Lord Nelson had not, yet, been quite a month in England, and much of even that short period was occupied in preparations for his departure; yet he had, now, lived longer in the society of Lady Hamilton and his friends, than at any time since the death of Sir William.  The affection Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton entertained for each other, is not to be doubted; but it was a pure and virtuous attachment, founded entirely on mental esteem.  Their loves were mutually the result of a most enthusiastic admiration of each other’s heroic and magnanimous qualities.  Those know little of the human heart, who require to be told what this sentiment is capable of effecting; and how little it has to do with the more gross and less durable tie of mere sexual or personal regard.  That they would have been united, if his lordship had survived Lady Nelson, is a fact sufficiently known.  In the mean time, never did the most chivalrous knight of antiquity cherish in his heart a more extravagant degree of adoration for the peerless princess of his affections, than that which our hero manifested for this accomplished lady.  It was with her image continually before him, that he combated the enemies of his country.  Her portrait was always placed in his cabin, which he familiarly denominated his guardian genius; and he constantly wore a fine miniature representation of her ladyship’s charming features, suspended in his bosom.  In short, he always thought, and freely said, that there was not her equal in the universe.  The agonies of this parting are not to be described.  His lordship, about ten at night, after visiting the chamber of his adopted daughter, and praying over the sleeping innocent, tore himself from her agonized ladyship, surrounded by his remaining relatives, and entered the chaise which conveyed him, by six o’clock next morning, to Portsmouth.

As a proof of Lord Nelson’s ceaselessly ardent desire for the advancement of his beloved relatives, when his esteemed brother-in-law, George Matcham, Esq. attended him to the chaise door, his lordship feelingly lamented that it was not yet in his power substantially to serve Mr. Matcham; who immediately said—­“My dear lord, I have no other wish than to see you return home in safety; as for myself, I am not in want of any thing.”—­“With your large family, my dear Mr. Matcham,” affectionately replied his lordship, “you certainly require a very considerable addition to your fortune!” Can any thing compensate, to his family, the loss of such a brother?

“Friday night,” writes his lordship, “at half past ten, I drove from dear, dear Merton; where I left all which I hold dear in this world, to go to serve my king and country.  May the great God whom I adore, enable me to fulfil the expectations of my country; and, if it is his good pleasure that I should return, my thanks will never cease being offered up to the throne of his mercy!  If it is his good providence, to cut short my days upon earth, I bow with the greatest submission; relying, that he will protect those so dear to me, that I may leave behind!  His will be done.