1784 - 1793
Nelson goes to France--Reappointed to the BOREAS at the Leeward Islands
in the BOREAS--His firm conduct concerning the American Interlopers
and the Contractors--Marries and returns to England--Is on the point
of quitting the Service in Disgust--Manner of Life while
unemployed--Appointed to the AGAMEMNON on the breaking out of the War of
the French Revolution.
"I HAVE closed the war," said Nelson in one of his letters, "without a
fortune; but there is not a speck in my character. True honour, I hope,
predominates in my mind far above riches." He did not apply for a ship,
because he was not wealthy enough to live on board in the manner which
was then become customary. Finding it, therefore, prudent to economise
on his half-pay during the peace, he went to France, in company with
Captain Macnamara of the navy, and took lodgings at St. Omer's. The
death of his favourite sister, Anne, who died in consequence of going
out of the ball-room at Bath when heated with dancing, affected his
father so much that it had nearly occasioned him to return in a few
weeks. Time, however, and reason and religion, overcame this grief in
the old man; and Nelson continued at St. Omer's long enough to fall in
love with the daughter of an English clergyman. This second attachment
appears to have been less ardent than the first, for upon weighing the
evils of a straitened income to a married man, he thought it better to
leave France, assigning to his friends something in his accounts as the
cause. This prevented him from accepting an invitation from the Count
of Deux-Ponts to visit him at Paris, couched in the handsomest terms
of acknowledgment for the treatment which he had received on board the
ALBEMARLE.
The self-constraint which Nelson exerted in subduing this attachment
made him naturally desire to be at sea; and when, upon visiting Lord
Howe at the Admiralty, he was asked if he wished to be employed, he
made answer that he did. Accordingly in March, he was appointed to the
BOREAS, twenty-eight guns, going to the Leeward Islands as a cruiser on
the peace establishment. Lady Hughes and her family went out with him to
Admiral Sir Richard Hughes, who commanded on that station. His ship was
full of young midshipmen, of whom there were not less than thirty on
board; and happy were they whose lot it was to be placed with such a
captain. If he perceived that a boy was afraid at first going aloft, he
would say to him in a friendly manner, "Well, sir, I am going a race
to the mast-head, and beg that I may meet you there." The poor little
fellow instantly began to climb, and got up how he could,--Nelson never
noticed in what manner, but when they met in the top, spoke cheerfully
to him, and would say how much any person was to be pitied who fancied
that getting up was either dangerous or difficult. Every day he went
into the school-room to see that they were pursuing their nautical
studies; and at noon he was always the first on deck with his quadrant.
Whenever he paid a visit of ceremony, some of these youths accompanied
him; and when he went to dine with the governor at Barbadoes, he took
one of them in his hand, and presented him, saying, "Your Excellency
must excuse me for bringing one of my midshipmen. I make it a rule to
introduce them to all the good company I can, as they have few to look
up to, besides myself, during the time they are at sea."
When Nelson arrived in the West Indies, he found himself senior captain,
and consequently second in command on that station. Satisfactory as this
was, it soon involved him in a dispute with the admiral, which a man
less zealous for the service might have avoided. He found the LATONA
in English Harbour, Antigua, with a broad pendant hoisted; and upon
inquiring the reason, was presented with a written order from Sir R.
Hughes, requiring and directing him to obey the orders of Resident
Commissioner Moutray during the time he might have occasion to remain
there; the said resident commissioner being in consequence, authorised
to hoist a broad pendant on board any of his Majesty's ships in that
port that he might think proper. Nelson was never at a loss how to act
in any emergency.
"I know of no superior officers," said he, "besides the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty, and my seniors on the post list."
Concluding, therefore, that it was not consistent with the service for a
resident commissioner, who held only a civil situation, to hoist a broad
pendant, the moment that he had anchored he sent an order to the captain
of the LATONA to strike it, and return it to the dock-yard. He went on
shore the same day, dined with the commissioner, to show him that he was
actuated by no other motive than a sense of duty, and gave him the
first intelligence that his pendant had been struck. Sir Richard sent an
account of this to the Admiralty; but the case could admit of no doubt,
and Captain Nelson's conduct was approved.
