of Italy; I trust, I shall not be thought hasty, in asking permission to return to England for a few months, to gather a little of that ease and quiet I have so long been a stranger to.

“Captain Troubridge goes directly to Egypt, to deliver up to Sir Sidney Smith the blockade of Alexandria, and the defence of the Ottoman empire by sea; for, I should hope, that Sir Sidney Smith will not take any ship from under my command, without my orders; although Sir Sidney, rather hastily, in my opinion, writes Sir William Hamilton, that Captain Hood naturally falls under his orders.  I am, probably, considered as having a great force; but I always desire it to be understood, that I count the Portuguese as nothing but trouble.  Ever believe, my dear lord, your most obliged

     “Nelson.”

“January 2d.  General Acton has just wrote me, that the French are within thirty miles of Naples, on the 30th.  Marquis De Niza is prepared to burn the ships when the French get a little nearer.  Mack is at Capua, with a strong force, numbers not mentioned.  Dreadful weather!  The great queen very ill:  I fear for her.

     “N.”

Two causes, in a short time, particularly contributed, as it should seem, to tranquillize the mind of our hero, with regard to what he could not but consider as Sir Sidney Smith’s too great assumption of authority:  one of these was, the hope that his friend Captain Troubridge might effect the destruction of the transports at Alexandria before Sir Sidney’s arrival; and the other, immediate information from the Earl of St. Vincent, that he was as little satisfied as Lord Nelson himself, with the business which had so deeply affected his feelings, and had therefore exerted his own power to prevent any such future occurrence.  “Sir Sidney Smith,” says his lordship, writing this month to Captain Ball, “from a letter he wrote the Earl of St. Vincent off Malta, has given great offence; having said, that he presumed, all the ships in the Levant being junior to him, he had a right to take them under his command.  His lordship has, in consequence, given him a broad hint, and taken him handsomely down; and, to prevent any thing of the kind happening in future, he has ordered Sir Sidney to put himself immediately under my command.”  These great men, however, though they felt jealous of their own command, had minds superior to the retention of any continued animosity; and, when they fully understood each other, became very sincere friends.  They were all equally anxious for the good of the country; for the honour of the profession; and, for their own individual reputation.  Their differences consisted more in the manner than in the form and substance of the thing; and, perhaps, on the whole, Lord Nelson’s excess of feeling may be regarded as having, for a time, punished both himself and Sir Sidney with far more severity than the necessity of the case, when coolly considered, could by any means render requisite.