event. It has produced, among us, a general spirit of enthusiasm.
It would have moved you much, to have seen my infant boys and girls
hanging round my neck in tears, expressing their joy at the happy
tidings, made doubly dear to us by the critical period at which
they arrived. This news of the defeat of Bonaparte's Egyptian fleet
has made many disaffected persons less daring, and improved the
prospect of the general good. Make my highest respects acceptable
to their majesties of England. Recommend the gallant hero, Nelson,
to his royal master. He has raised, in the Italians, an
enthusiastic reverence for the English nation. Great expectations
were naturally founded on his enterprising talents, but no one
could look for so total an overthrow of the enemy. All here are
frantic with excess of joy!"

In a letter, of the 25th of September, written to Earl Spencer, by
Admiral Nelson, after slightly mentioning the reception with which he
had thus been honoured, particularly by their Sicilian majesties, he
makes use of these modest and pious expressions--"You will not, my lord,
I trust, think that one spark of vanity induces me to mention the most
distinguished reception that ever, I believe, fell to the lot of a human
being; but, that it is a measure of justice due to his Sicilian majesty
and the nation. God knows, my heart is amongst the most humble of the
creation, full of thankfulness and gratitude."

Even before Admiral Nelson's arrival at Naples, Lachavardiere, the
French consul for Palermo, who had just escaped from Egypt, thus laments
the decline of French influence, and announces the triumph of the
English. "The French name," says he, "is heard here with horror. The
king is arming eighty thousand men. The cabinet either refuses to
answer, or answers with insolence, the notes presented by our Charge
des Affaires, La Chaise, who is an excellent republican. The French are
forbade to enter the country, and the most extravagant predilection
prevails in favour of the English. The people of Sicily are still more
incensed against us. Our vessels are driven out of their ports; and,
wherever the French appear, the populace pelt them with stones, and
sometimes fire on them. Not one French cockade is suffered. In a word,
there only wants Frenchmen, in order to celebrate again Sicilian
vespers. The day before yesterday"--(this letter is dated the 20th of
September)--"t