He displayed the same promptitude on another occasion. While the BOREAS,
after the hurricane months were over, was riding at anchor in Nevis
Roads, a French frigate passed to leeward, close along shore. Nelson had
obtained information that this ship was sent from Martinico, with two
general officers and some engineers on board, to make a survey of our
sugar islands. This purpose he was determined to prevent them from
executing, and therefore he gave orders to follow them. The next day he
came up with them at anchor in the roads of St. Eustatia, and anchored
at about two cables' length on the frigate's quarter. Being afterwards
invited by the Dutch governor to meet the French officers at dinner, he
seized that occasion of assuring the French captain that, understanding
it was his intention to honour the British possessions with a visit, he
had taken the earliest opportunity in his power to accompany him, in his
Majesty's ship the BOREAS, in order that such attention might be paid
to the officers of his Most Christian Majesty as every Englishman in
the islands would be proud to show. The French, with equal courtesy,
protested against giving him this trouble; especially, they said, as
they intended merely to cruise round the islands without landing on any.
But Nelson, with the utmost politeness, insisted upon paying them this
compliment, followed them close in spite of all their attempts to elude
his vigilance, and never lost sight of them; till, finding it impossible
either to deceive or escape him, they gave up their treacherous purpose
in despair, and beat up for Martinico.
A business of more serious import soon engaged his attention. The
Americans were at this time trading with our islands, taking advantage
of the register of their ships, which had been issued while they
were British subjects. Nelson knew that, by the Navigation Act, no
foreigners, directly or indirectly, are permitted to carry on any trade
with these possessions. He knew, also, that the Americans had made
themselves foreigners with regard to England; they had disregarded the
ties of blood and language when they acquired the independence which
they had been led on to claim, unhappily for themselves before they were
fit for it; and he was resolved that they should derive no profit from
those ties now. Foreigners they had made themselves, and as foreigners
they were to be treated. "If once," said he, "they are admitted to any
kind of intercourse with our islands, the views of the loyalists, in
settling at Nova Scotia, are entirely done away; and when we are again
embroiled in a French war, the Americans will first become the carriers
of these colonies, and then have possession of them. Here they come,
sell their cargoes for ready money, go to Martinico, buy molasses, and
so round and round. The loyalist cannot do this, and consequently must
sell a little dearer. The residents here are Americans by connection and
by interest, and are inimical to Great Britain. They are as great rebels
as ever were in America, had they the power to show it." In November,
when the squadron, having arrived at Barbadoes, was to separate, with
no other orders than those for examining anchorages, and the
usual inquiries concerning wood and water, Nelson asked his friend
Collingwood, then captain of the MEDIATOR, whose opinions he knew upon
the subject, to accompany him to the commander-in-chief, whom he then
respectfully asked, whether they were not to attend to the commerce
of the country, and see that the Navigation Act was respected--that
appearing to him to be the intent of keeping men-of-war upon this
station in time of peace? Sir Richard Hughes replied, he had no
particular orders, neither had the Admiralty sent him any Acts of
Parliament. But Nelson made answer, that the Navigation Act was
included in the statutes of the Admiralty, with which every captain was
furnished, and that Act was directed to admirals, captains, &c., to see
it carried into execution. Sir Richard said he had never seen the book.
Upon this Nelson produced the statutes, read the words of the Act, and
apparently convinced the commander-in-chief, that men-of-war, as he
said, "were sent abroad for some other purpose than to be made a show
of." Accordingly orders were given to enforce the Navigation Act.
Major-General Sir Thomas Shirley was at this time governor of the
Leeward Islands; and when Nelson waited on him, to inform him how he
intended to act, and upon what grounds, he replied, that "old generals
were not in the habit of taking advice from young gentlemen." "Sir,"
said the young officer, with that confidence in himself which never
carried him too far, and always was equal to the occasion, "I am as
old as the prime minister of England, and I think myself as capable of
commanding one of his Majesty's ships as that minister is of governing
the state." He was resolved to do his duty, whatever might be the
opinion or conduct of others; and when he arrived upon his station at
St. Kitt's, he sent away all the Americans, not choosing to seize them
before they had been well apprised that the Act would be carried into
effect, lest it might seem as if a trap had been laid for them.
