That the omission to mention names was the result of design, and not of accident, in the public letter of the commander in chief, is certainly true; and the Earl of St. Vincent need never blush at avowing the motive by which he was laudably actuated to avoid mentioning the names of individuals. He had seen an instance of the fatal consequences of such selections, in the then recent example of Lord Howe; who, with the best intentions, had thus unfortunately excited the most cruel pangs in the bosoms of many brave commanders. He resolved, therefore, with the most humane and benevolent view, to speak only, to the public, in terms of general approbation. Having had occasion to say so much respecting this public letter, it's omission might, by the malignant, be construed into a wish to prevent it's being sufficiently investigated. Truth, however, is always a gainer by minute enquiry: notwithstanding, therefore, the repetition which this letter necessarily contains of what has been already seen by the reader in Colonel Drinkwater's Narrative, it is here subjoined-- "Victory, off Lagos Bay, February 16, 1797. "SIR, "The hopes of falling in with the Spanish fleet, expressed in my letter to you of the 13th instant, were confirmed, that night, by our distinctly hearing the report of their signal-guns, and by intelligence received from Captain Foote, of his majesty's ship Niger, who had, with equal judgment and perseverance, kept company with them for several days, on my prescribed rendezvous; which, from the strong south-east winds, I had never been able to reach: and, that they were not more than three or four leagues from us. I anxiously waited the dawn of day; when, being on the starboard tack, Cape St. Vincent bearing east by north seven leagues, I had the satisfaction of seeing a number of ships, extending from south-west to south, the wind then at west by south. At forty minutes past ten, the weather being extremely hazy, La Bonne Citoyenne made the signal that the ships were of the line, twenty-five in number: his majesty's squadron, consisting of the fifteen ships of the line named in the margin, were happily formed, in the most complete order of sailing, in two lines. By carrying a press of sail, I was fortunate in getting in with the enemy's fleet at half past eleven o'clock, before it had time to connect and form a regular order of battle. Such a moment was not to be lost: and, confident in the skill, valour, and discipline, of the officers and men I had the happiness to command, and judging that the honour of his majesty's arms, and the circumstances of the war in these seas, required a considerable degree of enterprize, I felt myself justified in departing from the regular system; and, passing through their fleet, in a line formed with the utmost celerity,