on this occasion, was not arrived.”  His lordship also sent Captain Drummond, with the particulars of this refusal, to Lord Keith; observing, that he should now wait till the Russian admiral sent the Leander to Mahon.  Captain Drummond was desired, on failure of meeting with Lord Keith, to proceed immediately to England, and deliver his lordship’s letter to the secretary of the Admiralty, acquainting him with the cause of his arrival.

On the 28th, Lord Nelson transmitted to Captain Hope, at the request of his Sicilian Majesty, a diamond ring of considerable value:  for having, as it was expressly stated, embarked his Majesty and the Prince Royal in his barge, on the night of December 21, 1798; and which his majesty desired might be accepted, by Captain Hope, as a mark of his royal gratitude.  This, and other similar presents of rings and gold boxes, were sent by Sir John Acton, to Sir William Hamilton, from his Sicilian Majesty; with a request that his excellency would have the goodness to present them to the Duke of Bronte, that he might distribute them according to the note enclosed, and in the name of his Sicilian Majesty, as a small mark of his royal gratitude to the several English commanders.  The pleasure which this agreeable task afforded Lord Nelson’s excellent heart, may be judged of by the following effusion of it’s feelings, addressed to Captain Hood on the occasion.  “My dear Hood, I never had greater pleasure, than in executing his Sicilian Majesty’s orders, for sending you a box from his majesty; and, as the dispatch expresses it—­To Captain Hood, for services in the Gulph of Naples, and at Salerno; for his operations on shore, and his care of the castles of Naples.”  In afterwards describing these presents from his Sicilian Majesty, on writing to England, his lordship informs Mr. Nepean, that each of the captains had a very valuable gold box, set round with diamonds.  In the centre of that given to Commodore Troubridge, was his majesty’s portrait; and, to him, he also gave an elegant ring.  In the centre of the others, were his majesty’s cypher of f.r. neatly set in diamonds.  His majesty, he adds, has also presented Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy, his lordship’s captain in the Foudroyant, with an elegant box, set round with a double row of diamonds, and his portrait in the centre, and an elegant diamond ring; and, to Mr. Tyson, his lordship’s secretary, a diamond ring of great value.

Transient, however, seem to have been all the felicities of his lordship’s most eventful life.  The happiness which he enjoyed, in seeing the companions of his cares and successes thus rewarded with truly royal munificence; while he felt himself remunerated, beyond his proudest hope or expectation; the pleasing sensations which he must necessarily have experienced on beholding the vast and magnificent preparations to celebrate their united atchievments on the anniversary of receiving, at Naples, the first intelligence of the glorious victory off the Nile, which had arrived on the 3d of the preceding September; were not permitted to remain undisturbed in his ever anxious bosom, even for a few days.