The Americans, though they prudently decamped from St. Kitt's, were
emboldened by the support they met with, and resolved to resist his
orders, alleging that king's ships had no legal power to seize them
without having deputations from the customs. The planters were to a man
against him; the governors and the presidents of the different islands,
with only a single exception, gave him no support; and the admiral,
afraid to act on either side, yet wishing to oblige the planters, sent
him a note, advising him to be guided by the wishes of the president
of the council. There was no danger in disregarding this, as it came
unofficially, and in the form of advice. But scarcely a month after he
had shown Sir Richard Hughes the law, and, as he supposed, satisfied him
concerning it, he received an order from him, stating that he had now
obtained good advice upon the point, and the Americans were not to
be hindered from coming, and having free egress and regress, if the
governor chose to permit them. An order to the same purport had been
sent round to the different governors and presidents; and General
Shirley and others informed him, in an authoritative manner, that they
chose to admit American ships, as the commander-in-chief had left the
decision to them. These persons, in his own words, he soon "trimmed
up, and silenced;" but it was a more delicate business to deal with the
admiral: "I must either," said he, "disobey my orders, or disobey Acts
of Parliament. I determined upon the former, trusting to the uprightness
of my intentions, and believing that my country would not let me be
ruined for protecting her commerce." With this determination he wrote to
Sir Richard; appealed again to the plain, literal, unequivocal sense of
the Navigation Act; and in respectful language told him, he felt it
his duty to decline obeying these orders till he had an opportunity of
seeing and conversing with him. Sir Richard's first feeling was that of
anger, and he was about to supersede Nelson; but having mentioned
the affair to his captain, that officer told him he believed all the
squadron thought the orders illegal, and therefore did not know how far
they were bound to obey them. It was impossible, therefore, to bring
Nelson to a court-martial, composed of men who agreed with him in
opinion upon the point in dispute; and luckily, though the admiral
wanted vigour of mind to decide upon what was right, he was not
obstinate in wrong, and had even generosity enough in his nature to
thank Nelson afterwards for having shown him his error.
Collingwood in the MEDIATOR, and his brother, Wilfred Collingwood, in
the RATTLER, actively co-operated with Nelson. The custom-houses were
informed that after a certain day all foreign vessels found in the ports
would be seized; and many were, in consequence, seized, and condemned
in the Admiralty Court. When the BOREAS arrived at Nevis, she found four
American vessels deeply laden, and what are called the island colours
flying--white, with a red cross. They were ordered to hoist their proper
flag, and depart within 48 hours; but they refused to obey, denying that
they were Americans. Some of their crews were then examined in Nelson's
cabin, where the Judge of Admiralty happened to be present. The case was
plain; they confessed that they were Americans, and that the ships, hull
and cargo, were wholly American property; upon which he seized them.
This raised a storm: the planters, the custom-house, and the governor,
were all against him. Subscriptions were opened, and presently filled,
for the purpose of carrying on the cause in behalf of the American
captains; and the admiral, whose flag was at that time in the roads,
stood neutral. But the Americans and their abettors were not content
with defensive law. The marines, whom he had sent to secure the ships,
had prevented some of the masters from going ashore; and those persons,
by whose depositions it appeared that the vessels and cargoes were
American property, declared that they had given their testimony under
bodily fear, for that a man with a drawn sword in his hand had stood
over them the whole time. A rascally lawyer, whom the party employed,
suggested this story; and as the sentry at the cabin door was a man
with a drawn sword, the Americans made no scruple of swearing to
this ridiculous falsehood, and commencing prosecutions against him
accordingly. They laid their damages at the enormous amount of L40,000;
and Nelson was obliged to keep close on board his own ship, lest he
should be arrested for a sum for which it would have been impossible to
find bail. The marshal frequently came on board to arrest him, but was
always prevented by the address of the first lieutenant, Mr. Wallis. Had
he been taken, such was the temper of the people that it was certain he
would have been cast for the whole sum. One of his officers, one day,
in speaking of the restraint which he was thus compelled to suffer,
happened to use the word PITY! "Pity!" exclaimed Nelson: "Pity! did you
say? I shall live, sir, to be envied! and to that point I shall always
direct my course." Eight weeks remained in this state of duresse. During
that time the trial respecting the detained ships came on in the court
of Admiralty. He went on shore under a protection for the day from the
judge; but, notwithstanding this, the marshal was called upon to
take that opportunity of arresting him, and the merchants promised
to indemnify him for so doing. The judge, however, did his duty, and
threatened to send the marshal to prison if he attempted to violate the
