THE SPIRIT OF NELSON

Note.-Receipt for the Spirit of Nelson':-Imagination, sympathy, loyalty, patriotism, chivalry, and duty, in equal parts and thoroughly stirred in the Bowl of Life.

THE object of this essay is an attempt to present, very briefly, a pen-portrait of Lord Nelson, to those people whose business and occupation prevent them from having the pleasure of studying his character at length in his published letters and the numerous biographies that have been written of him. It is much to be regretted that a miniature of our most romantic hero has not been drawn by one of those masters of literary art, Stevenson or Barrie ; but, failing the gem that would have been given by either of these poetical Scotsmen, the present inadequate description is deferentially offered, in hopes that it may show to some of those who are not yet well acquainted with him the charm and fascination of the first naval warrior of all time.

Any description of the character of Nelson must inevitably become a labour of love, for no one can know him through history and the manuscripts left by him and his contemporaries without feeling for him an attachment and sympathy such as is not accorded by us to any other of the mighty dead. Of all the famous heroes in history, to us he is the only one who still lives, and as we read the pages of his story Nelson himself grows out of them until we seem to know him, both in the flesh and in the spirit, as an intimate, living, and warm-hearted friend. His very human weaknesses bind him to us, and even when these are lost to sight in the brilliant glare of his genius, and the culminating beauty and poetry of his dramatic death, we still feel the warm glow of affection, mingled with veneration, for the greatest patriot and warrior of our own and perhaps of any other race.

What was his work and what was the secret of his success? In a few words the result of his labours may be described as having saved the world from internecine war and the British Empire from destruction. And this stupendous work was achieved by numberless engagements on many seas and in many lands, but more especially at the battles of the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar, where he overthrew the three projects of the most conspicuous soldier that the world has known-a genius whose

objective included the destruction of all existing constitutions and institutions, substituting for them a military despotism which was to be entirely incarnated in one man-Napoleon himself. Nelson, who accomplished all this, was a man who suffered so much and so constantly from wounds and the results. of exposure, that it may almost be said that he knew not what it was to feel well in his body, or to be free from pain; but that marvellous spirit that burned within him was so fed by the most unselfish devotion to duty and love of country, that it kept him up against attacks that would have prostrated anyone else.

In order to find out in what his power lay, it is necessary to point out his leading characteristics, and prove them from the history of his life and time; and these were-his worship of his King and country, his devotion to duty, his flame-like imagination, and his magnetic power of attraction, which made him the most beloved and irresistible leader of men that the history of the world has produced. Other geniuses have shone as bright, but to none of them was given, in the same degree, that extraordinary power of holding the love as well as the confidence of his followers. He understood them and trusted them, and they trusted and believed that they understood him.

Truly, duty was to Nelson almost the creed of his religion. This was the natural consequence of his inherent loyalty and his conscientious thoroughness. There was no effort in its production, and it gradually became so much a part of his nature that one can paraphrase Shakespeare and say, 'Duty, thy name is Nelson.' All through the terrible three hours of agony preceding his death, when the torture from his wound was almost more than he could bear, and certainly too acute to allow any idea of theatrical effect; while the sure knowledge of approaching release was in his mind, and the coming meeting with his Maker very present in his religious brain; the thought of his duty, doing and done, was never absent from him. Again and again he referred to it in a voice getting weaker and weaker as his life. slowly ebbed away, until at last, his supersensitive conscience having satisfied itself on this point, his reflections soared to a still higher plane where self vanished and the whole soul of the hero was absorbed in the two loftiest ideals of the true patriot, and he expended his last earthly breath in the simple words, 'God and my country.'

Above the principal martial geniuses of the world, Nelson stands out as the only one who led entirely by love instead of ruling through fear. The adoration felt for him by his followers, officers as well as men, contributed in no small way to the magnitude of his successes (for the spirit of Nelson penetrated to the innermost minds of his subordinates), and proved the

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truism that personnel is a greater factor of victory than matériel. Voltaire's cynical saying, that God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions,' is certainly a trite but misleading proverb; Nelson would have substituted best morale' for heaviest battalions,' and he would have been right, as he himself has proved a hundred times during his own career. And yet the manner in which he captured the hearts of his followers and so inspired them with his spirit was wholly without artifice. Others have tried to acquire it as an art, and sometimes partially succeeded, but in him it was the natural overflowing of a nature filled with

Human sympathy almost Divine,

A heart for others' weakness ever glowing,
With love for others' strength.

It was undoubtedly this sympathetic nature and his truly human qualities that made him worshipped in his own time, even as they attract us so strongly now; and when we read the anecdotes that have been passed down to us, showing this side of his character, the explanation of his influence over men of all kinds lies before us. Some of these tales are well authenticated, while others are less so; but be they true or be they not, they show, even by their very invention, what his contemporaries thought of the man's character, when they told of events which were readily accepted as being akin to his kindly nature.

Generous as Nelson always was in his tribute to the deeds of others, his large-minded sympathy went much further than this, for even in the moment of triumph or anxiety he never forgot that others were not so wonderfully constituted as himself.

The following story is an example of this magnanimous and unusual trait. In February 1799, Le Généreux, one of the two ships of the line which had escaped from the battle of the Nile, was sighted. Nelson was in a fever of excitement lest the Northumberland, who was in company with him, should sail past his flagship, the Foudroyant, and so have the honour of capturing the French admiral's ship. As the pursuer came within range, the chase commenced to shoot, and the first shot passed over the quarter-deck of the Foudroyant, and close to the head of a young midshipman who was receiving his baptism of fire. The boy turned pale and stopped in his walk, but a moment later he felt a hand laid gently on his shoulder and heard a voice saying kindly and quietly in his ear, 'You don't quite like the music; but Charles the Twelfth ran away from the first shot that he saw fired, and was afterwards called Great" for his bravery, so we will expect great things from you.'

