it, was
treated pretty much like a provincial mayor. The mayor, of course,
may and often does adopt a luxurious Roman style of living in
order that his local deeds may not escape observation, but such
self-advertisement was entirely foreign to Collingwood's character.
It was fitting that every reasonable honour should have been paid to
the memory of a great Englishman, whose deeds, in co-operation with
others, have never been surpassed. But to make grants and give honours
of so generous a character to Nelson's relatives, and especially
to his wife, who had been a torment to him, and to measure out
Collingwood's equally great accomplishments with so mean a hand, is an
astonishing example of parsimony which, for the sake of our national
honour, it is to be hoped rarely occurs. Even the haughty, plethoric
nobles of a fourth-rate town council (if it be not a libel to mention
them in connection with so discreditable an affair) would have judged
the manifest fitness of things better than to make any distinction
between Admiral Collingwood and his lifelong friend Nelson.

Surely this famous and eminently worthy public servant was as
deserving of an Earldom as was Nelson's brother, and his wife and
daughters of a more generous allowance than that of his dead chief's
widow and sisters!--this distinguished man, who helped to plan the
order of battle at Trafalgar and was the first to take his ship into
action in a way that inflamed the pride and admiration of the
Commander-in-Chief, and made him spontaneously exclaim, "See,
Blackwood, how that noble fellow Collingwood takes his ship into
battle! How I envy him!"

No one knew as well as Nelson that his comrade, next to himself, was
to play the leading part in not only assuring a victory, but in
completely annihilating the French and Spanish fleets. Yet the British
Government of that day only counted the services he had rendered to
the nation worthy of a peerage, plus the same pension as Nelson's
widow; i.e. he was to have a pension of L2,000 a year, and after his
death Lady Collingwood was to have the munificent sum of L1,000 per
annum and each of his two daughters L500 a year. He never drew his
pension, as they kept him in the service he had made so great until he
was a physical wreck. He died on his way home aboard the _Ville de
Paris_ on the 7th March, 1810, and was laid to rest in St. Paul's
Cathedral alongside of his distinguished friend Lord Nelson.

I have already drawn