protection of the court. Mr. Herbert, the president of Nevis, behaved
with singular generosity upon this occasion. Though no man was a greater
sufferer by the measures which Nelson had pursued, he offered in court
to become his bail for L10,000 if he chose to suffer the arrest. The
lawyer whom he had chosen proved to be an able as well as an honest man;
and notwithstanding the opinions and pleadings of most of the counsel
of the different islands, who maintained that ships of war were not
justified in seizing American vessels without a deputation from the
customs, the law was so explicit, the case so clear, and Nelson pleaded
his own cause so well, that the four ships were condemned. During
the progress of this business he sent a memorial home to the king, in
consequence of which orders were issued that he should be defended at
the expense of the crown. And upon the representation which he made at
the same time to the Secretary of State, and the suggestions with
which he accompanied it, the Register Act was framed. The sanction of
Government, and the approbation of his conduct which it implied, were
highly gratifying to him; but he was offended, and not without
just cause, that the Treasury should have transmitted thanks to the
commander-in-chief for his activity and zeal in protecting the commerce
of Great Britain. "Had they known all," said he, "I do not think they
would have bestowed thanks in that quarter, and neglected me. I feel
much hurt that, after the loss of health and risk of fortune, another
should be thanked for what I did against his orders. I either deserved
to be sent out of the service, or at least to have had some little
notice taken of what I had done. They have thought it worthy of
notice, and yet have neglected me. If this is the reward for a faithful
discharge of my duty, I shall be careful, and never stand forward again.
But I have done my duty, and have nothing to accuse myself of."
The anxiety which he had suffered from the harassing uncertainties of
law is apparent from these expressions. He had, however, something to
console him, for he was at this time wooing the niece of his friend
the president, then in her eighteenth year, the widow of Dr. Nisbet, a
physician. She had one child, a son, by name Josiah, who was three
years old. One day Mr. Herbert, who had hastened half-dressed to receive
Nelson, exclaimed, on returning to his dressing-room, "Good God! if
I did not find that great little man, of whom everybody is so afraid,
playing in the next room, under the dining-table, with Mrs. Nisbet's
child!" A few days afterwards Mrs. Nisbet herself was first introduced
to him, and thanked him for the partiality which he had shown to her
little boy. Her manners were mild and winning; and the captain, whose
heart was easily susceptible of attachment, found no such imperious
necessity for subduing his inclinations as had twice before withheld
him from marrying. They were married on March 11, 1787: Prince William
Henry, who had come out to the West Indies the preceding winter, being
present, by his own desire, to give away the bride. Mr. Herbert, her
uncle, was at this time so much displeased with his only daughter, that
he had resolved to disinherit her, and leave his whole fortune, which
was very great, to his niece. But Nelson, whose nature was too noble
to let him profit by an act of injustice, interfered, and succeeded in
reconciling the president to his child.
"Yesterday," said one of his naval friends the day after the wedding,
"the navy lost one of its greatest ornaments by Nelson's marriage. It is
a national loss that such an officer should marry: had it not been for
this, Nelson would have become the greatest man in the service." The
man was rightly estimated; but he who delivered this opinion did not
understand the effect of domestic love and duty upon a mind of the true
heroic stamp.
"We are often separate," said Nelson, in a letter to Mrs. Nisbet a few
months before their marriage; "but our affections are not by any means
on that account diminished. Our country has the first demand for our
services; and private convenience or happiness must ever give way to the
public good. Duty is the great business of a sea officer: all private
considerations must give way to it, however painful." "Have you not
often heard," says he in another letter, "that salt water and absence
always wash away love? Now I am such a heretic as not to believe that
article, for, behold, every morning I have had six pails of salt water
poured upon my head, and instead of finding what seamen say to be true,
it goes on so contrary to the prescription, that you may, perhaps, see
me before the fixed time." More frequently his correspondence breathed a
deeper strain. "To write letters to you," says he, "is the next greatest
pleasure I feel to receiving them from you. What I experience when I
read such as I am sure are the pure sentiments of your heart, my poor
pen cannot express; nor, indeed, would I give much for any pen or head
which could express feelings of that kind. Absent from you, I feel no
pleasure: it is you who are everything to me. Without you, I care not
for this world; for I have found, lately, nothing in it but vexation and
trouble. These are my present sentiments. God Almighty grant they may
never change! Nor do I think they will. Indeed there is, as far as human
knowledge can judge, a moral certainty that they cannot; for it must
be real affection that brings us together, not interest or compulsion."
