“As a farther testimony of the high esteem which the court entertains of your lordship’s public services, and of the eminent advantages which you have rendered your country, I have the honour to present your lordship this sword.

“The consequences of the action I am thus called upon to applaud, are perhaps unequalled in the history of mankind.  A numerous army, which had triumphed in Europe over brave and veteran troops, commanded by officers of the most established reputation, landed in Egypt, under the command of him who now sways the Gallic sceptre, with designs of the most ambitious and extensive nature.  One of their objects, as acknowledged by themselves, was to annihilate, by degrees, the English East-India trade; and, finally, to get into their possession the whole commerce of Africa and Asia.  Such were the gigantic views of our implacable foe; and such confidence had they in the fleet which conveyed them, and in the station which it took on the coast of the devoted country, that it bade defiance to the whole navy of Britain:  but, at this momentous period, the Almighty directed your lordship, as his chosen instrument, to check their pride, and crush their force as a maritime power during the present contest.  The circumstances attending this grand display of providential interposition and British prowess, must interest the feelings of every Englishman.  Had a space been chosen, to exhibit to the world a struggle for superiority in nautical skill, and personal valour, between the two greatest naval powers of the globe, none could have been more happily selected.  The three grand divisions of the ancient world were witnesses; and the shores which had beheld the destruction of the Persian navy by the Greeks, and the heroic acts of Sesostris, now resounded with the echo of British thunder.  To your lordship belongs the praise of having added glory to such a scene:  the heroes we applaud, would themselves have applauded us; and he who, ages since, led his three hundred against an almost countless host, might on that proud day have wished himself a Briton.

“The thanks of your country, my lord, attend you; it’s honours await you:  but, a higher praise than even these imply, is your’s—­In the moment of unexampled victory, you saved your country:  in the next moment, you did still more—­you exemplified that virtue which the heathen world could not emulate; and, in the pious—­“Non nobis Domine!” of your modest dispatches, you have enforced a most important truth—­that the most independant conqueror felt, in the most intoxicating point of time, the influence and protection of Him whom our enemies, to their shame and ruin, had foolishly and impiously defied.  May that same Power, my lord, ever protect and reward you!  May it long, very long, spare to this empire so illustrious a teacher, and so potent a champion!”

To this highly respectable address, Lord Nelson instantly replied—­