they have sent off one or two of their crippled ships last night for that port ; therefore, possibly I may find it necessary to make a junction with you immediately off Ushant, with the whole squadron. " The admiralty, it is true, may have acted thus upon the oral information of the officer bearing the despatches ; and which, in every version of it, conveys an absolute intention on the part of Sir Robert Calder to renew the action. Several of the British captains also understood that to be the nature of the message delivered to them by Lieutenant Nicholson, just as he was quitting the fleet for England.

The French official accounts, really dictated by the French emperor, but purporting to be the statement of the French commander-in-chief, claimed the victory as theirs, and boasted that the combined fleet had repeatedly chased the British fleet, and at length compelled it to fly. These accounts, translated into English, and published in all the newspapers of the country, rivetted the effect produced by the admiralty bulletin, and spread far and wide that spirit of discontent, which finally compelled Sir Robert Calder to demand a court-martial upon his conduct. That court-martial, which sat on board the Prince-of-Wales, in Portsmouth harbour, from the 23d to the 26th of December, "severely reprimanded" the British admiral, for not having done his utmost to renew the engagement on the 23d and 24th of July ; but the sentence admitted, that his conduct had not been actuated either by cowardice or disaffection. The preceding details, now for the first time so fully given to the public, will enable even a landman to form some opinion of the justice of the sentence pronounced upon Sir Robert Calder.

The following remarks of an eminent French writer will show what he thought, as well of that sentence as of the "victory" which M. Villeneuve, by his master's arts, had been made to say that he had gained over the British. "Admiral Calder," says M. Dupin, "with an inferior force, meets the Franco-Spanish fleet ; in the chase of it, he brings on a partial engagement, and captures two ships. He is tried and reprimanded, because it is believed that, had he renewed the action, he would have obtained a more decisive victory. What would they have done with Calder, in England, if he had commanded the superior fleet, and had lost two ships, in avoiding an engagement which presented so favourable a chance to skill and valour ? What would they have done with the captains ? " †

We stated, a page or two back, that the French official accounts of the meeting between M. Villeneuve and Sir Robert Calder were dictated by the French emperor. As this is a very serious charge, we shall endeavour to substantiate it. The

*  This may have arisen from the Defiance's signal of the preceding day at noon having been for 22 "sail of the line," when on the morning of the 23rd, 18 only were counted.

†  For the original, see Appendix No 4

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