personally my sincere congratulations on the many recent marks of distinction which your eminent services have obtained. An act of attention due from me as a member of the community you have so much benefited; as an officer in that service you have contributed so highly to distinguish ; and one greatly interested in your welfare. I felt true satisfaction in acquitting myself of it, by the first opportunity that presented since our meeting at Gibraltar. "I wished also to offer for your perusal a copy of the Correspondence which passed between me, the Board of Admiralty, Lord Spencer, and Lord St. Vincent, on a subject where your name is implicated, and to add my verbal assurances to its ample testimony, that though I complained, as I must still do, of the preference given your Lordship over me, yet that I did so, merely in consequence of my seniority, and some peculiarities in my situation, and without the slightest intention of derogating from your great sufficiency, which I shall ever feel true satisfaction in acknowledging. "This Correspondence also indisputably shews the ground of my subsequent difference with Lord St. Vincent, and the cause of my return to England, were totally unconnected with your Lordship's nomination above alluded to, as in it Lord St. Vincent assures Sir William Parker and myself he had no concern in your Lordship's nomination, which he styles a hard measure, calling for remonstrance on our part. But there seems a propriety in thus expressly assuring your Lordship I was not so influenced by it, as I am aware most uncommon and malicious efforts have been employed to circulate and establish a contrary opinion. "My fear of occasioning some difference of sentiment in the Mediterranean fleet whilst Lord St. Vincent was with it, prevented my sending your Lordship a copy of this Correspondence when first prepared, as I otherwise should have done, to obviate every appearance of concealment; which I hope was in some measure effected by my having the honour of presenting one to Lady Nelson and your Father for perusal, who might communicate to your Lordship any part of its contents they thought expedient. "As I shall leave town on Thursday morning, I fear I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you before my return; I will therefore now mention my regret at your having found it needful to put the agency of the Flag share of the Nile Prize Money in other hands than those of our approved and very worthy agent, Mr. Purvis, as the change has already occasioned some difficulties to the parties, and may eventually, from some mistakes, be a means of preventing his getting a Commission on it, unless your Lordship interferes in his behalf; though his doing so is, I believe, desired by a great majority, perhaps the whole of the flag-officers with whom, I conceive, the appointment of an agent rests. I have the honour to be, with great condescension and “As I found some difficulty in reading your letter sent by Captain Parker, not being accustomed to your writing, I would not detain him for my answer, and since perusing its contents, I have thought it prudent before making my reply, to allow you time to satisfy yourself from the correspondence put into your hands, as I reasonably thought you might have done from my letter of the 6th instant, that I have been very far from saying anything in it against you. "Ambition is a sentiment natural to the breast of every good officer, and equally urges him to push by every honourable means, at opportunities for distinction, and to complain when such occasions appear unfairly withheld from him— liberties, the exercise of which, ought not to be repined at by the fortunate candidate, nor to be readily given up by the unsuccessful. We all perhaps have aimed at chief command, and might, without blame, have employed our friends to assist in obtaining it. That I have some who are both able and willing to second my views, I am proud to say, but I could protest to you, I never solicited their interference with the Admiralty on my behalf since promoted to the rank of an Admiral. "No idle apprehensions of exposing to the knowledge of our enemies the defects in our naval discipline, and in the character of some of our highest sea officers (circumstances of great public notoriety), would have prevented my publishing the correspondence in question immediately on my being refused the Court-Martial I demanded. Considerations of a very different nature have hitherto restrained my exercise of this necessary act of justice to myself, and the service, such as I trust, however, will now soon be removed, and leave me at liberty to adopt such measures as in my judgment events shall make needful. "I did not mention Purvis to your Lordship in view to discuss his general claim to your favour, or the propriety of his conduct in any transactions between you. I did so in justice to his character as a very honest honourable agent, and in support of the consistency and propriety of my own conduct in not abandoning such a man, who your Lordship will recollect, was in possession of this appointment, when I conceive my right to continue him in