Beschreibung:

NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Autograph letter signed ('Nelson & Bronte') to Alleyne Fitzherbert, Baron St Helens, Ambassador in St Petersburg, St George off Bornholm, 22 May 1801, one page, folio (316 x 203mm) , bifolium (traces of paste to upper margin of integral blank).
NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Autograph letter signed ('Nelson & Bronte') to Alleyne Fitzherbert, Baron St Helens, Ambassador in St Petersburg, St George off Bornholm, 22 May 1801, one page, folio (316 x 203mm) , bifolium (traces of paste to upper margin of integral blank). 'CONSTANT ANXIETY' AS TO THE INTENTIONS OF RUSSIA. Nelson has 'never before regretted having a fair wind' but for once wishes it were otherwise in view of the importance of the recipient's mission in the opposite direction to his own. He sends his letter by Captain Merigar, who had been a captain in the Russian navy, 'but left it two years ago from the extraordinary conduct of the late Emperor [Paul I]'; Nelson will be in a 'state of constant anxiety' for news of St Helens's mission (to negotiate a maritime treaty with the new Emperor, Alexander I), and will hold the fleet 'collected ready for a push. Should the Russian fleet make any movements indicating an intention of going to Sea I trust Your Excellency allowing Captain Sotheron to give me notice of it'. St Helens (after whom Mount St Helens had been named on its discovery in 1792) successfully concluded a maritime treaty with Russia on 17 June, thus bringing to an end the tense situation in the Baltic which had prompted the Battle of Copenhagen.