obliged to be installed by proxy. On this occasion,
Lord Nelson had been represented by Captain Sir William Bolton, son of
the Reverend William Bolton, brother of Thomas Bolton, Esq. the husband
of his lordship's eldest sister; to whose amiable daughter, now Lady
Bolton, Sir William had the preceding evening been married, by special
licence, at Lady Hamilton's house in Piccadilly.

The happy party now assembled at Merton Place, where the hero ever
delighted to see his family around him, consisted of the present Earl
and Countess Nelson, with Lord Merton and Lady Charlotte Nelson, their
son and daughter; Mr. and Mrs. Bolton, with Thomas Bolton, Junior, Esq.
and Miss Ann and Miss Eliza Bolton, their son and daughters; and Mr. and
Mrs. Matcham, with their son George Matcham, Junior, Esq.

On the 20th, in the morning, Lord Nelson came to London; where he had
the happiness to obtain that general approbation of his conduct, from
persons of all ranks, which those who have not been eminently successful
can rarely hope to experience. Indeed, the country seemed generally to
participate in his lordship's disappointments, with a sympathy as
honourable to the national character as to the hero so worthily
applauded. It was felt, that he had exerted himself to the utmost; and
that, notwithstanding he had been unable to meet with the enemy, his
pursuit had relieved every anxiety from the consequences of their
depredations, by forcing to fly before him a combined fleet of force
nearly doubling his own. All apprehensions for our colonial settlements
were quieted; and, though the small advantage gained by Sir Robert
Calder had not much diminished their naval strength, or greatly
augmented our own, this was no fault of his lordship, whose superior
worth ever became more abundantly manifest on the intrusion of such
comparisons. What his lordship would have done, with the same force,
similarly situated, according to the general opinion, every where freely
expresed, made the nation at large, as well as our hero himself,
sincerely regret that he had not been fortunate enough to encounter
them. In justice to Sir Robert Calder, however, it must be admitted,
there are few naval actions so brilliant, that they might not have been
rendered still more so by the presence of such a commander as Lord
Nelson.

Immediately after his lordship's arrival in town, a meeting of the West
India merchants was convened at the London Tavern; who, having met on