had to attend to the safe and convenient conveyance of the troops to their destination-to provide for their comfort on board, and their safe debarkation on shore. All this was duly effected, and Sir John Stuart, with an army of four thousand five hundred effective men, shortly after gained that victory, than which one more honourable to the combatants, or more glorious to the arms of any nation, was never recorded-the victory of Maida.

Major-general Sir John Stuart, in his despatch, dated, "Camp on the plain of Maida, July 6, 1806," published in the London Gazette Extraordinary of September 5, of the same year, states as follows:

"The scene of action was too far from the sea to enable us to derive any direct co-operation from the navy but Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, who had arrived in the bay the evening before the action, had directed such a disposition of ships and gun-boats as would have greatly favoured us, had events obliged us to retire. The solicitude, however, of every part of the navy to be of use to us, the promptitude with which the seamen hastened on shore with our supplies, their anxiety to assist our wounded, and the tenderness with which they treated them, would have been an affecting circumstance to observers, even the

most indifferent to me it was particularly

so.

This victory led to the desired insurrection, but it proved transient and unsuccessful. So sensible was Sir John Stuart of his inability to maintain the ground he had won in Calabria, that very shortly afterwards he withdrew all his forces from that country, with the exception of a garrison left at Scylla, and a detachment of the seventy-eighth regiment, under Colonel M'Leod, which had been sent in the Amphion frigate to the coast near Catangaro, in order to countenance and assist the insurgents in that quarter.

General Acland was also despatched to the Bay of Naples; and though he was not absolutely prohibited from landing his troops, yet was he directed not to expose them to that danger, unless he had the prospect of effecting some object of real and permanent utility.

During all these operations, Sir Sidney Smith was most actively, if not judiciously, employed along the coast, assisting the insurgents with arms and ammunition, supplying them with provisions, and conveying them from one place to another, in the vessels under his command. Though we doubt that all this was a judicious acting, yet the manner in which the rear-admiral performed it was most judicious and effective.

He had nothing to do with the policy of this conduct he had only to see that it was well doneand well done indeed it was. His name became

a very terror to the French.

By these unremitting exertions he contributed materially to extend the insurrection along the coast, and to expel the enemy from the watchtowers and the castles which they occupied upon the shore.

These spirited operations were, in some instances, of use, by securing a safer and better anchorage for his ships; but in others, we are bound to say, and it is with grief we say it, that the blood and treasure which they cost far exceeded the value of those temporary acquisitions.

In one of these adventures-for many of these exploits were more like the adventurous outbreaks of knight-errantry than the well-considered enterprises of modern warfare- he had in his own ship, the Pompée, a lieutenant and eight men killed, and thirty-four wounded, in an attack upon an insignificant fort on Point Licosa, which he destroyed when it fell into his hands.

It would, of itself, form a volume to detail all the services that he performed in this desultory warfare-services that really tended to no other result than to teach the seamen the art of gunnery, and to inure the ships' crews to the

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excitement of constant action. Geatawas lost, the country became one scene of social disorganisation, and rapine and bloodshed prevailed wherever the human species congregated. The land was ruined and depopulated, whilst every place and post worth retaining still remained in the hands of the French. While things were in this state, Sir Sidney was called away to other duties.

The poor and despised court of Sicily was as grateful to Sir Sidney Smith as the bestowal of mere honours could prove them. The ex-viceroy of Calabria received the orders of the Grand Cross of St. Ferdinand and of Merit, accompanied by a letter from the then reigning Queen, expressive of the regret felt by the royal family at his departure, and the utmost gratitude for his exertions in their cause.

The subjoined is a translation of the letter (from the French) from the Queen of the two Sicilies to Rear-Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, dated Palermo, January 25th, 1837, and enclosed in a packet that conveyed the order.

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My very worthy and dear Admiral,

"I cannot find sufficient expressions to convey the painful feeling which your departure (so very unforeseen) has caused, both to me and among my whole family. I can only tell you

that you are accompanied by our most sincere good wishes, and, more particularly on my part, by gratitude that will only cease with my life, for all that you have done for us; and for what you would still have done for us, if everything had not thwarted you, and cramped your zeal and enterprise.

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May you be as happy as my heart prays for you! And may you continue, by fresh laurels, to augment your own glory and the number of the envious. I still cherish the hope of seeing you again in better times, and of giving you proof of those sentiments which, at the present moment, I cannot express; but you will find, in all times and places, (whatever may be the fate reserved for us,) our hearts gratefully attached to you, even unto the grave.

"Pray make my sincere compliments to the Captain (Dacre) and to all the officers of Le Pompée, as well as my good wishes for their happiness. Assure them of the pain with which I witness their departure.

"I am, most truly, for life,

"Your very sincere and devoted friend,

"CHARLOTTE."

We are now going to inflict a digression upon the reader, but one intimately connected with