A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan - The Life of Nelson, Vol. II. (of 2)

A >> A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan >> The Life of Nelson, Vol. II. (of 2)

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35

The business hours of the day from seven to two were spent by Nelson
largely with his secretaries. We know from Colonel Stewart that in the
Baltic, where his command was more numerous than in the Mediterranean,
his habit was to get through the ordinary business of the squadron
before eight o'clock; for the rest, the greater part of the detail
work would fall upon the Captain of the Fleet, then Rear-Admiral
George Murray, who would require only general instructions and little
interference for carrying on the laborious internal administration of
the fleet. The admiral's energies were sufficiently taxed in
considering and meeting, so far as his resources would permit, the
numerous and complicated demands for external services in the
different quarters of his wide command--the ingenious effort to induce
two and two to make five, in which so much of the puzzle of life
consists. His position necessarily involved extensive diplomatic
relations. Each British Minister around the shores of the
Mediterranean had his own particular care; the British admiral was in
confidential communication with all, and in every movement had to
consider the consequences, both of what he did and of what he left
undone. It was a day when force ruled, and all the nations of Europe,
whether they wished or not, had to put their chief trust in the sword,
and in those who bore it. Not the least of Nelson's qualifications for
his post was that he possessed intimate knowledge and experience of
political conditions in the Mediterranean, knew the peoples and the
rulers well, and to great sagacity and sound judgment added a temper
at once firm and conciliatory. "He had in a great degree," said a
contemporary who knew him well,[69] "the valuable but rare quality of
conciliating the most opposite tempers, and forwarding the public
service with unanimity amongst men not of themselves disposed to
accord;" and although the remark referred primarily to his conduct in
the naval service, it will readily be seen that this aptitude is
nowhere more useful than in the tangled maze of conflicting national
interests. "My line of conduct," he wrote to Hobart, a year after
taking his command, "in obedience to the spirit of his Majesty's
instructions communicated through your Lordship, has been simply
this,--to conciliate all, to protect all from French rapacity. I have
been honoured with your letter of January 7th, and it has given me
most sincere pleasure that my whole conduct in my command here has
been such as to meet his Majesty's approbation." The new Ministry,
upon assuming office, requested him in the most flattering terms to
continue his direct correspondence on political subjects with them, as
with their predecessors.

Yet, while conciliatory, he could at times be curt and arbitrary
enough. Fault was found with the blockade of Genoa on the ground that
it did not comply with the requirements of international law; the
complaint resting, apparently, on the statement that the blockaders
could not be seen from Genoa. Nelson replied that the proof of evident
danger to vessels seeking to enter or leave, rested on the fact that
captures were made; and it is, on the face of it, absurd to say that
there can be no danger to a vessel seeking to enter a blockaded port,
because the blockading vessels are not visible from the latter. Much
more depends upon their number, disposition, and speed. "From my
knowledge of Genoa and its Gulf," said Nelson, "I assert without fear
of contradiction, that the nearer ships cruise to Genoa, the more
certain is the escape of vessels from that port, or their entrance
into it insured. I am blockading Genoa, according to the orders of the
Admiralty, and in the way I think most proper. Whether modern law or
ancient law makes my mode right, I cannot judge; and surely of the
mode of disposing of a fleet, I must, if I am fit for my post, be a
better judge than any landsman, however learned he may appear. It
would be the act of a fool to tell Europe where I intend to place the
ships, for the purpose of effectually obeying my orders; not a captain
can know it, and their positions will vary, according to the
information I may receive.... I endeavour, as well as I am able, to
obey my orders, without entering into the nice distinctions of
lawyers. I will not further take up your time on a subject which,
without being a lawyer, merely as a man, could have admitted of no
dispute." Along with much truth, there was in this a certain amount of
special pleading, as appeared when he took the further position that,
to intercept ships from Genoa, bound to the Atlantic, there was no
better place than the Gut of Gibraltar. When a definition of
international law is stretched as far as that, it will have little
elastic force left.

