ing of 1816, Lord Exmouth was ordered to proceed to the different
Barbary powers, to claim the release of all the Ionian slaves, who, by
the late political arrangements, had become British subjects: and to
make peace for Sardinia. These were to be matters of compulsion; but he
was also to make peace for any of the other states in the Mediterranean
who would authorize him to do so. Naples readily availed herself of his
offer. Unable to protect herself, it was to her an inestimable blessing
to gain security from such a dreadful scourge on the easiest terms which
the influence of the first maritime power could obtain for her. Nothing
can be conceived more horrible than the condition of the Christian
slaves, subjected as they were, in countries where no law gave
protection, to all the caprice and cruelty of masters, who hated and
despised them for their faith. Nor was it a small aggravation of their
misery, that as Roman Catholics, they were cut off from the observance
of rites which they deemed essential. To the fear and danger of being
reduced to this miserable condition was the maritime population of the
states around the Mediterranean continually exposed: while the great
naval powers, deterred from exterminating these pirates, either by more
pressing concerns, or by the failure of the different expeditions which
had attempted it, purchased a discreditable security by presents.

Lord Exmouth afterwards visited Rome; but the Pope declined the offer of
his services, perhaps from difficulties arising out of religious
scruples at confiding a formal trust to a Protestant. He received the
Admiral, however, with the utmost courtesy, and even attended to his
request upon a subject where it was scarcely to have been expected that
the interference of a Protestant would be allowed. A young Spanish lady,
who was confined in a convent at Minorca, under circumstances of an
oppressive and distressing nature, had contrived to bring her case to
the knowledge of Lord Exmouth, and to place in his hands a memorial,
which he took an opportunity to deliver personally to the Pope. A
British admiral interceding with the Pope for a Spanish nun was a novel
occurrence; but Pius VII. received the memorial very graciously, and
placed it in the hands of Gonsalvi that proper inquiries might be made.
It is satisfactory to add, that Lord Exmouth received a letter a few
months after, informing him that the poor girl's prayer to be set at
liberty had been