NELSON 



water-supply in gfxxi. There is a cathedral, a 

 literary institute, anil museum, public hospital, 

 and asylum. The manufacture* of the town com- 

 prise cloth, leather, soap, uinl jinn. Pop. (1891) 

 6096 ; with suburbs, over 10,000. 



Nelson, HORATIO, VISOU-NT NKI,S<>N, English 

 admiral, was born on 29th Septemlier 1758, at 

 Hiiriiliiini Thorpe in Norfolk, of which |iarish his 

 father was rector. HU mother, daughter of Dr 

 Suckling, preliendarv of Westminster, wan related 

 t<> tin- wdpota, Hi' entered the navy in 1770, 

 under the patronage of his uncle. Captain Maurice 

 Suckling: made a voyage to tin- \\V>t Indies in a 

 merchant ship ; served in the Arrtir e\|dition of 

 177.X am! was afterwards sent to the Kant Indies in 

 the Seahorse. Two years of the climate severely 

 tried his constitution, never very strong, and he 

 came home, invalided, in Septemlier 1776. In 

 April 1777 he passed liis examination, and hy the 

 interest of his mother's family was at unce pro- 

 muted in be lieutenant of the l.utresluft frigate, 

 with Captain Locker. In her he went to Jamaica, 

 where he was taken hy the admiral into the flag- 

 ship, and on 8th December 1778 was promoted 

 to command the litulger brig, from which, six 

 months later, he was posted to the Hinchingbrook 

 frigate. 



In January 1780 he commanded the naval force 

 in the expedition against San Juan ; in the heavy 

 boat- work up the pestilential river his health broke 

 down, and he returned to England in an appar- 

 ently dying condition. A few months' rest and 

 careful treatment, however, restored him ; and in 

 August 1781 he commissioned the Albcnuirle, in 

 which, after a winter in the North Sea, he went to 

 North America, where he joined the squadron 

 under Lord Hood, and made the acquaintance of 

 Prince William Henry, afterwards William IV., 

 with whom he always maintained the most cordial 

 relations. In the spring of 1784 he was appointed 

 to the Boreas frigate, again for service in the Wot 

 Indies, where, hy enforcing the Navigation Act 

 against the Americans, he routed the ill-will of 

 the merchants, which took effect in numerous 

 actions for damages. The law, however, was clear 

 on the |M>int, and Nelson's proceedings were sus- 

 tained, though not without causing him much 

 trouble and annoyance. 



Whilst on this station he married Mrs Nisliet, 

 the widow of a Dr Nisliet of Nevis, niece of Mr 

 Herbert, the picsident of the island ; and on the 

 Jioreas being paid oil', in December 1787, he with 

 his wife retired to Ituruham Thorpe, where he 

 lived for the next live years. His frequent applica- 

 tions for employment were unsuccessful, till, on 

 the imminence of war with France in January 

 17113, he was appointed to the AgamriiimiH of sixty- 

 four guns, in which he accompanied Lord HOIK! to 

 the Mediterranean. When Toulon was given up 

 to the allies Nelson was ordered to Naples to urge 

 the necessity of troops lieing sent at once to their 

 assistance; on his return he wag employed in the 

 blockade of Corsica, and in the following spring 

 comniande.1 the naval brigade which largely con- 

 diieed to the reduction of Ha.stiii and of Calvi, 

 where an unlucky blow from a bit of gravel, 

 red liv a shot, destroyed the sight of his right 

 \c. In 1711.". he was with the fleet in the two 

 actions fought by Admiral Hotham outside Toulon. 

