"P.S. I send your lordship copies of Captain Ball's letters from
Malta. It is not for me to judge the propriety of Captain Ball's
plans; but, I can assure you, he is a man of great judgment and
abilities, and ought to have a recompence for all his expence and
trouble."

The letters of Captain Ball principally related to taking men into
British pay; those of the Turkish and Russian admirals, from Corfu, were
highly satisfactory, giving assurances of all possible assistance; and
that from the Emperor Paul of Russia, congratulatory of the glorious
victory of the Nile, was in the highest degree flattering, and
accompanied by the emperor's picture, in a box magnificently set with
diamonds. His lordship, however, learned that Corfu, though daily
expected to fall, had not yet surrendered; and that Le Genereux
unfortunately escaped the vigilance of the blockading squadrons, on the
5th of February. From Constantinople, he received the agreeable
information that the Grand Signior had ordered ten thousand Albanese
troops to Sicily; but Sir Sidney Smith's letters, luckily blending his
naval and ministerial characters, so outraged Lord Nelson's nice sense
of propriety, that it renewed all those keen sensations of inquietude
which had been so recently tranquilized in our hero's breast.

This circumstance produced the following letter to Sir Sidney Smith;
which serves to shew that his lordship, though displeased on the
occasion, was not altogether unjust in requiring better future
discrimination.

"Vanguard, Palermo,
8th March 1799.