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 courier