In a note on a paragraph in a letter written at | known to Nelson it severely shook his manly this time by Lord Nelson, in which he says to heart; he continued as steadfast as ever in the Lady Hamilton that she will be sorry but not sur- fulfilment of his duty, endured reiterated disapprised to hear of Lord Bristol's death, Dr. Petti-pointment at not meeting with the French and grew informs us thatsealing his course of victory by a final triumph

this nobleman was fourth Earl of Bristol ere he found refuge in his home from the ingratiand was also Bishop of Derry. He died on the tude of man, and at length returned to England, 8th July, 1803. To avoid any superstitious ex-on leave, determined to enjoy his sweet reward at hibition on the part of sailors, who entertain a Merton, since he was denied any by an ungrateful dread of having a corpse on board, his lordship's ministry. body was packed up in a case and shipped as an antique statue. Could he have anticipated such a circumstance, it would have offered him a capital subject to have written upon.

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He arrived at Merton on the 20th of August, 1805. On the 13th of the following month, Captain Blackwood called on Nelson at five in the morning with news that the French and Spanish fleets were in the harbor of Cadiz; Nelson was up, dressed, and ready to start to "give Monsieur Villeneuve a drubbing." The two proceeded to the admiralty, the lords of which were now all eager to grant whatever Nelson asked. The latter knew he must rest satisfied with fifteen or sixteen sail of the line less than his enemies would have in array against him; but with these odds, backed by God's blessing, he only knew of a full victory as the glorious result. He made some arrangements for those who depended on his bounty

some preparations in case of the sorrowful event that did cloud the general triumph-and, between ten and eleven at night, took his last farewell of Merton and of her who had so long kept him in sweet bonds-gazed once on his sleeping child, breathed a prayer over her, and went forth to death-to death the most glorious that was ever accorded to mortal man whereby to make his pas sage from time into eternity.

In 1804, his harassing life in the Mediterranean received something to make it tolerable by his triumph in his case for prize-money against Lord St. Vincent. It was money fairly won after St. Vincent gave up the command; and his award was 13,000. The sum rescued him from debt and from anxiety; but the enjoyment of it could not relieve him of his most anxious desire to destroy the French fleet, which wanted no inducement to leave Toulon, only that Nelson was outside waiting to receive them. His vigilance had to be doubled, but he had enough for the emergency, and to spare. Suspicions existed that Spain was about to enter into an armed coalition with France against England, and, without increase to his force, Nelson was ready to meet and confident of annihilating both. With all their advantage of superior strength, the French not only lingered in Toulon, but spread forged intelligence all over Europe that, on their making preparations for sea, Nelson had precipitately fled; but the avenger was still there; and, as now and then a French vessel would occasionally show her bowsprit outside the harbor and retire in all speed at the sight of the flaunting jack defying them from seaward, Nelson would say that, if the whole fleet did not soon come out and stand a contest, he should go in and try the effect of putting salt upon their tails! But his own countrymen, or rather the government which did not represent the feelings of his countrymen, wounded him more deeply than his worst enemies. Nelson was poor, considering the rank he had to maintain, and the heavy charges, some voluntarily assumed and all honorably acquitted, on his income. The ministry knew he was poor; but, because he was not ashamed of his poverty, they kept him plunged in it. In the Mediterranean, with war declared against Spain, there was a prospect of rich prizes being made, and some substantial reward being given to him and his gallant band for their labors, their devotedness, and their blood. But between these deserving men and their right, evil influences interposed; unknown to Nelson, another admiral | daughter?”—for such was the designation that and a small squadron were stationed off Cadiz, their office was to capture all the commercial vessels they could; they performed the office to its uttermost letter-hurried to England with the golden argosies, and divided the proceeds so easily and bloodlessly won.

On the 21st of October he went into battle, after fervent prayer to God. How, under fearful odds, he beat his enemy, is known to every school-boy. Since that day, Spain has ceased to be a naval power, and France is yet struggling to recover the position from which the hero of that day flung her down. It was a day, the issues of which were left humbly to God, but which were struggled for as though they depended on the arm of mortal man alone. The triumphant result was purchased at a costly rate-the life of England's dearest son; his mission was fulfilled; he had destroyed the last coalition made to enslave the world, and he died at the fitting moment of certain victory, leaving all dear to him on earth as a legacy to his native country. May his name live forever!

