, were sent to Malta by Captain Gage in the Terpsichore: who was afterwards to deliver a letter from Lord Nelson to his Sardinian Majesty, at Cagliari in Sardinia; to call at Minorca, for any dispatches which Commodore Duckworth might have for the Earl of St. Vincent; and, finally, to join the commander in chief at Gibraltar, or wherever else the earl might happen to be.
On the 10th of March, General Sir Charles Stuart arrived at Palermo, with the thirtieth and eighty-ninth regiments; who immediately departed for Messina. This, his lordship observes, in a letter to Mr. Windham, a few days afterwards, would not only save that important place from all danger, but had already acted like an electrical shock over the whole island, and must extend it's influence to Naples.