te in 1798, says: "If the preponderance which the
French Republic ought to take here, removed hence Acton and the wife
of Hamilton, this country, without other changes, would be extremely
useful for the execution of all your projects in the Mediterranean;"
and Sir William himself, who should have known, speaks of her activity
and utility,--"for several years the real and only confidential friend
of the Queen of Naples." Nelson, writing to the Queen of Naples in
1804, after Hamilton's death, said: "Your Majesty well knows that it
was her capacity and conduct which sustained his diplomatic character
during the last years in which he was at Naples."[73] Certainly,
Nelson believed, with all the blindness of love, whatever his mistress
chose to tell him, but he was not without close personal knowledge of
the inside history of at least two of those last years; for, in 1801,
addressing Mr. Addington, then Prime Minister, he used these words:
"Having for a length of time seen the correspondence both public and
private, from all the Neapolitan ministers to their Government and to
the Queen of Naples, I am perfectly acquainted with the views of the
several Powers." For her success Lady Hamilton was indebted, partly to
her personal advantages, and partly to her position as wife of the
British minister and chosen friend to the Queen. Great Britain played
a leading part everywhere in the gigantic struggle throughout the
Continent, but to a remote peninsular kingdom like Naples, protected
by its distance from the centres of strife, yet not wholly
inaccessible by land, the chief maritime state was the one and only
sufficient ally. A rude reminder of his exposure to naval attack had
been given to the King of the Two Sicilies, in 1792, by the appearance
of a French fleet, which extorted satisfaction for an alleged insult,
by threatening instant bombardment of his capital.

Sir William Hamilton, who had been minister since 1765, thus found
himself suddenly converted from a dilettante and sportsman, lounging
through life, into a busy diplomat, at the centre of affairs of
critical moment. At sixty-two the change could scarcely have been
welcome to him, but to his beautiful and ambitious wife the access of
importance was sweet, for it led to a close friendship with the Queen,
already disposed to affect her, even in the notorious position she had
held before her marriage; and the Queen, a daughter of Maria Theresa
and sister to Marie Antoine