of commendation seems to have
been bestowed upon Nelson for his exertion. It has been justly remarked
that the spirit of the navy cannot be preserved so effectually by the
liberal honours bestowed on officers when they are worn out in the
service, as by an attention to those who, like Nelson at this part of
his life, have only their integrity and zeal to bring them into notice.
A junior officer, who had been left with the command at Jamaica,
received an additional allowance, for which Nelson had applied in vain.
Double pay was allowed to every artificer and seaman employed in the
naval yard: Nelson had superintended the whole business of that yard
with the most rigid exactness, and he complained that he was neglected.
"It was most true," he said, "that the trouble which he took to detect
the fraudulent practices then carried on was no more than his duty; but
he little thought that the expenses attending his frequent journeys to
St. John's upon that duty (a distance of twelve miles) would have fallen
upon his pay as captain of the BOREAS." Nevertheless, the sense of what
he thought unworthy usage did not diminish his zeal. "I," said he, "must
buffet the waves in search of--What? Alas! that they called honour
is thought of no more. My fortune, God knows, has grown worse for the
service; so much for serving my country! But the devil, ever willing to
tempt the virtuous, has made me offer, if any ships should be sent to
destroy his Majesty of Morocco's ports, to be there; and I have some
reason to think that, should any more come of it, my humble services
will be accepted. I have invariably laid down, and followed close, a
plan of what ought to be uppermost in the breast of an officer,--that
it is much better to serve an ungrateful country than to give up his
own fame. Posterity will do him justice. A uniform course of honour and
integrity seldom fails of bringing a man to the goal of fame at last."

The design against the Barbary pirates, like all other designs
against them, was laid aside; and Nelson took his wife to his father's
parsonage, meaning only to pay him a visit before they went to France;
a project which he had formed for the sake of acquiring a competent
knowledge of the French language. But his father could not bear to lose
him thus unnecessarily. Mr. Nelson had long been an invalid, suffering
under paralytic and asthmatic affections, which, for several hours after
he rose in the morning, scarcely permitted hi