ustly ask, were the merits of the first lieutenant of the Superb,
which, in conjunction with the Caesar, made an easy capture of the San
Antonio, and with a trifling loss,[2] greater than those of the first
lieutenant of the flag-ship, which was engaged far more severely at
Algeziras, who exerted himself most zealously in refitting the ship,
besides assisting in the capture of the French ship? Yet the promotion
was only given to the first lieutenants of the Venerable and Superb,
although the former ship would probably have been taken had it not
been for the Caesar, and the latter was not in the action of Algeziras
at all! These circumstances, and the fact that his appointments to the
St. Antoine were not confirmed, seem to have given Sir James more
concern than even the total neglect of his own meritorious services.

[2] It was reported that the San Antonio had struck before the
Caesar came up, but this cannot be true; because, when the Caesar
came up, both ships were still before the wind, firing at each
other, and the Caesar had her cross-jack-yard shot away.

Taking into account every circumstance regarding the actions of the
6th and 12th July,--the severity of the former, the intermediate
exertions, the professional skill, the daring and the tact displayed
in the latter, and the complete discomfiture of the enemy's
well-arranged plans for the destruction of our commerce at Lisbon and
the subsequent relief of their army in Egypt,--this victory was equal
to, if not greater in importance than, either the battles of St.
Vincent or the Nile, for the former of which Jervis was created an
earl, and Nelson a baron for the latter, immediately on the arrival of
the news in England. Yet after a lapse of several months, after
praises had been heaped upon Sir James, after the thanks of both
houses of parliament had been voted to him for the fifth time, after
his eminent services had been acknowledged by every large corporation,
and generally throughout the kingdom--after the highest encomiums had
been pronounced on him by Earl St. Vincent and Lord Nelson,--instead
of a peerage, which he as richly deserved as either of the other two,
he was decorated only with the red riband.

We shall close this subject for the present by giving an extract from
a letter Sir James wrote to his friend Sir Thomas Troubridge, after
his correspondence with the Admiralty on the subject of his being
superseded had ended, and subse