that Moutray was authorized by himself to take
this step. Being then away from the island, he had replied guardedly
that if Commissioner Moutray _was put into commission_, he would have
great pleasure in serving under him,--thus reserving his decision to
the moment for action. He now took the ground that an officer not
commissioned afloat, but holding only a civil appointment, could not
exercise naval command,--that an order authorizing him to do so was
invalid,--that to entitle him to such command he must be put into
military commission by being attached to a ship in commission. He
therefore flatly declined to obey Moutray's orders, refusing to admit
his claim to be considered a commodore, or entitled to military
obedience, unless he produced a commission. This he held to when
Moutray gave him a written order to put himself under his command.

On technical points of this kind Nelson was a clear and accurate
thinker, and in the admiral he had to do with a muddle-headed,
irresolute superior. Hughes had already been badly worried and
prodded, on matters concerning his own neglected duties, by his
unquiet young subordinate, who was never satisfied to leave bad enough
alone, but kept raising knotty points to harass an easy-going old
gentleman, who wanted only to be allowed to shut his eyes to what went
on under his nose. He was now exasperated by Nelson's contumacy, but
he was also a little afraid of him, and supported his own order by no
more decisive action than laying the case before the Admiralty, who
informed Nelson that he should have referred his doubts to the
admiral, instead of deciding for himself in a matter that concerned
"the exercise of the functions of his [the admiral's] appointment."
This was rather begging the question, for Nelson expressed no doubts,
either to Hughes or in his explanatory letter to the Admiralty. The
latter in turn shirked thus the decision of the question,--for, if
Nelson was right, Hughes's order was illegal and not entitled to
obedience; if he was wrong, he had been guilty of flagrant
insubordination, and should have been sharply dealt with. The
Government probably thought that the admiral had blundered in
undertaking to give military authority to a civil official,--a step so
generally disastrous in experience that it is now explicitly forbidden
by the regulations of most navies. It is worthy of note that twenty
years later, when commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, Nelson
directe