Though Lord Nelson could not have rested without satisfying himself of
the precise fact, he saw no necessity for entering into any altercation,
on so trivial a topic, with General-Adjutant Lindholm. He contented
himself, therefore, with immediately closing the subject, by the
following very liberal reply.
St. George, May 3d, 1801.
"MY DEAR LORD,
"I was yesterday evening favoured with your reply to my letter of
the 22d of April; and I have no scruple in assuring you, that if
Commodore Fischer's letter had been couched in the same manly and
honourable manner, I should have been the last man to have noticed
any little inaccuracies which might get into a commander in chief's
public letter; and if the commodore had not called upon his royal
highness for the truth of his assertions, I never should have
noticed his letter. You have stated, truly, the force which would
have been brought into action, but for the accidents of their
getting aground; and, except the Desirée frigate, no other frigate
or sloop fired a gun to the southward of the Crown Islands. I have
done ample justice to the bravery of nearly all your officers and
men; and, as it is not my intention to hurt your feelings, or those
of his royal highness--but, on the contrary, to try and merit your
esteem--I will only say, that I am confident you would not have
wrote such a letter. Nothing, I flatter myself, in my conduct,
ought to have drawn ridicule on my character from the commodore's
pen; and you have borne the handsomest testimony of it, in
contradiction to his. I thought then, as I did before the action,
and do now, that it is not the interest of our countries to injure
each other. I am sorry that I was forced to write you so unpleasant
a letter; but, for the future, I trust that none but pleasant ones
will pass between us: for, I assure you, that I hope to merit the
continuation of your esteem, and of having frequent opportunities
of assuring you how I feel interested in being your sincere and
faithful friend,
"Nelson and Bronte."
"Adjutant-General Lindholm."
After a correspondence between Vice-Admiral Cronstadt, Adjutant-General
for the Swedish Fleet and Commander in Chief at Carlscrona, with Sir
Hyde Parker, which terminated in assurances of a pacific tendency,
Russia remained the only object now worthy of any serious regard. The
Baltic fleet wintering in two divisions, at the two great naval arsenals
of Revel and Cronstadt, and the ships in the former station being locked
in by the ice several weeks longer than at the latter, it was then
about the time when it might be possible to get into Revel. For that
port, therefore, the British fleet immediately steered: but was met by a
dispatch-boat, on the 22d of April, from the Russian Ambassador at
Copenhagen, announcing the death of the Emperor Paul; and bearing
conciliatory propositions from Alexander the First, who had succeeded to
the imperial dignities of all the Russian empire. Sir Hyde Parker, on
receiving this intelligence, immediately returned into anchorage near
Copenhagen: a measure which by no means met the approbation of Lord
Nelson; who well knew that, in order to negociate with effect, at
critical periods, force should always be at hand, and in a situation to
act. The British fleets, he conceived, ought to have held a position
between the two Russian squadrons; so as to have prevented the
possibility of their effecting a junction, should their pacific
dispositions prove otherwise than sincere.
On the 5th of May, Sir Hyde Parker having been recalled, Lord Nelson was
appointed to be commander in chief; but his health was now so greatly
impaired, and his spirits were so much depressed, that he received it
with little hope of being able long to enjoy it's advantages. However,
not another moment was lost: for, after requiring an explicit
declaration that the British trade should not be molested by Sweden, in
his absence, nine sail of the line immediately weighed anchor; and
proceeded, with his lordship, towards Revel. He wished for farther
satisfaction respecting the friendly disposition of the Russians; and
thought the best method of putting it to proof, was that of trying how
he should be received in one of their ports. On the passage, every
possible opportunity was embraced for arranging, with the different
commanders, plans of conduct to be adopted in the event of either
finding the Russians friendly or hostile. There was a sincere desire for
peace, but not the smallest dread of war. His lordship, however, no
sooner approached the port of Revel, which he had determined to enter,
than he learned, to his extreme mortification, that the state of the ice
had permitted the escape of the Russian fleet to Cronstadt, on the 10th
of May, being three days prior to his arrival. Lord Nelson was
disappointed, but not disconcerted. An amicable correspondence was
commenced; the governor and forts were saluted; he was permitted to
anchor in the outer port; and, an invitation from shore being readily
accepted by our hero, he was entertained with the greatest respect and
attention by the governor, admiral, and all the Russian officers, at
Revel. It appears, however, that the suspicions of some less honourable
minds had been excited, on the occasion, to a height of considerable
alarm; and, a letter having been received, on the 16th, from the Comte
de Pahlen, censuring his lordship for thus visiting the Gulph of
Finland, he was resolved immediately to prevent the effect of all
malevolent misrepresentations, by returning to join the squadron off
Bornholm, where he had left Captain Murray with seven sail of the line.
