Lord Nelson appears to have been of opinion, about this time, that the French fleet, which had effected a junction with the Spanish, making together forty-three sail of the line, and were reported to have sailed from Carthagena on the 29th of June, had hostile designs against the kingdom of Portugal. This he mentions to Sir Sidney Smith, in a congratulatory epistle on the first successes of that able officer in Egypt. "Yesterday," his lordship says, writing on the 24th of July, "brought me letters from your worthy brother; and we had the great pleasure of hearing that your truly meritorious and wonderful exertions were in a fair train for the extirpation of that horde of thieves, who went to Egypt with that arch-thief Bonaparte. I beg you will express, to Captain Miller, and to all the brave officers and men who have fought so nobly under your orders, the sense I entertain of your and their great merit." To Sir Sidney's brother, his lordship writes with still stronger praise of that spirited and enterprising officer--"I thank you, truly," says his lordship, "for your letter of June 9th, containing an extract of one from your brother, who has done so much at Acre. It is like his former conduct; and, I can assure you, no one admires his gallantry and judgment more than myself. But, if I know myself, as I never have encroached on the command of others, so I will not suffer even my friend Sir Sidney to encroach upon mine. I dare say, he thought he was to have a separate command in the Levant; I find, upon enquiry, it never was intended to have any one in the Levant separate from me." This candid explanation may be considered as a manly acknowledgment of his lordship's, that he had pushed his severity against his friend Sir Sidney sufficiently far. Lord Nelson also received, from Constantinople, among other dispatches, the approbation of the Grand Signior for his conduct at Tripoli and Tunis: to whom he had constantly sent copies of his correspondence with the bashaw and the bey; and now, in a letter to his Excellency the Grand Vizir, observed that he had no other object in view, than to fulfil the orders of the great king, his master, by proving him a most faithful ally. On the 28th, the garrison of Capua surrendered to Captain Troubridge, and the commanders of the other allied troops; of which event he informed Lord Nelson, next day, in the following public letter. "Culloden, Naples Bay, 29th July 1799. "MY LORD,