The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-25 00:00:00

S 1

-Tit;

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trlggee 'VMS no way tin:Adtr.:l.
heavy rains the birds were unusually .f;earce,•and the
cf the young ones very small. Thd;spriit,how.
ever, was considered excell,-nt ; anokitror-V4ritity'ot
birds hive been bagged. The tnoor4, Aareie 'tweet &net'
wet and miry, and the grouse difficult to follow. Grouto
has been fetching very high prices! On the first day,
they were selling at 14s. a brace upon the moors. The re
were not a few tyros who essayed in vain to bring to
bag a bird or two, rather than go home without "moor
game." Some gave a sovereign a brace in order to pop
icto their heretofore empty pouches. The presert price
of grouse is from Bs. to 103. per brace, according to the
size of the birds —thpiraster Gazdte.

LITERATURE.
TFIE DISPATCHES AND LETTERS OF
VICE-ADMIRAL LORD VISCOUNT NEL-
SON, with Notes by Sir Nieolas Harris Nicolas,
G.C.M.G. Vol.
In pr,vious notices of this work we have already
indicated our opinion of its merits as a companion to
the I) ,patches of Virtliington and Mirlborol:gb. We
not.d not delay, therefore, to characterise it again.
The tine occupied in the prest-nt volulne is about
twenty montits--:rom January, 1798, to Augoit, 1799.
The contents, the editor remarks, illustrate, p. chaps,

the most itni.ortztnt, as well as most interesting, ( rents
of Nulson's life—the first of his brilliant vieteries, and

the Only transaction in his prGfessional career to which
blame has ev:a. bet n, uttaelwd."

The Niet!zy was that of the Nile ; the doubtful
ran action was the tri,.l of Prince Caraceioli, followed

by the execution of that aged man.
Ihere is no occasion here to repeat N' hat history has traced
up, em her adamantine tabh,t— the details of the defeat of
the French fleet in Aboukir Bar, on the l't o' A ttgu-t,
1798. Nelson's own dispatch, -announcing the triumph,
occupies a siooe pap, but Sir IL Nicolas has very
judiciously prefaced it by a more explicit narrative from
the pen of Sir E. Berry, Captain of Nelson's own tddp,
the Vanguard—an account which particularly interested
George the Thrd and the Duke of Clarence—by the
log of the Vanguard, by letters from several of his cap-
tains, and by the official account which the French Ad-

mire! Blanquet drew up. Such materials make the
fullest and most satisfactory narrative yet submitted to
the public. What more particularly has struck u. is the
fact that Nelson achieved his victories under circum-

stances of comparative difficif ty. The winds, and even
the tides, sometimes baffled him. /k ow, with steam to
place a fleet completely under command, it would seem
as if nothing could resist our arms at sea. Yet, whether
through carelessness or ill-judged economy, our naval
force is not what it might and ought to be. Steam l'as
mule our naval force manage-aide beyond what the wildest
dream of fancy could have anticipated 20 years ago; but, if
the occasion shoeld unhappily art, e neght we rest
assured that vict.ry =ould so ce: t rin/y crown our arms
as when Nelson had command? Every mail who feueht
trader him, had a conviction that defeat was impossible ;
and perhaps this was the secret of his success. Con-
sidering our insular position, the best defence of Efielaud
is to be found in her " Wooden Walls, " and the Eeecu-
tive shoul4 be mindful of keeping these unimpaired; for
to be ever prepared for war is the best way to insure the
continuance of peace.
Sir Harris Nicolas defends Nelson from the grave
charge.of cruelty in the case of Careeeiole puhiieies tell
the letters and other documents written h) his Lordship
on that and the preceding events, end nuts into an
appendix all collateral flocuments. In all of these he
forms an opinion much more favourable to Nelson then
has hitherto been entertained,—namely, that he acted
only "in obedience to a scrupulous sense of detv."
The facts are very simple. In the summer of 1799
the French were driven out of Naples. Some of
them, with certain Neapolitans who had jf,ined
them, and borne arms against their Sovereign, placed
themselves in the Castles of Uovo and Nuovo. Cardinal
Ruffo proceeded to invest those castles, :red Captain
Foote, pf the Seahorse frigate, with the Perseus bomb
and the Sicilian squadr n, speedily joined him in that
service. An armistice followed, and the invested leas
capitulated immediately after, the terms being that
" persons and property, both moveable and immoveable,
of every individual of the two garrisons, should be
respected and guaranteed," and that not only the said
garrison, but the Neapolitans who had taken refuge with
them, should be conveyed to Toulon. But Cardinal
Ruffo's instructions from the King of the Two Siciries
were that he should not treat with the rebels. Nelson
came up. He believed that an armistice, and not a capi-
tulation—a prtliminary, rather than a conclusion— had
been made, and, acting for King Ferdinand. decided
that the capitulation should not be carried into effect
without the royal sanction, and this he grounded
on the fact that he (Lord Nelson) had arrived with a
superior force before the capitulation was even begun to
be carried into effect. Cardinal Ruffo protested. Nelson
insisted, and took the castles. The garrisons and the
Neapolitans with them became prisoners. Caraccioli,
noble Neapolitan, had joined the rebels, and com-
manded the Republican gun-boats that had fired
upon the Minerva, bearing the King's flag.
Re fled from one of the besieged castles after the capitu-
latien, but a day or two before Nelson's arrival ; he was
taken prisoner—brought on b iard an English ship of
war—tried there by a court martial of Sicilian officers,
convened by Nelson's warrant—convicted of treason in
having borne arms against his sovereign—did net claim
any pri.,tet fon from the capitulation—was convicted—sen-
tenced to death—and executed, by N, lsou's warrant, as
naval commander-in chief. Sir IL Nicolas adds, " Lord
Nel*on's motive for ordering the immediate execution of
Caraccioli is unknown ; but the magnitude and notoriety
of his crime, atal the suppes, d necessity, from the state
Naples, of an immediate example, seem the probable
cete,e." It does et t appear that Lady Harnilten urged
Nelson to severity in this cose—indeed, it seems that he
was impelled by a sense of duty. But it is a serious
question whether the capitulation, once made, should hue
have been carried out, even though contrary to Nelson's
own belief of the King's wishes and instructions.