it is equal to your power of taking it from him. I should not wonder if subordinate officers detached from a fleet when so fortunate as to make some prizes might wish to appoint a sole agent to dispose of them, although I never remember hearing of any such instance; and I am ready to allow they might on soliciting expect an acquiescence with their views from all parties concerned when perfectly disengaged; but I must own I feel distressed and astonished to find your Lordship expecting such a sacrifice on the part of your brother Admirals interested in the Nile prize-money, in favour of a man unknown to most of them, and little acquainted with the nature of the employment, when it was not solicited on your part, nor to be effected but at the expense of a man who had every claim to the continuance of their support and confidence: much more still am I astonished to find your Lordship not only expecting from them such an abandonment of a faithful servant, but seemingly dissatisfied with your brother Admirals for starting any objections to your perse vering in the appointment of a man as their agent whom they are uninterested about. "I am, my dear Lord, "Your most obedient and humble servant, Right Honourable Viscount Nelson, K.B. &c. &c. &c." "J. ORDE. LORD NELSON TO SIR JOHN ORDE. "My dear Sir John, "I return your pamphlet, with many thanks for the perusal. I cannot but see clearly the cause of Lord St. Vincent's differences latterly with you-they evidently took their rise from my being sent up the Mediterranean. The order you gave out at Gibraltar in contradiction to the Commander-in-chief, from the slow approach of the Princess Royal, which hurt your feelings, and from the entirely very wrong conduct of Captain Draper and Colonel Desborough relative to the marine. I can now assure you on my word of honour, that neither Earl St. Vincent nor Lord Spencer were the original cause of my being sent to the Mediterranean. The arrangement was made in April 1797, a year before I was sent. It is plain that neither the First Lord of the Admiralty, nor the Commander-in-chief, thought it right to tell you the causes which naturally sent me in particular into the Mediterranean; and I verily believe, that if Admirals, with flags of the main, had been in the same situation as yourself, that I should have been equally employed in the Mediterranean. I own myself sorry that the pamphlet was ever printed, and am glad that you saw the propriety of calling them in; for if answers had appeared by anonymous writers, you would have had to contend with a shadow. Excuse my observations on your book, and believe me, " &c. &c. &c., "NELSON AND BRONTÉ.” SIR JOHN ORDE TO LORD NELSON. "My dear Lord, "Hackwood Park, July 16th, 1801. "I did not receive your letter of the 11th until I had despatched mine of the 13th instant. "Although, I confess, I cannot help expressing concern at some of your Lordship's remarks on the correspondence sent for your perusal, which differs so very materially from all I had hitherto received from other quarters, yet as they appear in the shape of a statement, of what you consider to be the causes of the difference between Lord St. Vincent and myself; and as they are, in fact, most of them new and extraordinary, I feel some degree of satisfaction from your communication of them: because I trust you will allow me to indulge a hope of such further explanations as may perhaps lead to the unravelling a mystery I have hitherto found inexplicable. I must own, that from those I am induced to suspect that some representations, very opposite from facts, have been circulated, and reached your Lordship, making an impression on your mind, which I should be very anxious to remove. And for this purpose I must beg to trouble you with such observations as occur to me, from your ideas, as they appear at present from your letter, which I wish you to consider as a sort of inquiry, whether I am right in regard to the points I suppose you allude to, and as a request for your fuller information where you may find me wrong in my conjectures, and my consequent explanations. But before I begin, I must state my surprise at your Lordship omitting to notice some of the reasons assigned in my correspondence, as causes of our difference, which I cannot conceive as an officer possessing a high sense of honour, you could deem too insignificant to be urged by me. "Among the reasons supposed by your Lordship to have occasioned the difference in question, you mention, 'The order I gave out at Gibraltar in contradiction to the Commander-in-chief.' What order this alludes to I have no conception; for until I received your letter I never understood such a fact had been imputed to me. When about to leave Lord St. Vincent for Gibraltar, I waited on him, and in the most respectful manner, as I am certain his Lordship will bear me witness, requested his verbal explanations on the instructions he had sent for my future guidance, in order that I might be more certain (on this my intended first separation from his Lordship to be in port) fully to act in all things up to his plans and regulations, telling his Lordship |