Such were the feelings, and such the sense of duty, with which Nelson
became a husband.
During his stay upon this station he had ample opportunity of observing
the scandalous practices of the contractors, prize-agents, and other
persons in the West Indies connected with the naval service. When he
was first left with the command, and bills were brought him to sign for
money which was owing for goods purchased for the navy, he required the
original voucher, that he might examine whether those goods had been
really purchased at the market price; but to produce vouchers would not
have been convenient, and therefore was not the custom. Upon this
Nelson wrote to Sir Charles Middleton, then Comptroller of the Navy,
representing the abuses which were likely to be practised in this
manner. The answer which he received seemed to imply that the old
forms were thought sufficient; and thus, having no alternative, he was
compelled, with his eyes open, to submit to a practice originating in
fraudulent intentions. Soon afterwards two Antigua merchants informed
him that they were privy to great frauds which had been committed upon
government in various departments; at Antigua, to the amount of nearly
L500,000; at Lucie, L300,000; at Barbadoes, L250,000; at Jamaica,
upwards of a million. The informers were both shrewd sensible men of
business; they did not affect to be actuated by a sense of justice,
but required a percentage upon so much as government should actually
recover through their means. Nelson examined the books and papers
which they produced, and was convinced that government had been most
infamously plundered. Vouchers, he found, in that country, were no check
whatever: the principle was, that "a thing was always worth what it
would bring;" and the merchants were in the habit of signing vouchers
for each other, without even the appearance of looking at the articles.
These accounts he sent home to the different departments which had been
defrauded; but the peculators were too powerful, and they succeeded
not merely in impeding inquiry, but even in raising prejudices against
Nelson at the Board of Admiralty, which it was many years before he
could subdue.
Owing probably, to these prejudices, and the influence of the
peculators, he was treated, on his return to England, in a manner which
had nearly driven him from the service. During the three years that
the BOREAS had remained upon a station which is usually so fatal, not
a single officer or man of her whole complement had died. This almost
unexampled instance of good health, though mostly, no doubt, imputable
to a healthy season, must in some measure, also, be ascribed to the wise
conduct of the captain. He never suffered the ships to remain more
than three or four weeks at a time at any of the islands; and when the
hurricane months confined him to English Harbour, he encouraged all
kinds of useful amusements--music, dancing, and cudgelling among the
men; theatricals among the officers; anything which could employ their
attention, and keep their spirits cheerful. The BOREAS arrived in
England in June. Nelson, who had many times been supposed to be
consumptive when in the West Indies, and perhaps was saved from
consumption by that climate, was still in a precarious state of health;
and the raw wet weather of one of our ungenial summers brought on cold,
and sore throat, and fever; yet his vessel was kept at the Nore from the
end of June till the end of November, serving as a slop and receiving
ship. This unworthy treatment, which more probably proceeded from
inattention than from neglect, excited in Nelson the strongest
indignation. During the whole five months he seldom or never quitted the
ship, but carried on the duty with strict and sullen attention. On the
morning when orders were received to prepare the BOREAS for being paid
off, he expressed his joy to the senior officer in the Medway, saying,
"It will release me for ever from an ungrateful service; for it is my
firm and unalterable determination never again to set my foot on board
a king's ship. Immediately after my arrival in town I shall wait on the
First Lord of the Admiralty, and resign my commission." The officer to
whom he thus communicated his intentions behaved in the wisest and most
friendly manner; for finding it in vain to dissuade him in his present
state of feeling, he secretly interfered with the First Lord to save him
from a step so injurious to himself, little foreseeing how deeply
the welfare and honour of England were at that moment at stake. This
interference produced a letter from Lord Howe the day before the ship
was paid off, intimating a wish to see Captain Nelson as soon as
he arrived in town; when, being pleased with his conversation, and
perfectly convinced, by what was then explained to him, of the propriety
of his conduct, he desired that he might present him to the king on
the first levee-day; and the gracious manner in which Nelson was then
received effectually removed his resentment.
