James Harrison

“ May the same Almighty Power inspire the hearts of his King and Country, to fulfil, in their utmost extent, every wish and expectation of the Dying Hero! And may each virtuous individual, in whom the blood of the Nelsons shall flow, to the last drop which can be traced, for ever find friendly patronage among the rulers of a nation, which has certainly, at an eventful crisis, been powerfully exalted, and perhaps preserved, by the example and influence of the immortal hero, who so freely and fatally shed his own last drop in the faithful service of his King and Country! ”

“ After dinner, Lord Nelson, with admirable address, gave "Captain Foley!" as his toast: a friend and brother officer, he said, than whom there was not a braver or a better man in his majesty's service. He had been with him in all his chief battles; deserved to participate in every honour; and was, his lordship had the pleasure to add, in that respectable company, not only a Welshman, but a native of the county of Pembroke. ”

“ The moment Captain Berry had, on first beholding the position of the French fleet at anchor, fully comprehended the entire scope of his adored admiral's design for the attack, he exclaimed, in an extacy—"If we succeed, what will the world say?"—"There is no if in the case," coolly replied the admiral: "that we shall succeed, is certain; who may live to tell the story, is a very different question!" ”

“ Lady Hamilton finely remarked—with a spirit and energy forcibly depicting the grand character of that superlative mind which renders her, at once, the idol and idoliser of transcendent genius and valour—that "the splendid reward of Marlborough's services, was because a woman reigned, and women had great souls: and I," says her ladyship, for these are her own matchless words, "told Nelson that, if I had been a queen, after the battle of Aboukir, he should have had a principality, so that Blenheim Park should have been only as a kitchen garden to it! ”

“ Vanguard, Palermo, 8th May 1799.
"MY DEAR TROUBRIDGE, I desire you will express, to Captain Hood, the true sense I have of his conduct, not only at Salerno, but on all other occasions; and, that I never expect any but the most useful services, where he commands: and I beg you will say the same for me, to Captains Louis, Hallowell, Foote, and Oswald; not forgetting Captain Harward, and Commodore Mitchell, as far as they have been concerned. As to yourself, your conduct is so all of a piece, that I can only say, what is true, that the last services seem to eclipse the former ones. ”

“ Capua and Gaieta will soon fall; and, the moment the scoundrels of French are out of this kingdom, I shall send eight or nine ships of the line to Minorca. I have done what I thought right: others may think differently; but it will be my consolation, that I have gained a kingdom, seated a faithful ally of his majesty firmly on his throne, and restored happiness to millions. Do not think, my dear lord, that my opinion is formed from the arrangements of any one. ”

“ Not that this undoubted conviction in his own bosom, that he should certainly have captured or destroyed the whole fleet, conveys the smallest reflection on any other officer for not having effected the same purpose: for, most assuredly, though many captains in this noble squadron might boast of equal bravery with himself, and of much skill too, Lord Nelson greatly surpassed them all, and perhaps every other naval commander, in that promptitude of vigorously winged imagination which instantaneously rises to the exigency. ”

“ The events which have taken place in the kingdom of Naples have been so rapid and extraordinary, that it appears a dream. The king, God bless him, is a philosopher; but the great queen feels sensibly all that has happened. She begs me not to quit Palermo; for that Sir William and Lady Hamilton, and myself, are her only comforts. I shall, as is my duty, do every thing in the best manner I am able, for the honour of our country. General Stuart, from Minorca, calls for me; Mr. Windham, from Florence, does the same; and the affairs of Egypt and Malta are endeavouring to be brought to an issue. ”

“ To get to Malta—which has kept, for sixteen months, every ship I could lay my hands on fully employed; and has, in truth, broke my spirits for ever—I have been begging, of his Sicilian Majesty, small supplies of money and corn, to keep the Maltese in arms, and barely to keep from starving the poor inhabitants. Sicily has, this year, a very bad crop, and the exportation of corn is prohibited. Both Graham and Troubridge are in desperation, at the prospect of a famine. Vessels are here, loading with corn for Malta; but I can neither get the Neapolitan men of war, nor merchant vessels, to move. ”

“ Lord Nelson, with humble duty to his royal highness, begs leave to say, that he will ever esteem it the greatest victory he ever gained, if this flag of truce may be the happy forerunner of a lasting and happy union, between his own most gracious sovereign and his majesty the King of Denmark. ”

“ Had a space been chosen, to exhibit to the world a struggle for superiority in nautical skill, and personal valour, between the two greatest naval powers of the globe, none could have been more happily selected. The three grand divisions of the ancient world were witnesses; and the shores which had beheld the destruction of the Persian navy by the Greeks, and the heroic acts of Sesostris, now resounded with the echo of British thunder. To your lordship belongs the praise of having added glory to such a scene: the heroes we applaud, would themselves have applauded us ”