The letters from N'e'lson in this volume are highly cha-
racteristic. Tho postscript of One of them con Aims tha
ancient creed of a British sailor: ' There is no way of
dea!ing with a Frenchman but to knock him down.
To be civil t.) them is only to be laughed at, %It( n they
arty enemies." _ _ _

In the appendix, alre say referred to, is part of a
journal kept at Naples, 1798-9, by Miss Knight, daughter
of one of Nelson's captains. We su►join a few pas-

sages :--

" He says, that when he was seventeen years of age, he won
300/. at a gaming-table; but he was so shocked at reflecting
that, had he lest them, he should not have known how to pay
them, that from that time to this he has never played again."
" When Admiral Nelson's area was cut off. the surgeon
asked if he should not embalm it, to send it to England to be
buried; but he said, ' throw it into the hammock, with the
brave fellow that was killed beside m,'—a common seaman."
" As we were going in the Admiral's barge, the other day,
looking at the ships and talking of the victory, Sir William
Hamilton could not be pacified for the French calling it a
drawn battle. 'Nay, it war a drawn battle,' said the Admiral,
' for they di-ew the blanks, and we the prises.' "
" The Queen bas desired to have a portrait of the Admiral.
Little Prince Leopold says, he will get a copy, and stand con-
tinually opposite to it, saying, Dear Nelson, teach me to be-
comi, like you.' "
In another passage, alluding to Nelsc tt, whom she first
saw after the battle of the Nile. she says, Admiral
Nelson is little, and not remarkable in his person either
way ; but he has great animation of counteralce and
activity its his appearance : his manners are unaffectedly
simple and modest."
Another volume, we presume, will conclule this work,
which really forms almost an autobi4graphy of Nelson.

THE ADVENTURES OF AN UMBRELLA.
By S. Hes bet t Rodwell. Past I.
Mr Rodwell hai been long known to the public as a
musical composer of great talent, to whose genius we
are indebted for some of our most delightful me:edics.
He now comes before us in the character of a novelist,
and has bid fair to become a most successful one. The
idea of making an umbrella relate its own adventures is
a very happy one, and it has so far been cleverly worked
out. His sketches are extremely graphic. 011 Stutters,
the returned nabob, is the most entertaining of oddities.
But it is not alone in depicting the broadly humorous
that Mr. Rodwell excels ; his description of the gaming-
house and its inmates is one of the most harrowing ever
penned. We extract the following graceful tribute of
respect to one to whom we, in common with thousands.
have been indebted for some of the merriest hours of our
existence, and cordially do we join in the prayer with
in pg a very
which itassi
passing
concludes :
pretty, low, white-fronted house, faxing
Hyde-park, who should I see reading at a window, but one that
must ever be dear to the whole race of umbrellas. I trust I
shall not offend in mentioning his name, but it would appear
ungrateful were any of my race to pass that door without some
tribute of respect—what would I not have given to have been
the umbrella he immortalised in Paul Pry ?—it was the great.
the incomparable Liston. That he may now in his private life
enjoy that heartfelt cheerfulness be so freely imparted to others
in his public one, is my sincere—my fervent—prayer."
The work is profusely illustrated with characteristic
and spirited woodcuts by Landells.

INQUEST ON GENERAL DICK AT BATA,—This in-
quest was resumed on Saturday, when Mr. Herapath, the cele-
brated analytical chemist, deposed that he had made an analy-
tical examination of the stomach, intestines, and liver, and
that he could not find therein any traces of mineral metallic
poisons. Mr. T. Barrett, the surgeon who opened the body,
stated that lee had found traces of inflammation in the bowels ;
and the jury returned a verdict—" That the deceased had died
from inflammation of the stomach and h0w219, but how this was
produced there was no evidence to show."
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A Ai AN DituFsittii AS A WoMAN —At Lambeth
police-court, on Friday, a man named 'llionms Bennett, who said
ho had been ibrincrly groom in the service of the late Duke of Sussex:
and of Lord Frederick Gordon, was charged with going about dressed
in woman's clothes in the Walworth-road, and soliciting gentleninat
to give bird drink. He WAS ordered to find bail, and in default wits
locked up.