apprehension, for he would assuredly be supported.

Here his disquietude upon this subject seems to have ended. Still he was not at case; he wanted employment, and was mortified that his applications for it produced no effect. "Not being a man of fortune," he said, "was a crime which he was unable "to get over, and therefore none of the "great cared about him." Repeatedly he requested the admiralty that they would not leave him to rust in indolence. During the armament which was made upon occasion of the dispute concerning Nootka Sound, he renewed his application: and his steady friend, Prince William, who had then been created Duke of Clarence, recommended him to Lord Chatham. The failure of this recommendation wounded him so keenly, that he again thought of retiring from the service in disgust: a resolution from which nothing but the urgent remonstrances of Lord Hood induced him to desist. Hearing that the Raisonnable, in which he had commenced his career, was to be commissioned,

he asked for her. This also was in vain: and a coolness ensued, on his part, toward Lord Hood, because that excellent officer did not use his influence with Lord Chatham upon this occasion. Lord Hood, however, had certainly sufficient reasons for not interfering; for he ever continued his steady friend. In the winter of 1792, when we were on the eve of the anti-jacobin war, Nelson once more offered his services, earnestly requested a ship, and added, that if their Lordships should be pleased to appoint him to a cockle-boat, he should feel satisfied. He was answered in the usual official form:"Sir, I have received your letter "of the 5th instant, expressing your readi"ness to serve, and have read the same to ❝ my lords commissioners of the admiralty." On the 12th of December he received this dry acknowledgment. The fresh mortification did not, however affect him long; for by the joint interest of the Duke and Lord Hood, he was appointed on the 30th of January following, to the Agamemnon, of 64

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guns.

CHAPTER III.

CONTENTS.

The Agamemnon sent to the Mediterranean.-Commencement of Nelson's acquaintance with Sir W. Hamilton. He is sent to Corsica, to co-operate with Paoli-State of affairs in that island.-Nelson undertakes the siege of Bastia, and reduces it.-Takes a distinguished part in the siege of Calvi, where he loses an eye.-Admiral Hotham's action. The Agamemnon ordered to Genoa, to co-operate with the Austrian and Sardinian Forces. Gross misconduct of the Austrian General.

“THERE are three things, young gentle"man," said Nelson to one of his midshipmen," which you are constantly to bear in "mind. First, you must always implicitly "obey orders, without attempting to form "any opinion of your own respecting their "propriety. Secondly, you must consider

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every man your enemy who speaks ill of "your king: and, thirdly, you must hate

"a Frenchman as you do the devil." With these feelings he engaged in the Anti-Jacobin war. Josiah, his son-in-law, went with him, as a midshipman.

The Agamemnon was ordered to the Mediterranean, under Lord Hood. The fleet arrived in those seas at a time when the south of France would willingly have formed itself into a separate republic, under the protection of England. But good principles had been at that time perilously abused by ignorant and profligate men; and, in its fear and hatred of democracy, the English government leagued itself with despotism :a miserable error, of which the consequences will long be to be deplored: for had not England in an unhappy hour, interfered, the rotten governments of the continent would then have fallen and the continental nations acquiring a revolutionary impulse and strength, at the same time as France, would now have been the rivals of France, instead of her prey. Lord Hood could not take advantage of the fair occasion which presented itself; and which if it had been seized with vigour, might have ended

Sir

in dividing France :—but he negociated with the people of Toulon, to take possession provisionally of their port and city; which, fatally for themselves, was accordingly done. Before the British fleet entered, Nelson was sent with dispatches to Sir William Hamilton, our envoy to the court of Naples. William, after his first interview with him, told Lady Hamilton he was about to introduce a little man to her, who could not boast of being very handsome; but such a man, as, he believed, would one day astonish the world. "I have never before," he continued, "entertained an officer at my house; "but I am determined to bring him here. "Let him be put in the room prepared for "Prince Augustus." Thus that acquaintance began which ended in the destruction of Nelson's domestic happiness. It seemed to threaten no such consequences at its commencement. He spoke of Lady Hamilton, in a letter to his wife, as a young woman of amiable manners, who did honour to the station to which she had been raised: and he remarked, that she had been exceedingly