“ Active, not passive; actions, are the only weapons to meet these scoundrels with. We can, as your excellency knows, have no desire to distress the Grand Duke by our conduct; on the contrary, it is our duty to support his royal highness against the tyranny of the French. Your excellency will be so good as to say, for me, to his royal highness, that an English ship of war shall, as long as he pleases, remain at Leghorn, ready to receive his person and family; for, unless the emperor acts speedily, the British flag will be his only security. ”

“ A very heavy fire was kept up by the Danes, but none of our ships received a shot. In the mean time, we had several bomb-ships firing on the town of Elsineur, the shells from which killed upwards of a hundred and fifty people on shore. At Copenhagen, still more confident in their strength, they had made every arrangement for the destruction of our fleet, but no preparation for the defeat of their own. Shielded by nature with dangerous shoals, and fortified by art with powerful batteries, they seemed rather to invite, than to dread, any hostile attack. ”

“ Scarcely a day now passed, that Lord Nelson did not send some information to Captain Ball, for the purpose of inspiriting his depressed hopes in the conduct of this arduous undertaking; and, certainly, the indefatigability of his lordship, in labouring to obtain every requisite aid for the accomplishment of this important object, was impossible to be surpassed, and has probably never been equalled. Every risk, the purity of his heroic mind was prepared to encounter; every honour, it's dignified humility was desirous of yielding to all who should assist in the enterprize. ”

“ I have the honour to inform your excellency, that his Majesty, the King of Denmark, did not send away the Charge d'Affaires; but that, on his own demand, he obtained a passport. As a soldier, I cannot meddle with politics; but, I am not at liberty to suffer a fleet, whose intention is not yet known, to approach the guns of the castle which I have the honour to command. In case your excellency should think proper to make any proposals to the King of Denmark, I wish to be informed thereof before the fleet approaches nearer to the castle. ”

“ Lord Nelson often mentioned his progress through South Wales to Milford, as an affecting contrast of the genuine enthusiasm of natural character, to the cold expression of ministerial approbation by which his reception had been marked on his return from the Mediterranean, when Lord Keith was sent to take the chief command of the fleet in those seas. The corporate towns, villages, nobility, and gentry, on the line through which his route was directed, vied with each other to detain him, that their neighbours might participate in the joy they felt on the arrival of the hero. ”

“ Northumberland goes out, with my men, to-day. If the Foudroyant had not come as she did, Le Guillaume Tell would have beat all we had. The Penelope is the only effective ship; if she goes, we shall be badly off. Much credit is due to Captains Blackwood and Long; the latter, I beg your lordship to recommend to the commander in chief. Every thing shall be done, in my power. If the ships were here, I could soon refit them. My people begin to droop, from hard work; the prize still sticks to us. I long to get Diana and Justice to compleat the gang. ”

“ In fact, the exertions of Lord Nelson, during the whole of this arduous and perplexing service, were inconceivably great. He had, besides the usual cares of a commander in chief, the very difficult task of conciliating a variety of discordant states, from whom he was under the necessity of drawing constant supplies of fresh provisions and other requisites, which they were deterred from affording by the dread of a powerful and unprincipled enemy, perpetually menacing them with destruction, whatever degrees of amity they might either possess, or profess, for this country. ”

“ I am of opinion, with your lordship, that three ships of seventy-four guns each would have been a hard match for the Three Crowns Battery; but, they certainly would have been forced to go away.
"As to your lordship's motive for sending a flag of truce to our government, it can never be misconstrued; and your subsequent conduct has sufficiently shewn, that humanity is always the companion of true valour. You have done more; you have shewn yourself a friend of the re-establishment of peace, and good harmony, between this country and Great Britain. ”

“ If I have erred, it is not too late to call back my order; and, if you think so, I shall be happy to meet your excellency, and the minister of England and Russia, on this subject. There is not, I can assure you, that man on earth, who would so strongly unite the two monarchs whom we serve as myself; and may perdition seize the wretch who would do the least thing towards lessening that harmony! And could it ever happen, that any English minister wanted to make me an instrument of hurting the feelings of his Sicilian Majesty, I would give up my commission sooner than do it. ”

“ Such improper indulgences, with some slight addiction to that other vicious habit of British seamen, the occasional use of a few thoughtlessly profane expletives in speech, form the only dark specks ever yet discovered in the bright blaze of his moral character. Truth must not be denied, nor vice advocated; but, surely, the candid admission of these disagreeable verities, can never induce a single virtuous mind unjustly to criminate the hero in any higher degree. ”

“ Though Lord Nelson was, now, established commander in chief, in some sense for the first time, the dread with which his name inspired the enemy rendered the service far too inactive for his lordship's taste. To watch the motions of a timid enemy, and wait the tedious periods of their venturing out, was to him a most irksome task. He disdained, however, any strict blockade of Toulon: but encouraged the boastful fleet, ignominiously skulking there, to come fairly forward; by always leaving them sufficient sea room ”

