For the rest, it is remarkable how frequently the English confound the battle in Copenhagen Roads in 1801 with the carrying off of our fleet in 1807, and place these two entirely distinct events under one and the same head. The English historians have endeavoured gradually to conceal the dishonour attaching to the robbery of our fleet in 1807; and this has even been carried to such an extent, that the rising generation but too often reckons that ignominious act amongst Nelson’s triumphs. They imagine that the surrender of our fleet was the result of the battle in the Roads; and yet Nelson had fallen two years before, at the battle of Trafalgar, in 1805. Fortunately for his honour, he was thus spared from partaking in the robbery of the fleet of a nearly-related people, with whom England was at peace. But this is not the only error which the Dane must correct when he hears in England the name of Nelson extolled at the expense of Denmark and of historical truth. Yet he will find it difficult to refute another similar mistake, namely, a firm belief in Nelson’s “_complete victory_” in the battle of 1801. It is just as unshaken an article of faith among the British people that Nelson then gained a brilliant victory, as it is an acknowledged certainty, founded on fact, that at all events the battle was neither won by the English nor lost by the Danes. Nay it is certain that almost the whole of Nelson’s fleet would have been destroyed, or taken, if the Crown Prince of Denmark—for fear of engaging in a lengthened war with England, and from other purely political reasons, as well as, it must also be observed, at Nelson’s own request—had not put a stop to the battle. Curiously enough, in two of the finest poems which the English and Danish people can produce, Campbell’s “Battle of the Baltic,” and Hertz’s “Slaget paa Rheden,” the combat is represented in each as honourable to the respective nations. Not long since, a Dane in England was led into a warm argument respecting the disputed result of this battle; when the master of the house suddenly recollected that an old invalid, who looked after the boats on the canals in the garden, had served under Nelson. He called out to him that “here was a Dane, and that he had certainly seen that sort of folks before.” “Yes, master,” answered the honest tar, “but on that day the Danes made it much hotter than we liked.” This terminated the dispute. The time, however, in the order of Nature, cannot be far distant when the Dane in England may look in vain for such support from men who were present at the battle. He must then be contented to state his opinion, without the least hope of its carrying any weight; though he can, at all events, console himself with the reflection that, when the conversation turns on the mutual relations between England and Denmark, the latter may point to conquests of a very different, as well as far more important and altogether undisputed kind.