st faithful,

"Nelson."

"Naples is declared a republic, and the French
flag flying. We are low in spirits, but all in
this house love you."

His lordship should have considered, before he pronounced the above
naval anathema against the Maltese, for pusillanimity, the wretched
starving state of the poor fellows carcases; of this he could not be
ignorant, since he had, this very day, written to Sir John Acton in
their behalf. "If," says he, "six thousand salms of corn are not sent
directly to Malta, the inhabitants are in that state of want, that the
worst consequences for the interest of his Sicilian Majesty may be
apprehended. All these poor people want is, that the king should give
them six months credit; when they could make their payments, in money or
cotton. The case is important, and demands instant compliance.

"The inhabitants have not seven days bread." He wrote, the day
following, to his friend Captain Ball, and inclosed him a satisfactory
answer just received from General Acton on the subject: adding--"This
evening I saw the king; and he is exceedingly angry, to think that his
faithful Maltese subjects should want for any comforts or necessaries
which it is in his power to bestow." He addressed, at the same time, a
seasonable letter to the deputies of the Maltese people; containing,
also, a copy of General Acton's letter, with assurances of Captain
Ball's protection, and his own determination to afford them every
assistance in his power. In short, though his lordship execrated all
appearances of cowardice, he compassionated every species of distress.

Lord Nelson, in a letter, dated the beginning of this month, addressed
to Admiral then Commodore Duckworth, thus regrets the difficulty which
he experiences, in consequence of having lost his right arm, with regard
to writing--"I thank you, most truly, for your several very interesting
letters, and beg that I may be favoured with your correspondence
whenever opportunity offers. You will, I am sure, make allowance for a
left-handed man; but, my inclination to write longer letters is great. I
can get but slowly over the paper." This, added to the numerous
avocations necessarily arising from so widely extended a command as that
in which he was now engaged, will sufficiently account for any seeming
neglect of continued correspondence with old friends; whom, however, he
was not the man ever to forget. The truth of this observation more
particularly manifests