he had been treated by Lord Howe. "You ask, by what interest did I get
a ship? I answer, having served with credit, was my recommendation to
Lord Howe, first lord of the admiralty."

The following is an application on behalf of a certain boatswain
called Joseph King, which we quote on account of the extraordinary
politeness,--owing, perhaps, to his study at St Omer--with which
Nelson designates his _protege_.

To Philip Stephens, Esq., Admiralty.

"Boreas, _21st Sept. 1787_.

"On the 20th, Charles Green, late acting boatswain, was entered
as boatswain of his majesty's ship under my command, agreeable to
a warrant dated at the Navy Pay-office, the 13th instant. I am,
therefore, requested by Joseph King, to write to their lordships,
to request they will be pleased to appoint him to some other
ship, as he hopes he has done nothing deserving of being
superseded; and I beg leave to recommend him as a most excellent
_gentleman_.--I am, &c.

"Horatio Nelson."

Whether this application was successful or not, even the industry of
the editor has not discovered, but we fear that, at this point of his
history, Nelson's recommendation was of no great weight with the
Admiralty. His biographers, indeed, Clarke and M'Arthur, say, that at
this time the treatment he received disgusted him with his
profession, and that he had even determined never to set his foot
again on board a king's ship, but resign his commission at once. But
Sir Harris Nicolas very justly is sceptical as to the truth of this
anecdote, from the fact, that there is no allusion to any intention of
the kind in his correspondence. And from what we see of his
disposition in all his letters, we feel assured that a thought of
leaving the navy never entered his mind, and that he would have
considered the withdrawal of his services as little short of treason.
But there occurred now a long interval of idleness, or at least of
life ashore. The Boreas was paid off in December 1787, and he was only
appointed to the Agamemnon in January 1793.

The four years of peace passed happily away, principally at Burnham
with his father; and there is little to quote till we find him on his
own element again. He writes to Hercules Ross, a West India merchant,
with whom he had formed a steady friendship while on that station; and
we adduce the passage as a further corrobo