. As soon as Sir John arrived at Gottenburgh, he went on board Sir James Saumarez's ship, and found the Admiral and General Hope in great alarm, and undetermined what to do. The wind then proving favourable, he sailed with the transports to England, having written to his mother as follows.

'My dear Mother,

'Gottenburgh Roads, 'H.M.S. Victory, 2nd July, 1808.

'This campaign in Sweden has proved 'the most painful to me I ever served; it is, however, now nearly over. I shall sail, 'wind and other things permitting, to

morrow, on my return with the troops to 'England. My conferences with the King ' of Sweden ended in his arresting me. He 'did not put me in confinement, nor put 'sentries at my room-door, but in the middle ' of the night he sent me an order by his Adjutant-General, not to quit Stockholm; ' and thus prevented the Commander of a 'British force from returning to the station in

'which he was placed by his own Sovereign. 'You will naturally conclude that I must have done something very strange to force the King of Sweden to an act so insulting 'to the King of the British nation. I know 'nothing, however, that I did that could have given a reasonable Prince the slightest offence, or that I was not justified and 'obliged to do, by the instructions of my 'Government. My proceedings have from 'time to time been fairly transmitted to 'England. It is by my own acts I must be judged. I wish to stand or fall by them. 'I have nothing either to palliate or conceal,

and neither have, nor shall condescend to

any justification. If, when everything is 'laid before the King, he thinks me wrong,

6

he will order me to be punished as I shall 'deserve. If he thinks me right, he will say 'so, and continue to me his countenance and

support. In the mean time, my own con' science tells me I have nothing to fear.

When I see you, which will, I hope, be soon, I shall explain to you all that has

'passed. The original fault of government

in sending me here without any knowledge

of the state of things, and the folly of his Swedish Majesty, which surpasses every

thing I had before witnessed, has been the cause of all my trouble. As to his arrest, 'when I saw no hope of his retracting it, I ' determined to free myself from it. My con'tinuance in Sweden could answer no end; on the contrary, by withdrawing myself, I 'left England more at liberty to act as she 'thought best, without consideration for my 'safety.

'As I was exposed to, and probably would 'have met with personal insult, it was my 'duty to make an effort to return to the post 'the King of England had placed me in. These considerations determined both Mr. Thornton (the British Minister) and myself, in the propriety of attempting to escape, 'which I did in the forenoon of the 27th 'June, and reached the Victory in the after6 noon of the 29th. I have had no time to

explain circumstances, or give any details

to either of my Brothers, but my communi'cations to government have been ample.

'Farewell. Always, my dear Mother, affec'tionately,

'JOHN MOORE.'

When his arrival at the Downs was announced, an order came for the troops to proceed to Portsmouth, and Moore was directed to come to London. By appointment he met Lord Castlereagh, who made many enquiries respecting the transactions in Sweden, and then said*, ' that the Cabinet were 'sensible of the difficulty of the situation in ' which he had been placed; having to do 'with a King mad and impracticable. That 'his instructions had necessarily been vague, 'leaving much to his discretion; but that he ' had conducted himself perfectly to the satis'faction of government. The only point

'the propriety of having withdrawn himself

from the arrest, after having thrown himself into the hands of Mr. Thornton. Some 'individuals thought it would have been 'better if he had remained, and left the dis'cussion to government: or, if he had de

termined to come away, to have told the 'Swedish officer who brought the message

from the King, that he was not under the

' command of the King of Sweden, and could

receive no order from him; and had then

'left Stockholm as he had before deter'mined.' Lord Castlereagh added,

that

he did not mention this to him officially, or as implying the smallest blame; but merely as an opinion which some indi'viduals of the Cabinet had formed, upon a ' reconsideration of what had passed.'

This difference of opinion in the Cabinet shows the difficulty of judging well in the strange position in which Sir John Moore was placed. Had he acted according to the opinion of those individuals, he must have forfeited the approbation of the majority,

VOL. II.

H