“SIR,

“It is with the greatest pride, and satisfaction, that I receive, from the honourable court, this testimony of their approbation of my conduct:  and, with this very sword,"[Holding it up, in his only hand] “I hope soon to aid in reducing our implacable and inveterate enemy to proper and due limits; without which, this country can neither hope for, nor expect, a solid, honourable, and permanent peace.”

His lordship was highly gratified with his city reception, on this day of annual festivity.  He was ever a great friend to the grand display of a London Lord-Mayor’s shew:  not on account of the pageantry and parade of such a public spectacle; but, as he expressed himself to his friends, for the sake of it’s beneficial effects on youthful minds.  It was, he contended, a holiday without loss of time:  since the hope of one day riding in the gilt coach of the Lord Mayor, excited a laudable emulation in the breast of every ingenuous city apprentice, which made them afterwards apply themselves, with redoubled diligence, to the business of their respective masters; and, by thus fixing them in industrious habits, could not fail of proving finally advantageous to themselves.

Not only the city of London, but the whole nation, through every gradation of rank, from the sovereign on the throne to the occupier of the humblest hut gratefully regarded the hero of the Nile as the person to whom they were chiefly indebted for the security and comfort they enjoyed; and there was, perhaps, scarcely a house which his lordship could enter, in the British dominions, or even those of our allies, where he would have been welcomed with a less affectionate aspect than his own.

Having taken up his residence in Dover Street, he naturally wished to enjoy the society of his nearest and dearest relatives; from whom he had, in the discharge of his professional duties, been so long divided.  Few of these, however, had, during his lordship’s absence, met with any excess of respectful civilities from her ladyship; and, of course, though now affectionately invited, their visits by no means appeared to augment her felicity.  Lady Nelson’s nerves could not bear the constant presence of his lordship’s young nephews and nieces; while his lordship, fond of virtue in every shape, never felt happier than when surrounded by the amiable children of his brother and sisters.  Here was another want of unison in sentiment; and, consequently, a considerable source of discord.  It will be sufficient, to hint a few such unhappy incongruities of disposition, to account for that extreme deficiency of harmony between the parties which afterwards led to a separation by mutual consent.  The present Earl and Countess Nelson, there can be no doubt, will long remember the mortifying hauteur which they so often experienced from her ladyship, even at their brother’s table, as well as on other occasions, where they were then deemed of insufficient consequence to appear in company with so lofty a personage as their elevated sister-in-law, over whom they now triumph in rank:  such are the fluctuations of fortune; such, not unfrequently, the salutary checks to the career of a vain ambition.