1810	Captain Blackwood off Toulon	219

288 of the Moniteur, article ' London,' containing extracts from the English papers, the inaccurate report of the English Captain Blackwood. He has raised the indignation of the whole fleet ; every person on board of which can attest, that only one 74, the Ajax, and the frigate Amélie were able to approach the three enemy's ships, owing to the sudden fall of the wind, and its almost immediate change to a point directly ahead. The latter, therefore, had - the sole power of attack ; and yet, so far from advancing to a second action with the Ajax and Amélie they retreated. The bravery of the seamen on board our fleet equals that of the English seamen ; and the time may come when Captain Blackwood will have to give some other proof of his courage than that of which he has here boasted. It is false that the admiral's ship, of 130 guns, fired a broadside at that captain, or at either of the others. Truly, had she been able to close them, they would soon have made the discovery. It requires, sir, the boastfulness of an Englishman, to wish to inspire a belief, that the fire of three English line-of-battle ships is able to silence the fire of six French, and compel them to fly. " *

The writer, however, is incorrect in accusing Captain Blackwood of having stated, that the French three-decker fired a broadside at any of his ships : that assertion appears in a letter addressed to a newspaper editor by "An officer of the Ajax," and is virtually contradicted by a subsequent paragraph in the same letter. Another extract from the English papers, referred to by the French officer, is a loose paragraph, stating that the Euryalus lost Lieutenant Williams and seven men killed, and 13 wounded. This statement, in which there is not a shadow of truth, is exultingly dwelt upon by the French officer, in a subsequent part of his letter, as a proof of the superiority of the fire of the French, not a man on their side having been hurt, over that of the English.

The most objectionable part of Captain Blackwood's letter is the boast of what his three 74s would have done, had the French three-decker, and the five two-deckers, one or two of which in all probability were 80-gun ships, been " bold " enough to engage him. " From the determined conduct of the squadron you did me the honour to place under my command, " says the captain, " I am fully persuaded, had the ambition of the enemy permitted him to make a bolder attack, the result would have been still more honourable to his majesty's arms. " Had Commodore Rodgers, or the equally renowned Captain David Porter, or even the French admiral himself; assisted by the Moniteur's embellishing powers, written in this style, no surprise would have been created. But what Englishman does not regret, that such boastful threats, from physical causes almost impossible to be realized, should have emanated from the pen of a British officer ;

* See Appendix, No. 4.

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