principally to this
government not choosing to accede to the terms upon which it
was proposed they should be employed in this country. It is
truly to be lamented that so much delay should have taken
place, and so much time lost, when their services might have
been so well employed elsewhere. Between ourselves, much
irritability has been shown by the King of Sweden in the
different conferences Sir John Moore has had with him. Finding
Sir John earnest in his intentions to return to England, he
sent one of his officers to signify to him, he was not to leave
Stockholm till his pleasure, which, of course, was considered
as putting him under an arrest, a most unprecedented measure,
and an outrage certainly offered to a friendly nation. Sir
John, however, took a favourable opportunity to get away from
Stockholm, and arrived here last evening.

I trust and hope this will not lead to a rupture between the
two countries; but so unwarrantable and violent a proceeding
cannot easily be settled. I own to you, I never formed any
expectation that the troops would be of essential service in
this country. They were too few in number to act separately;
and it would not have been right to commit them with the
Swedish army, at the will and disposal of the monarch.

Sir James writes thus to his son; Sir John Moore's expedition being
still at Gothenburg.

Victory, Gothenburg, 23rd May 1808.

I trust that we shall be enabled to defend Sweden during the
summer; but, when winter sets in, we shall be compelled to
withdraw our ships from the Baltic: this will expose the
country to the attack of the enemy from Zealand and the ports
on the south of the Baltic. The Swedes are a brave and upright
people; they are faithful to their prince, and are very averse
to any change in their government, and still more so to French
principles. I have been twice on shore; but being near ten
miles from Gothenburg, makes it inconvenient: it is a place of
great trade; at this time, at least twelve hundred sail of
vessels of different nations are in the port.

The above is a sufficient proof of the good opinion Sir James had
formed of the Swedish character, and which, he often said, he never
had occasion to alter.

Sir James was now placed in one of the most anxious and arduous
situations which it