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 ef