Almost the last words uttered by Nelson were the expression of a hope that his country would provide for Lady Hamilton and for his adopted daughter. Nelson's wife was alive, and the marriage had been without issue. Who, then, was this stranger that so closely occupied the last thoughts of the hero-and who the "adopted

engaged so engrossing a share of his love.

As for Lady Nelson, she was indeed alive, but she had long been dead to him. The pair, from the first, had been ill-matched; and what began ill begot no happy consequences. Nelson himself When the fact became had warmth enough of temperament for two: his

wife had none. She was, if we may judge by what is written, unmoved at his great triumphs, without pride in his great fame, and she was the last to welcome him when he came home crowned with great deeds; she was the last woman in the world fitted to be the wife of a hero, and perfectly incapable of controlling a hero's weaknesses. When Nelson on one occasion was speaking warmly in his wife's presence of the talents and beauty of Lady Hamilton, and of the immense services she had rendered his king and country through him, the hot Creole blood fired up: she rose in a whirlwind of passion, exclaiming that she was sick at hearing the name and praises of Lady Hamilton, and that Nelson must either desist from eulogizing her or cease to live with his wife. Nelson defended his favorite with good humor; but from that hour utter estrangement ensued between himself and Lady Nelson, resulting in a separation which, once determined on, was never followed by opportunity or inclination for a reconciliation.

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the student. It at least did not improve the spelling of the now young lady;" for, to the last, though she talked like Aspasia, she spelled as badly as Caroline of Brunswick-a light fault in a day when countesses spelt Physician with an F, and thought G was the first letter of Augustus! The house of Emma's patroness was the resort of all the great players, poets, and literati of the day. It was the "Gore House" of its time: perhaps its glories ended as ignobly. As a home and an asylum for a young girl full of beauty, and given to impulses which she knew not how to govern, it deserved not the name. The poor thing was made the Cynthia of the minute: the Trissotins dedicated sonnets to her: her beauty was deified; incense was daily offered to her by fools and knaves, and even by those who were neither; but yesterday she was toiling for wages, and perhaps complacently receiving the coarse compliments of liveried worshippers: to-day she was tended on by delicate hands, her smiles eagerly sought after, The remarkable individual—as remarkable for her presence acknowledged by a buzz of admiraher great sufferings and great sorrows as for her tion, her wit celebrated by the ecstatic praises of great errors who was in a certain degree the the witty, and her intellect directed to everything cause of breaking up the indifferent home which save to the study of divine things. She loved the Nelson found in the companionship of his wife, | refinement which concealed the vice yet unknown may be said to have been the last of a race pro- to her; what was so pleasant could hardly be sinverbial for bewitching and irresistible beautyful, for it brought no remorse. The foolish virgin viz., the Lancashire witches. She was born at lacked a man at hand to tell her that she was Preston, in 1764; her father's name was Lyon, neglecting her lamp; and it was only in after life, and her parents were of menial condition. The when intellect was superseded by cleverness, and child, named Emma, was, on the early death of reflection made her matured beauty all the more her father, taken by her mother to Hawarden, in radiant, that she sorrowingly acknowledged that Flintshire, where her remaining parent sought to to her first patroness had been sacrificed the mornsupport both by industry, and where Emma grewing of her youth, and that every opportunity negevery day in beauty and ignorance. When old lected had been fruitful in a multitude of after enough she was sent forth to earn her own liveli- sorrows. hood. She commenced life in the humble condition of a nursery-maid in a family at Hawarden; subsequently she was engaged in the same capacity in the family of Dr. Budd, Chatham-place, Blackfriars. The good doctor little suspected that he possessed two servants in his house destined to achieve celebrity for themselves, and thus lend something of perpetuity to his own name. The nursemaid was Emma Lyons: the housemaid was Jane Powell, who, in her after career as an actress, was a fine interpreter of Shakspeare, could give interest to the bombast of Nat. Lee, and make endurable the platitudes of Rowe-just as Rachel, in our own days, interprets Racine and endows with life the metrical dulness of Merope and Chimène. From Dr. Budd's to the family of a dealer in St. James' Market was a change from the east to the court end of the town, and it had its consequences. She attracted the attention and won the good-will of a lady of fashion, who withdrew her from servitude and elevated her to what is often more degrading and worse paid, the dignity of a companion. The education she received here was such as might be expected at the hands of a fine lady of the last century. She read all the stilted and not too delicate romances of the day-a course of reading which not only kills time, but generally destroys

