The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-23 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

TILE DISPATCHES AND .LSTTET S OF
VICE-ADMIRAL LORD VISCOUNT NEL—
SON, with Notes by Sir Nic.l.olls Harris N colas,
G.C.M. G. Vol. II t._ _

In previous notices of this work we have already
indicated our opinion of its merits as a compaaion to
the Dispatches of Wellington and Marlborough. We
need not delay, therefore, to characterise it again.
The time occupied in the present volume is abort
twenty months—from January-, 1798, to August, 1799.
The contents, the editor remarks, " illustrate, perhaps,
the most important, as well as most interesting, events
of Nelson's life—the first of his brilliant victories, and
the only transaction in his professional career to which
blame has ever Leiter attached."
The victory was that of the Nile ; the doubtful
transaction was the trial of Prince Caraccioli, followed
by the execution of that aged man.
There is no occasion here to repeat what history has traced
upon her adamantine tablet—the details of the defeat of
the French fleet in Aboukir Bay, on the lst of August,
1798. Nelson's own dispatch, announcing the triumph,
occupies a single page, but Sir H. Nicolas has very
judiciously prefaced it by a more explicit narrative from
the pen of Sir E. Berry, Captain of Nelson's own ship,
the Vanguard—an account which particularly interested
George the Third 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-
miral Blanquet drew up. Such materials make the
fullest and most satisfactory narrative yet submitted to
the public. What more particularly has struck us is the
fact that Nelson achieved his victories under circum-
stances of comparative difficulty. The winds, and even
the tides, sometimes baffled him. Now, with steam to
place a fleeti 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 has
made our naval force manageable beyond w hat the wildest
dream of fancy could have anticipated 20 years ago; but, if
the occasion should unhappily arise, might we rest
assured that victory would so certainly crown our arms
as when Nelson had command? Every man who fought
wider 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 England
is to be found in her " Wooden Walls," and the Execu-
tive should be mindful of keeping these unimpaired; for
to be ever prepared for war is the best wey to insure the
continuance of peace.
Sir Harris Nicolas defends Nelson from the grave
charge of cruelty in the case of Caraccioli, publishes Ml
the letters and other documents written by his Lordship
on that and the preceding events, and puts into an
appendix all collateral documents. In all of these he
forms an opinion much more favourable to Nelson than
has hitherto been entertained,—namely, that he acted
only "iu obedience to a scrupulous sense of duty."
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 joined
them, and borne arms against their Sovereign, placed
themselves in the Castles of Uovo and Nuovo. Cardinal
Buffo proceeded to invest those castles, and Captain
Foote, of the Seahorse frig-ate, with the Perseus bomb
and the Sicilian squads n, speedily joined him in that
service. An armistice followed, and the invested forts
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 Sicilies
were that he should not treat with the rebels. Nelson
came up. He believed that an armistice, and not a capi-
tulation—a preliminary, rather than a conclusion— had
been made, and, acting for King Ferdinand, decided
that the capitulation should Lot 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, a
noble Neapolitan, had joined the rebels, and com-
manded the Republican gun-boats that bad fired
upon the Minerva, bearing the King's flag.
He fled from one of the besieged castles after the capitu-
lation, but a day or two before Nelson's arrival ; he was
taken prisoner—brought on beard an English ship of
war—tried there b' a court martial of Sicilian officers,
convened by Nelson's warrant—convicted of treason in
having borne arms against his sovereign—did not claim
any protection front the capPulation—was convicted—sen-
tenced to death—and executed, by Nelson's warrant, as
naval commander-in•chief. Sir H. Nicolas adds, "Lord
Nelson's motive for ordering the immediate execution of
Caraccioli is unknown ; but the magnitude and notoriety
of his crime, and the supposed necessity, from the state
of Naples, of an immediate example, seem the probable
cause." It does tut appear that Lady Hamilton urged
Nelson to severity in this case—indeed, it seems that he
was impelled by a sense of duty. But it is a serious
question whether the capitulation, once made, should not
have been carried out, even though contrary to Nelson's
own belief of the King's wishes and instructions.
The letters from Nelson in this volume are highly cha-
racteristic. The postscript of one of them contains the
ancient creed of a British sailor: •"There is no way of
dealing with a Frenchman but to knock him down.
To be civil to them is only to be laughed at, when they
are enemies."

In the appendix, already referred to, is part of a
journal kept a'. Naples, 1798-9, by Miss Knight, daughter
of one of Nelson's captains. We tui-juia a few pas-

sages:--
" He says, that when he was seventeen years of age, he won
3001. at a gaming-table; but he was so shocked at reflecting
that, had he lost 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 arm 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 me'—a common seaman."

" As WC 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 Inatle. 'Nay, it war a drawn battle,' said the Admiral,
• fur they d.ew the blanks, and we the prizes.' "
" The Queen has 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-
co Inlike you.'
another passage, alluding to Nelson, 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 countenance and
activity its his appearance : his manners are unaffectedly
simple and modest."
Another volume, we presume, will conclude this work,
which really forms almost an autobiography of Nelson.