The Story of Nelson 29

The Story of Nelson 29

Napoleon confirmed the treaty on the

5th October, the ratifications were exchanged on the 10th,

 

“_And London, tho’ so ill repaid,

Illuminations grand display’d_,”

 

as a poetaster sang in a contemporary periodical. Nelson referred to it

as “good news,” but received a note from Addington warning him that his

flag must be kept flying until the Definitive Treaty had been signed.

 

[Illustration: Lord Nelson]

 

When he heard that the mob had unharnessed the horses and drawn the

carriage of General Lauriston, Napoleon’s first _aide-de-camp_ who had

brought the document to London, the Admiral was furious. “Can you cure

madness?” he asks Dr Baird, “for I am mad to read that ... scoundrels

dragged a Frenchman’s carriage. I am ashamed for my Country.” On the

14th October he formally asked the Admiralty to give him permission

to go on shore. He was then suffering from “a complaint in my stomach

and bowels,” probably caused by sea-sickness and cold. This request

was not immediately complied with, but towards the end of the month

he was released, and wrote to Lady Hamilton, “I believe I leave this

little Squadron with sincere regret, and with the good wishes of every

creature in it.” One wonders whether there could be a more restless

nature than Nelson’s, which made him yearn for the land when at sea,

and for the sea when on land.

 

He retired to Merton Place, a little estate in Surrey and “exactly one

hour’s drive from Hyde Park.” This had been purchased on his behalf by

Lady Hamilton, who took up her quarters there with her husband. The

first mention of it in Nelson’s “Dispatches and Letters,” as edited by

Sir Harris Nicolas, is in a note to his friend Alexander Davison of

Morpeth, on the last day of August 1801. “So far from making money,

I am spending the little I have,” he tells him. “I am after buying

a little Farm at Merton--the price £9000; I hope to be able to get

through it. If I cannot, after all my labours for the Country, get such

a place as this, I am resolved to give it all up, and retire for life.”

In thanking Mr Davison for his offer of assistance in purchasing “the

Farm,” Nelson goes a little deeper into the question of his personal

expenditure. It will “take every farthing I have in the world,” and

leave him in debt. “The Baltic expedition cost me full £2000. Since

I left London it has cost me, for Nelson cannot be like others, near

£1000 in six weeks. If I am continued here (_i.e._ in the Downs) ruin

to my finances must be the consequence, for everybody knows that Lord

Nelson _is amazingly rich_!”

 

The Admiral took his seat in the House of Lords as a Viscount on the

29th October, and made his maiden speech in the upper chamber on the

following day. Appropriately enough it was to second the motion “That

the Thanks of this House be given to Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez,

K.B., for his gallant and distinguished conduct in the Action with the

Combined Fleet of the Enemy, off Algeziras, on the 12th and 13th of

July last.” The battle was fought with a French and Spanish squadron

in the Gut of Gibraltar, details of which were entered into by Nelson,

doubtless to the considerable enlightenment of the House. During the

following month he was also able to pay a similar tribute to Keith

and his officers for their services in Egypt. With characteristic

thoroughness he also remarked on the part the Army had played in the

defeat of Napoleon’s expedition.

 

He was feasted and feted for his own splendid work, but he fell foul of

the Corporation of the City of London, because that body had seen fit

to withhold its thanks for the victory of Copenhagen, conduct which he

deemed “incomprehensible.” He certainly never forgave the Government

for refusing to grant medals for the same battle. Nelson brought up the

question before the authorities with pugnacious persistence, and some

of the officers renewed their application over a quarter of a century

later, but the Copenhagen medal still remains to be struck. “I am fixed

never to abandon the fair fame of my Companions in dangers,” he avers.

“I may offend and suffer; but I had rather suffer from that, than my

own feelings.” He fought for pensions and appointments for all manner

of officers and men, watched the list of vacancies and appealed that

they might be filled by those who deserved well of their country.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XVII

 

The Vigil off Toulon

 

(1803)

 

“_I shall follow them to the Antipodes._”

 

NELSON.

 

 

For over a year Nelson spent the greater part of his time at Merton

Place or at 23 Piccadilly, Sir William Hamilton’s town house. Any

monotony there may have been was relieved by a tour of beautiful Wales,

made in the months of July and August 1802, when Nelson’s spirits had

recovered somewhat from the news of his father’s death at Bath on the

26th of the previous April. The old clergyman’s distinguished son was

ill at the time and did not attend the last sad ceremony in the quiet

churchyard of Burnham Thorpe, where Nelson said he hoped his bones

would eventually be laid to rest, a wish never to be fulfilled. His

father, who called Merton “the Mansion of Peace,” had entertained the

idea of becoming “one of its inhabitants,” and rooms had been prepared

for him. “Sir William and myself are both old men, and we will witness

the hero’s felicity in retirement.” Such was his desire.