The first public sin, if we may so express it, was the consequence of the exercise of a great virtue. It was the time of the first American war. The press-gangs were in actual pursuit of their terrible calling, and by one of these a humble acquaintance had been captured, and was confined on board a tender in the Thames. She personally interceded to procure his liberty; the officer to whom the application was made was captain, afterwards admiral, Willet Payne, the companion of the Prince of Wales. This man drove a bargain, and became what is cruelly called the "protector" of the friendless Emma. The first false step made, the descent was rapid. From the dissolute seaman she was won by a profligate squire, Sir Harry Featherstonehaugh; and she speedily enraptured a whole shire of country gentlemen by her bold and graceful riding, subdued them by her wit, and charmed them, they knew not wherefore, by the refinement of her manners. It is a curious trait marking such a career that, though the baronet was nearly ruined by the extravagant profusion into which he plunged for her sake, to the end of life he spoke of her and wrote to her in terms of the profoundest respect. It was a period when provincial squires were not noted for much delicacy of manner; they had not yet adopted the

advice of Lord Chesterfield, and become gentlemanlike in their vices; but nevertheless, like the Athenians of old, they could praise a virtue which they did not practise; not decent themselves, they could admire decency in others.

she is constantly repeated, and the eternal sameness is ever varied and charming. She was, indeed, Romney's inspiration rather than model; he had but to state what he desired or dreamed of, and the vision stood a breathing reality before The unfortunate and fallen woman, on her sep- him. Heroic, as Joan of Arc; crushed by her aration from her ruined admirer, soon learned a grief, as a Magdalene; joyous, as a Bacchante; deeper misery than she had endured in her native sublime, as Cassandra; winning, as a Wood home and early privations. She was at length on Nymph; making sorrow graceful, as Calypso; the point of being turned into the street by her giving rapture double interpretation-first as the landlord, who had no admiration for pennyless Pythian priestess on her tripod, and next as St. tenants, however greatly endowed with beauty, Cecilia-gentle, as Serena; lovely, as Sensibilwhen she fell in the way of the most stupendous ity and perhaps more intellectually lovely still, quack that ever gulled the most gullible of patient as Miranda-we can hardly wonder, as we look publics. We need hardly name the once famous on these characters, that Hayley, who saw the Dr. Graham, who, with his mysterious chambers, original stand for them all, rushed into rhyme to golden beds, seraphic music, and impudent med- immortalize them, and perpetrated verse that was ical lectures, for some time persuaded the people almost tolerable and very nearly worth reading. that he could lead them to the fountain where played the waters endowing men with eternal and vigorous youth. That he was mysterious only proved that he had a secret, and that it was well worth knowing and richly worth paying for. This quack hired the hungry and heart-broken beauty, exhibited her as the "Goddess of Health," lectured upon her as the result of his system, and made half the fashionable women of his day mad to become like her, glowing with health and splendid with beauty. This public exhibition gave her a particular fame among artists; she became the eagerly sought after and highly purchased model of the day. In Romney's pictures more especially

*Graham first appeared in London in 1782. He was a graduate of Edinburgh, wrote in a bombastic style, and possessed a great fluency of elocution. He opened in Pall-Mall a mansion which he called the "Temple of Health." The front was ornamented with an enormous gilt sun, a statue of Hygeia, &c. The rooms were superbly furnished, and the decorations, mirrors, &c., gave to the whole the appearance of an enchanted palace. Single admission to his lectures on health and the birth of children cost two guineas-a sum readily given. The Goddess of Health usually delivered a supplementary lecture when the doctor concluded. When two guinea auditors were exhausted, his two gigantic porters, decked in gorgeous liveries, deluged the town with bills stating that the lectures would be delivered at one guinea ench. The descending scale ultimately reached half a crown, and at last he exhibited the Temple of Health itself at one shilling per head. Its chief attraction was a "celestial bed," with rich hangings and glass legs. The quack promised such results from merely sleeping on this enchanted couch, that married persons of high rank and respectability were known to have given one hundred pounds for the accommodation. Persons more foolish still, and as highly exalted, were found who gave him one thousand pounds for a supply of his "elixir of life." He then, when dupes were not grown scarce, but required variety in the means of imposition, took to the practice and public exhibition of earth-bathing. He and his goldess stood an hour each day immersed to the chin in earth, above which their heads appeared, dressed in the extravagant fashions of the day. In this position he delivered a lecture on the salubrity of the practice at sums for single admission which commenced at a guinea and ended at a shilling. When all London had heard and seen him he made a provincial tour; but, in spite of his elixir of life, he died at the early age of fifty-two; and, in spite of the facility with which he gained money, he died in poverty. The famous Mrs. Macaulay married his brother, and Dr. Arnold, of Leicester, the author of an able treatise on insanity, married his sister. In the profession of the most impudent quackery, Dr. Graham has never been equalled, either for impudence or the success which attended it.

