NELSON AND HIS CAPTAINS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11580, 11 May 1903, Page 10

NELSON AND HIS CAPTAINS.

"D. S." in "Tub Qcies.' In "Nelson and 'his Captains," that great writer, the Rev. W. H. Fitchett, has a congenial subject, which he treats in such a straightforward, sympathetic, untechnical manner as to make it just as interesting to women as to men, and if the new volume does not quite come up to bis delightful "Stories of the Indian Mutiny," it is because stories of the sea are ."lecossarily lacking in so many elements of picttiresqueness which were afforded by the Mutiny. It is a very fair book. If he is sterner than some writers towards the Lady Hamilton episode, it is not more than one would expect from a writer who has been head of the Methodist body in Victoria. Ido not mean by this to hint that Mr Fitchett is in any way narrow or that there is about him the slightest suspicion of what is satirically called the Nonconformist conscience. But as a clergyman of great eminence it is natural for him to walk with circumspection in touching such a subject. Mr Fitchett is one of the most whole-souled Britons in English literature* He loves his country with a splendid breezy patriotism. He tells tlie story of its battles with as much verve and sense of enjoyment as a bon mot. His Btyle is absolutely contagious. To such a man the character of Nelson is irresistible. As he points out,. Nelson is one of the three protagonists in the great jEschylean drama of the long Napoleonic wars. Nelson was as famous on the sea as Napoleon and Napoleon's conqueror were on land. H anything, he was more famous. His victories were annihilations—one of them amounted to a conquest, and tlie result of another was to give England the undisputed sovereignty of the seas for the rest of the newly-born nineteenth century. And, unlike his two great rivals, he was intensely lovable. Napoleon, though adored by some of hi» army for his military genius, was selfish and brutal. Wellington was cold and unlovable. Nelson ins-pired in all who were brought into contact with him not only tlie profoundest admiration flor his '.conquering genius, but also warm, personal love. He was an open-hearted boy to the end of his short life.

In his picturesque style Mr Fitchett emphasises again and again the extraor<linary contrast which inhabited this wasted little body of 5 feet 6 inches high. The greatest admiral the world has ever seen caught terrifio colds when the weather was bad, and was always seasick when the sea was rough, even when he had been at sea for many months. He had periodical returns of fever, he was subject to overwhelming fits of depression, but, as a fighter by land or sea, Mr Fitchett considers that he has never been equalled. In Nelson so many great qualities of a commander were equally developed. To defeat the enemy he would not leave one precaution untried till the moment of battle came, and then, if his judgment dictated it, be would take the wildest risks conceivable. His judgment, Mr Fitchett tliinks ,has never been equalled. He could predict his enemy's moves like a chess champion, and similarly baffle their calculations. He had a marvellous

eye in choosing his subordinates, and could inspire the blindest faith in everyone who came into contact with him. As an ex""' ample, Mr Fitchett gives the use he mads of Sir Edward Berry, his off the Battle of the Nile. Berry seems to hare been a slow, stupid man, but the prince of what -Mr Fitcliett happily calk "blind fighters." Yet no captain could have serv- • ed Nelson better at the Battle of the Nile.

