y sent it in when this answer came. It seems
probable that, with his usual promptness, he called at once; for on
the same day, November 28, that he received Addington's letter he
withdrew that to the Mayor.[52] "By the advice of a friend," he said,
"I have now to request that your Lordship will consider my letter as
withdrawn, _as the discussion of the question may bring forward
characters which had better rest quiet_."[53] There seems, therefore,
little reason to doubt that the honors, due to those who fought, were
withheld out of consideration to those who did not fight. Nelson
himself recognized the difficulty. "They are not Sir Hyde Parker's
real friends who wish for an inquiry," he had written confidentially
to Davison before leaving the Baltic. "His friends in the fleet wish
everything of this fleet to be forgot, for we all respect and love Sir
Hyde; but the dearer his friends, the more uneasy they have been at
his _idleness_, for that is the truth--no criminality." But, as he
vigorously and characteristically said of another matter occurring
about this time, "I was told the difficulties were insurmountable. My
answer was, 'As the thing is necessary to be done, the more
difficulties, the more necessary to try to remove them.'"

As regards the soundness of Nelson's grounds, and the propriety of his
action in this matter, it must, first, be kept in mind, that, before
the City voted its thanks to the Navy engaged in Egypt, he had spoken
in the House of Lords in favor of the thanks of the Government to the
same force, although, as a whole, it had there played a subordinate
part; and also, that, although deprived of the medal which he hoped to
get in common with others, he had himself been rewarded for Copenhagen
by promotion in the peerage.[54] This separation between himself and
the mass of those who fought under him, necessarily intensified the
feeling of one always profusely generous, in praise as in money; but
his point otherwise was well taken. The task was ungracious and
unpleasant, it may almost be called dirty work to have thus to solicit
honors and distinction for deeds in which one has borne the principal
part; but dirty work must at times be done, with hands or words, and
the humiliation then rests, not with him who does it, but with them
who make it necessary. Had the victors at Copenhagen fought a
desperate fight, and were they neglected? If so, and the outside world
looked indifferently on, who from amon