XLVI.
"A fellow has now no chance of promotion unless he jumps into the
muzzle of a gun and crawls out of the touch-hole."
He who, a hundred years ago, more or less, pronounced the above
words in the uneasiness of his heart, thirsting for professional
distinction, was a young naval officer. Of his life, career,
achievements, and end nothing is preserved for the edification of
his young successors in the fleet of to-day--nothing but this
phrase, which, sailor-like in the simplicity of personal sentiment
and strength of graphic expression, embodies the spirit of the
epoch. This obscure but vigorous testimony has its price, its
significance, and its lesson. It comes to us from a worthy
ancestor. We do not know whether he lived long enough for a chance
of that promotion whose way was so arduous. He belongs to the
great array of the unknown--who are great, indeed, by the sum total
of the devoted effort put out, and the colossal scale of success
attained by their insatiable and steadfast ambition. We do not
know his name; we only know of him what is material for us to know-
-that he was never backward on occasions of desperate service. We
have this on the authority of a distinguished seaman of Nelson's
time. Departing this life as Admiral of the Fleet on the eve of
the Crimean War, Sir Thomas Byam Martin has recorded for us amongst
his all too short autobiographical notes these few characteristic
words uttered by one young man of the many who must have felt that
particular inconvenience of a heroic age.
The distinguished Admiral had lived through it himself, and was a
good judge of what was expected in those days from men and ships.
A brilliant frigate captain, a man of sound judgment, of dashing
bravery and of serene mind, scrupulously concerned for the welfare
and honour of the navy, he missed a larger fame only by the chances
of the service. We may well quote on this day the words written of
Nelson, in the decline of a well-spent life, by Sir T. B. Martin,
who died just fifty years ago on the very anniversary of Trafalgar.
"Nelson's nobleness of mind was a prominent and beautiful part of
his character. His foibles--faults if you like--will never be
dwelt upon in any memorandum of mine," he declares, and goes on--
"he whose splendid and matchless achievements will be remembered
with admiration while there is gratitude in the hearts of Britons,
or while a ship floats upon the ocean; he whose example on the
breaking out of the war gave so chivalrous an impulse to the
younger men of the service that all rushed into rivalry of daring
which disdained every warning of prudence, and led to acts of
heroic enterprise which tended greatly to exalt the glory of our
nation."
These are his words, and they are true. The dashing young frigate
captain, the man who in middle age was nothing loth to give chase
single-handed in his seventy-four to a whole fleet, the man of
enterprise and consummate judgment, the old Admiral of the Fleet,
the good and trusted servant of his country under two kings and a
queen, had felt correctly Nelson's influence, and expressed himself
with precision out of the fulness of his seaman's heart.
"Exalted," he wrote, not "augmented." And therein his feeling and
his pen captured the very truth. Other men there were ready and
able to add to the treasure of victories the British navy has given
to the nation. It was the lot of Lord Nelson to exalt all this
glory. Exalt! the word seems to be created for the man.
