its
honeyed records of the ministerial pashas who tranquilly increased the
national debt, inflicted unspeakable horrors on the population, and
smirched our dignity by entering into a costly bond of brotherhood
with an inveterate swarm of hired bloodsucking weasels. Such,
forsooth! was the mental condition of the wooden souls who managed the
nation's affairs, that they allowed Nelson to add another blot to our
national history escutcheon by taking Ferdinand Bourbon's throne under
his protection. It is true that Ferdinand "did not wish that his
benefactor's name should alone descend with honour to posterity," or
that he should "appear ungrateful." So the Admiral was handsomely
rewarded by being presented with the Dukedom of Bronte and a
diamond-hilted sword which had been given to the King by his father
when he became Sicilian King. It would be nonsense even to suspect
Nelson of accepting either gifts or titles as a bribe to sacrifice any
interest that was British.

Nelson's devotion to the Court did not express itself by seeking
material recompense for the services bestowed on their Sicilian
Majesties. There were various reasons for his elaborate and silly
attentions. First, his range of instructions were wide in a naval
sense; second, his personal attachment to the King and his Consort
(especially his Consort), for reasons unnecessary to refer to again,
became a growing fascination and a ridiculous craze. His fanatical
expressions of dislike to the French are merely a Nelsonian way
of conveying to the world that the existence of so dangerous a
race should be permissive under strictly regulated conditions.
He had a solemn belief in his own superiority and that of his
fellow-countrymen. All the rest were to him mere human scrap, and his
collection of epithets for them was large and varied. His Mogul air in
the presence of aliens was traditionally seamanlike. If they failed
to shudder under his stern look and gleaming eyes, it affected
him with displeasure and contempt. The Neapolitans were fulsomely
accommodating, though Nelson, except from the Court party and a few
nobles, does not appear to have attached much value to their servile
tokens of appreciation. It cannot be said that either Nelson, his
Government, or his country were in any way rewarded by the sacrifices
made ostensibly in the interests of human rights. Under Ferdinand
Bourbon, the Neapolitan States and Sicily had no settled government.
He was a contemptibl