Nelson
ADMIRAL JAMES has produced a concise and well-balanced narrative of Nelson's career and an appreciation of his character which, although falling short -*of being profound or original, are almost wholly acceptable as far as they go. While C-in-C at Portsmouth, he had the singular iood fortune -to occupy for eighteen months
the Adiniral's Quarters of the 'Victory,' his official residence having been bombed. It is not, therefore to be wondered at if his most famous predecessor often filled his thoughts; or if, as darkness closed down on the blacked-out dockyard, concealing the actual scene and the ' Victory's ' dismiliitled furniture, his fancy ran back over the years to the memorable occasions when the great flagship took her station in the battle line. Such a stimulus to the imagination, combined with his personal experience of sail, must have been of inestimable assistance in reconstructing a clear picture of events from the wealth of material which now confronts .a biographer of Nelson.
That he was dissatisfied with earlier interpretations goes almost without saying. In presenting us with another, his primary inten- tion has been to strip away from the traditional accounts everything which seemed inconsistent with his own conception of Nelson's character. In pursuing this aim, he raises the question of what a biographer may regard as reliable evidenceand what he must classify as mere conjecture. To judge particular deeds and words by whether or not they conform to character does not seem to be a rational procedure. Consistency in all things is not an attribute of many human beings, and certainly not one of Nelson's. Moreover, the character of the man is not an original premise, but the conclu- sion which should ultimately emerge. Admiral James has guessed at the answer and then tried to work the sum backwards.
Of equally doubtful wisdom is the complete reliance he places on everything that Nelson wrote—he condemns one letter' at a forgery on insufficient grounds—and on the account of "credible witnesses." Men do not record data with the infallibility of instruments ; and there can be few letter-writets and diarists either so accurate or so honest that every word can be taken on trust. To accept Nelson's statement that his future wife was only twenty-two at the time of their engagement, and to suggest that she took passage home in the
Boreas,' in spite of clear evidence to the contrary, is to fly in the face of good sense. As for the author's decision to discard many of the traditional suicies,- the result-is not 'all gain. Legends, after all, have sometimes the virtue of a parable in illuminating a truth, even if the details are awry. They can be included for what they are without committing the author to -an -acceptance of :their com- plete authenticity ; and there is proverbially no smoke without a fire.
' In short, it is questionable whether Admiral James's claim to have cleared away the rubbish amounts to very much. BUt a single volume of three hundred pages necessitates, in any case, a strict concentration on- the main -events, and letves little space for the lesser details ..mose-open to-dispute; so that no -revolutionary results have been Aduced by these methods of selection. It is the under- standing of Nelson's. character, rather than of his career, which suffers from the loss of the trimmings, the intimate and personal details which chiefly depend on hearsay for siirvival and -remain unrecorded till long afterwards. Nelson was a good deal more touchy and emotional, glien to vanity and conceit towards the end of his life, than Admiral James allows—traits which are very under- standable and easily forgiven in one whose achievements fully warranted all the praise that Was bestowed on him. And to pfetend that he never indulged in exhibitionism would be no compliment, even if it were true. A flair for show is part of the equipment of a great leader, and Nelson knew well how to use it—" I will amuse the fleet with a signal." The effects are in no -way comparable, but the motive behind the famons signal is all of a piece with that which prompts Mr., Churchill to choose. peculiar -hats. The averagt man delights in the idiosyncrasies of his leaders and ridicules those of his opponents.
Admiral James is concerned to make two points in particular. First, to the charge that Nelson was an indifferent practical seaman, he answers with a valuable and well-argued refutation. Secondly, he maintains that* Nelson possessed a remarkably hardy constitution and was not, as is generally supposed,- physically frail. Here again he brings strong arguments ; although to do so he has for. once to abandon his trust in Nelson's own words and to accuse' him of gross exaggeration. Apart from a number of small errors, the book suffers most from Admiral James's neglect of all the fresh material which has recently become available. Much of it was published by Miss Oman a year ao ; some still lies in the _national Maritime Museum awaiting examination ; so that what might have been an original contribution to the knowledge of our greatest admiral turns out to be merely a restatement which is unhappily already out of
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