A petty, yet harassing, diplomatic difficulty, curiously illustrative
of maritime conditions at that day, ran unsettled through almost the
whole of his command. Malta, under the Knights, had been always at war
with the Barbary Powers; and there was trouble in impressing upon the
rulers of the latter that, when it passed into British hands, its
people and ships were under British protection. Several Maltese
vessels had been taken by Algerine cruisers, and their crews enslaved.
When Nelson came out in 1803, he found pending these cases, and also
the question of compelling, or inducing, the Dey to receive back the
British consul, whom he had expelled with insult. In the absence of a
British representative, the negotiations were intrusted wholly to the
admiral.

Nelson's feelings were strongly excited. He was tenacious of
everything he conceived to touch his country's honor, and long service
in the Mediterranean had made him familiar with the outrages on its
defenceless coasts practised by these barbarians, under the pretence
of war with the weaker states. Even in the remote and impoverished
north of Sardinia, the shepherds near the beaches watched their flocks
with arms beside them, day and night, to repel the attacks of
marauders from the sea. Not only were trading-vessels seized, but
descents were made upon the shore, and the inhabitants swept off into
slavery. Speaking of one such case in 1799, he had said: "My blood
boils that I cannot chastise these pirates. They could not show
themselves in the Mediterranean did not our Country permit. Never let
us talk of the cruelty of the African slave trade, while we permit
such a horrid war." But he knew, both then and afterwards, that Great
Britain, with the great contest on her hands, could not spare the
ships which might be crippled in knocking the barbarians' strongholds
about their ears, and that no British admiral would be sustained in a
course that provoked these pirates to cast aside the fears that
restrained them, and to declare war on British commerce, which, as it
was, he had difficulty to protect. He estimated ten ships-of-the-line
as the force necessary, in case the batteries at Algiers were to be
attacked. Exmouth, twelve years later, with fuller information,
thought and found five to be sufficient.

Nelson's conduct and self-control were sorely tested by the necessity
of temporizing with this petty foe, who reckoned securely on the
embarrassments of Great Britain. He acted with great judgment,
however, holding a high tone, and implying much in the way of menace,
without at any time involving himself in a definite threat, from
which he could not recede without humiliation; careful and precise in
his demands, but never receding from them, or allowing them to be
evaded, when once made; sensible of the difficulties in his way, as
well those raised by his own Government as those dependent upon his
opponent, but equally aware that he held in his hands, if authorized
to use it, the power to suppress the career of depredation, upon which
the Dey relied to support his revenue, and to content his officers.
Personally, he favored a short and summary proceeding, accordant to
his own decided character. The Dey proving immovable when first
summoned, he proposed to the British Government "that on the 28th of
April next, when, if he means to send his cruisers to sea, they will
be out, that, on that day, every ship under my command should have
strict orders (to open on that day) to take, sink, burn, and destroy
every Algerine, and that on that day the port of Algiers should be
declared in a state of blockade. Thus the Dey could get neither
commerce, presents, or plunder; and, although the other Powers may
rejoice at the war with us, yet I am firmly persuaded that it will be
most advantageous to us for the next hundred years." At the same time,
with his usual circumspection, he issued a general direction to all
commanders of convoys to carry their charges well clear of the
Algerine coast, until matters were settled. In the end, the British
Ministry yielded much more than Nelson approved, but, however sorely
against the grain, he carried out all his instructions with scrupulous
subordination. It was only three days before the active campaign began
with the sortie of the French fleet, that he was rejoined by the ship
to whose captain were intrusted the final arrangements with Algiers.

