508 
your correspondents, I do not recollect 
how many months sinee, speaking of 
the character of the late Lord Nelson, 
represented him as undignified and 
familiar among those about him, even 
to a degree of weakness and vulgarity. 
This statement was soon after contro- 
verted by another correspondent, who 
contented himself with the simple 
argumentum ad improbabilitatem; and 
who could on no account be induced 
to assent to the probability of such 
familiar conduct in a hero, and the 
commander-in-chief of a British fleet. 
But perhaps that gentleman was only a 
theorist on the subject, and had never 
enjoyed the practical honour of wit- 
nessing the familiar day of heroes and 
admirals. He had even, likely enough, 
formed to himself a certain invariable 
and unbending system of loftiness and 
decorum, which these exalted person- 
ages never fail to adopt, and from 
which they never deviate. Such a 
conclusion, however, is not sanctioned 
by our knowledge of the world, in which 
we find so many anomalies, varieties, 
and contradictions of every kind. 
Some men in command, by virtue of 
their natural gravity, and the power of 
discipline which they retain over 
their own minds, are able also to pre- 
serve inviolate that so enviable distance 
between them and their inferiors; 
whilst others, their equals in all es- 
sential respects of greatness, neither 
possess the power of state-keeping 
from nature, nor cultivate it from in- 
clination. We have anecdotal autho- 
rities in plenty, and of all times, in 
support of both the above propositions. 
With respect to the latter, perhaps 
our naval commanders, from the neces- 
sarily familiar habits of the sea, may 
be more inclined to relax, than their 
peers of the land-service ; a perhaps to 
which the following anecdote, really, 
I believe, authentic, appears to afford 
a degree of countenance. 
About the year 1783, an old friend 
dined with me, a sea-officer, who had 
sailed with Admiral Sir George 
Rodney. He had the opportunity of 
knowing that dashing commander well, 
and represented him, in his conduct 
on-board, as the strangest possible 
mixture of stateliness and gravity, and 
familiarity. Among other instances, 
he gave me the following, which he 
related, or rather acted, with a most 
laughable characteristic drollery. The 
chaplain on-board the admiral’s ship 
was a little hump-backed man, whose 
2 
Remarks on the true Character of certain Heroes. 
(Jan. 1, 
person had that kind of mien, which 
never fails to excite ludicrous ideas in 
the minds of the susceptible ; and his 
mind and body were both married and 
matched. He was a great and unan- 
swerable argumentator, the jit of whose 
logic residedin the last word. Inconse- 
quence, when dining togetherin the great 
cabin, the admiral and the parson were 
everlastingly jangling and disputing ; 
and one day after dinner, on the oc- 
casion of a certain argument, in which 
the commander pressed his reverence 
too closely, the latter could contain 
himself no longer, but giving vent to 
his choler, and bristling up his gro- 
tesque figure, he squeaked out amain, 
—“ Youlie, Sir George, youlie.” The 
admiral instantly rising from his chair, 
and snatching up a huge church bible 
which lay on the table, put the little 
clerical to flight, who ran skulking 
away, pursued by his commander: he, 
making a stand with his bible uplifted, 
exclaimed, with the utmost solemnity 
of voice and manner—‘ Ha! sirrah !— 
you—tell—me—I lie !”” No bones were 
broken, however, in this fierce ren- 
counter; and the little parson’s submis- 
sion insured him a speedy return to the 
convivial table, which was accustomed 
to be enlivened by many such a tragi- 
comedy. 
I must own I feel inclined, from an 
internal evidence, strengthened by a 
variety of anecdotes from those who 
must have been well informed, to join 
your first correspondent in his opinion 
of the Jate Lord Nelson. In the mean 
time, neither he nor I, merely from a 
desire to declare impartially the truth, 
ought to be accused of attempting to 
derogate from the sterling merits, or 
to tarnish the hard-earned laurels, of 
the illustrious defunct. I can answer 
for myself, and I am sure the writer 
alluded to shews no such base inten- 
tion as that which I have disclaimed. 
The remarks which follow, on the 
character of the hero of the Nile, were 
made by an officer and an eye-witness. 
Having no doubt of their veracity, itis 
on them, and accompanying facts, in 
part from the same, and partly from 
other sources, that I have relied, for the 
formation of an opinion on the charac- 
ter of that extraordinary and eccentric 
person. ‘Lord Nelson frequently 
acted without a thought, nor ever 
weighed in his mind, what opinion 
men might form of his conduct, exeept 
in battle ; every thing, beside the fame 
acquired in a fight, was beneath his 
notice 