 In Ixith the French were defeated with some loss, 

 but they were allowed to escape, and Nelson in 

 his private lett.-is e\ptesse,| an angrv opinion that 

 more might and ought to have liven doMl 



In the autumn of 1795 Hotham was succeeded 

 bv Sir John Jen is, and during the whole of 1796 

 the strict.~t blockade of Toulon was enforced, 

 Nelson being for the most part, as in preced- 

 ing years, with a small squadron in the Gulf of 



(ienoa, where he put a stop to all coasting traffic, 



and commanded the road along the shore so com 

 idetely as to warrant his assertion that, had he 

 hod an adequate force, the invasion of Italy would 

 have In-en impossible. Towards the close of the 

 year Spain concluded a treaty of alliance with 

 France, ami sent her fleet into the Mediterranean 

 to rii-mierate with the French. Jervis thus found 

 himself opposed by very sujierior forces; and. with 

 Spain and Italy lioth in hostile hands, his position 

 was no longer tenable. He withdrew the troops 

 from Corsica, and retired to Cilnaltar, and after- 

 wards to Lisbon. He was, however, determined 

 that the Spanish fleet, which had l>een instructed 

 t'> join the French at lin-st, should not pass ; and, 

 on its endeavouring to do so, met it oil' ( 'a|- St 

 Vincent on 14th February 1797, and inflicted on it 

 a signal defeat. This was rendered more decisive 

 by the action of Nelson, who, having been appointed 

 commodore, with his broad pennant on lioard the 

 Captain, was in the rear of the line, and, inter- 

 preting a manojnvre of the Spanish admiral as 

 an attempt to reunite the two divisions of his 

 fleet, which Jervis had separated, won- out of 

 the line to meet him, and for nearly half an hour 

 withstood, single handed, the attack of the whole 

 Spanish van. When support arrived and the 

 Spaniards lied, the ('ii/i/niii had Buffered 1 severely; 

 and Nelson, being unable to join in the pursuit, 

 let his ship fall foul of the Spanish ,s>r \imlat, 

 which he boarded and t<nik possession of, and. lead- 

 ing his men across her deck to the HUH Josef, took 

 jtosscssioti of her also. 



Nelson's conduct on this occasion deservedly won 

 for him the cross of tin- F.ath ; and, lieing promoted 

 in due course to IK- rear-admiral, he continued with 

 the fleet off Cadiz till, in July 1797, he was sent 

 with a small squadron to seize a richly-laden 

 Spanish ship which hail taken refuge at Santa 

 ( 'in/,. He was instructed to levy a heavy contri- 

 bution on the town if the treasure was not given 

 up : but the troops which he had asked for were 

 not granted, the ships were powerless, and the 

 landing force at his disposal was quite inadequate. 

 With it, such as it was, however, the attack was 

 made on the night of 21st July ; but in the dark- 

 ness the boats missed the mole, and landing irregu- 

 larly were repulsed with severe loss. Nelson him- 

 self had his right elliow shattered by a grape shot. 

 He was carried on board his ship, Where the arm 

 was amputated, but on rejoining the fleet he was 

 compelled to return to England. 



In the following March, 1798, he hoisted his flag 

 on board the VmiiiHuril of seventy-four guns, and 

 sailed from St Helens to rejoin the fleet oil Cadi/. 

 He was immediately sent into the Mediterranean 

 in command of a small squadron, with orders to 

 ascertain tin- object of the French armament at 

 Toulon. The secret was, however, too well kept ; 

 and the )'</"" nf, lieing dismasted in a violent 

 gale, was obliged to put into San Pietro oft 

 Sardinia to relit, while the French expedition 

 sailed on its way to Egypt. On 7th June Nelson 

 was reinforced by ten sail of the line ; but his 

 frigates had all parted company, and, under some 

 misapprehension of orders, did not rejoin him. 

 He was thus left without means of learning any- 

 thing alxnit the French further than that they had 

 saili-d from Toulon. His hope to get news at 

 Naples proved vain, and it was only when he 

 arrived oil Messina that he heard that the French 

 had captured Malta, lint had sailed again some days 

 In-fore. Their destination was unknown ; he con- 

 jectured that it might l>e Egypt, and he hastened 

 thither, only to find that there was no trace of 

 them. He had in fact passed within a few leagues 

 of them, but without seeing them. He returned 

 by the coast of Asia, put into Syracuse, where he 