For his diplomatic and naval correspondence, Nelson had two principal
secretaries, public and private, both, awkwardly enough, named Scott;
but the latter, being a clergyman and chaplain of the ship, was
colloquially brevetted Doctor, a distinction which, for convenience,
will be observed when it is necessary to mention him. He had become
known to Nelson while serving in the same capacity with Sir Hyde
Parker, and had been found very useful in the negotiations at
Copenhagen. An accomplished linguist and an omnivorous reader, Dr.
Scott was doubly useful. Upon him devolved the translating of all
despatches and letters, not only from, but to, foreign courts and
officials; for Nelson made a point of sending with all such papers a
copy in the language of the person addressed, and an apology for
failing to do so sometimes appears, on account of his secretary's
absence. The latter was also a man of wide information, acquired, not
as his superior's chiefly was, by mingling among men and dealing with
affairs, but from books; and the admiral, while rightly valuing the
teachings of experience above all, was duly sensible that one's own
experience is susceptible of further extension through that of others,
imparted either by word or pen. Nelson entertained a persuasion, so
Scott has told us, that no man ever put his hand to paper without
having some information or theory to deliver, which he fancied was not
generally known, and that this was worth looking after through all the
encumbering rubbish. For the same reason, besides being naturally
sociable, he liked to draw others into conversation, and to start
subjects for discussion, from which, when fairly under way, he would
withdraw himself into silence and allow the company to do the talking,
both in order to gather ideas that might be useful to himself, and
also to observe character transpiring in conversation. Bourrienne has
told us that Bonaparte took pleasure in provoking similar debates.
Scott himself, a man essentially unpractical, afforded Nelson
amusement as well as interest, and was the object of a good deal of
innocent chaffing. He would, in those after-dinner gatherings which
Gillespie mentions, lead the doctor into arguments on literature,
politics, Spanish and even naval affairs, and would occasionally
provoke from him a lecture on navigation itself, to the great
entertainment of Murray, Hardy, and the other officers present.[70]
"Ah, my dear Doctor!" he would say chaffingly, "give me knowledge
practically acquired--experience! experience! experience! and
practical men!"

Nelson, however, was too big and too broad a man not to know that,
while by doing the same thing, or bearing the same thing, many
times,--by experience, that is,--one acquires a facility not otherwise
communicable, in a novel situation a man is abler to act, the more he
has availed himself of the knowledge and the suggestions of others.
Absorbed with the duties of his station, it was of the first
importance that he should possess every information, and ponder every
idea, small and great, bearing upon its conditions, as well as upon
the general political state of Europe in that period of ominous
waiting, wherein great events were evidently coming to birth. Day
after day, Dr. Scott's biographer tells us, was passed by the two
together, sitting in two black leathern arm-chairs with roomy pockets,
stuffed with papers, written and printed, journals and pamphlets,
gathered from every source--from prizes, from passing neutral vessels,
from cruisers returning from neutral or friendly ports, or picked up
by the doctor himself in the not infrequent trips on which he was
sent, ostensibly for pleasure, but with a keen eye also to the
collection of intelligence. Marked externally by the abstraction of a
book-worm, entirely unpractical and heedless in the common affairs of
life, and subject to an occasional flightiness of action, the result
in part of an injury to his head while in the service, Scott gave
those who saw him going about an impression of guilelessness, which
covered him from the suspicion of having a mission. He had, says his
biographer, "in union with a capacity for very difficult services, a
simplicity that often put him at disadvantage in worldly matters, and
it became a common joke with the Admiral, that 'the doctor would
always want somebody to take care of him.'"

Nelson had everything read to him; first of all, newspapers, which
were sent regularly to the fleet by British agents in various
quarters. Upon them chiefly, and not upon England, he depended for
knowledge of what was happening; in Great Britain itself, as well as
on the Continent. From ten to twelve weeks was no uncommon length of
time for him to be without word from home. "I never hear from
England," he wrote to Elliot in the summer of 1804, "but as we manage
to get the Paris papers regularly through Spain. From ten days to a
fortnight we get them from their date at Paris: therefore we know the
very great events which are passing in Europe--at least as much as the
French people;" a shrewd limitation. These, therefore, together with
Spanish, Italian, and other sheets, it was Scott's daily task to read
aloud to his chief, who found therein not only information but
amusement. He insisted also upon hearing the numerous ephemeral
pamphlets, of which the age was prolific, and which found their way to
him. His quickness in detecting the drift of an author was marvellous.
Two or three pages of a pamphlet were generally sufficient to put him
in complete possession of the writer's object, while nothing was too
trivial for his attention where there existed a possibility of its
contributing a clue to the problems of his command. Not the least
onerous of the doctor's duties was the deciphering of private letters
found in prizes, a channel by which important public interests are
often betrayed. Nelson's quickness to see the bearing and value of an
apparently trifling mention, dropped by the way by a careless pen,
rendered such an exercise of his ingenuity at once a pleasure and a
profit. The public secretary, Mr. Scott, was equally struck with the
alertness and sagacity of his employer's mind. "I have heard much of
Lord Nelson's abilities as an officer and statesman, but the account
of the latter is infinitely short. In my travels through the service I
have met with no character in any degree equal to his Lordship; his
penetration is quick, judgment clear, wisdom great, and his decisions
correct and decided: nor does he in company appear to bear any weight
on his mind." It was with difficulty, after a prolonged session, that
the doctor could at times beg off, and leave, stuffed in the arm-chair
pockets, for another day's work, a dozen or two of such letters,
sealed to Nelson by his imperfect eyesight and inadequate mastery of
other tongues. The arm-chairs, lashed together, formed at times a
couch upon which the admiral "slept those brief slumbers for which he
was remarkable;" in those moments, doubtless, when anxiety about the
enemy's movements did not permit him to go regularly to bed.

