BOOK II, GISTS AND Cer opportunity, in his earlier period, was comparatively rare. It was, perhaps, despite the proverb, not altogether a happy thing for Naples that its annals were tiresome. The rust EXPLORERS. of inactivity showed itself there, as so often elsewhere, to be much more fatal than the exhaustion of strife. tainly, to the ambassador, it was a personal misfortune that, when the affairs of Naples became really momentous to Englishmen, the vigour and the will of earlier days were then departing from the man whose energies were at length to be put to the test in the proper sphere of his profession. Meanwhile, and in his prime, he had but-from time to time-to make routine memorials as to matters of individual wrong; to heal breaches between one Bourbon and another; and to secure the neutrality of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies during the war which grew out of the struggle in America. Such matters made no great inroad upon the pursuits of the naturalist and the antiquarian. Labour on the mountains, in the excavations, and in the study, had been, now for many years, relieved by congenial friendships. There had been an improvement in the tone of Neapolitan Society since HAMILTON's first appearance. And all that was best in Naples had gathered round him. To English travellers his hospitalities were splendid and unremitting. But in 1782 the circle lost its mistress. Seven years before, Sir William and Lady HAMILTON had been bereaved of a daughter--their only child. In 1783 occurred the dreadful earthquake in Calabria, the greatest calamity of the century save that at Lisbon. Among the scientific correspondents in England with whom Sir William HAMILTON kept up an intercourse was Sir Joseph BANKS, then the President of the Royal Society. was sent the fullest account that was attainable of BOOK II, event of 1783. Chap. II. CLASSICAL GISTS AND ad chanced that just before the news reached Naples, eph had written to HAMILTON about some experi- EXPLORERS. and discoveries on the composition and transmutation r. He had said, jestingly: In future we philoshall rejoice when an eruption, which may swallow ew towns, affords subsistence for as many nations als and vegetables.' This letter HAMILTON was to answer when he received the intelligence from 1. have had here,' he writes, some shocks of an earthwhich, in Calabria Ultra, has swallowed up or ed almost every town, together with some towns in Every hour brings in accounts of fresh 1783. s. Some thousands of people will perish with hunger e provisions sent from hence can reach them. This, Feb. 18. Hamilton to Addit., 8967, , will prove to have been the greatest calamity that pened in this century. An end is put to the . The theatres are shut. I suppose Saint Janu- Banks, MS. 1 be brought out.' There had been no exaggeration f. 31, seqq first reports. It was found that at Terranova, not e all the buildings destroyed, but the very ground they stood sunk to such a depth as to form a sort In that district alone 3043 people lost their lives. inara 1328 persons were buried beneath the n other and adjacent districts more than 3300 ›erished. 34 the ambassador visited England. His stay was ut an incident which occurred during this visit colour to the rest of his life. 91 Sir William HAMILTON was made a Privy r, and in the same year (nine years after the death BOOK II, Chap. 11. CLASSICAL ARCHEOLO of his first wife) he married Emma HARTE, whom he had first met in the house of his nephew, Colonel GREVILLE, in 1784. In September, 1793, his eventful acquaintance with EXPLORERS. NELSON was formed. GISTS AND HAMILTON'S FIRST AC WITH NELSON. : In that month, NELSON had been sent to Naples with QUAINTANCE despatches from Admiral Lord Hood, in which Sir William HAMILTON was pressed to procure the sending of some Neapolitan troops to Toulon. After his first interview with Lord Hood's messenger, he is said to have remarked to his wife I have a little man to introduce to you who will become one of the greatest men England has ever had.' The favourable impression was reciprocal, it seems. The ambassador gave such good furtherance to the object of NELSON's mission, that the messenger, we are told, said to him, 'You are a man after my heart. I'm only a captain, but, if I live, I shall get to the top of the tree;' while, of the too-fascinating lady into whose social circle he was Life, &c., of presently brought, Nelson wrote to his wife, 'She is a young woman of amiable manners, who does honour to the station to which she is raised.' Several years, however, were yet to intervene before the events of the naval war and the political circumstances of Naples itself brought about a close connexion in public transactions between the great seaman and the British ambassador, whose long diplomatic career was drawing to its close. Clarke and Nelson, vol. i, p. 133; and Nicolas, vol. i, p. 326. HAMILTON, after the manner of Collectors, had scarcely parted with the fine Museum, which he had sold to the Public in 1772, before he began to form another. The explorations of the buried cities gave some favourable opportunities near home, and his researches were spread far and wide. In amassing vases he was especially fortunate. And, in that particular, his second Collection came to the surpass Chap. II. He became anxious to ensure its preservation in BOOK II, ty. With that view he offered it to the King of CLASSICAL a. ARCHEOLO GISTS AND THE SECOND OF VASES. hink,' he wrote to the Countess of LICHTENAU, in EXPLORERS. 1796, my object will be attained by placing my HAMILTON ion, with my name attached to it, at Berlin. And I COLLECTION suaded that, in a very few years, the profit which the ill derive from such models will greatly exceed the f the Collection. The King's [porcelain] manufacould do well to profit by it. . . . For a long time have had an unlimited commission from the Grand of Russia [afterwards PAUL THE FIRST], but, between es, I should think my Collection lost in Russia; at Berlin, it would be in the midst of men of and of literary academies. re are more,' he continues, than a thousand vases, half of them figured. If the King listens to your 1, he may be assured of having the whole Collection, ould further undertake to go, at the end of the war, Hamilton to to arrange them. On reckoning up my accounts, st speak frankly (il faut que je dise la vérité),—I Sir W. t I shall needs be a loser, unless I receive seven the Countess 1 pounds sterling for this Collection. That is he sum I received from the English Parliament for Collection.*... As respects Vases, the second is beautiful and complete than the series in London, latter included also bronzes, gems, and medals.' negotiation thus opened led to no result. And the choicest contents of this second Museum ntually lost by shipwreck. that in this statement-made twenty-four years after the date saction referred to-Sir William's memory misled him. The the Parliamentary vote was (as I have stated it, on a previous t thousand four hundred pounds. of Lichtenau, May, 1796. BOOK II, Chap. 11. CLASSICAL GISTS AND When the correspondence with Berlin occurred, the Collector's health was rapidly failing him. The political ARCHEOLO- horizon was getting darker and darker. Victorious France EXPLORERS. was putting its pressure upon the Neapolitan Government to accept terms of peace which should exact the exclusion of British ships from the Neapolitan ports. The ambassador needed now all the energies for which, but a few years before, there had been no worthy political employment. They were fast vanishing; but, to the last, Sir William exerted himself to the best of his ability. It was his misfortune that he had now to work, too often, by deputy. THE LATER Lady HAMILTON's ambitious nature, and her appetite for political intrigue, when combined with some real ability and a good deal of reckless unscrupulousness as to the path by which the object in view might be reached, were dangerous qualities in such a Court as that of Naples. If, more than once, they contributed to the attainment of ends which were eagerly sought by the Government at home, and were of advantage to the movements of the British fleet, they cost -as is but too well known-an excessive price at last. The blame fairly attachable to Sir William HAMILTON is that of suffering himself to be kept at a post for which the infirmities of age were rapidly unfitting him. But there he was to remain during yet four eventful years; quitting his embassy only when, to all appearance, he was at the door of death. but their Between the September of 1793 and that of 1798 NELSON and Sir William HAMILTON met more than once; chief communication was, of course, by letter. When, in October, 1796, after two victories in quick succession, NELSON lost his hard-won prizes, and narrowly escaped being taken into a Spanish port, it was to HAMILTON that he wrote for a certificate of his conduct. And one of the ambassa |