cle his
name now stood as a type of ingratitude.[56]

Writing to Davison in September, 1802, after a trip of six weeks made
to Wales, in company with the Hamiltons, he says: "Our tour has been
very fine and interesting, and the way in which I have been everywhere
received most flattering to my feelings; and although some of the
higher powers may wish to keep me down, yet the reward of the general
approbation and gratitude for my services is an ample reward for all I
have done; but it makes a _comparison_ fly up to my mind, not much to
the credit of some in the higher Offices of the State." He seems to
have felt that neither in his influence with the Admiralty, nor in
reference to his opinions on foreign topics, did he receive the
recognition that his distinguished services, abilities, and experience
claimed. "Having failed entirely in submitting my thoughts on three
points"--those just cited, manning, desertion, and prize-money--"I was
disheartened;" and to this he attributes his not sending in a memoir
which he had prepared upon the subject of the Flotilla for Coast
Defence.

But, while he resented this neglect, it did not greatly interfere with
his happiness, which was at this time well-nigh complete. He
complains of ill health, it is true, from time to time, and his means
were insufficient duly to keep up the two establishments--Lady
Nelson's and Merton--for which he was pecuniarily responsible. Under
this embarrassment he chafed, and with a sense of injustice which was
not unfounded; for, if reward be proportioned to merit and to the
importance of services rendered, Nelson had been most inadequately
repaid. For the single victories of St. Vincent and Camperdown, each
commander-in-chief had received a pension of L3,000. The Nile and
Copenhagen together had brought him no more than L2,000; indeed, as he
had already been granted L1,000 a year for St. Vincent, another
thousand may be said to have been all he got for two of the greatest
victories of the war. In submitting a request for an increase, he
asked pertinently, "Was it, or not, the intention of his Majesty's
Government to place my rewards for services lower than Lord St.
Vincent or Lord Duncan?" There was, of course, the damaging
circumstance that the conditions under which he chose to live made him
poorer than he needed to be; but with this the Government had no
concern. Its only care should have been that its recompense was
commensurate with his deserts, an