hough my age might
have been a sufficient cause for not entrusting me with the charge of
a watch, yet Captain Robinson used to says, he felt as easy when I was
upon deck as any officer in the ship."

And this brings us to 1777, the date of his commission, and the
commencement of his correspondence. After the simple statement of his
course of life, we shall hardly be called upon to observe, that Nelson
was no great scholar, as we perceive that his school education was
finished when he was twelve years old. And we owe hearty thanks to Sir
Harris Nicolas for having restored the letters to their original
language, uncicerorian as it may be; for he informs us, that some of
those which had been formerly published in the different biographies
of the hero, were so improved and beautified that it was difficult to
recognise them. By proper clipping and pruning, altering some
sentences and exchanging others, an ingenious editor might
transmogriphy these simple epistles into the philippics of Junius; and
therefore we derive complete satisfaction from the conviction, that,
in this compilation, every sentence is exactly as it was written. With
one other observation, (which we make for the sake of the Laura
Matildas who are horrified at the "cockswain,") we shall proceed to
give such extracts from the letters as we consider the most
characteristic; and "that 'ere observation," as was said by Mr Liston,
"is this here," that Nelson was of what is usually called a very good
family--being nearly connected with the Walpoles, Earls of Orford, and
the Turners of Warham, in Norfolk. But for further information on this
point, we refer them to an abstract of the pedigree prefixed to the
letters. In the year 1777, and several following years, Nelson's
principal correspondents were his brother, the Rev. William Nelson,
who succeeded as second Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Hilborough,
and was created Earl Nelson--Captain William Locker, then in command
of the Lowestoffe, of whom very interesting memoirs have been
published by his son Edward Hawke Locker, Esq., late a commissioner of
Greenwich Hospital--the Rev. Edmund Nelson (his father)--besides the
secretary to the Admiralty, and the official personages to whom his
despatches were addressed.

To show the affectionate nature of the man, we shall quote his first
letter to Captain Locker, who was one of his dearest friends. The
address of the letter is wanting, but it would appear to have been