the last reign, no commanding officer, on a ship being paid off,
could receive the residue of his pay, or get any half-pay at
all, until his 'accounts had been passed.'[80] The same rule
applied to officers in charge of money or stores. It has been
made a further charge against Elizabeth that her officers had to
meet certain expenditure out of their own pockets. That certainly
is not a peculiarity of the sixteenth-century navy. Till less
than fifty years ago the captain of a British man-of-war had
to provide one of the three chronometers used in the navigation
of his ship. Even later than that the articles necessary for
cleaning the ship and everything required for decorating her
were paid for by the officers, almost invariably by the first
lieutenant, or second in command. There must be many officers
still serving who have spent sums, considerable in the aggregate,
of their own money on public objects. Though pressure in this
respect has been much relieved of late, there are doubtless many
who do so still. It is, in fact, a traditional practice in the
British Navy and is not in the least distinctly Elizabethan.

[Footnote 80: This happened to me in 1904.]

Some acquaintance with present conditions and accurate knowledge
of the naval methods prevailing in the great Queen's reign--a
knowledge which the publication of the original documents puts
within the reach of anyone who really cares to know the truth--will
convince the candid inquirer that Elizabeth's administration of the
navy compares favourably with that of any of her successors; and
that, for it, she deserves the admiration and unalloyed gratitude
of the nation.

IX[81]

[Footnote 81: Written in 1905. (_Cornhill_Magazine_.)]

NELSON: THE CENTENARY OF TRAFALGAR

[The following article was read as an address, in compliance
with the request of its Council, at the annual meeting of the
Navy Records Society in July 1905. It was, and indeed is still,
my opinion, as stated to the meeting in some prefatory remarks,
that the address would have come better from a professed historian,
several members of the Society being well known as entitled to that
designation. The Council, however, considered that, as Nelson's
tactical principles and achievements should be dealt with, it would
be better for the address to be delivered by a naval officer--one,
moreover, who had personal experience of the manoeuvres of fleets
under sail. Space would not suffice for treati