As if it were not enough, that his mind was perpetually harrassed with professional cares, he had private and domestic sources of inquietude The former, he could freely impart to his numerous friends and in some degree fellow-sufferers; but the latter was scarcely communicable to any, and no one could be implicated in the same identical cause of distress.  Even the very quality in which he surpassed, perhaps, every commander, even by sea or land, that of keeping up a punctual and widely-extended correspondence, did not, at this oppressive period, entirely preserve him from censure.  He received, what he calls, in a familiar letter to his friend Rear-Admiral Duckworth, of the 27th November 1799, “a severe set-down from the Admiralty, for not having written, by the Charon, attached to a convoy; although,” adds his lordship, “I wrote, both by a courier and cutter, the same day.  But I see, clearly, that they wish to shew I am unfit for the command.  I will readily acknowledge it; and, therefore, they need have no scruples about sending out a commander in chief.”  In this letter, his lordship tells Rear-Admiral Duckworth, that he approves very much of his calling at Algiers.  “I am aware,” says he, “that the first moment any insult is offered to the British flag, is to get as large a force as possible off Algiers, and seize all his cruizers; but if, in such a contest, any English vessel is taken, I know what will be said against me, and how little support I shall experience.  But, my dear admiral, where the object of the actor is only to serve faithfully, I feel superior to the smiles or frowns of any board.”  His lordship afterwards concludes—­“Sir William and Lady Hamilton desire their kindest regards.  I am nearly blind; but things go so contrary to my mind, out of our profession, that truly I care not how soon I am off the stage.”  In a postscript, his lordship does not forget to add—­“Pray, do not let the Admiralty want for letters of every occurrence.”

His lordship wrote, on the same day, a serious and respectable justification of his conduct, to Mr. Nepean; in which he observes, how perfectly conscious he is, that want of communicating where and when it is necessary, cannot be laid to his charge.  After stating, that he actually wrote to Mr. Nepean, as well as to Earl Spencer, by a Neapolitan courier, who left Palermo on the very day the Charon sailed, he spiritedly says—­“I own, I do not feel that, if cutters and couriers go off the same day, that it is necessary to write by a convoy.  I know the absolute necessity of the board’s being exactly acquainted with every thing which passes; and they, I beg, will give me credit for attention to my duty.  As a junior flag-officer,” he observes, “of course, without those about me—­secretaries, interpreters, &c.—­I have been thrown into a more extensive correspondence than ever, perhaps, fell to the lot of any admiral; and into a political situation, I own, out of my sphere.  It is a fact, which it would not become me to boast of, but on the present occasion—­I have never, but three times, put my feet on the ground, since December 1798; and, except to the court, that till after eight o’clock at night I never relax from business.  I have had, hitherto,” concludes his lordship, “the board knows, no one emolument, no one advantage, of a commander in chief.”