In a letter to his Excellency Earl Carysfort, dated on board the St.
George, off Gothland, May 19th, 1801, in which his lordship incloses a
copy of his correspondence with the Comte de Pahlen, he says--"You will
have your opinion, as I have mine, that he never would have wrote such a
letter, if the fleet had been at Revel in April. Mine was a desire to
mark a particular civility; which, as it was not treated in the way I
think handsome, I left Revel on Sunday the 17th, and here I am. From all
the Russian officers at Revel, I received the most attentive behaviour;
and, I believe, they are as much surprised at the answer as I was. Sir
Hyde Parker's letter on the release of the British merchant ships has
not been answered. I hope, all is right: but seamen are but bad
negociators; for, we put to issue in five minutes, what diplomatic forms
would be five months doing." He observes that, though he feels sensible
all which he sends in this letter is of no consequence; still he knows,
from experience, that to be informed there is nothing particular
passing, is comfortable. "Our fleet," he adds, "is twenty-two sail of
the line, and forty-six frigates, bombs, fire-ships, and gun-vessels;
and, in the fleet, not one man in the hospital-ship. A finer fleet," his
lordship exultingly concludes, "never graced the ocean!" Such, however,
was his lordship's ill state of health, that he had, on the day of
quitting Revel, written home for permission to relinquish the command,
that he might try and re-establish it, by immediately returning to
England; being unable, at present, as his lordship stated, to execute
the high trust reposed in him, with either comfort to himself, or
benefit to the state.
Captain Murray, having been relieved from his station, by a squadron
under Rear-Admiral Totty, met Lord Nelson, with four sail of the line,
off the north end of Gothland; and, on the 23d, at three in the morning,
his lordship joined the rear-admiral off Gothland. He left him, however,
the same evening; and, having sent the Ganges, Defence, and Veteran, to
water in Kioge Bay, anchored next day off Rostock. His lordship had now
not only received letters from the Russian government of an indisputably
amicable tendency, but his Imperial Majesty, Alexander the First, with a
wisdom and candour which do him the highest honour, absolutely sent
Admiral Tchitchagoff for the purpose of holding a confidential
communication with the British commander in chief. His lordship,
accordingly, in a conference with this brave and worthy Russian admiral,
soon became satisfied that the emperor, like his own most gracious
sovereign, was sincerely disposed to enter into an amicable arrangement,
and they respectively exchanged written documents to that effect; thus
proving, that two honest and wise seamen are by no means such bad
pacific negociators as might be imagined. Nor was this all; for, on the
26th, Lord Nelson received an invitation to visit the Emperor
Alexander, in a letter from the Comte de Pahlen, which also apprised his
lordship that the British merchant ships, unjustly detained by his
imperial majesty's late predecessor, were now ordered to be liberated.
To this pleasing communication, his lordship instantly returned the
following answer, by the Russian lugger which brought his letter from
the count.
"St. George, Rostock Bay,
10 o'clock at night, 26th May 1801.
"SIR,
"I am this moment honoured with your excellency's flattering letter
of May 6, O.S. and I assure you, that his imperial majesty's
justice has filled the idea I had formed of his excellent heart and
head; and, I am sure, the handsome manner in which the embargo has
been taken off the British shipping, will give the greatest
pleasure to my good and gracious sovereign. I am truly sensible of
the great honour done me, by the invitation of his imperial
majesty; and, at a future time, I hope to have the pleasure of
presenting my humble duty. I have now only to pray that a permanent
(which must be honourable) peace, may be re-established between our
gracious sovereigns; and, that our august masters reigns may be
blessed with every happiness which this world can afford: and I beg
that your excellency will believe, that I am, with the highest
respect, your most obedient and very humble servant,
Nelson and Bronte.