Nelson's fame had long been high in the Mediterra nean ; it was now fast rising in his own country. The failure of an enterprise against Teneriffe, in which he lost the right arm, could not, when all things were con sidered, sensibly diminish this feeling ; and his next achievement raised the admiration of his eountrymen to enthusiasm, and gave him the character of a hero over all Europe. Early in 1798, Nelson (now Rear-ad miral), his wound being cured after a short stay in Eng land, proceeded in the Vanguard to Join Sir J. Jervis, now Earl St. Vincent, in the Tagus. He was soon dis patched, with a small squadron, to learn the object in tended by the French expedition from Toulon. Being reinforced in the Gulph of Lyons by ten sail of the line, Sir Horatio proceeded towards Egypt in search of the enemy. His masts were seen from the French fleet near Malta, during a haze; and had Nelson been pro perly supplied with frigates, eyes of the fleet as he called them, while bitterly regretting. their absence,— Buonaparte would probably have been captured in the beginning of his career, and Europe might have es caped its succeeding convulsions. As it was, Sir Ho ratio managed the pursuit with an eager sagacity, ana logous to the boldness displayed in battle. The French bad followed a devious track to Egypt, and he found them at last, on his second inspection of the Alexandrian coast, strongly moored across the entrance of Aboukir Bay.
About 7 o'clock in the evening of August 1, 1798, the English fleet moved forward to the attack. Ad miral Brueys had previously expressed a private opinion, that the English missed him, because, not being supe rior in force, they did not think it prudent to hazard an engagement. The event fatally proved his mistake: In spite of his greater numbers, and his excellent position, the piercing intellect of his antagonist hacl already con ceived its plan ; before ten o'clock Brueys was dead; his ship l'Orient was blown into the air; the fleet which lie lately commanded was totally ruined and dispersed.
On first beholding the French, Nelson had exclaim ed, " a peerage or Westminster Abbey !" The better part of his anticipations was now fulfilled ; he received the title of Baron Nelson of the Nile, with an annuity of X2000 per annum, and the general voice more than sanctioned this reward. From the scene of his victory, where crowds of Arabs and Egyptians filled the coast with rejoicings, to the remotest extremities of the ci vilized world, all who had been injured, or who feared injury at the hands of the French, blessed him as their saviour. The Neapolitan court received him with open arms; for a considerable period he took an ac tive share in all their proceedings—in resisting the French invasion of their territory—in transporting the royal family to Palermo, and back again to Naples. They made him Duke and Feudatory of Bronte ; his admirers would wish that such decorations had been all he acquired in their service. It is unnecessary to dilate upon the only stain that deforms the history of Nelson—his execution of Carraccioli, and his fervid, though pure attachment to Lady Hamilton. The for
mer had the shew, not the substance, of justice ; and the latter made his subsequent domestic life alternately a scene of bitterness and of rapture, in which the bit terness greatly prevailed.
We see him with more pleasure once again upon the ocean adding fresh laurels to his already glorious wreath. In the month of March 1801, Nelson, now promoted to be Vice-admiral of the blue, sailed towards the Baltic, for the purpose of checking the armed con federation entered into by Denmark, Sweden, and Rus sia, against the naval rights of Britain. For reasons which the public did not understand or relish, the first command was given to Sir Hyde Parker, and Nelson acted only in a secondary capacity. His advice was consulted, however, in all emergencies, and never devi ated from without disadvantage. The time spent in negociation and other vacillating transactions, allowed the enemy to prepare their defensive works; this was galling to the mind of Nelson; but, on the second of April, he nobly redeemed all those errors of his coad jutors, before the batteries of Copenhagen. The battle was long and bloody, and several of our ships ran aground, and deranged the Vice-admiral's measures ; Sir Hyde, who with a part of the fleet lay at a distance from the scene of action, even made the signal to re treat. The signal was indignantly neglected; Nelson gained the victory, and used it with a clemency' suit able to the valour with which he won it. In order to stop the effusion of blood, he dispatched a letter to the Prince Royal of Denmark, for whom the contest was now become hopeless; and next day Ile went ashore, amid the murmurs and admiration of the Danish peo ple, to settle the terms of an armistice, securing all the objects for which England had taken up the quarrel. He was soon appointed commander in chief in the I3.11 tie, and his subsequent proceedings were equally splitt er] and decisive. Having, thuse effectually defeated the purposes of the northern confederacy, he returned home to enjoy the fresh renown with which those ser vices had illustrated his name. Government exalted him to the rank of viscount ; and the public follow ed him with an affectionate veneration, which few indivi duals have ever enjoyed in a nearly equal degree. ..The next duty in which Nelson engaged was grad tying, rather as it proved the confidence which his countrymen reposed in hint, than as it afforded room for the display of naval abilities. Immediately after his arrival, (July 1801) he was commissioned to guard the southern coast against the threatened French inva sion. IIis attempt to cut out the shipping at Boulogne failed of success, not from want of skill in planning or of bravery in executing it, but from the untoward ness of circumstances, which render boat-warfare at all times precarious. Two months after this event, the peace of Amiens delivered him from an employment to which his mind never felt any inclination.