ernors may
be imposed upon by false declarations; we, who are on the spot,
cannot." He was aware, also, that a petition for relaxing the Act in
favor of the American trade with the West Indies had been referred to
the home government, by which it had been explicitly rejected.
Strengthened by this knowledge, but actuated, after all, chiefly by
his invariable resoluteness to assume responsibility where he felt he
was right, he replied to the admiral's letter with a clear statement
of the facts, concluding with the words: "Whilst I have the honour to
command an English man-of-war, I never shall allow myself to be
subservient to the will of any Governor, nor cooeperate with him in
doing _illegal acts_.... If I rightly understand your order of the
29th of December, it is founded upon an Opinion of the King's
Attorney-General, viz.: 'That it is legal for Governors or their
representatives to admit foreigners into the ports of their
government, if they think fit.' How the King's Attorney-General
conceives he has a right to give an illegal opinion, which I assert
the above is, he must answer for. I know the Navigation Laws." As he
summed up the matter in a letter to his friend Locker: "Sir Richard
Hughes was a delicate business. I must either disobey my orders, or
disobey Acts of Parliament, which the admiral was disobeying. I
determined upon the former, trusting to the uprightness of my
intention. In short, I wrote the Admiral that I should decline obeying
his orders, till I had an opportunity of seeing and talking to him, at
the same time making him an apology."

Hughes's first impulse was to supersede his recalcitrant subordinate,
and bring him to trial. He learned, however, that many of the other
captains, of whom the court must be formed, shared his junior's views,
although they shrank, with the submissiveness of military men, from
the decisive act of disobedience. The result of a trial must therefore
be doubtful. He was, moreover, a fiddler, as Nelson continually styled
him, shifting back and forth, from opinion to opinion, and to be
relied upon for only one thing,--to dodge responsibility, if possible.
Consequently, no official action was taken; the commander-in-chief
contented himself with washing his hands of all accountability. He had
given orders which would clear himself, in case Nelson's conduct was
censured in England. If, on the contrary, it was approved, it would
redound to the credit of the station.

The mat