for permission to return to England. This fact will appear in the
following letter; though, happily, by the timely and judicious
interference of the Earl of St. Vincent, added to the earnest and united
requests of the King and Queen of Naples, and Sir William and Lady
Hamilton, he was induced finally to continue a command which the royal
sufferers felt so necessary for their protection.
"Palermo,
1st Jan. 1799.
"MY DEAR LORD,
"I have transmitted to Mr. Nepean, by way of Vienna, a duplicate of
my letter to the commander in chief: which, of course, will
likewise be sent you from him; and it will inform you of all which
has passed, from the determination of leaving Naples to our arrival
at Palermo.
"The day after I left Naples, I received a letter from Sir Sidney
Smith, with several inclosures. I send you my answer. Every thing
which the extracts sent me by Sir Sidney Smith point out to him,
has been fully talked over, and fully explained, by Kelim Effendi;
a person holding the office similar to our under-secretary of
state, who had been sent with my Order of Merit: for, by the form
of the investiture, that seems to me the properest name to call it.
"And now, my lord, having left the command of the two sail of the
line in the Levant Seas to Sir Sidney Smith--than whom, I dare say,
no one could be so proper--Commodore Duckworth will ably, I am
sure, watch Toulon; for I shall very soon, I hope, be able to send
him one or two sail of the line: and, Captain Troubridge, or some
other of my brave and excellent commanders, being left to guard the
One Sicily, and the coast 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
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