Prejudices had been, in like manner, excited against his friend, Prince
William Henry. "Nothing is wanting, sir," said Nelson, in one of his
letters, "to make you the darling of the English nation but truth. Sorry
am I to say, much to the contrary has been dispersed." This was not
flattery, for Nelson was no flatterer. The letter in which this passage
occurs shows in how wise and noble a manner he dealt with the prince.
One of his royal highness's officers had applied for a court-martial
upon a point in which he was unquestionably wrong. His royal highness,
however, while he supported his own character and authority, prevented
the trial, which must have been injurious to a brave and deserving man.
"Now that you are parted," said Nelson, "pardon me, my prince, when I
presume to recommend that he may stand in your royal favour as if he had
never sailed with you, and that at some future day you will serve him.
There only wants this to place your conduct in the highest point of
view. None of us are without failings--his was being rather too hasty;
but that, put in competition with his being a good officer, will not,
I am bold to say, be taken in the scale against him. More able friends
than myself your royal highness may easily find, and of more consequence
in the state; but one more attached and affectionate is not so easily
met with: Princes seldom, very seldom, find a disinterested person to
communicate their thoughts to: I do not pretend to be that person; but
of this be assured, by a man who, I trust, never did a dishonourable
act, that I am interested only that your royal highness should be the
greatest and best man this country ever produced."
Encouraged by the conduct of Lord Howe, and by his reception at court,
Nelson renewed his attack upon the peculators with fresh spirit. He had
interviews with Mr. Rose, Mr. Pitt, and Sir Charles Middleton, to all of
whom he satisfactorily proved his charges. In consequence, if is said,
these very extensive public frauds were at length put in a proper train
to be provided against in future; his representations were attended to;
and every step which he recommended was adopted; the investigation was
put into a proper course, which ended in the detection and punishment of
some of the culprits; an immense saving was made to government, and thus
its attention was directed to similar peculations in other arts of the
colonies. But it is said also that no mark of commendation seems to have
been bestowed upon Nelson for his exertion. It has been justly remarked
that the spirit of the navy cannot be preserved so effectually by the
liberal honours bestowed on officers when they are worn out in the
service, as by an attention to those who, like Nelson at this part of
his life, have only their integrity and zeal to bring them into notice.
A junior officer, who had been left with the command at Jamaica,
received an additional allowance, for which Nelson had applied in vain.
Double pay was allowed to every artificer and seaman employed in the
naval yard: Nelson had superintended the whole business of that yard
with the most rigid exactness, and he complained that he was neglected.
"It was most true," he said, "that the trouble which he took to detect
the fraudulent practices then carried on was no more than his duty; but
he little thought that the expenses attending his frequent journeys to
St. John's upon that duty (a distance of twelve miles) would have fallen
upon his pay as captain of the BOREAS." Nevertheless, the sense of what
he thought unworthy usage did not diminish his zeal. "I," said he, "must
buffet the waves in search of--What? Alas! that they called honour
is thought of no more. My fortune, God knows, has grown worse for the
service; so much for serving my country! But the devil, ever willing to
tempt the virtuous, has made me offer, if any ships should be sent to
destroy his Majesty of Morocco's ports, to be there; and I have some
reason to think that, should any more come of it, my humble services
will be accepted. I have invariably laid down, and followed close, a
plan of what ought to be uppermost in the breast of an officer,--that
it is much better to serve an ungrateful country than to give up his
own fame. Posterity will do him justice. A uniform course of honour and
integrity seldom fails of bringing a man to the goal of fame at last."