 

On their journey to the Principality Nelson was presented with

the freedom of Oxford, and both Sir William and the Admiral had

the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws conferred upon them by the

University. A visit was also paid to Blenheim, the ancestral seat of

the Dukes of Marlborough. Gloucester, Ross, Monmouth, Brecon, Milford,

Haverfordwest, Swansea, Worcester, Birmingham, Warwick and other

provincial cities and towns each accorded its distinguished visitor a

most enthusiastic welcome. He afterwards drew up an elaborate report on

the Forest of Dean for Mr Addington’s inspection. Properly cultivated

it would, in Nelson’s opinion, “produce about 9200 loads of timber,

fit for building Ships-of-the-line, every year.” Collingwood, it may

be added, was also deeply interested in afforestation. During the rare

occasions he was on shore he would walk about his estate and stealthily

take an acorn from his pocket and drop it in the earth for later

service in his Majesty’s Navy.

 

On his return to Surrey Nelson vegetated. “I am really so very little

in the world,” he tells Davison in October, “that I know little, if

anything, beyond [what] Newspaper reports say respecting our conduct

on the affairs of the Continent. It is true, 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 Buonaparte

was allowed to act as he has lately done; and that it was necessary for

us to speak a dignified language.... By the meeting of Parliament many

things must come forth.”

 

The Hamilton-Nelson family forsook Merton for Piccadilly at the

beginning of 1803, and there Sir William died on the 6th April, after

having been tenderly nursed by his wife and her more than intimate

friend. It is impossible to think that the Admiral had any heartfelt

sorrow when the former Ambassador breathed his last, but his emotional

nature led him to write the kindest things of the dead man. “The world

never, never lost a more upright and accomplished gentleman” is one of

his __EXPRESSION__s at the event.

 

The Truce of Amiens, for it was nothing more, was described by George

III. as “an experimental peace.” Neither side kept strictly to the

letter of the Treaty. Before the brilliant illuminations on both

sides of the Channel had been entirely forgotten statesmen began to

shake their heads and to prophecy the withdrawing of the sword from

the scabbard. Napoleon’s continued aggressions on the Continent, his

great colonial schemes, his restless activity in matters which did not

directly concern him, his threat to invade England showed how unreal

were his wishes for a settled understanding. Great Britain declared

war on the 16th May 1803, thus ending a peace which had lasted one

year and sixteen days. An embargo was immediately laid on French ships

and those of her allies in British ports or on the sea; Napoleon had

been forestalled, an unusual occurrence. He had admitted to Decaen,

who had been sent to India to sum up the political situation and

to ascertain the number of troops necessary for the subjugation of

England’s oriental Empire, that he anticipated war would not break out

before September 1804. He was annoyed, intensely annoyed, and ordered

the seizure of every Briton in France on the pretext that two merchant

vessels had been captured by English frigates before the declaration of

war. This was a gross misrepresentation of facts; the ships mentioned

were taken on the 18th May, the day Nelson hoisted his flag on the

_Victory_ at Portsmouth as Commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean.

Within forty-eight hours he was at sea. His was a tremendous programme,

and it is only possible to give an epitome of it here. He was to

proceed to Malta, where he would probably find Rear-Admiral Sir Richard

Bickerton and his squadron, which were to join him. After having made

arrangements with Sir Alexander Ball for the protection and security of

the island, Nelson was to take up such a position off Toulon as would

enable him to destroy the enemy’s vessels and to detain those belonging

to the allied Batavian Republic. Particular attention was to be paid

to the proceedings of the French at Genoa, Leghorn, and other ports of

western Italy, “for the purpose of gaining the most early information

of any armaments that may be formed there, either with a view to an

attack upon Egypt or any other port of the Turkish dominions, or

against the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, or the islands of Corfu.”

Should such a plan be in contemplation Nelson was to do his best to

counteract it, “as well as to afford to the Sublime Porte, and his

Sicilian Majesty and their subjects, any protection or assistance which

may be in your power, consistently with a due attention to the other

important objects entrusted to your care.”

 

There were good reasons for watching the conduct of Spain, which

purported to be a neutral. The Admiral was therefore to watch for any

sign of naval preparations by that Power in the Mediterranean and at

Cadiz. No Spanish ships were to be allowed to form a junction with

those of France or Batavia. As certain French sail-of-the-line recently

employed in conveying troops to San Domingo might attempt to make for a

southern port, Nelson was to detach part of his squadron to intercept them.