Nelson’s devotion to the Court did not express itself by seeking material recompense for the services bestowed on their Sicilian Majesties.  There were various reasons for his elaborate and silly attentions.  First, his range of instructions were wide in a naval sense; second, his personal attachment to the King and his Consort (especially his Consort), for reasons unnecessary to refer to again, became a growing fascination and a ridiculous craze.  His fanatical expressions of dislike to the French are merely a Nelsonian way of conveying to the world that the existence of so dangerous a race should be permissive under strictly regulated conditions.  He had a solemn belief in his own superiority and that of his fellow-countrymen.  All the rest were to him mere human scrap, and his collection of epithets for them was large and varied.  His Mogul air in the presence of aliens was traditionally seamanlike.  If they failed to shudder under his stern look and gleaming eyes, it affected him with displeasure and contempt.  The Neapolitans were fulsomely accommodating, though Nelson, except from the Court party and a few nobles, does not appear to have attached much value to their servile tokens of appreciation.  It cannot be said that either Nelson, his Government, or his country were in any way rewarded by the sacrifices made ostensibly in the interests of human rights.  Under Ferdinand Bourbon, the Neapolitan States and Sicily had no settled government.  He was a contemptible poltroon, whose throne was supported for years by British money, men, and ships, and even with our strong support; he was alternately fleeing to Sicily and returning again under the formidable protection of British frigates, and, like all perfidious cowards, his short intervals of government were distinguished by a despotism that soon made it necessary for him to fly from the feelings of vengeance he had called out.

Not even the power of Great Britain could prevent the kingdom of Naples from passing from one vicissitude into another.  The French took possession of it in January 1799, and established what they called the Parthenopean Republic.  Nelson helped to retake it in June of the same year, and put the itinerant King on the throne.  The Neapolitans occupied Rome on the 30th September, 1799.  In October 1805 a treaty of neutrality between France and Naples was carried into effect.  Ferdinand fled to Sicily again on the 23rd January of the next year, when the master-mind came to close quarters and put an end, as I have previously stated, to Ferdinand’s kingship and tyrannical rule by placing his brother Joseph on the throne; two years later Joseph became King of Spain, and his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, succeeded him as ruler of Naples.  The Neapolitans were never better governed than during the reign of these two kings.  Many wise laws were made and enforced by a just and rigid discipline.  Incompetent, weak despotism had disappeared, and any attempt at licence was promptly subdued.  The people were