Cylchgronau Cymru

ADMIRAL SIR THOMAS FOLEY. 113 stationed his ships, as far as he was able, one on the outer bow, and another on the inner quarter of each of the enemy." The victory was complete, but Nelson could not follow it up, as he would have done, for want of means. " Were I to die this moment," he said in his despatches to the Admiralty, "' want of frigates' would be found stamped on my heart. No words of mine can express what I have suffered and am suffering for want of them." It is curious to speculate on what would have been the probable results to the world if Nelson had possessed those " eyes of the fleet" during his long a,nd disheartening pursuit of the Toulon expedition to the East. It is well known, as has already been mentioned, that he arrived at and left Alexandria before Buonaparte arrived there. In fact, Nelson departed in the morning of the 1st of July, the very day on which the French fleet arrived. Had he possessed the frigates he pined for, they would have been scouring the approaches to Egypt, and would certainly have discovered the advent of Napoleon on that day. The action which would have ensued would probably have ended in the same way as the Battle of the Nile. Buonaparte would have been captured or killed. The soul of France having departed her body would have been easily controlled by a combination of the Powers of Europe. Trafalgar would not have been fought; the Peninsular War would never have taken place. The Duke of Wellington's extraordinary geuius for war would have had no field for its display, and he would probably not have emerged from comparative obscurity. There would have been no Austerlitz—no retreat from Moscow —no Leipsic—no Waterloo, whilst the peace-at-any-price party would have had no locus standi in these days, since the National Debt of England would have been but a nominal burden. Certainly Lord Spencer and his Board of Admiralty of that day have much to answer for! Captain Foley was appointed to the command of the Elephant, seventy-four, on the 6th of January, 1800, and was employed in the Channel fleet at the blockade of Brest and L'Orient until March, 1801. We will now turn to Copenhagen. England had long exercised the recognised right of searching the ships of neutrals for contraband of war. On the 25th of July, 1800, a British squadron of three frigates fell in with the Danish forty-gun frigate Freya, Captain Krabbe, having under ■convoy two ships, two brigs, and two galliots. Captain Thomas Baker, of the twenty-eight-gun frigate Nemesis, the senior officer, hailed the Freya to say that he would send a boat on board the convoy. Captain Krabbe replied that if an attempt of the kind were made he would fire into the boat. Both threats were jput into execution, and an action ensued, ending, of course, in