had quitted the Mediterranean in pursuit of the combined fleets, to Admiral Uschakoff, commander in chief of the Russian squadron, who had retaken the Leander at Corfu, mentioning an order from the British Admiralty for the restoration of that ship.  His lordship, however, not having received this order, apologized for being unable to send it:  and stated, very properly, that it was to be presumed the courts of Petersburgh and London had decided on the restoration of the Leander; as the Admiralty would not, otherwise, have sent such orders to the commander in chief, and appointed officers to that ship.  Captain Drummond, his lordship observed, who would wait on his excellency with these letters, was appointed to the temporary command of the Leander; and requested that he might be favoured with directions to the officer commanding at Corfu, for assistance in fitting out and manning the said ship, so as to enable him to proceed with it to Minorca.

On the 19th, his lordship wrote to Commodore Troubridge, acquainting him that Lord Keith was in pursuit of the combined fleets, which had been seen off Cape St. Vincent’s the 24th of July; that the British fleet passed the Straits on the 30th; and that the Earl of St. Vincent sailed for England, in the Argo, on the 31st.  His lordship also mentions, that he has just received great news from Egypt.  The siege of Acre was raised on the 21st of May; and Bonaparte, leaving all his cannon and sick behind, had got again to Cairo.  The La Forte French frigate had been taken by the English La Sybille, but that poor Captain Coote had been killed; “and here,” says his lordship, “we must shed a tear for dear Miller!  By an explosion of shells, which he was preparing on board the Theseus, him and twenty-five others were killed; nine drowned, by jumping overboard; and forty-three wounded.”  After observing that, if Commodore Troubridge cannot immediately proceed against Civita Vecchia, he is to collect all his ships; and, the moment the Russians appear, to join his lordship, for the purpose of proceeding to Gibraltar, by the way of Palermo, where the necessary provisions may be obtained—­“Your letter of the 13th,” he concludes, “is just arrived.  The Neapolitans must manage their own Jacobins; we have, thank God, done with them.”

Sir Sidney Smith having transmitted to Lord Nelson, as his superior in command, the account of his splendid atchievements in the defence of Acre, and the total defeat and discomfiture of Bonaparte on that memorable occasion, his lordship immediately wrote the following congratulatory epistle to Sir Sidney; whose important dispatches he afterwards forwarded to England, accompanied by a public letter to Mr. Nepean, as they were afterwards published in the London Gazette.

     “Palermo, 20th Aug. 1799.

     “MY DEAR SIR,