“ From the highest admiral in the service, to the poorest cabin-boy that walks the street, there is not a man but may be in distress, with large sums of wages due to him, of which he shall, by no diligence of request be able to obtain payment; not a man, whose intreaties will be readily answered, with aught but insult, at the proper places for his application, if he come not with particular recommendations to a preference. From the highest admiral, to the meanest seaman, whatever may be the sums of prize-money due to him, no man can tell when he may securely call any part of it his own. ”

“ The vast exertions of France for the augmentation of her navy, seemed to inspire a hope of being able, with the assistance of Spain, now forced into a war which that unfortunate court had so much reason to dread, at length, in the confidence of superior numbers, to hazard an encounter with the British fleet. This, however, was by no means to be rashly ventured: it would be necessary, they well knew, first to effect a junction of their united force; which was not easily accomplishable, while they were watched with such diligent circumspection by our indefatigable hero. ”

“ In writing, on the 28th of January, to the Honourable Mr. Windham, at Leghorn, Lord Nelson thus foretells the fate of Tuscany, and of all the Emperor of Germany's Italian dominions. "Alas!" says his lordship, "the fancied neutrality of Tuscany will be it's downfall. You see it, and it cannot fail soon to happen. Tuscany does not, or cannot, support it's neutrality for us or Naples; only to protect the French, is this name prostituted. Seratti, who is a man of sound sense, must see it. ”

“ In Sicily, we are all quiet. I have been trying, with Sir William Hamilton, in which the queen joins, to induce the king to return to Naples; but, hitherto, without effect. I must suppose, his majesty has reasons which I am unacquainted with. It has long been my wish, to send a small squadron on the coast of Genoa; for the Russian ships are of no use, to co-operate with the Germans: but, I have not them to send. La Mutine, I have directed to protect our trade about Leghorn; and to assist, as far as she is able, in giving convoy to vessels carrying provisions to the Austrian army. ”

“ Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson has the greatest satisfaction in sending to the captains, officers, and men, under his command, that were employed in the late attempt on the enemy's flotilla off Boulogne, an extract of a letter which he has received from the First Lord of the Admiralty; not only approving of their zeal and persevering courage, but bestowing the highest praise on them. The vice-admiral begs to assure them, that the enemy will not have long reason to boast of their security; for he trusts, ere long, to assist them in person, in a way which will compleatly annihilate the whole of them. ”

“ Not only the city of London, but the whole nation, through every gradation of rank, from the sovereign on the throne to the occupier of the humblest hut gratefully regarded the hero of the Nile as the person to whom they were chiefly indebted for the security and comfort they enjoyed; and there was, perhaps, scarcely a house which his lordship could enter, in the British dominions, or even those of our allies, where he would have been welcomed with a less affectionate aspect than his own. ”

“ I must confess, that I am now, as I have always been, of opinion, that the squadron with which your lordship attacked our southern line of defence, say all those ships and vessels lying to the southward of the Crown Battery, was stronger then than that line. I will say nothing about our not having time sufficient to man our ships in the manner it was intended: they being badly manned, both as to number and as to quality of their crews, the greatest part of which were landmen; people that had been pressed, and who never before had been on board a ship or used to the exercise of guns. ”

“ The loyalty and attachment of their Sicilian Majesties to our king and country is such, that I would venture to lay down my head to be cut off, if they would not rather lose their kingdom of Naples, than hold it on terms from Austria and the French, by a separation from their alliance with England. There is not a thing which his majesty can desire, that their majesties of the two Sicilies will not have the greatest pleasure in complying with. I have, before, ventured on the character of their Sicilian majesties. The king is a real good man, but inclined to be positive in his opinion ”

“ About half past nine in the morning, the signals of the different ships having been made, repeated, and answered, we had the mortification to see the Agamemnon get upon the edge of the shoal, on the first attempt to leave her anchorage, where she remained immovable. A similar misfortune followed, in succession, to the Russell and Polyphemus; and the Jamaica frigate, with a convoy of gun-boats and small craft, having fallen in with a counter-current, made the signal of inability to come forward. A mind less invincible than Lord Nelson's, might have been discouraged. ”

“ Lucas, that the moment the Vanguard sailed, the French consul, and all the French, were liberated; and, also, the French vessels in the port allowed to fit for sea: and one, to my knowledge, had sailed for Malta! Why will your highness be thus led astray by evil counsellors; who can have no other object in view, but your ruin? Your highness knows that, although a powerful squadron of Portuguese ships has been since last August under my command, by every means in my power they have been prevented from cruizing against the ships of your highness, or from approaching your coast. ”