lordship's, &c. &c.
"Nelson."
"Earl Spencer."
The letter for the Lords of the Admiralty, addressed to Evan Nepean,
Esq. their Secretary, was as follows.
"Foudroyant, Naples Bay,
19th July 1799.
"SIR,
"I send you a copy of Lord Keith's orders to me, my answer, and a
copy of a letter written since my letter to Lord Keith. My decision
was taken, and I feel the importance of it in every way; and know,
I must be subject to trial for my conduct: but I am so confident of
the uprightness of my intentions for his majesty's service; and for
that of his Sicilian Majesty, which I consider as the same; that I,
with all submission, give myself to the judgement of my superiors.
I have the honour to be, with great respect, your, &c.
"Nelson."
By this open and dignified manner of appealing to the honourable Board
of Admiralty, as well as to his commander in chief, Lord Nelson not only
escaped any public censure, but even obtained great private applause,
very much to the honour of all parties. It was, they well knew, no light
departure from duty, originating in presumption or ignorance; but a
necessary deviation, dictated by the most profound wisdom, and justified
by the truest discernment.
Lord Nelson appears to have been of opinion, about this time, that the
French fleet, which had effected a junction with the Spanish, making
together forty-three sail of the line, and were reported to have sailed
from Carthagena on the 29th of June, had hostile designs against the
kingdom of Portugal. This he mentions to Sir Sidney Smith, in a
congratulatory epistle on the first successes of that able officer in
Egypt. "Yesterday," his lordship says, writing on the 24th of July,
"brought me letters from your worthy brother; and we had the great
pleasure of hearing that your truly meritorious and wonderful exertions
were in a fair train for the extirpation of that horde of thieves, who
went to Egypt with that arch-thief Bonaparte. I beg you will express, to
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