On the 22d of the following month, the Capitan Pasha gave a grand entertainment on board the Sultaun Selim, to Sir W. Sidney Smith, to whom, with strong expressions of admiration and attachment, he presented a valuable scimitar; and, what was considered as the greatest compliment that he could confer on him, one of his own silk flags, a badge of distinction which claims from all Turkish Admirals and other commanders, an equal respect with that which they owe to his highness the Pasha; such as the ceremony of personally waiting upon him previous to their departure from the fleet, and on their rej unction with it.
On the 5th Sept. 1801, Sir W. Sidney Smith and Colonel Abercromby embarked at Alexandria on board the Carmen frigate, with the despatches relative to the late campaign. The pretensions of the former to this distinction will be freely acknowledged; and the latter, whose own services had been of the most meritorious description, was justly selected as the herald of intelligence, completing his father’s fame. They arrived in London on the 10th Nov. following.
At the general election in 1802, our officer was chosen representative in Parliament for the city of Rochester; and on the renewal of the war in 1803, he hoisted his broad pendant on board the Antelope, of 50 guns, as Commodore of a squadron employed on the French coast[1]. In the spring of the follow-
- ↑ On the 7th Jan. 1803, Sir W. Sidney Smith obtained his Sovereign’s permission to bear the following honourable augmentations to the armorial ensigns borne by his family, viz. on the Cheveron a wreath of laurel accompanied by two crosses Calvary; and on a chief of augmentation, the interior of an ancient fortification, in perspective; in the angle a breach; and on the sides of the said breach, the standard of the Ottoman Empire, and the Union Flag of Great Britain; and for Crest, the Imperial Ottoman Chelengk, or Plume of Triumph, upon a Turban; in allusion to the highly honourable and distinguished decoration transmitted by the Turkish Emperor to Sir W. Sidney Smitli, in testimony of his esteem, and in acknow-
he sent to his Commander-in-Chief for leave to make an attack upon that place. Buonaparte replied, that “when he had taken Acre, he would come in person and plant the tree of liberty in the very spot where Christ suffered; and that the first French soldier who fell in the attack, should be buried in the Holy Sepulchre.” Sir W. Sidney Smith was the first Christian ever suffered by the barbarians to go into Jerusalem armed, or even to enter it in the dress of a Frank; his followers, and all who visited it by his means, were allowed the same privilege.
