the Marquess de Niza in the Blockade of Malta. The effective commencement of this service may be dated from the 12th of October ; on which day the French force in the island, and the whole of which had been obliged to retire within the walls of the new city of Valetta, consisted of about 3000 soldiers and sailors, the latter under the command of Rear-admiral Decrès, and of 100 Maltese, the only portion of the inhabitants who would take up arms for their invaders. In the harbour of Valetta, lay the French 80-gun ship Guillaume-Tell, and 40-gun frigates Diane and Justice ; also the two ex-Maltese 64s, Athénien and Dégo, and 36-gun frigate Carthagénaise, the whole under the command of Rear-admiral Villeneuve. The Généreux, the other French line-of-battle ship which had escaped with the Guillaume-Tell from the Battle of the Nile, was at Corfu, in company with her prize, the 50-gun ship Leander.

About 10,000 of the Maltese were in arms against the French, and occupied, as their head-quarters, the old city of Valetta, on the walls of which the Neapolitan colours were flying. The Maltese patriots possessed 23 pieces of cannon, of which 12 were mounted ; they had, also, two armed galleys and four gun-boats. Several skirmishes had taken place between the French and the inhabitants, but the former were too strongly posted to be subdued.

On the 24th of October Lord Nelson, with the Vanguard and Minotaur, joined Captain Ball and the Marquess de Niza ; and, on the 28th, the commandant of the French troops, 217 in number, in the castle of Goza, the neighbouring island to Malta, signed a capitulation, which Captain Ball had previously negotiated, and Lord Nelson now approved. Captain Creswell, of the Alexander's marines, immediately took possession of the castle, and the British colours were hoisted upon the walls. On the following day, the 29th, the place was delivered up in form to the deputies of the island ; the colours of the Sicilian king were substituted for the British, and his majesty acknowledged as the lawful sovereign. The island of Goza contained about 16,000 inhabitants. In the castle were found 24 pieces of ordnance, consisting of four 6, two 12, and eighteen 18 pounders, all good; also 50 barrels of powder, shot in abundance, and 3200 sacks of corn, an article of great value in the then distressed state of the inhabitants.

Although it comports as little with our taste, as with our talents, to follow the French armies in their overthrow of states and countries, we must dip a little into the military occurrences of the latter part of the present year, in order to render more intelligible some details of coast operations, necessary to be given before we take our final leave of the Mediterranean sea.

Encouraged by the success of Lord Nelson at the battle of

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