In common with all those closely associated with Nelson, Dr. Scott was
particularly struck with the kindliness and cordiality of his bearing
and actions; which is the more to be noted, because no one, probably,
had more occasion to see the movements of irritability, of impatience,
which lay very near the surface, than did his secretaries, through
whom his most vexatious work must be done. That he was vehement to
express annoyance has appeared frequently in these pages. The first
Lord Radstock, who was senior to him in the service, and knew him
well, writing to his son, then a midshipman in the "Victory," is
constant and extreme in his admiration of Nelson; but he gives the
caution to be careful of impressions made upon a chief upon whom
advancement depends. Quick in all his ways, a moment's heedlessness,
possibly misunderstood or misrepresented, may produce lasting injury.
"Lord Nelson is of so hasty a temper, that in spite of all his natural
goodness, I should fear that he would too readily give ear to those
in whom he had placed his confidence. He is a man of strong passions,
and his prejudices are proportionate." "On many occasions," says
another writer, "Lord Nelson evinced an impatience that has been
considered as irreconcileable with magnanimity; but the secret
workings of his soul have not been received into the account or
analysis of character, for we find the same individual, while employed
in watching the French fleet off Toulon, display the most unexampled
patience and forbearance, and never betray the smallest symptom of
inquietude or disappointment."[71] Murray, the Captain of the Fleet,
when first offered his appointment, had hesitated to accept. Upon
Nelson urging him, he gave as his reason that the nature of the duties
often led to disagreements between the admiral and his chief of staff,
and that he was unwilling to risk any diminution of the regard
existing between him and his Lordship; a remark true enough in the
general, but clearly of somewhat special application. Nelson assured
him that, should anything go contrary to his wishes, he would waive
his rank and explain or expostulate with him as his friend, and when,
after two years' service, Murray had to leave the ship, he refused to
replace him,--he would have Murray or none. In truth, such readiness
to flare up must needs be the defect of that quality of promptness,
that instant succession of deed to thought, which was a distinguishing
feature of Nelson's genius and actions. Captain Hillyar more than once
alludes to this trait as characteristic of the fleet, to which its
chief had transmitted his own spirit. "I have had to-day to lament,"
he says, speaking of some trifling disappointment, "the extreme
promptitude with which we all move when near his lordship."

But, while traces of this failing may be detected here and there by
the watchful reader, as Nelson himself gleaned useful indications
amid the rubbishy mass of captured correspondence, there survives,
among the remains left by those in daily contact with him, only the
record of a frank, open bearing, and unfailing active kindness.
"Setting aside his heroism," wrote Dr. Scott after Trafalgar, "when I
think what an affectionate, fascinating little fellow he was, how
dignified and pure his mind, how kind and condescending his manners, I
become stupid with grief for what I have lost." "He is so cheerful and
pleasant," wrote the public secretary, Mr. Scott, "that it is a
happiness to be about his hand." Dr. Gillespie notes "his noble
frankness of manners, freedom from vain formality and pomp (so
necessary to the decoration of empty little great men), which can only
be equalled by the unexampled glory of his naval career, and the
watchful and persevering diligence with which he commands this fleet."
"Nelson was the man to _love_" said Captain Pulteney Malcolm, who knew
intimately both him and Wellington. "I received Captain Leake," Nelson
himself says, speaking of an army officer on a special mission to the
Mediterranean, "with that openness which was necessary to make myself
as well acquainted with him in three days, as others might do in as
many years. I have given him all the knowledge of the men, their
views, &c. &c., as far as I have been able to form a judgment." The
remark is valuable, for it shows that frankness and cordiality were
recognized by him as the wisest and most politic method of dealing
with men. "Our friend, Sir Alexander," he says testily, "is a very
great diplomatic character, and even an admiral must not know what he
is negotiating about. You shall judge, viz., 'The Tunisian envoy is
still here, negotiating. He is a moderate man; and, apparently, the
best disposed of any I ever did business with.' Could even the oldest
diplomatic character be drier? I hate such parade and nonsense."

