which, thank God! are all the enemy have left in those seas.
"I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
"Nelson."
It is by no means improbable, that Lord Nelson, while coolly
transcribing the above passage from Lord Grenville's judiciously guarded
instructions, to convince Sir Sidney Smith, that he was not restrained,
had in some measure convinced himself that those instructions could not
possibly be intended to give him, or his gallant friends, the smallest
just cause of offence.
On this same day, the last of the glorious year 1798, his lordship also
wrote the following answer to a letter from John Julius Angerstein, Esq.
Chairman of the Committee at Lloyd's, which he had just received.
"Vanguard, Palermo,
31st Dec. 1798.
"SIR,
"I have had the honour of receiving your's of the 10th October,
inclosing a circular letter addressed to the commanders in the
squadron under my command, requesting them to favour the committee
with the lists of the killed and wounded on board their respective
ships at the battle of the Nile: and I beg leave to acquaint you,
that I have given the necessary directions to the captains of the
ships at present under my command to furnish the committee with
lists, agreeable to their wishes; and will write to the captains of
those ships which are gone down the Mediterranean with the prizes,
to do the same as soon as possible, in order to forward their
charitable intentions.
"I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, your most
obedient and humble servant,
"Nelson."
However, neither this nor any other pleasing employ, amidst his
lordship's numerous indispensible avocations, could hastily reconcile
him to the unpleasant circumstance of not being left to finish the
business which he had so nobly commenced, and so nearly closed. Even the
soothings of his amiable and illustrious friends were ineffectual; and,
on the next day, the first of the year 1799, he wrote to Earl Spencer
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