line is to command at the
watering place at Brixham, taking to his assistance his commanding
officer of marines with a party of his men. He also may take with him a
lieutenant of the ship and as many midshipmen as he thinks fit; _but he
himself_ is not to quit his command until regularly relieved." A greater
stringency is observable at this later date, in the Channel Fleet, than
in the Mediterranean; for at the earlier period the spirit of mutiny had
not openly broken out, and he had besides on the distant station better
captains than those who had clung to the home fleet under its lax
discipline. "Old women in the guise of young men," he affirmed many of
them to be.

There was in fact an imminent necessity that naval rank should be made
to feel its responsibilities, and to exert its predominance; to be
restored to prestige, not by holding aloof in its privileges, but by
asserting itself in act. The preponderance of political and family
influence in determining promotion of officers, unbalanced by valid
tests of fitness such as later days imposed, had not only lowered the
competency of the official body as a whole, but impaired the respect
which personal merit alone can in the long run maintain. On the other
hand, the scarcity of seamen in proportion to the heavy demands of the
war, and the irregular methods of impressment and recruiting then
prevailing, swept into the service a vast number of men not merely
unfit, but of extremely bad character,--"miscreants," to use
Collingwood's word,--to be ruled only by fear of the law and of their
officers, supported by the better element among the crews. But these
better men also were becoming alienated by the harsh restrictions of the
times, and by the procrastination of superiors--Howe, the Sailor's
Friend, among others--to heed their just complaints. The stern Jervis,
whom none suspected of fatherly tenderness, if less indulgent to
culprits, was far more attentive to meet the reasonable demands of those
under him. While quelling insubordination mercilessly, he ever sought to
anticipate grievance; exhibiting thus the two sides of the same spirit
of careful, even-handed justice.

Jervis's work during the first eighteen months of his command was
therefore not only necessary, but most timely. By improving that period
of comparative internal quiet, he educated his officers and men to pass
steadfastly, though not unmoved, through the awful crisis of the
mutinies in 1797-98. Profes