not perhaps
essential to military success, but it undoubtedly contributes to the
other elements of that success a spirit, a breath of life, which makes
possible what would otherwise be impossible; which reaches heights of
devotion and achievement that the strictest discipline, not so
enkindled, cannot attain. Doubtless it is a natural gift. The highest
example of it possibly ever known among seamen was Nelson. When he
joined the fleet just before Trafalgar, the captains who gathered on
board the flag-ship seemed to forget the rank of their admiral in
their desire to testify their joy at meeting him. "This Nelson," wrote
Captain Duff, who fell in the battle, "is so lovable and excellent a
man, so kindly a leader, that we all wish to exceed his desires and
anticipate his orders." He himself was conscious of this fascination
and its value, when writing of the battle of the Nile to Lord Howe, he
said, "I had the happiness to command a band of brothers."

The celebrity attained by Matthews's action off Toulon, certainly not
due to the skill with which it was managed, nor to its results, sprang
from the clamor at home, and chiefly from the number and findings of
the courts-martial that followed. Both the admiral and his second, and
also eleven captains out of the twenty-nine, had charges preferred
against them. The admiral was cashiered because he had broken the
line; that is, because his captains did not follow him when he left it
to get at the enemy,--a decision that smacks more of the Irish bull
than of the Irish love of fighting. The second was acquitted on the
technical grounds already given; he avoided the fault of breaking the
line by keeping far enough away. Of the eleven captains one died, one
deserted, seven were dismissed or suspended, two only were acquitted.
Nor were the French and Spaniards better pleased; mutual
recriminations passed. Admiral de Court was relieved from his command,
while the Spanish admiral was decorated by his government with the
title of Marquis de la Victoria, a most extraordinary reward for what
was at best a drawn fight. The French, on the other hand, assert that
he left the deck on the plea of a very slight wound, and that the ship
was really fought by a French captain who happened to be on board.

To use a common expression, this battle, the first general action
since that off Malaga forty years before, "woke up" the English people
and brought about a healthful reaction. The sifting pr