arrangement was so made, and the consequent meeting lasted from
six to nine the next morning. Of its general nature and results we
have an authentic outline, given in later years to Nelson's
biographers by Rose, who became, and to the last remained, his warm
personal friend. The conversation ranged, apparently, over all the
chief occurrences in the West Indies during the cruise of the
"Boreas," including both the naval frauds and the contraband trade.
The breadth and acuteness of Nelson's intellect have been too much
overlooked, in the admiration excited by his unusually grand moral
endowments of resolution, dash, and fearlessness of responsibility.
Though scarcely what could be called an educated man, he was one of
close and constant observation, thereby gaining a great deal of
information; and to the use of this he brought a practical sagacity,
which coped with the civil or political questions placed before it,
_for action_, much as it did with military questions--for, after all,
good generalship, on its intellectual side, is simply the application,
to the solution of a military problem, of a mind naturally gifted
therefor, and stored with experience, either personal or of others. As
a strategist and tactician, Nelson made full proof of high native
endowments, of wisdom garnered through fruitful study and meditation,
and of clear insight into the determining conditions of the various
military situations with which he had to deal. To Mr. Rose, the young
captain of barely thirty years displayed a precise knowledge of
several political subjects, connected with the commerce of the
country, that would not naturally come under his notice as an officer,
and which therefore the mere seaman would probably not have imbibed.
Not only so, but his suggestions for dealing practically with the
interests at stake were so judicious, that Rose, a valued associate of
Pitt and intimately acquainted with the financial measures of that
brilliant administrator, complimented him warmly upon the justice and
correctness of his views, the result, as they were, of reflection
based upon a mastery of the data involved. With Nelson's consent, he
undertook to lay them before the prime minister, as the direct
testimony of a singularly competent first-hand observer.

It is to be noted, however, of Nelson, that this accuracy of mental
perception, this power of penetrating to the root of a matter,
disregarding unessential details and fastening solely on