eyes
of seamen his fairest title to glory. He alone was capable of
displaying such boldness and perseverance; he alone could confront the
immense difficulties of that enterprise and overcome them."
Notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding that the valor of the
squadron, as manifested in its losses, was never excelled, no medals
were ever issued for the battle, nor were any individual rewards
bestowed, except upon Nelson himself, who was advanced in the peerage
to be a Viscount, and upon his immediate second, Rear-Admiral Graves,
who was made a Knight of the Bath. The cause for this action--it was
not a case of oversight--has never been explained; nor did Nelson
consider the reasons for it, which the Prime Minister advanced to him
in a private interview, at all satisfactory. If it was because a
formal state of war did not exist between Great Britain and Denmark,
the obvious reply of those engaged would be that they had hazarded
their lives, and won an exceptionally hard-fought fight, in obedience
to the orders of their Government. If, on the other hand, the Ministry
felt the difficulty of making an invidious distinction between ships
engaged and those not engaged, as between Nelson's detachment and the
main body under Parker, it can only be said that that was shirking the
duty of a government to reward the deserving, for fear lest those who
had been less fortunate should cry out. The last administration had
not hesitated to draw a line at the Battle of the Nile, even though
the mishap of so great an officer as Troubridge left him on the wrong
side. St. Vincent, positive as he was, had shrunk from distinguishing
by name even Nelson at the battle which had won for himself his title.
This naturally suggests the speculation whether the joint presence of
St. Vincent and Troubridge at the Admiralty was not the cause of this
futility; but nothing can be affirmed.

"First secure the victory, then make the most of it," had been
avowedly Nelson's motto before the Nile. In the Battle of Copenhagen
he had followed much the same rule. After beating the force
immediately opposed to him, he obtained the safe removal of his
detachment from the critical position in which it lay, by the shrewd
use made of the advantage then in his hands. This achieved, and his
ships having rejoined the main body, after various mishaps from
grounding, under the enemy's guns, which emphasized over and over the
adroit presence of mind he had displayed, it