Superiority of the Danes 108"
Though Lord Nelson could not have rested without satisfying himself of the precise fact, he saw no necessity for entering into any altercation, on so trivial a topic, with General-Adjutant Lindholm. He contented himself, therefore, with immediately closing the subject, by the following very liberal reply.
St. George, May 3d, 1801.
"MY DEAR LORD,
"I was yesterday evening favoured with your reply to my letter of the 22d of April; and I have no scruple in assuring you, that if Commodore Fischer's letter had been couched in the same manly and honourable manner, I should have been the last man to have noticed any little inaccuracies which might get into a commander in chief's public letter; and if the commodore had not called upon his royal highness for the truth of his assertions, I never should have noticed his letter. You have stated, truly, the force which would have been brought into action, but for the accidents of their getting aground; and, except the Desirée frigate, no other frigate or sloop fired a gun to the southward of the Crown Islands. I have done ample justice to the bravery of nearly all your officers and men; and, as it is not my intention to hurt your feelings, or those of his royal highness—but, on the contrary, to try and merit your esteem—I will only say, that I am confident you would not have wrote such a letter. Nothing, I flatter myself, in my conduct, ought to have drawn ridicule on my character from the commodore's pen; and you have borne the handsomest testimony of it, in contradiction to his. I thought then, as I did before the action, and do now, that it is not the interest of our countries to injure each other. I am sorry that I was forced to write you so unpleasant a letter; but, for the future, I trust that none but pleasant ones will pass between us: for, I assure you, that I hope to merit the continuation of your esteem, and of having frequent opportunities of assuring you how I feel interested in being your sincere and faithful friend,
"Nelson and Bronte."
"Adjutant-General Lindholm."
After a correspondence between Vice-Admiral Cronstadt, Adjutant-General for the Swedish Fleet and Commander in Chief at Carlscrona, with Sir Hyde Parker, which terminated in assurances of a pacific tendency, Russia remained the only object now worthy of any serious regard. The Baltic fleet wintering in two divisions, at the two great naval arsenals of Revel and Cronstadt, and the ships in the former station being locked in by the ice several weeks longer than at the latter, it was then about the time when it might be possible to get into Revel. For that port, therefore, the British fleet immediately steered: but was met by a dispatch-boat, on the 22d of April, from the Russian Ambassador at Copenhagen, announcing the death of the Emperor Paul; and bearing conciliatory propositions from Alexander the First, who had succeeded to the imperial dignities of all the Russian empire. Sir Hyde Parker, on receiving this intelligence, immediately returned into anchorage near Copenhagen: a measure which by no means met the approbation of Lord Nelson; who well knew that, in order to negociate with effect, at critical periods, force should always be at hand, and in a situation to act. The British fleets, he conceived, ought to have held a position between the two Russian squadrons; so as to have prevented the possibility of their effecting a junction, should their pacific dispositions prove otherwise than sincere.
On the 5th of May, Sir Hyde Parker having been recalled, Lord Nelson was appointed to be commander in chief; but his health was now so greatly impaired, and his spirits were so much depressed, that he received it with little hope of being able long to enjoy it's advantages. However, not another moment was lost: for, after requiring an explicit declaration that the British trade should not be molested by Sweden, in his absence, nine sail of the line immediately weighed anchor; and proceeded, with his lordship, towards Revel. He wished for farther satisfaction respecting the friendly disposition of the Russians; and thought the best method of putting it to proof, was that of trying how he should be received in one of their ports. On the passage, every possible opportunity was embraced for arranging, with the different commanders, plans of conduct to be adopted in the event of either finding the Russians friendly or hostile. There was a sincere desire for peace, but not the smallest dread of war. His lordship, however, no sooner approached the port of Revel, which he had determined to enter, than he learned, to his extreme mortification, that the state of the ice had permitted the escape of the Russian fleet to Cronstadt, on the 10th of May, being three days prior to his arrival. Lord Nelson was disappointed, but not disconcerted. An amicable correspondence was commenced; the governor and forts were saluted; he was permitted to anchor in the outer port; and, an invitation from shore being readily accepted by our hero, he was entertained with the greatest respect and attention by the governor, admiral, and all the Russian officers, at Revel. It appears, however, that the suspicions of some less honourable minds had been excited, on the occasion, to a height of considerable alarm; and, a letter having been received, on the 16th, from the Comte de Pahlen, censuring his lordship for thus visiting the Gulph of Finland, he was resolved immediately to prevent the effect of all malevolent misrepresentations, by returning to join the squadron off Bornholm, where he had left Captain Murray with seven sail of the line.
In a letter to his Excellency Earl Carysfort, dated on board the St. George, off Gothland, May 19th, 1801, in which his lordship incloses a copy of his correspondence with the Comte de Pahlen, he says—"You will have your opinion, as I have mine, that he never would have wrote such a letter, if the fleet had been at Revel in April. Mine was a desire to mark a particular civility; which, as it was not treated in the way I think handsome, I left Revel on Sunday the 17th, and here I am. From all the Russian officers at Revel, I received the most attentive behaviour; and, I believe, they are as much surprised at the answer as I was. Sir Hyde Parker's letter on the release of the British merchant ships has not been answered. I hope, all is right: but seamen are but bad negociators; for, we put to issue in five minutes, what diplomatic forms would be five months doing." He observes that, though he feels sensible all which he sends in this letter is of no consequence; still he knows, from experience, that to be informed there is nothing particular passing, is comfortable. "Our fleet," he adds, "is twenty-two sail of the line, and forty-six frigates, bombs, fire-ships, and gun-vessels; and, in the fleet, not one man in the hospital-ship. A finer fleet," his lordship exultingly concludes, "never graced the ocean!" Such, however, was his lordship's ill state of health, that he had, on the day of quitting Revel, written home for permission to relinquish the command, that he might try and re-establish it, by immediately returning to England; being unable, at present, as his lordship stated, to execute the high trust reposed in him, with either comfort to himself, or benefit to the state.