The design against the Barbary pirates, like all other designs
against them, was laid aside; and Nelson took his wife to his father's
parsonage, meaning only to pay him a visit before they went to France;
a project which he had formed for the sake of acquiring a competent
knowledge of the French language. But his father could not bear to lose
him thus unnecessarily. Mr. Nelson had long been an invalid, suffering
under paralytic and asthmatic affections, which, for several hours after
he rose in the morning, scarcely permitted him to speak. He had been
given over by his physicians for this complaint nearly forty years
before his death; and was, for many of his latter years, obliged to
spend all his winters at Bath. The sight of his son, he declared, had
given him new life. "But, Horatio," said he, "it would have been better
that I had not been thus cheered, if I am so soon to be bereaved of you
again. Let me, my good son, see you whilst I can. My age and infirmities
increase, and I shall not last long." To such an appeal there could be
no reply. Nelson took up his abode at the parsonage, and amused himself
with the sports and occupations of the country. Sometimes he busied
himself with farming the glebe; sometimes spent the greater part of the
day in the garden, where he would dig as if for the mere pleasure of
wearying himself. Sometimes he went a birds'-nesting, like a boy; and
in these expeditions Mrs. Nelson always, by his expressed desire,
accompanied him. Coursing was his favourite amusement. Shooting, as he
practised it, was far too dangerous for his companions; for he carried
his gun upon the full cock, as if he were going to board an enemy;
and the moment a bird rose, he let fly without ever putting the
fowling-piece to his shoulder. It is not, therefore, extraordinary that
his having once shot a partridge should be remembered by his family
among the remarkable events of his life.
But his time did not pass away thus without some vexatious cares to
ruffle it. The affair of the American ships was not yet over, and he was
again pestered with threats of prosecution. "I have written them word,"
said he, "that I will have nothing to do with them, and they must act as
they think proper. Government, I suppose, will do what is right, and not
leave me in the lurch. We have heard enough lately of the consequences
of the Navigation Act to this country. They may take my person; but if
sixpence would save me from a prosecution, I would not give it." It was
his great ambition at this time to possess a pony; and having resolved
to purchase one, he went to a fair for that purpose. During his absence
two men abruptly entered the parsonage and inquired for him: they then
asked for Mrs. Nelson; and after they had made her repeatedly declare
that she was really and truly the captain's wife, presented her with
a writ, or notification, on the part of the American captains, who now
laid their damages at L20,000, and they charged her to give it to her
husband on his return. Nelson, having bought his pony, came home with
it in high spirits. He called out his wife to admire the purchase and
listen to all its excellences: nor was it till his glee had in
some measure subsided that the paper could be presented to him. His
indignation was excessive; and in the apprehension that he should be
exposed to the anxieties of the suit and the ruinous consequences which
might ensue, he exclaimed, "This affront I did not deserve! But I'll be
trifled with no longer. I will write immediately to the Treasury, and
if government will not support me, I am resolved to leave the country."
Accordingly, he informed the Treasury that, if a satisfactory answer
were not sent him by return of post, he should take refuge in France.
To this he expected he should be driven, and for this he arranged
everything with his characteristic rapidity of decision. It was settled
that he should depart immediately, and Mrs. Nelson follow, under the
care of his elder brother Maurice, ten days after him. But the answer
which he received from government quieted his fears: it stated that
Captain Nelson was a very good officer, and needed to be under no
apprehension, for he would assuredly be supported.
Here his disquietude upon this subject seems to have ended. Still he
was not at ease; he wanted employment, and was mortified that his
applications for it produced no effect. "Not being a man of fortune," he
said, "was a crime which he was unable to get over, and therefore none
of the great cared about him." Repeatedly he requested the Admiralty
that they would not leave him to rust in indolence. During the armament
which was made upon occasion of the dispute concerning Nootka Sound, he
renewed his application; and his steady friend, Prince William, who had
then been created Duke of Clarence, recommended him to Lord Chatham.
The failure of this recommendation wounded him so keenly that he again
thought of retiring from the service in disgust; a resolution from which
nothing but the urgent remonstrances of Lord Hood induced him to desist.
Hearing that the RAISONNABLE, in which he had commenced his career,
was to be commissioned, he asked for her. This also was in vain; and a
coolness ensued, on his part, toward Lord Hood, because that excellent
officer did not use his influence with Lord Chatham upon this
occasion. Lord Hood, however, had certainly sufficient reasons for not
interfering; for he ever continued his steady friend. In the winter of
1792, when we were on the eve of the revolutionary war, Nelson once more
offered his services, earnestly requested a ship, and added, that if
their lordships should be pleased to appoint him to a cockle-boat he
should feel satisfied. He was answered in the usual official form:
"Sir, I have received your letter of the 5th instant, expressing your
readiness to serve, and have read the same to my Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty." On the 12th of December he received this dry
acknowledgment. The fresh mortification did not, however, affect him
long; for, by the joint interest of the Duke and Lord Hood, he was
appointed, on the 30th of January following, to the AGAMEMNON, of
sixty-four guns.