CASE OF LADY HAMILTON.

The particulars, which form the subject of the following appeal, would, we doubt not, sufficiently interest the feelings of our Reaters, without any farther incitement than that arising from a spirit of equity, and a desire to have every demand upon the justice of the Country most promptly and liberally answered.

A personal trespass receives it needful reprehension; but when a nation is unjust, it is a public grievance, demanding equal exposition and redress. The Case of Lady Hamilton, as represented by herself, and corroborated by the several undoubted testimonies, which common observation can supply, will unquestionably be recognized as coming under the latter denomination, and therefore most justly entitled to the serious consideration of all who feel for the characteristic honour and reputation of the Country. That the best interests of a State are sometimes forwarded by means as apparently unexpected and unlooked-for, as is here developed, though confessedly uncommon, should not increase our wonder to the exclusion of our belief: since history affords repeated examples of the devotion of individuals to the public cause, without a reference to private interest :-but it is also as certain, to the honour of those States, as well as to the comfort of such individuals, that the public recompence has kept pace with the claim of service, the merit and acknowledgement have gone together:-and, where this has not been done, who is there that reads that does not condemn, who is there that does not make the case his own, partake the injury, and, with a prophetic instinct, regard the ingratitude and injustice of such a State as the sure prelude to its degradation and ruin. It was a magnanimous sentiment, and one which formed the grand incentive to public virtue among the antient Heroes of the world, that made the service of the State the first rule of action, the most encouraged and the most esteemed it was the dearest principle of Roman policy, and helped her to the conquest of the world :-nor did it fail her, till foul corruption crept into the State, and superseded every claim to gratitude or justice. Merit no more could gain a passport to preferment; the pander and the parasite possessed and governed all, whence Public Virtue became extinct, and with it fell the Empire of the World.

The disregard of public services is a source of evil, which those who shall contemn may sooner or later be brought to fear.In the case before us, we find an individual most actively and generously employed in the service of her Country. Her husband, Sir William Hamilton, it is true, was officially commissioned; but appears to have been by deficiency of intellect or influence, but little adapted to those arduous duties, which were so happily and dexterously performed by the present Complainant. It has been, and we much fear will continue to be, a manifest drawback upon the political interests of England, that we are essentially deficient in our diplomatic department, that species of policy wherein our enemy so conspicuously excels.-France, it is well known, gains as much by intrigue as by the effort of the sword; her policy and her power are inseparable, and, thus connected, have rendered both invincible. Our diplomacy, on the contrary, so far from being beneficial, has only tended to our disgrace and discomfiture; and is

ever found to be inefficient when placed in competition with French cunning. But, in the case before us, here it was met with its counterpart,-here was a spirit equally subtle and alert, to dispute the palm, and to bear away the prize; and shall it not meet with its deserved encouragement?-Let the Reader say, when he has acquainted himself with the conduct and address of this Lady, whether the greatest honour, the highest testimony of national obligation, is not due to her for the unexampled exertions, whereby she gave occasion for every British heart to throb with pride and exultation, by placing the means in those hands who knew so well how to use them to advantage, and apply them to the purposes of victory ?-Lord Nelson, in an especial manner, acknowledged the benefit of her exertions, declaring that he owed his laurels to her interference, and left the recompence to the gratitude and generosity of his Country.-But, if this were too much, if gratitude could not be afforded, at least we might expect a regard for justice. Here is a charge for money disbursed on account of Government, private property expended, not only to forward the designs but to subsist the engines of Government. The army, in Malta, was supplied with grain at the expense of this Lady;-does any one deny this claim, and, if not, why is she not repaid?-She provided the means, at a considerable expense, to dispatch a Messenger, with intelligence of the greatest consequence, to the English Cabinet,-why has she not been compensated? These are actual demands, which if incurred while her husband held his diplomatic office, should in their common course have been reimbursed. Her indefatigable zeal and matchless constancy of mind secured the retreat of our august Allies, and delivered them from the clutches of the common enemy, those Allies whom since we have deemed essentially necessary in the common cause;-and is not this also a strong claim upon that Government, which has not failed to profit by this good fortune?-But for her interference the Battle of the Nile had never been achieved; the Hero of that day has said it: and shall not this induce the British Legislature to reward such signal service? at least, will it not permit the author of all these benefits to enjoy the pension assigned to her husband, in whose name, and by virtue of whose office, these services were performed?-Let us at least be just, although to be generous may exceed our power.-How much more rightful is this Lady's claim to public remuneration than many of those, who for the most part are permitted to enjoy it!-The Nation thought, and most justly, that to confer splendour and honour upon the family of our Hero, was a needful testimony of his public worth; and thus are those, who never shared his toil, partaking, from a sense of gratitude, of what his services alone had earned:-a princely income has been bestowed: -while to Her, who was the very means of extending those claims, by whose personal sacrifices the great cause in which he fought was strengthened and upheld, to Her no public gratitude is due, no remuneration is to be given!-She that has refused all recompence from any hand than that of her Country, who might have been saved from present necessity by the effort of private friendship, but that she scorned to take advantage of that sentiment, trusting rather to the effect of public gratitude; studious only to have it understood, that what she had done, she had done it for the public weal, from which alone she could accept return ;-yet she is made to feel the scorpion sting of ingratitude, and ask for recompence in vain!

