ghteen months at home; and,
within less than the twelve last, his ardent hopes of a tranquil
retirement with the friends he loved, had been twice cruelly chilled by
the hand of death. Having lost the best of fathers, and the best of
friends, with whom he was solicitous to have enjoyed his enlarged
domains at Merton, before the incivility of a rude rustic, and the
procrastinating formalities of legal conveyance, would permit him to
possess the requisite additions for it's improvement. Indeed, without
the aid of Sir William's income, the establishment at Merton Place, was
already too great for Lord Nelson's slender fortune. It suited well
enough their joint means, but was not adapted, individually, for either.
However, even the possession of the whole had scarcely been obtained,
and not at all occupied, when it was rendered useless to the hero; for,
a renewal of the war being now inevitable, his transcendent abilities
were instantly called for by the united voice of the nation.

On the 16th of May, little more than five weeks after the decease of his
revered and regretted friend Sir William Hamilton, a message from his
majesty announced to both houses of parliament the necessity for
immediate war with France: and, the very next day, Lord Nelson, who had
accepted the command of the Mediterranean fleet, departed for
Portsmouth; from whence he sailed for Gibraltar, the day following, in
the Amphion frigate, accompanied by the Victory of a hundred and ten
guns, his lordship's flag-ship.

Previous to his departure, however, Lord Nelson, not unmindful of his
dying friend's last request, had both written to, and waited on, Mr.
Addington, respecting Lady Hamilton's pension; and this most honourable
minister, as he has ever been generally esteemed, frankly told his
lordship, that it certainly ought to be granted. Indeed, when it is duly
considered, that Sir William Hamilton was the foster-brother of his
present majesty, who always entertained for him the most affectionate
regard; that he had, for thirty-six years, filled the character of
British minister at the court of Naples, with a zeal and ability not to
be surpassed, and with a munificent and splendid hospitality very rarely
exercised; that his surviving lady, who constituted the chief felicity
of his latter years, so contributed to promote all the best interests of
her country, and all the dignity of a beloved husband who there held the
honour of representing his sovereign,