No. 1.] JANUARY, 1860. [VOL. XL. Nelson at Naples, and humbled by a Tempest at Sea. The delight created at Naples by the battle of the Nile is indiscribable. The Queen and Lady Hamilton fainted, and called Nelson the saviour of Europe. The kingdom of the two Sicilies was mad with joy; Lady Hamilton wrote Nelson, saying, "How shall I describe the transports of the Queen: she cried-kissed her husband, her children, and walked frantic about the room, crying and embracing every person, exclaiming, O, brave Nelson! O, God, bless and protect our deliverer! O Nelson, Nelson, what do we not owe you? O victor, saviour of Italy! O that my swoln heart could tell him personally what we owe to him." Nel son wrote his wife, saying, "You may judge, Fanny, of the rest; but my head will not allow me to tell you half. But blessed be God for his goodness to me." In another letter he said, "The poor wretched Vanguard arrived here at Naples September 22nd. I must endeavour to Convey something that passed, but if it were so affecting to those who are only united to me by the bonds of friendship, what must it be to my dearest wife, my friend, my everything that is most dear in this world. Sir William Hamilton and his lady came out to sea, attended by boats and emblems. Lady Hamilton had fell like dead: alongside caine my honoured friends; the scene was terribly affecting; up flew her ladyship exclaiming, O God, is it possible? she fell into my arms more dead than alive; tears flowed: and the King came, he took me by the hand, and called me his deliverer. In short, all Naples call me Nostro Liberatoire, and my greeting from the lower classes was truly affecting. I hope some day to have the pleasure of introducing you to Lady Hamilton; she is one of the very best women in the world. She is an honour to her sex; her kindness, with Sir William's, to me, is more than I can express. I am in their house, and I may now tell you it required all the kindness of my friends to set me up. Lady Hamilton intends writing you. May God Almighty bless you, and give us in due time a happy meeting." Alas! how vain and foolish was all this human applause and idol worship of man! Lifting up a poor worm of the earth to the skies, as if the events of Providence were at his controal. Bonaparte, at the commencement of his career, before he became Emperor, had certainly prevailed on France to send out an army and a fleet to Egypt, and if possible to destroy the power aud influence of the British empire in In dia, but the army failed, and the death of General Abercrombie, was of God. The fleet also failed, and Napoleon was obliged to return back to France. Nelson was an instrument, with all our poor sailors, in the hand of God, to check the mighty ambition of Napoleon; and while there ought to have been universal mourning over the killed and the wounded, and the most humiliating confession of sin, as producing all the horrors of war and bloodshed, here was all the pomp and vanity, and idolizing of creatures, with the gross intemperance and immoralities that I know followed the news of our naval victories in England, when A 2 Nelson at Naples, and humbled by a Tempest at Sea. many a drunkard's song followed our idolizing cry, that "Britannia rules the waves." But I well remember, during a storm in the North Sea, when I was in the fleet with Lord Nelson, and we mounted up to the heavens, and plunged down into the great abyss, and reeled and staggered to and fro, like a drunken man; and I saw Nelson ahead of our ship, in the St. George, 98, and I thought, ignorant as I then was, "Who rules the waves now? Where is Britannia, when we can hardly hold on, and the stoutest of us are trembling every moment upon the brink of destruction!" But Nelson shall speak for himself; for this very year, before he discovered the French fleet, here is an extract from the Quarterly Magazine, published at London, in 1799, chiefly by the Baptists of that day, to promote general usefulness: "Leller from Lord Nelson to his Lady.-The following letter ap peared a short time ago in the newspapers. The sentiments expressed in it, are as rare as they are just; and, it is hoped, they are not unsuit able to the object of our Magazine, and will not be without use as preserved in it. The letter appears to have been written to his lady, while Admiral Nelson was tossed about in the Mediterranean, in pursuit, but without intelligence of the French fleet, whom he afterwards defeated at the Nile:- Vanguard, off Sardinia, May 24, 1798.