in veil, men persuaded themselves that appearances were saved, as
a woman hides a smile behind her fan. Admiral Codrington, a firm admirer
of Howe, justly said: "It was want of discipline which led to the
discontent and mutiny in the Channel Fleet. Lord Howe got rid of the
mutiny by granting the men all they asked; but discipline was not
restored until the ships most remarkable for misconduct had been, one
after the other, placed under the command of Lord St. Vincent."

With the settlement of this mutiny Lord Howe's long career of active
service closed. Immediately afterwards he retired formally, as he
sometime before had actually, from the command of the Channel Fleet, and
on the 5th of August, 1799, he died full of years and honors; having
lived just long enough to welcome the rising star of Nelson's glory as
it burst upon men's sight at Cape St. Vincent and the Nile.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe," vol. ii. p. 90.

[13] _Ante_, p. 250.

JERVIS

1735-1823

The renown of Nelson is part of the heritage of the world. His deeds,
although their full scope and real significance have been but little
understood, stand out conspicuous among a host of lesser achievements,
and are become to mankind the symbol of Great Britain's maritime power
in that tremendous era when it drove the French Revolution back upon
itself, stifling its excesses, and so insuring the survival of the
beneficent tendencies which for a time seemed well nigh lost in the
madness of the nation.

The appearance of a prodigy like Nelson, however, is not an isolated
event, independent of antecedents. It is the result of a happy meeting
of genius and opportunity. The hour has come, and the man. Other men
have labored, and the hero enters into their labors; not unjustly, for
thereto he also has been appointed by those special gifts which fit him
to reap as theirs fitted them to sow. In relation to Nelson and his
career, the illustrious officer whose most distinguishing
characteristics we have now to trace stood pre-eminent among many
forerunners. It was he, above all others, who made the preparation
indispensable to the approaching triumphal progress of the first of
British naval heroes, so that his own work underlies that of his
successor, as foundation supports superstructure. There is not between
them the vital connection of root to branch, of plant to fruit. In the
matter of professional kinship Nelson has far more in commo