Page:Authentic narrative of the proceedings of His Majesty's Squadron.pdf/2



HE glorious Victory achieved by Rear-Admiral Sir N, off the Mouth of the Nile, on the 1ſt and 2d of Auguſt laſt, has received, and must ever continue to receive, the warmeſt tribute of admiration and applauſe. It has not only filled every Britiſh boſom with the proudeſt exultation, but Foreign Nations have participated in our feelings, and have hailed the Britiſh Conqueror as the Hero and Saviour of Europe. No Naval, or perhaps any other Battle, ancient or modern, ever had ſo much dependant upon its conſequences—conſequences which have even ſurpaſſed the anticipations of the moſt experienced Stateſmen and profoundeſt Politicians in Europe; and no Battle that ever was fought was perhaps conducted, in its progreſs, with ſo much judgment, or conteſted, to its iſſue, with ſo much ardent and perſevering courage.

The account of the general reſult of this Action, even the best Hiſtorians that ſhall hereafter record it, will be proud to borrow from the ſimple and eloquent Letter of the Admiral himſelf: but in every tranſaction of the kind, after the first tumult of National exultation ſhall have in ſome degree ſubſided, a thouſand circumſtances remain to he ſupplied for the ſatisfaction of the enquiring mind, and which are eſſential to gain a juſt and perfect impreſſion of the actual merit of the great ſervices which have been performed. The Hero, like every other man, is beſt known and remembered by minute traits of character. Great and brilliant events dazzle and aſtoniſh, while the deliberations and turns of mind in a great man that produce ſuch events, attract our attention, awaken all our admiration, and permanently fix our eſteem.

To supply what the Britiſh Nation have long anxiouſly wiſhed for, an of all the  of the  previous to the Battle, and of its particular conduct in the grand criſis which enſued, we are happy that we can, from the kindneſs and indulgence of an Officer who bore a moſt diſtinguiſhed ſhare in that great event, now preſent a Narrative, at once minutely circumſtantial and ſtudiouſly accurate.