-My dearest Fanny, I ought not to call what has happened to the Vanguard by the cold name of accident. I believe firmly it was the Almighty goodness to check my consummale vanity. I hope it has made me a better officer, as I feel it has made me a better 串 man. I kiss, with all humility, the rod. Figure to yourself, on Sunday evening at sun-set, a vain man walking in his cabin, with a squadron around him, who looked up to their Chief to lead them to glory, and in whom their Chief placed the firmest reliance, that the proudest ships, of equal numbers, belonging to France, would have bowed their flags, and with a very rich prize lying by him. And figure to yourself on Monday morning, when the sun arose, this proud conceited man, his ship dismasted, his fleet dispersed, and himself in such distress, that the meanest frigate out of France, would have been an unwelcome guest. But it has pleased Almighty God to bring us into a safe port, where, although we are refused the rights of humanity, yet the Vanguard will, in two days, get to sea again, as an English man of war." Surely Sir Horatio Nelson, as he was then called, had learnt something of the scriptures at the parsonage house at Burnham Thorpe, in Norfolk, and by his six years' residence there with Lady Nelson, before the wars of the French revolution, in 1793. But, alas! how fatally did victories, riches, honours, glory, and worldly gratifications, after wards operate and influence. Oh, how we need to be humbled and kept low, lest being exalted above measure, we have the most dangerous thorns in the flesh, and the messengers of darkness to buffet and overwhelm the soul, in all the elevating dispensations of the providence of God. This letter may well teach and instruct ministers and wealthy talented professors of religion in this day; so that Nelson, in the storms "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.”—Eccl. vii, 2. of the Mediterranean, like Paul, in the Adriatic sea, he being dead, yet speaketh. He that's low, need fear no fall: but prosperity, wealth, and human applause, with the pleasures of sense, are rocks where many, like "Hymeneus and Alexander, concerning faith, have made shipwreck." Timothy i. "Now all these things happened for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." I Corinthians x. Lady Hamilton's Grand Fete at Naples, for the glory of Nelson. After Nelson's first visit to Naples, he had the greatest dislike to that city, but the fascinations of Lady Hamilton won upon his heart. His birthday furnished an occasion for a grand fete to be given by Lady Hamilton; and in a letter of Nelson's to his lady, of September 28, 1798, he says, "The preparations of Lady Hamilton to celebrate my birthday to-morrow are enough to fill me with vanity. Every ribbon, every_button has Nelson on it, and the whole is marked H. N., Glorious First of August.' Songs and sonnets are numerous. I send the additional verse to God save the King.' I cannot move on foot or in a carriage for the kindness of the populace. Lady Hamilton preserves all the papers, as the highest treat for you." Eighteen hundred persons are said to have been entertained at this fete of a ball and supper, and cost Sir William Hamilton two thousand ducats. At this festival an altercation took place between Nelson and his son-in law, which might have been dangerous, but for Captain Trowbridge. His situation was rendered uncomfortable, and there is no doubt but the goo Josiah Nisbet felt now on his mother's account, by seeing all this host of fiattering at tention to Nelson from another lady. Nelson, however, wrote to his mother after this, saying of Josiali's having a heart as good and humane as ever was covered with a human breast. God bless him. I love him dearly, with all his roughness." Nelson, soon after this, sailed to Leghorn, but the march of the Austrian army under General Mack, and the French so endangered the city of Naples, and the lives of the king and queen, that he returned back to receive them on board, and conduct them to Sicily, Lady Hamilton also rendering every assistance to the king and queen. The Royal Family at length embarked for Palermo: Prince Albert, their Majesties' youngest child, died on board the Van guard, in the arms of Lady Hamilton. The king, his family, and suite, were most kindly welcomed at Palermo, but the French had taken possession of Naples. An unfortunate difference now occurred between Nelson and others about Sir Sydney Smith, who was sent out to the Mediterranean in command, and Nelson had great depression of mind, after all his honours, saying," He was dissatisfied with himself, and weary of the world," as he wrote a friend, saying, "I am ready to quit this world of trouble, and envy none but those of the estate of six feet by two." It is generally concluded, by writers of Nelson's Life, that "his present irascibility of mind was a consequence of the attachment he had formed for Lady Hamilton, to the entire removal of affection for his wife. This infatuation, though it had completely taken possession of his mind, could not drown conscience, that faithful monitor, powerfully alarmed the |