We have offered these few preliminary observations in the true spirit of candour, and with a desire to advocate the cause of the injured; and which we doubt not will be found in unison with the Reader's sentiments when he shall have perused the statements here subjoined. We profess to take no farther view of the life or conduct of this Lady than what appertains to the nature of her present claims, which we appre hend will be acknowledged by all who read them as altogether undeniable: we meddle not with private character, else few who share the highest public honours might stand the scrutiny; of which the immortal Nelson himself may be adduced as an example:-No, it is the public claim we own, the public claim we advocate, and with this impres sion we lay it before our Readers :

STATEMENT OF THE CASE OF LADY HAMILTON.

In September, 1791, I went with my husband, through France, to Naples. At Paris I waited on the Queen, then at the Thuilleries, who entrusted me with the last letter she wrote to her sister, the Queen of Naples; this led to an ascendancy in Her Majesty's esteem that I never after failed to exert in favour of every British interest.

In the year 1793, when Lord Hood had taken possession of Toulon, and Sir John Jervis was employed upon the reduction of Corsica, the latter kept writing to me for every thing he wanted, which I procured to be promptly provided him, and, as his letters to me prove, had considerably facilitated the reduction of that Island. I had, by this time, the King induced, through my influence with the Queen, to become so zealous in the good cause, that both would often say, "I had debourbonized them, and made them all English!"

By the increasing cultivation of this influence, and no less watchfulness to turn it to my country's good, it happened that I discovered a courier had brought the King of Naples a private letter from the King of Spain; I prevailed on the Queen to take it from his pocket unseen: we found it to contain the King of Spain's resolution to withdraw from the coalition, and join the French against England. My husband at this time lay dangerously ill; I prevailed on the Queen to allow my taking a copy, with which I immediately dispatched a messenger to my Lord Grenville, taking all the necessary precautions, for his safe arrival then became very difficult, and altogether cost me about 400l. paid out of my private purse.

I shall not detain farther by detailing the many less important, although useful, matters to which my influence and activity had given effect, from this time until 1798; but merely observe, that no exertion of mine was wanting to forward every object sought, and in which I was always successful, particularly in providing for the

wants of our brave fleets in those seas, although at this period French ascendancy and revolutionary ideas had arrived at such a height in Naples, as made it dangerous for the British Minister to go to Court.

It was at this awful period, in June 1798, about three days after the French fleet passed by for Malta, Sir William and myself were awakened at six o'clock in the morning by Captain Trowbridge, with a letter from Sir Horatio Nelson, then with his fleet, lying off the Bay, near the Capree, "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, otherwise, he must run for Gibraltar, being in urgent want, and that, consequently, be would be obliged to give over all farther pursuit of the French fleet which he missed at Egypt on account of their having put into Malta."

At this time, Naples had made peace with France, by desire of our Court; La Comte La Michelle was French Ambassador; one of the stipulations was," that no more than two English ships of war should enter into any of the Neapolitan or Sicilian ports!" However, Sir William called up General Acton, the Minister, who immediately convened a Council, the King present: this was about half-past six. I went to the Queen, who received me in her bed.. I told Her Majesty that now depended on her the safety of the Two Sicilies; should the Council decide on negative or half measures, as I feared they must do. I told her the Sicílies must be lost if Nelson was not supplied, and thereby enabled to follow the great French force that had gone by in that direction but a few days before. Nothing

could exceed the alarm with which this communication inspired her; she said the King was in Council, and would decide with his Ministers. I prayed and implored her on my knees; she could not withstand my entreaties and arguments; I brought her pen, ink, and paper, to the bed ; I diç