We do not know that we may say that she was rescued from this sort of life by mooting with Mr. Charles Fulke Greville. He w not a mere squire, but a gentleman and a connoisseur; he so loved beauty that when he beheld Romney's model he longed to possess it as he would have longed to possess a Grecian statue. In this case the matter was negotiable; she passed from the studio to the bower. Mr. Greville discovered her mental powers as well as admired her material beauty, and he was humane enough to do what no human being had ever yet thought of doing— educate her. It came of the latest, when the tares had choked the wheat. She progressed, indeed, rapidly in all she studied, and in music she attained a wonderful perfection; her voice. even in speaking, was one to melt the heart; in singing it fairly carried it off by magic. If vanity accompanied the possession of powers such as no one has since possessed-not even our now silent Nightingale-her apology is in her course of life, for much of which others were responsible. This vanity reached its culmination one night at Ranelagh, when, intoxicated by the remarks flung in her way like flowers as she passed, she electrified the entire crowd by breaking forth into song, and, by the exercise of her unequalled vocalization, flung uncontrollable ecstasy over the idle public of the place. "Mr. Greville (says Dr. Pettigrew, in his interesting Sketch of Lady Hamilton') had gone further than he intended, and became alarmed at her fondness for admiration, and ventured to reproach her for her indiscretion. She retired to her room, threw off the elegant attire in which she was clothed, and, presenting herself before him in a plain cottage dress, proposed to relieve him of her presence. This act, however, served only the more securely to bind him in his chains, and a reconciliation took place." It is reported that three children were the fruit of this connection; but there is a letter from Nelson to Lady Hamilton in these very volumes, and which, if it does not prove the contrary, shows at least that Nelson knew nothing of it—a not likely circumstance if the alleged fact were one in reality. However this may be, Dr. Pettigrew adds, "In

the splendid misery in which she lived she hast- of improving herself, and also of imparting know ened to call to her her mother, to whom she was edge. This she is said to have practically evinced; through life most affectionate and attentive." for with a common piece of stuff she could so

