His lordship wrote, on the same day, a serious and respectable justification of his conduct, to Mr. Nepean; in which he observes, how perfectly conscious he is, that want of communicating where and when it is necessary, cannot be laid to his charge. After stating, that he actually wrote to Mr. Nepean, as well as to Earl Spencer, by a Neapolitan courier, who left Palermo on the very day the Charon sailed, he spiritedly says--"I own, I do not feel that, if cutters and couriers go off the same day, that it is necessary to write by a convoy. I know the absolute necessity of the board's being exactly acquainted with every thing which passes; and they, I beg, will give me credit for attention to my duty. As a junior flag-officer," he observes, "of course, without those about me--secretaries, interpreters, &c.--I have been thrown into a more extensive correspondence than ever, perhaps, fell to the lot of any admiral; and into a political situation, I own, out of my sphere. It is a fact, which it would not become me to boast of, but on the present occasion--I have never, but three times, put my feet on the ground, since December 1798; and, except to the court, that till after eight o'clock at night I never relax from business. I have had, hitherto," concludes his lordship, "the board knows, no one emolument, no one advantage, of a commander in chief." In a letter written to Earl Spencer next day, the 28th, this exalted man, after observing that General Fox orders Colonel Graham not to incur any expence for stores, or any other articles but provisions, asks--"What can this mean? But I have told Troubridge, that the cause cannot stand still for want of a little money. This would be, what we call--penny wise, and pound foolish. If nobody will pay it," nobly adds our hero, "I shall sell Bronte, and the Emperor of Russia's box; for I feel myself above every consideration, but that of serving faithfully. Do not, my dear lord," he most pathetically concludes, "let the Admiralty write harshly to me; my generous soul cannot bear it, being conscious it is entirely unmerited!" The reader of sensibility will not fail to feel this very affecting deprecation; and to lament, that it should ever have been necessary. On the day following, however, Lord Nelson had the satisfaction of receiving eight thousand ounces from his Sicilian Majesty, for the relief of the poor Maltese; which his lordship immediately sent to Captain Ball, by the Perseus bomb; and, determined that nothing in his power should be wanted, he not only took on himself, from the discouraging circumstance of General Fox's orders to Colonel Graham, to augment his numerous other occupations, by becoming a commissary for these troops, but actually pledged Bronte for twelve thousand ounces--six thousand six hundred pounds--should any difficulty arise in the payments.