Inquiry into Naval Abuses.

Writing to Mr. Davison in October, he said: "I am really so little in the world that I know of nothing beyond a newspaper. I own myself selfish enough to wish you in St. James's Square: for, at your breakfast, I heard all that was going on in the great world, and it was a central place where any one could meet me. I have seen Mr. Addington and Lord St. Vincent several times; but our conversations were like Swift's and Lord Oxford's. Yet it was not difficult to discover that we felt our importance in the scale of Europe degraded, if Bonaparte were allowed to act as he has lately done; and that it was necessary for us to speak a dignified language."

When, in December, 1802, the noble lord at the head of the Admiralty projected the plan for the correction of abuses committed by certain boards employed in the naval department of the public service, and by prize-agents, Lord Nelson stood forth the zealous supporter of the measure. On the second reading of the bill for appointing commissioners to inquire into these abuses, his lordship, with that solicitude for the interests of his profession which ever marked his character and endeared him to every seaman, made an animated speech, in which he said: "I can affirm that the necessities, the wrongs, of those who are employed in the naval service of their country most loudly call for the redress which this bill proposes. From the highest admiral in the service to the poorest cabin-boy that walks the street, there is not a man but may be in distress, witn large sums of wages due to him, of which he shall by no diligence of request be able to obtain payment: not a man whose intreaties will be readily answered with aught but insult at the proper places for his application, if he come not with particular recommendations to a preference. From the highest admiral to the meanest seaman, whatever may be the sum of

Nelson's Plan for Manning the Navy.

prize-money due to him, no man can tell when he may securely call any part of it his own. A man may have forty thousand pounds due to him in prizemoney, and yet may be dismissed without a shilling, if he ask for it at the proper office, without particular recommendations. Are these things to be tolerated? Is it for the interest, is it for the honour, of the country that they should not be as speedily as possible redressed?" On the third reading of the bill, on the following day, his lordship expressed his desire that the necessary inquiries into the flagrant abuses by prize-agents might be made the subject of a separate Act; observing, at the same time. that there might be instances in which the delay of payment arose from unavoidable accidents.

To

During the following winter, Nelson drew up some remarks on manning the navy in a more efficacious and popular manner than that which has been so long pursued, and submitted them to Earl St. Vincent. In the first place, he proposed that certificates should be granted to the seamen, and that these certificates should be registered. He calculated that during the preceding war 42,000 seamen, seduced by the higher wages paid in the merchant service, had deserted, causing a loss to the nation of £840,000, reckoning the expence of raising seamen at £20 per man. remedy this evil, he proposed that every seaman, having served faithfully five years in war, and never been concerned in mutinies or deserted, should be paid every new year's day or on the king's birthday the sum of two guineas; and if he had served eight years, four guineas; exclusively of any pension for wounds. This," he says, may appear, at first sight, to be an enormous sum for the State to pay; but, when it is considered that the average life of a seaman is, from hard service, finished at 45 years, he cannot many years enjoy the annuity; to assist in

66

Death of Sir William Hamilton.

paying which the interest of the money saved by their not deserting would go very far.”

Towards the end of March, 1803, Sir William Hamilton was seized with an indisposition, which he immediately pronounced to be the forerunner of his dissolution. He insisted on being removed to his house in Piccadilly from Merton Place, lest by dying there he should render it an unpleasant abode to his illustrious friend. On his arrival in town, he annexed the following remarkable codicil to his will: "The copy of Madame le Brun's picture of Emma, in enamel, by Bone, I give to my dearest friend, Lord Nelson, Duke of Bronte-a small token of the great regard I have for his lordship; the most virtuous, loyal, and truly brave character I have ever met with. God bless him! and shame fall on all those who do not say Amen!" Nelson, as soon as he learned the unfavourable opinion of the physicians, followed Sir William to town, and sat up with him for six nights, till on the 6th of April he expired in the arms of his lady, and with Nelson's hand grasped in his. A few moments before he ex"Brave and great

pired, he said to his lordship: Nelson, our friendship has been long, and I glory in my friend. I hope you will see justice done to Emma by ministers; for you know how great her services have been and what she has done for her country. Protect my dear wife; and may God bless you, and give you victory, and defend you in battle! Then turning to his lady" My incomparable Emma," said he, "you have never in thought, word, or deed, offended me; and let me thank you, again and again, for your affectionate kindness to me during the whole of our ten years' happy union.” At Sir William's death, his pension of £1200 a year ceased; and, though he was the foster-brother of King George III.; though he had for thirty-six

Death of Sir William Hamilton.

this

years filled the post of British minister at the court of Naples with zeal and ability, and with a splendid hospitality rarely exercised; though the claims of his widow to public remuneration were enforced by Nelson and allowed by Mr. Addington to be just acknowledgment was all that could be obtained. the month of May, however, Nelson directed his friend and agent, Mr. Davison, to pay to Lady Hamilton a sum equal to the pension of her late husband, in monthly instalments of £100,

In

Nelson appointed to the Mediterranean Command.

CHAPTER XI.

FROM 1803 TO 1805.

NELSON APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHief in the MEDITERRANEAN ON THE RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES WITH FRANCE

HE WATCHES THE PORT OF TOULON STATE OF SARDINIA NELSON'S SENTIMENTS RESPECTING PATRONAGEHIS ATTENTION TO YOUNG OFFICERS - HIS REGARD FOR DISCIPLINE-HIS ATTACHMENT TO MERTON-HIS ADOpted DAUGHTER-HIS OPINIONS OF BONAPARTE-HIS ANXIETY TO ENCOUNTER THE FRENCH FLEET CAPTURE OF THE SWIFT CUTTER WITH DESPATCHES- ALTERCATION WITH ARTILLERY OFFICERS - EXPLOIT OF LATOUCHE TREVILLE, AND HIS LYING LETTER NELSON DECLINES THE THANKS

OF THE CITY OF LONDON HIS SPECULATIONS ON THE DESTINATION OF THE TOULON FLEET- CONDUCT OF SPAIN TOWARDS GREAT BRITAIN-SAILING OF THE TOULON FLEET -NELSON GOES TO EGYPT IN QUEST OF THEM - THEY RETURN TO PORT ADMIRAL VILLENEUVE AGAIN

--

LEAVES

TOULON NELSON PURSUES THE ENEMY TO THE WEST INDIES DRIVES THEM BACK TO EUROPE SIR ROBERT CALDER'S ACTION OFF FERROL NELSON RETURNS TO ENGLAND.

EARLY in the spring of 1803, the ambition and arrogance of Bonaparte, who, under the title of First Consul, had become the virtual sovereign of France, left to the British government no other prospect than a new appeal to arms. In this state of things, Nelson was selected as the officer best qualified for the command in the Mediterranean; and he acquainted the Duke of Clarence with his appointment on the very day that Sir William Hamilton died. On the icth of May, his majesty, in a message to both houses of parliament, apprized them of the necessity of a renewal of hostilities with France; and on the 18th