![NELSON, Horatio (1758-1805). Autograph letter (signature excised) to [Sir Alexander] Ball [at Malta], Victory [off Cape Sicie], 7 June 1804, on two bifolia, 6½ pages, 4to (central portion of last leaf removed with loss of signature, old paper repair, a few light spots, 2 tiny splits in outer margins). Provenance: Collection of Edwin Wolf II, sold at Christie's, 20 June 1990 (lot 251)](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2006/CKS/2006_CKS_07275_0063_000(010411).jpg?w=1)
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NELSON, Horatio (1758-1805). Autograph letter (signature excised) to [Sir Alexander] Ball [at Malta], Victory [off Cape Sicie], 7 June 1804, on two bifolia, 6½ pages, 4to (central portion of last leaf removed with loss of signature, old paper repair, a few light spots, 2 tiny splits in outer margins). Provenance: Collection of Edwin Wolf II, sold at Christie's, 20 June 1990 (lot 251)
NELSON THE FRANCOPHOBE. A letter on the logistical problems of securing the safety of convoys, and his deep mistrust and dislike of the French royalists in touch with the British Minister at Naples: 'If the Maidstone takes the convoy and when Agincourt arrives there is none for her or Thisbe, it puzzles me what orders to give them. If they chase the convoy to Gibraltar the Maidstone may have gone on with them to England ...'; on the question of the French at Naples, Nelson has sent a firm put-down to the minister at Naples, 'Mr Elliot wanted to send me a good Frenchman that I might land and take on board occasionally. My answer was NO. I know the force at Toulon and that nothing would be of any use to me but a copy of the French admiral's sailing orders'. He has also expressed 'surprise' that Elliot should believe anything said by General St Cyr 'especially ... passing through the mouth of [the Neapolitan diplomat] Micheroux who is in my opinion always in the French service'. Other matters touched upon include the loss of dispatches on the Swift ('thank God there was none of any consequence') and some intercepted papers found 'hid in a Ragusa vessel from Alexandria' in a cipher he cannot read, and the reaction at Toulon to the proclamation of Napoleon as Emperor ('[they] fired a feu de joie, dressed ship etc').
Nelson's mistrust of the French royalists frequenting the Neapolitan court and befriended by the British Minister had been expressed even more vehemently, indeed curiously, in a letter to Hugh Elliot on 8 October 1803, concluding 'I believe they are all alike ... not a Frenchman comes here. Forgive me, but my mother hated the French'. Nelson's close friend Sir Alexander Ball (1757-1809) had served under him in 1798 in the battle of the Nile, before being appointed commissioner of the Navy at Gibraltar and then Governor of Malta.
NELSON THE FRANCOPHOBE. A letter on the logistical problems of securing the safety of convoys, and his deep mistrust and dislike of the French royalists in touch with the British Minister at Naples: 'If the Maidstone takes the convoy and when Agincourt arrives there is none for her or Thisbe, it puzzles me what orders to give them. If they chase the convoy to Gibraltar the Maidstone may have gone on with them to England ...'; on the question of the French at Naples, Nelson has sent a firm put-down to the minister at Naples, 'Mr Elliot wanted to send me a good Frenchman that I might land and take on board occasionally. My answer was NO. I know the force at Toulon and that nothing would be of any use to me but a copy of the French admiral's sailing orders'. He has also expressed 'surprise' that Elliot should believe anything said by General St Cyr 'especially ... passing through the mouth of [the Neapolitan diplomat] Micheroux who is in my opinion always in the French service'. Other matters touched upon include the loss of dispatches on the Swift ('thank God there was none of any consequence') and some intercepted papers found 'hid in a Ragusa vessel from Alexandria' in a cipher he cannot read, and the reaction at Toulon to the proclamation of Napoleon as Emperor ('[they] fired a feu de joie, dressed ship etc').
Nelson's mistrust of the French royalists frequenting the Neapolitan court and befriended by the British Minister had been expressed even more vehemently, indeed curiously, in a letter to Hugh Elliot on 8 October 1803, concluding 'I believe they are all alike ... not a Frenchman comes here. Forgive me, but my mother hated the French'. Nelson's close friend Sir Alexander Ball (1757-1809) had served under him in 1798 in the battle of the Nile, before being appointed commissioner of the Navy at Gibraltar and then Governor of Malta.
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