if assisted passages alone are given, he will be able to send out ten persons; if free, six.

Many suitable tracts may be found in the Port Phillip districts, or South Australia, occupied as squatting stations, the purchase of the lease of which might be easily arranged.

We will suppose that the first body will consist of thirty or forty gentlemen and their families, and three or four carefully selected servants to each; the land being well chosen and surveyed. They would be accompanied by a clergyman and a medical man, and one or two tutors for their children, as also by two or more thoroughly practical and intelligent agriculturists, with good salaries, to superintend their farming operations, and who might be despatched to gain information from the older settlements. Their business would be to visit each farm in succession, and afford advice and assistance. We are not, however, supposing that all the gentlemen would become exclusively agriculturists. Some would become merchants, and others would have flocks and herds in the interior, although the homesteads of all would be in the district we have described. It will be important that they are as far as possible relations and friends of each other, and all come from the same county or neighbourhood. The settlements being thus formed, as soon as the colonists are able to employ more hands the landed proprietors will select such of their tenantry as may be willing to go, and assisting them by loans if required or other means will send them out consigned to the charge of the agent. His business will be to find them employment among the colonists, or if more came out than required, he could have some work of general utility, on which to occupy them, till they could make a private engagement. Funds might be provided by the landowners at home for the purpose, to be repaid by the colonists. We will suppose the governor of the province to have appointed a chief magistrate and a constabulary, and a military organization to have been formed to protect them against the natives, and we conceive that the elements of perfect success would exist in such a body. A good port being in the neighbourhood, roads would gradually be formed, a town would be erected, and colleges, and schools, and literary and scientific institutions would meet the wants of the rising generation, and the first house of God formed in the wilderness of rough beams and leafy trees, the origin of the beautiful Gothic architecture, would in time be replaced by many of more enduring brick and stone.

Such are our ideas, supported by the opinion of many practical colonists, of a sound scheme of colonisation, and we trust to see before long many such communities formed and flourishing throughout Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, Canada, and the Falkland Islands. When the true aristocracy of Britain come forward to place themselves in the van of emigration, from that time may we date the commencement of the era of true colonisation; and when men learn to deck the brows of the founders of colonies with laurels, precious and lasting as those won on the battle-fields of India and the Peninsula, and to acknowledge that the real vocation of man is to promote the happiness and prosperity of his fellow men, then shall we see the offspring of Britain, in fulfilment of their glorious vocation, peopling the far regions of the east and west, and each now desert land and isle with communities of virtuous and religious men, great in wealth and power, the promoters of civilisation, the apostles of the faith of Christ.

NELSON AND LADY HAMILTON.*

THE most interesting epoch in Lord Nelson's life was undoubtedly, both in its duration and details, his connexion with the court of Naples. Bastia, St. Vincent's, Copenhagen, the Nile, and a host of other names stand out with meteoric light, only eclipsed by the ever-memorable Trafalgar. But the friendly support given by the British Admiral to an imbecile and corrupt monarchy, the inglorious attempt on the part of the boastful Neapolitans-of all nations the least warlike-to throw off the yoke of the French, the evasions and restorations of the royal family, the gradual subjugation of England's bravest officer to the wiles and enchantments of the climate and society, and the influence of the attachment there formed upon his subsequent acts and whole career, impart an interest to this portion of his life, that is, in certain points of view, unequalled by any other.

The whole of these transactions stand forth now in their true light as a wasteful expenditure of treasure, talent, courage, and blood, and as especially in every one respect unworthy of a great nation. "No circumstances," says Southey, "could be more unfavourable to the best interests of Europe, than those which placed England in strict alliance with the superannuated and abominable governments of the continent. The subjects of those governments who wished for freedom thus became enemies to England, and dupes and agents of France. They looked to their own grinding grievances, and did not see the danger with which the liberties of the world were threatened. England, on the other hand, saw the danger in its true magnitude, but was blind to these grievances, and found herself compelled to support systems which had formerly been equally the object of her abhorrence and contempt."

The consequence was inevitable failure; yet persistance on our part in a false step once taken. When Jerome Buonaparte was King of Naples, £300,000 sterling was paid to the Sicilian court in yearly subsidy, until the character of the English nation suffered from so enormous an expenditure upon Neapolitan spies and Calabrian homicides, and a catastrophe was brought about, by the forcible removal from Sicily, by her long-tried friends the British-of Queen Maria Caroline, daughter of Maria Theresa, and with Lady Hamilton, head of the whole offending. Strangely similar was the fate of two of the handsomest and most intriguing women of the day. An obscure death to the one, a friendless and penniless death-bed to the other!

Lord Nelson first visited Naples in 1793, when he was despatched thither by Lord Hood. Mr. Pettigrew speaks in the following terms of the gallant admiral's first acquaintanceship with the king and court, and with Sir William Hamilton, the British minister.

