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 t