At an earlier period, Lady Hughes, who took passage to the

West Indies in the Boreas, commanded by Captain Horatio Nelson, wrote of him :

As a woman, I can only be a judge of those things that I could comprehend-such as his attention to the young gentlemen who had the happiness of being on his quarter-deck. It may reasonably be supposed that among the number of thirty there must be timid as well as bold; the timid he never rebuked, but always wished to show them he desired nothing of them that he would not instantly do himself: and I have known him say, 'Well, Sir, I am going a race to the mast-head and beg I may meet you there.' . . . His Lordship never took the least notice with what alacrity it was done, but when he met in the top instantly began speaking in the most cheerful manner, and saying how much a person was to be pitied that could fancy there was any danger, or even anything disagreeable, in the attempt.

Later on in his life, a few days before his last battle, and at a moment filled with anxiety to himself, the following incident occurred. A mail was being despatched to England, probably the last before the fight. The letters were on board the despatch-boat, who was already some distance off on her way home, when Nelson saw a midshipman go up to and speak to Pasco, the flag-lieutenant, who, upon hearing what he said, stamped his foot and uttered an exclamation. The Admiral called him and asked what was the matter. Nothing that need trouble your Lordship,' was the reply. You are not the man to lose your temper for nothing,' said Nelson. What was it?' To which Pasco rejoined: One of our best petty officers was so busy getting off the mail-bags that he forgot to put his own letter to his wife in one of them, and he has just found it in his pocket.' Nelson at once cried, 'Hoist a signal of recall! Who knows that he may not fall in action to-morrow? His letter shall go with the others."

These stories are sufficient to explain the boundless veneration which both officers and men felt for a chief who was SO chivalrous that not only in times of calm and quiet, but also at moments of excitement and of the most enthralling interest to himself, he could feel for the weaknesses of the least of his followers.

His letter to Blackwood of the Penelope is an example of a rarer kind of generosity that which flows out to another successful man in the moment of his triumph. Blackwood, then practically unknown to Nelson, had, with his frigate, played a most important and gallant part in the capture of the Guillaume Tell-the last of the two ships of the line that had escaped from the battle of the Nile. On hearing of the action and of the Penelope's part in it, Nelson wrote:

Palermo, April 5th, 1800.-My dear Blackwood, Is there a sympathy which ties men together in the bonds of friendship with hardly a personal

knowledge of each other; if so, which I believe, it was so to you. I was your friend and acquaintance before I saw you, your conduct and character on this late glorious occasion stamps your fame beyond the reach of envy; it was like yourself, it was like the Penelope; thank and say every kind thing for me to your brave officers and men . . . in every situation I am your attached and sincere friend, Bronte Nelson of the Nile.

...

In this, as in all similar letters of Lord Nelson, there is no stint of praise, no hint that the future conduct may fall short of the present. He wrote to Blackwood, and all others to whom he sent commendation, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that he had expected and had found in them, the highest knightlihood in both action and achievement, with the consequent result that the recipients were for ever bound to live up to the chivalry in which he had clothed them.

As the character of the man is one of constant change from calm to storm, interwoven with gusts and light breezes, it is well to mingle the tales indicating these different sides of his nature in like manner. We will therefore turn to some stories of the breezy periods. The first one is an account of the capture of the Généreux, given by Parsons (who was Nelson's signal-mate at the time), in his own words :

'Deck there; the stranger is evidently a man-of-war.' 'She is a lineof-battle ship, my Lord, and going large on the starboard tack!' 'Ah! an enemy, Mr. Stains. I pray God it may be Le Généreux. The signal for a general chase, Sir Ed'ard' [the Nelsonian pronunciation of Edward]; 'make the Foudroyant fly!' Thus spoke the heroic Nelson; and every exertion that emulation could inspire was used to crowd the squadron with canvas, the Northumberland taking the lead, with the flagship close on her quarter. 'This will not do, Sir Ed'ard; it is certainly Le Généreux, and to my flagship she can alone surrender. Sir Ed'ard, we must and shall beat the Northumberland.' 'I will do the utmost, my Lord; get the engine to work on the sails-hang butts of water to the stays-pipe the hammocks down, and each man place shot in them-slack the stays, knock up the wedges, and give the masts play-start off the water, Mr. James, and pump the ship.'

The Foudroyant is drawing ahead and at last takes the lead in the chase. 'The Admiral is working his fin' [the stump of his right arm]; 'do not cross his hawse, I advise you!' The advice was good, for at that moment Nelson opened furiously on the quartermaster at the conn: 'I'll knock you off your perch, you rascal, if you are so inattentive. Sir Ed'ard, send your best quartermaster to the weather wheel.' 'A strange sail ahead of the chase!' called the look-out man. Youngster, to the mast-head. What! going without your glass, and be damned to you? Let me know what she is immediately.' 'A sloop of war, or frigate, my Lord!' shouted the young signal-midshipman. 'Demand her number.' The Success, my Lord.' 'Captain Peard, signal to cut off the flying enemy-great odds, though-thirty-two small guns to eighty large ones.' 'The Success has hove-to athwart-hawse of the Généreux, and is firing her larboard broadside. The Frenchman has hoisted his tricolour, with a rear-admiral's flag.' 'Bravo, Success; at her again.' 'She has wore