In 1789, the year of many sorrows, Mr. Gre-arrange it and clothe herself as to offer the most ville found himself, by the French Revolution appropriate representations of a Jewess, a Roman matron, a Helen, Penelope, or Aspasia. No charand other accidents, a nearly ruined man. His acter seemed foreign to her, and the grace she was uncle, Sir William Hamilton, our minister at Na- in the habit of displaying, under such representa ples, stepped in to relieve him of many of his em- tions, excited the admiration of all who were for barrassments-among them of the lady to whom tunate enough to have been present on such occa perhaps some of them might be traced. Dr. Pet- sions. The celebrated "Shawl Dance" owes its tigrew says: "It is only charitable to suppose Sir origin to her invention; but it is admitted to have been executed by her with a grace and elegance far William to have been ignorant of his nephew's surpassing that with which it has ever been renconnection with Emma, but there have not been dered on the stage of any of our theatres. Under wanting reports that the condition of the engage- the tuition and government of Sir William she im ment between Sir William and the lady was the proved so greatly, and obtained such complete sway payment of the nephew's debts." At this time over him, that he resolved upon making her his Sir William was within a year of threescore. He wife. They came to England, and on the 6th was neither the Pericles of his age, nor was Harte (an assumed name under which she had long September, 1791, she, writing the name of Emma Emma quite the Aspasia; but when we remem- been known) he married her at the church of St. ber the bond which bound the great statesman and George, Hanover Square, resolving to return with refined lover of refined art to the most beautiful her to Naples that she might there be recognized and most accomplished woman in Greece-when by the Neapolitan court. But prior to quitting we remember that in his home intellect and skill London to return to Naples she was doomed to exwere almost deified-that to it her presence, her perience disappointment; for although she had, powers, and even her virtues, (for all were not through the position of Sir William Hamilton and his high connexions, together with her own attracwanting because one was absent,) gave its chiefest tions and accomplishments, gained admission into a charm-that without her the war against Samos very high circle of society, she was very properly would not have been a matter of history-that she refused admission into the Court of St. James', inspired great commanders, and that but for her, which Sir William in vain endeavored most assidmuch eloquence would have been mute, which, uously to effect. In the society, however, in which through her, fired Greece to deeds of noble dar- she now moved, she became distinguished for her ing—with these memories about us, we say, there great accomplishments; and the dulness of fashis much in the persons and lives of Sir William a singer and as an actress. ionable life was greatly relieved by her displays as The admiration she Hamilton and his wife that reminds us of Pericles excited was universal. It is said that at first, upon and Aspasia, even down to the very circumstance the return of Sir William Hamilton to Naples, that the great lawgiver took the courtesan to wife there was some difficulty in the way of her introafter she had been his mistress. duction to the queen, not having been received at the court of her own country. That, however, was soon removed, and in a short time she maintained the most confidential intercourse with her Sir William Hamilton was a native of Scotland, majesty. That the Queen of Naples should have born in 1730, and was minister at Naples for the become intimately attached to Lady Hamilton, canlong period of thirty-six years. He was a distin- not be a matter of surprise when we recollect the guished antiquary, remarkable for his taste in, and calamities her family had sustained by the French appreciation of, the fine arts. He possessed also Revolution. To seek consolation in the bosom of scientific acquirements, and had some knowledge of the wife of the English minister-the minister of mineralogy; he was a trustee of the British Mu- that country which almost stood alone in its opposeum, fellow of the Royal Society, and a vice-pres-sition to the principles and conduct of the French ident of the Society of Antiquaries; he was also Revolution-seems natural. Friendship is often a distinguished member of the Dillettanti Club, created by sympathetic associations called forth unand appears among their portraits in their meeting-der the pressure of affliction, and is sustained by room at the Thatched House Tavern. A portrait the consolations of hope derived from them. There of him, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, one of his intimate friends, may be seen in the National Gallery. He is known as an author by his works. With the King of Naples he was a great favorite, and largely shared with him the enjoyment of the chase and other sports, to which the sovereign is well known to have been egregiously addicted.

Dr. Pettigrew thus describes Sir William him

self:

Such was the sexagenarian philosopher. At this period the Aspasia of his affections, if we may indeed use such a word, was just five-and-twenty. She is thus limned by her biographer :

Already familiarized to the studies of the painter, and, according to Romney and his biographer, no mean judge of the arts, with Sir William she had in Italy many opportunities of enjoying her taste,

are many letters in my possession from the Queen of Naples to the Lady Hamilton, breathing the most ardent attachment, the most unbounded friendship, and expressing eternal gratitude to her.

It was in the year 1793 that Nelson first saw this dangerous beauty. From the period of her arrival, up to this time, she appears to have been the only source of joy and admiration to the Neapolitan court.

The Duke of Sussex retained to the last lively recollections of her charms, and of the effect she produced when singing with the famous Mrs. Billington. In the eventful year last named, Nelson landed at Naples with despatches from Lord Hood.

Sir William, as we have said,

on returning home after his first interview with | The letter was obtained; it was from the King of Nelson, told Lady Hamilton that he was about to Spain himself, and it announced his determination introduce to her a little man who could not boast to break up his old alliance, and to unite with of being very handsome, but who would be the France against England. Sir William Hamilton greatest man that England ever produced. "I was sick and incapable of action; but "our genknow it, (said Sir William,) from the very few eral's wife was now the general;" and she further words of conversation I have already had with prevailed on the queen to allow her to take a copy him. I pronounce (said the minister) that he of the document. This copy she transmitted by a will one day astonish the world. I have never secure but costly method to Lord Grenville. To entertained any officer in my house, but I am de-effect its safe arrival cost her, out of her own pritermined to bring him here; let him be put in the vate purse, not less than four hundred pounds sterroom prepared for Prince Augustus." Nelson is ling. She was hardly thanked, and was never stated to have been equally impressed with Sir William Hamilton's merits. “You are (he said) a man after my own heart you do business in my own way. I am now only captain; but, if I live, I will be at the top of the tree.” The impression produced upon him by Lady Hamilton, and her kindness towards the son of Nelson's wife by her first marriage, he thus simply describes in one of his letters "Lady Hamilton has been wonderfully kind and good to Josiah. She is a young woman of amiable manners, and who does honor to the station to which she is raised."

