To the Public
THE glorious Victory achieved by Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, off the Mouth of the Nile, on the 1st and 2d of August last, has received, and must ever continue to receive, the warmest tribute of admiration and applause. It has not only filled every British Bosom with the proudest exultation, but Foreign Nations have participated in our feelings, and have hailed the British Conqueror as the Hero and Saviour of Europe. No Naval, or perhaps any other Battle, ancient of modern, ever had so much dependant upon its consequences - consequences which have even surpassed the anticipations of the most experienced Statesmen and profoundest Politicians in Europe; and no Battle that ever was fought, was perhaps conducted, in its progress, with so much judgment, or contested, to its issue, with so much ardent and persevering courage.
The account of the general result of this Action, even the best Historians that shall here-
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after record it, will be proud to borrow from the unaffected and eloquent Letter of the Admiral himself; but in every transaction of the kind, after the first tumult of National Exultation shall have in some degree subsided, a thousand circumstances remain to be supplied for the satisfaction of the enquiring mind, and which are essential to gain a just and perfect impression of the actual merit of the great services which have been performed. The Hero, like every other man, is best known and remembered by minute traits of character. Great and brilliant events dazzle and astonish, while the deliberations and turns of mind in a great Man, that produce such events, attract our attention, awaken all our admiration, and permanently fix our esteem.
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