The king and the court were lavish in their praises of the English-" the saviours of Italy," as they were called. The king paid Nelson the most marked attention, and intrusted to him "the handsomest letter that can be penned, in his own hand," to Lord Hood, and offered 6000 troops to assist in the preservation of Toulon. Here, too, Nelson first saw Lady Hamilton, who after

Memoirs of the Life of Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, K.B., &c. By Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, F.R.S., F.S.A., &c. &c. Two Vols. T. & W. Boone.

wards exercised such remarkable influence over him, and which extended to the last moments of his existence. As the principal part of the correspondence from 1798 to that lamented time will form the chief portion of novelty offered by these volumes, and to which the present pages may be considered as preparatory and essential to complete the series of events which distinguished the career of this illustrious hero, it will not be out of place, nor uninteresting, to insert the account (which, however, it must be recollected, was written under the eye of Lady Hamilton) of the manner and the circumstances under which he was introduced to her:-" Sir William, on returning home, after his first interview with Nelson, told Lady Hamilton that he was about to introduce to her a little man, who could not boast of being very handsome, but who would become the greatest man that ever England produced. I know it from the very few words of conversation I have already had with him. I pronounce that he will one day astonish the world. I have never entertained any officer at my house, but I am determined to bring him here; let him be put in the room prepared for Prince Augustus." Nelson is 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." To Mrs. Nelson he thus simply notices Lady H.: "Lady Hamilton has been wonderfully kind and good to Josiah. She is a young woman of amiable manners, and who does honour to the station to which she is raised."

"Thus began," says Southey, who relates the same anecdote, “that acquaintance which ended in the destruction of Nelson's happiness."

Nelson did not return to Naples till after the Battle of the Nile, and never was any hero, on his return from victory, welcomed with more heartfelt joy. It is only by extracts from the correspondence of the time, that any idea can be formed of the enthusiasm excited in the breasts both of the queen and of Lady Hamilton, in favour of the hero.

On the 22nd of September, Nelson arrived at Naples. The king came out three leagues to meet him, and was preceded by Sir William and Lady Hamilton. Nelson has himself recorded the circumstances of this remarkable interview in a letter to Lady Nelson. He says:

I must endeavour to convey to you something of what passed; but if it were so affecting to those who were only united to me by bonds of friendship, what must it be to my dearest wife, my friend, my everything which is most dear to me in this world? Sir William and Lady Hamilton came out to sea, attended by numerous boats with emblems, &c. They, my most respectable friends, had nearly been laid up and seriously ill; first from anxiety, and then from joy. It was imprudently told Lady Hamilton in a moment, and the effect was like a shot; she fell apparently dead, and is not yet perfectly recovered from severe bruises. Alongside came my honoured friends; the scene in the boat was terribly affecting; up flew her ladyship, and exclaiming, “ Oh God! is it possible?" she fell into my arm more dead than alive. Tears, however, soon set matters to rights; when alongside came the king. The scene was, in its way, as interesting; he took me by the hand, calling me his "deliverer and preserver," with every other expression of kindness. In short, all Naples calls me " Nostro Liberatore ;" my greeting from the lower classes was truly affecting. I hope some day to have the pleasure of introducing you to Lady Hamilton; she is one of the very best women in this world; she is an honour to her sex. Her kindness, with Sir William's, to me, is more than I can express: I am in their house, and I may now tell you, it required all the kindness of my friends to set me up. Lady Hamilton intends writing to you. May God Almighty bless you, and give us, in due time, a happy meeting.

Human nature is of a compound, not of simple character. Even love is mostly commingled with other feelings. Respect, friendship, affections,

and sympathies founded upon a variety of incidental circumstances play their part in the great passion of life. It is even well-known that piety can be accessory to love. Lady Hamilton's first feelings towards Nelson were evidently those of regard for him as a brave and clever man, and those feelings were enhanced by a great enthusiasm in the cause of the Queen of Naples, and no small amount of true patriotism. The most beautiful woman of her time, she was also gifted with remarkable talent, quick apprehension, and exceedingly warm and ardent feelings. Her anxiety in the cause had already manifested itself in the most unmistakeable manner, in obtaining from the Queen of Naples an order for the fleet to victual and water, which at the very moment had been publicly refused to the minister for fear of breaking with France. Mr. Pettigrew enters at length into this question in his appendix, as one of the undoubted claims which Lady Hamilton perished without ever seeing acknowledged, by a little grateful government. There is no doubt that Nelson always avowed that but for that assistance he could not have gone in pursuit of the French fleet, nor would the Battle of the Nile ever have been fought. The feeling experienced by Lady Hamilton, on hearing of the victory gained by a friend for whom she had exerted herself, even to bending on her knees-suppliant before the queen-and the emotions experienced on beholding the wounded and suffering hero, were of too strong a nature to be trimmed to the formality ordained by a strict social etiquette. The previous career of this remarkable woman was no less opposed to such subjugation of the inclinations. Lady Hamilton became Lord Nelson's nurse; admiration of the hero, the most friendly anxiety for his welfare, and a tender solicitude for his recovery, were hence all commingled to produce an affection of a warmer kind.

