kind; being a blaze of brilliants, crowned with a vibrating plumage, and a radiant star in the middle, turning on it’s centre, by means of watch-work which winds up behind.  This badge, actually taken from one of the imperial turbans, can hardly, according to the idea of such insignia here”—­(the letter was dated, at Constantinople, October 3, 1798)—­“be considered as less than equivalent to the first order of chivalry in Christendom:  such, at least,” concludes the imperial donor, “was my view in the indication.”

By these remarks, added to the verbal communications of Mahomet Kelim, at the time of investiture, Lord Nelson was led to consider this honour as the Ottoman Order of Merit.  It could, certainly, be nothing less; and the civilized world has to felicitate itself on the brilliance of our immortal hero’s glory, which could, at length, dissipate the cloud of prejudice, that had so long obscured, from the sincerest followers of Mahomet, the lustre of every Christian virtue.

Even the Dowager Sultana, mother of the Grand Signior, caught the enthusiastic admiration of our hero from her generous and illustrious son, and sent his lordship the superb and flattering present of a very rich diamond ornament, in the form of a rose.

No sooner were the honours conferred on our hero by the Grand Signior, and his wish respecting the wearing them, made known to his majesty, than the imperial desire was immediately complied with, and the following royal grants and concessions were also published in the London Gazette—­

“The king has been graciously pleased to give, and grant, to the Right Honourable Horatio Baron Nelson of the Nile, and of Burnham-Thorpe in the county of Norfolk, Rear-Admiral of the Blue Squadron of his Majesty’s Fleet, and K.B. in consideration of the great zeal, courage, and perseverance, manifested by him on divers occasions, and particularly of his able and gallant conduct in the glorious and decisive victory obtained over the French fleet, at the mouth of the Nile, on the 1st of August last, his royal licence and authority, that he, and his issue, may bear the following honourable augmentations to his armorial ensign:  viz.  “A chief, undulated, argent—­thereon, waves of the sea; from which, a palm-tree issuant, between a disabled ship on the dexter, and a ruinous battery on the sinister; all proper.”  And, for his crest, “On a naval crown, or; the chelengk, or plume of triumph, presented to him by the Grand Signior, as a mark of his high esteem, and of his sense of the gallant conduct of the said Horatio Baron Nelson in the said glorious and decisive victory; with the motto—­Palmam qui meruit ferat:”  and, to his supporters, being a sailor on the dexter, and a lion on the sinister, the honourable augmentation following; viz.  “In the hand of the sailor, a palm branch, and another in the paw of the lion, both proper, with the addition of a tri-coloured flag and staff in the mouth of