remunerated.

But ingratitude did not render her patriotism weary or unwilling; year after year the British flag in the Mediterranean was indebted to her for triumphs which it achieved, because without her aid the English could not have profited even by opportunity. It must be remembered, too, as Dr. Pettigrew justly remarks," that at this period, so high were French ascendency and revolutionary principles in Naples, that it was absolutely dangerous for the British minister to go to court."

Her greatest service, though not her last, remains to be mentioned. It is of that importance that it merits being mentioned in detail, and the details are so clearly and concisely told by Dr. Pettigrew, that we cannot do better than adopt

having been rendered saved England, changed the aspect of European politics, and gave to Lady Hamilton a branch of the showers of laurel that fell to the victors at the Nile :

The early attachment entertained by the Queen of Naples for Lady Hamilton, admits of ready and natural explanation. Sir William after his marriage conducted his young bride to Naples by way of Paris, where she was received by the ill-them. Never was service so greatly needed; its fated Marie Antoinette. This unhappy queen was sister to the Queen of Naples; and to Lady Hamilton she entrusted the last letter she ever wrote to her scarcely less unhappy relative. The wife of the British minister became at once the personal friend of the Neapolitan queen, and her influence was so great that the king himself said of her that she had de-Bourbonized them, and made them all English. It was from this period that her patriotic mission commenced-a mission which she carried out regardless of personal expense or personal peril, and for the performance of which, though so great in its results, she obtained slight acknowledg-wise he must run for Gibraltar, being in urgent ment and no recompense.

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In June, 1798, about three days after the French fleet had passed by for Malta, Sir William and Lady Hamilton were awakened one morning about six o'clock by the arrival of Captain Trowbridge, with a letter from Sir Horatio Nelson, then with the fleet lying off the bay near to Capria, "requesting that the ambassador would procure him permission to enter with his fleet into Naples, or any of the Sicilian ports, to provision, water, &c., as other

want; and that, consequently, he would be obliged It was for no individual, but for her country to give up all further pursuit of the French fleet, solely, that she exercised her unbounded influence which he had missed at Egypt, on account of their when at Naples. Sir John Jervis named her the having put into Malta." At this time Naples had patroness of the navy;" and when he was en-resident then at Naples. One of the stipulations made peace with France, and an ambassador was gaged upon the reduction of Corsica, he depended of the treaty which had been entered into was to the upon Lady Hamilton for despatching to him all the effect that no more than two English ships of war necessaries he required from Naples; he subse- should enter into any of the Neapolitan or Sicilian quently confessed that the reduction of the island ports. However, Sir William Hamilton called up was facilitated and expedited by her aid and energy. Sir John Acton, the minister, who immediately At a time when British interests were at stake, convened a council, at which the king was present. and nearly all Europe was engaged in destroying immediately to the queen, who received her in her This was about half-past six. Lady Hamilton went them, she was unceasingly wakeful to maintain bed-room; she represented to her majesty that the and strengthen them. We had about this time a safety of the two Sicilies now depended upon her most uncertain ally in Spain. It came to the conduct, and that should the council, as she feared knowledge of Lady Hamilton that a Spanish that under the circumstances they must do, decide courier had arrived at Naples with a letter for the on negative or half measures, the Sicilies must be king; she forthwith repaired to the queen, and so lost if Nelson were not supplied agreeably to his exercised the power she possessed over even the request, by which he would be enabled to follow the great French force which had passed in that powerful mind of that sovereign, that she induced direction only a few days before. Nothing could her to repair to the king's cabinet and abstract the exceed the alarm with which the queen received important document from the monarch's possession. [this intelligence; she urged that the king was in