ve years' faithful service
should entitle the holder to an annual bounty of two guineas, to be
increased by further periods. Such provisions were well calculated to
appeal to men accustomed to entertain prudential considerations, and
to create gradually a class with whom they would weigh, and who would
by them be retained in permanent employment. In meeting the case of
desertions, caused by the heedlessness and weakness of seamen, Nelson
became more vague. The nature of the trouble he recognized clearly
enough, but there is a lack of definiteness in the remedy he proposed
to meet an evil which still exists. "The mainspring of all my plan is,
that of Certificates fully descriptive of the persons; the very
greatest good must result from it. Something should be attempted at
these times to make our seamen, at the din of war, fly to our Navy,
instead of flying from it." His plan is substantially that now
adopted.

Closely connected with the discontent of seamen was the subject of
prize-money, in the receipt and distribution of which great
irregularities and abuses existed among the agents, to remove which
also he made particular and detailed suggestions; and he strongly
supported, though with discriminating criticism, the Bill for an
Inquiry into Naval Abuses, which embodied the most prominent of St.
Vincent's administrative measures while at the head of the Admiralty.
But, though thus supporting the Earl in his policy of investigation,
and retaining his respect for him as a sea-officer, he was utterly
dissatisfied with the general conduct of the Admiralty and with its
attitude towards himself in particular. "I attribute none of the
tyrannical conduct of the late Board to Lord St. Vincent," he wrote
two years later. "For the Earl I have a sincere regard, but he was
dreadfully ill-advised, and I fear the Service has suffered much from
their conduct." It would seem as if he did not, after the first
moments of annoyance, forget the irritation he felt against Troubridge
at being retained in the Downs against his will, and, as he thought,
without necessity. "I thank you," he wrote to Captain Murray, "for
taking the trouble of driving seven miles to make me a visit; for,
could you believe it, there are those who I thought were my firm
friends, some of near thirty years' standing--who have never taken
that trouble!" This may not refer to Troubridge, but the description
answers to him, and it appears that in the Nelson-Hamilton cir