On the other hand Lord Nelson's fine principles and manly intellect abhorred the profligacy and corruption of the court of Naples. His designation of the country in a letter to Earl St. Vincent dated the 30th of September, 1798, has been handed down to posterity in every life written of the hero. The devotedness, however, of Sir William and Lady

Hamilton reconciled him to his detention there.

Mr. Pettigrew is at some pains to show that that unfortunate passion which was destined to have so much influence upon Nelson's subsequent conduct, had no existence till this period. If so, it certainly gained rapidly in strength upon the excitement of success; or how can we explain the conduct of Captain Josiah Nisbet, his step-son, at the fête given by Sir William and Lady Hamilton, on the birth-day of Nelson, September 29, 1798, seven days after Nelson's arrival at Naples, and in which Captain Nisbet appears to have been goaded to such an extreme indignation, and to have conducted himself with so much violence, that Captain Troubridge and another officer were under the necessity of removing him from the room. It remained for Lady Hamilton to effect a reconciliation, under the plea of accidental inebriety.

It is unnecessary to dwell upon the charms both of person and intellect that belonged to this most fascinating woman. One portion of her very remarkable life had been devoted to exhibiting herself as a perfect model of health and beauty. Romney, the Royal Academician, equally fascinated by the powers of her mind and the symmetry of her form, selected her as the subject of many of his most esteemed paintings.

No regular attempt, however, at the cultivation of Emma's powers was made till she was already somewhat advanced in life, when, under

the tuition of proper instructors, she rapidly attained great perfection. Under the guidance of Sir William Hamilton-a man of taste and learning and residing in a land so favoured as Italy, she had many further opportunities of improving herself, and she not only maintained the most confidential intercourse with the Queen of Naples, but the friendship that existed between the queen and the minister's wife was of the most ardent character.

"Young and beautiful," says Mr. Pettigrew, "with a knowledge of the world derived under circumstances, and attended by consequences anything but agreeable to reflect upon, or calculated to excite satisfaction-versed in its most seductive fascinations, and intellectually gifted with taste for the fine arts, and with powers for the most effectual display of grace and beauty— enthusiastic in her devotion to noble and generous acts, and sensibly alive to the honour and glory of her country, it is not surprising that Nelson should have felt the power of her influence. Simple in his manners, and pure in his nature-warm and generous in his feelings-unskilled in the arts of the world-and, by his professional engagements, unaccustomed to any but the most limited society, it is not extraordinary that he should have fallen under the blandishments of a syren."

The French ambassador having urged strongly upon the Neapolitan court their breach of faith in supplying the British fleet at Syracuse, contrary to treaty, Lady Hamilton availed herself at this juncture, whilst the court was flushed with joy at the victory of the Nile, to exercise her influence still further on the queen, and to urge upon her the rash scheme of breaking altogether with the French. The queen, who had been obliged to cede to the necessity of receiving an envoy from that nation which was tinged with the blood of her sister, her brother-in-law, and her nephew, failed not to enter, in the most lively manner, into these proposals, and communicated them to the king. Nelson himself must, however, take his share of blame (if it can be so called where all the blame attaches itself to the cowardice and incapability of the Neapolitans) in these untoward transactions; for it appears that there was much hesitation on the occasion, as, on the 14th of November, Nelson writes to Earl Spencer that he had been present at the deliberations with the king, General Mack, and Sir John Acton, and that a disposition appeared to exist, in consequence of want of assurance of support from the Emperor of Austria, to wait until the French had made further aggressions. Nelson boldly told the king, "either to advance, trusting to God for his blessing on a just cause, to die with l'épée à la main, or remain quiet and be kicked out of your kingdoms."

An army of 35,000 men was raised and marched from St. Germains under the command of General Mack, the king himself accompanying it. Nelson always entertained an unfavourable opinion of this General Mack. "General Mack," he says, "cannot move without five carriages. I have formed an opinion. I heartily pray I may be mistaken.”—Letter to Earl Spencer. At a Neapolitan review, the general manoeuvred his troops so cleverly, that in directing the operations of a feigned fight, his own troops became surrounded by those of the enemy. Nelson, who observed this, immediately exclaimed, "This fellow does not understand his busi

ness.'

Nelson effected an important diversion by sea at the same time that General Mack advanced to the encounter by land. He sailed on the 22d of November, with a small squadron, in company with the Portuguese squadron, having 5123 Neapolitan troops on board. On this day, the