Berry is one of the captains treated in this volume. As Mr Fitchett shows, whw away from Nelson he was never within a long distance of his best. In the times immediately following the Battle of the Nile he had most dramatic experiences. T_> fifty-gun ship Leander, on which * Nelson sent him home to carry the despatches of tlie battle, was captured by the Genereux, one of the two French line-of-battle ships which escaped from the battle. The Gejiereux outsailed the Leander, and had eighty heavy guns and nearly three time* as many men to the LeaudeVg fifty guns and meagre crew. The French were very sore about the battle, and behaved very badly to their prisoners. But Berry had " his revenge when he had got his liberty br exchange and been appointed captain of the Foudroyant-. Lord Keith's squadron ' had intercepted a French squadron which was trying to relieve Malta. The Generetrc •■ was escaping, when a British frigate, the Success, boldly threw herself across the big Frenchman's bows until the Foudroyant could come up. The Foudroyant, com- ' manded by Berry, had only fired its second gun when" the Gehereux struck her colours. Berry's luck did not end there. Only « fortnight later another British frigate, tlie Penelope, threw herself on the quarter of the Guiilaume Tell, the other French line-of-battle ship which had escaped from tho Nile, as she was trying to break out lof the blockade at Malta. All night long she hung there and raked the Guiilaume Tell, and in the morning the Lion, a fiftygun ship, came and helped her to keep die Frenchman engaged till the Foudroyant, which might have been started long be» fore she did, came up. The Guiluume Tell fought better than the Genereux, but Berry -was a smashing fighter, and in time knocked her to bits, and she had to surrender. As Mr Fitchett points out, it was singular good fortune for Berry, who had himself been captured on his way back from the Nile, to get free and capture both of the only two French line-of-battle fhipa which escaped from the battle. Sir Thomas Foley, the captain of tha Goliath, who led the way between the French sliips and the shore in that daring' manoeuvre which makes the Battle of the Nile one of flho greatest tableaux vivants of history, is also most interesting. That' mode Foley the hero of all the captains in the famous* fight. It has even made his admirer- claim for him the chief glory of thi conception.. Mr Fitchett says: — FOLEY'S GOLDEN HOUR. For Foley th «l golden houT. alike of lion I fame, was w_en at the _ Nil o ho led M gallantly, and with so fine a judgment, round ! tho bows of tho Guerrier, and dropped hit I anchor 'broadside with tlie Conquera—t. Ha lived thirty-five years afterwardls, but he did ' I nothing to surpass that gallant deed. Thai is the one moment in which he becomes visible for all time to admiring posteritt. But his eea service stretches _roug_ nearlysixty ye_m, and during its earlier stages, a/k least, was crowded with gallant deeds. Another very interesting chapter that devoted to Sir Thomas- Masterman Hardy, the man to whom the dying Nelson said, "Kiss me, Hardyi." Of him Mr FStchett speaks in the warmest sympathy. THE OHARACTER OF NELSON'S CAPi TAIN HARDY. And of all Nekon'a captains and comtad— Hardy was beat entitled by righrt of nine*." to stand by Nelson's deathbed. Troubridg> could not have filled Hardy's place, nor Cofc Hingwood, nor Berry, nor Foiey, nor SattH—rcz. Collinga-ood was —evex quite et east with Nelson, and never quite understood him. Troubxidgo in later years drifted apart from Nelson, end was never quite forgiven for whs* Nelson looked l upon as want of sympathy and officious irrterm.cdjdling at the Admiralty Board. Berry was in his place in the mi*• sen chair— of the San Nicolas, leading _• Victory's bcarders. He- would have beehelpless a_d clumsy beside Nelson's death- . bed. Betwixt Nelson and Saum—res _ei-__,.j was a fatal lack of sympathy. Nelson, w"£ deed, never /understood Samnnrex, and looked '>$ on him as on u_ge__L not to say priggish,, \ critic, than aa a comrade- and •> friend. Bait .-' comes nearest to Handy in the relationship - in which he stood to Nelson, yet Ball's pr*> disposition to a wordy philosophy provoked a mood of half-angry banter in Nelson. Hardy-, alone, grave, sweet—atured, modest, * gallant' seaman, a man of sensitive honour, who un» % derstood Nelson perfectly, and worellippehdm, without flattering __v—he, beyond «_ others, was the comntde Nelson would have chose— to hold his hand aa be died. Only, , perhaps, to Hardy could Nelson hove epokea . those pathetjo wards, childlike in their simplicity amd worn—rly in their depth of lee].. - ing, "Kiss me, Hardy." Six W—Earn Parker, the lost of N—son's captains, one© describe- ' „_rdy as "tbe very soul of truth." ■ Codringiton, keen of eye and spoeah, who seldom admires anyone, has nothing but —-reserved l eulogy, for Hardy. Ho writes to his wiif after Trafalgar: "From the first day that I saw him on boarrd the Viotory I was captivated by his n—rimer, bo unusual «nd yet so ibeooniing to his situation as oon_d_nt to Load Nelson, and I gave in to the general good opinion of the fleet . . He has not beauty, or the—) aooomplishrrents which attract sometimes on shore •above all olhsr qualities; but he is very superior." Hardy .certainly had "no beauty.' Ho woe tall am massive in fipure, a curious contrast in appearance to .Keleon, with his little contorted body. It is .argued, indeed, that the sharpshooters in the tops of tho Redoutable were trying to ehoab Hardy rather than Nelson, for no Frenchman, it was reasoned, would have drawn a trigger on tho little insignificamt figure walking with jerking steps to and fro on th© Victory's quarter-deck, when ha had the commanding bulk of Hardy, who walked at Nelson's aide, to aim alt I Hardy's face in Abbott'o well-known painting will „- pay study. Tha features are large, the cheeks heavy, the eyebrowa black and thick. Bu* there is » frankness iv the wide-opened eyes, a kindness in the firm mouth, and an air of sweetness as well as gravity and strength . in tlhe whole countenance which take th* gazer'- imagination captive. It is the face of a man with whom nobody would take any ' ■ liberties, a strong face, with not an ignobleline in it A certain half-solemn dignity lies upon it, but it is a face which would win a child's affection and to which a woman would turn for help. Hardy, in a word, was, in later years ot least, the closest of all Nelson,'* .frie—aa; and Nelson found in. him not so much the qualities lie himself possessed, but the qualities which ho most admired.

This is tlie kind of book from which on* would like to go on quoting. It is written with such obvious sincerity and enthusiasm. It is to be hoped that Mr Fitchett will go on illuminating every year fresh highways and byeways in the history of British, battlvs.

Wardell _ Hams, sweetest, mildest, grain fed. 5

"Jaqucs," who writes "Hie Passing Mood " for the London " Daily Chronicle," has the following banter in reference to the opportunities of drama in America: — " 1 observe a disposition in young democracies to employ the stage as an aid to national institutions. In an American majgazine a writer, discoursing on the spirit of his country's laws, and of Jwtf great men, asks why the drama does not immortalise Tammany Hall and thte brain of Mr Rockefeller. It is passing Strang* that Mr Rockefeller has inspired no poet. I look in vain for the great American sonnet which -hull picture him trimming rl_ Lamp of Liberty with Standard Oil. Tha playwright, too", is backward, for t~ei« ought to be a great popular drama of tha monopolist who crushes competition in petroleum and eaves the consumer from the vicious luxury of low prices. American fiction has shown us the gambler who makes 'corners' in wheat; but it is rather ashamed of him. In Frank Norris's romance of the Chicago 'wheat pit' the gambler is. ruined, and what little brain ho has left has- to be nursed by the wife he has neglected. You cannot treat the Rockefeller brain in that contumelious style. Ah a national institution, it must tower above the Capitol at Washington, and reduce to insignificance the Declaration of Independence and the Monroe Doctrine. This, I take it. is Mr Clyde Fitch's great opportunity. He is the national dramatisti of America by virtue of prodigious output Already lie baa shown how readily he can catch dramatic themes from the newspapers, why not from the national spirit! At this very moment American editors are complaining of what they term 'arrogance* in the Senate.' Why not call in the brain of Mr Rockefeller, symbol of tbe national pride and emulation, to save the Republiof What a chance then for Mr Clyde Fitch to write a play witih the taking title of 'The Arrogance of the Senator,' and show the weight of £60,000,000 in the councito of the nation'"

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