he himself might have
received incorrect reports: a fatality to which every commander in
chief is exposed. I flatter myself, from your lordship's well-known
candour and indulgence, that you will not think it presuming in me,
or contrary to the respect I feel for your lordship, if I take the
liberty of offering you some few observations in vindication of the
conduct of Commodore Fischer. But, first, let me have the honour to
assure your lordship, that I have not communicated to that officer
your letter of the 22d of April; and that, what I take the liberty
of offering your lordship, is absolutely my private and individual
opinion.

"Your lordship thinks, that Commodore Fischer has over-rated the
forces by which he was attacked, and under-rated his own; or, that
he wrongly asserts the superiority of numbers on the part of the
British. 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. I will not mention our ships being old and
rotten, and not having one-third of our usual complement of
officers; I will confine myself to the number of guns, and from the
ships named in your lordship's official report: and there I find,
that your squadron carried one thousand and fifty-eight guns, of
much greater calibre than our's; exclusive of carronnades, which
did our ships so much injury; also, exclusive of your gun-brigs and
bomb-vessels.

"Now, I can assure your lordship, upon my honour, that to my
certain knowledge the number of guns on board of those eighteen
ships and vessels of our's which were engaged (including the small
ship the Elbe, which came into the harbour towards the end of the
action) amount to six hundred and thirty-four, I have not included
our eleven gun-boats, carrying each two guns, as a couple of them