Captain Hillyar, who commanded one of the frigates that were ever
coming and going, writes in his journal: "If extreme kindness and
attention could render me happy, I have this day experienced both from
our revered and good commander-in-chief. How can I repay his kindness?
By obeying his injunctions 'not to be in a hurry to get married,'[72]
or by a continued perseverance in discharging those duties with
alacrity and honour, which he is more immediately concerned in?" "Lord
Nelson talked a great deal against matrimony yesterday, and I feel
will not trust me at Malta, while we are capable of remaining at sea.
It was all, however, in a good natured way. He is going to charge me
with two of his boys [midshipmen], I am pleased that an opportunity is
offered for showing my gratitude in a small degree for his almost
fatherly kindness. I wish you knew him; if he has failings,
reflections on his virtues cause them to be forgotten, and the mind
dwells with pleasure on a character where bravery, generosity, and
good nature, are joined to a heart that can feel for the woes of
others, and delights in endeavouring to alleviate them." Hillyar was
experiencing what Radstock had remarked: "Gain his esteem, and there
is nothing he will not dash through to put you forward." "Gain his
esteem, and you will have nothing to fear, for I know not a more
honourable man existing, or one who would more readily do you justice
in all respects." "I am well aware," wrote another young captain to
Nelson himself, "of the good construction which your Lordship has ever
been in the habit of putting on circumstances, although wearing the
most unfavourable appearances.... Your Lordship's good opinion
constitutes the summit of my ambition, and the most effective spur to
my endeavours."

Nelson loved to bestow promotion, when deserved, on the spot, to give
a man his spurs, if it might be, on the field of battle; but vacancies
would not always offer at the happy moment. A brother of Hillyar's was
a midshipman in one of two boats, sent to visit a suspicious vessel.
A sudden and staggering fire killed the lieutenant in command,
besides disabling a number of the boats' crews. The men hesitated; but
the lad, left in charge, cheered them on and carried the vessel by
boarding. Although he was but a couple of months over fifteen, Nelson
gave him at once his commission into the vacancy made by the
lieutenant. One very dark night, the "Victory" being under way, a
midshipman, at the imminent risk of his life, leaped into the sea to
save a seaman who had fallen overboard, and otherwise would have been
drowned. Nelson gave him, too, his commission the following morning;
but, seeing the jubilation among the young man's messmates, and
thinking the act might be a dangerous precedent, he leaned over the
poop and said, smiling good-naturedly, "Stop, young gentlemen! Mr.
Flin has done a gallant thing today, and he has done many gallant
things before, for which he has now got his reward. But mind, I'll
have no more making lieutenants for men falling overboard."

The power thus to reward at discretion, and speedily, though liable to
abuse, was, he claimed, essential to the due influence of a
commander-in-chief; his subordinates must feel that it was in his
power to make their future, to distinguish them, and that they were in
so far dependent upon him. Nevertheless, with him as with others,
personal interest had a weight which qualified his argument. The
premature[73] and disastrous promotion of his stepson, at his request,
by St. Vincent, was a practical abuse which in most minds would
outweigh theoretical advantages. Writing to Sir Peter Parker about
this time, he said, "You may be assured I will lose no time in making
your grandson a postcaptain. It is the only opportunity ever offered
me, of showing that my feelings of gratitude to you are as warm and
alive as when you first took me by the hand: I owe all my honours to
you, and I am proud to acknowledge it to all the world." Such
enduring gratitude is charming to see, and tends to show that Nelson
recognized some other reason for Parker's favor to himself than
deference to Suckling's position; but it is scarcely a good working
principle for the distribution of official patronage, although the
younger Parker was a good and gallant officer.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35