Admiral Lord Nelson, K.B., Commander of His Britannic
Majesty's Fleet in the Bay of Naples, acquaints the Rebellious
Subjects of His Sicilian Majesty in the Castles of Uovo and
Nuovo, that he will not permit them to embark or quit those
places. They must surrender themselves to His Majesty's royal
mercy.

NELSON.

Ruffo refused to send the papers in, and said decisively that, if
Nelson saw fit to break the armistice then existing, between the
signature of the capitulation and its execution, he would aid neither
with men nor guns. Finally, he went on board the "Foudroyant;" but
after an animated discussion, which rose nearly to an altercation,
neither party yielded his ground. "I used every argument in my power,"
wrote Nelson, "to convince him that _the Treaty and Armistice was at
an end by the arrival of the fleet"_, and this therefore may be taken
to summarize his own position. He then gave the Cardinal a written
opinion that the treaty was one that "ought not to be carried out
without the approbation of His Sicilian Majesty." Neither his powers
nor Ruffo's, he argued, extended to granting such a capitulation.
Ruffo, indeed, had been expressly forbidden to do so; a fact which
rendered the paper void from the first. "Under this opinion," reported
Nelson to Keith, "the Rebels came out of the Castles;" "_as they
ought_," he wrote to his friend Davison, "and as I hope all those who
are false to their King and Country will, _to be hanged_, or otherwise
disposed of, as their sovereign thought proper." They were then placed
in transports, which were anchored under the guns of the fleet; and in
the end many of them were put to death.

For his action in this case Nelson has been severely blamed. The point
at issue is perfectly simple, however it may be decided. Disregarding
subordinate considerations, of which there are many, such as the
motives which induced Ruffo and Foote to grant terms, and the question
whether they would have been justified, which Nelson denied, in
conceding them under any conditions, the matter reduces itself to
this: When an agreement has been made, one of the parties to which is
acting only as a representative, not as a principal, nor accredited
for the specific purpose, has the principal, in person or by proxy, a
right to annul the agreement, provided, as in this case, it has not
passed into execution, either total or partial? Nelson admitted that
the persons of the insurgen